Our van is 2013 Mercedes Sprinter LWB. We did buy the van already converted, (don't judge us, we've definitely learnt from our mistake). We very quickly realised a pretty poor job had been done and over the last 2.5 years we've changed a huge amount all whilst living in it at the same time. The van is no where near perfect but right now it works for us and we are proud of the home we have made it into.
The Outside:
Let's start with the obvious, the colour. We got our van professionally painted in raptor paint, the colour is Anthracite Grey. Of course we could have done this ourselves and saved a LOT of money but with our lack of skills and knowledge it would have ended up a patchy mess.
We choose raptor paint as it is hard wearing and we also love the texture and matt finish to it. Before we got the van painted it was white, rusty and dented. This was all treated and the new paint has given it a new lease of life, we also had our wheels and plastics painted in black raptor to tie it all in together. We are now proud to show of our van instead of trying to hide the exterior. Of course we would love some nice alloys and off road tyres but we have some saving to do for that.
Before and after pictures:
On the roof of the van we have had some major upgrades which we now couldn't be without. Starting with our 600w solar panel, this panel has meant we can now be fully off grid and we very rarely have to use campsites (only 1 - 2 times in the very depths of a UK winter). We also have our Maxxair fan and our skylight which are vital in keeping the van cool over summer.
Lastly, we have 2 underslung water tanks, one fresh and one waste. These tanks are 55L which tends to last us around a week, we also have a separate 5L container for drinking water. We chose smaller tanks in order to keep our weight down.
Seating Area:
Our seating area can seat 3 people (or the two of us and Taco), we have 4 inch foam which we got covered by a local fabric shop. Under the seats we have storage, one for our bin and one for our shoes and outdoor clothes. Also under the seat is our diesel heater tank, we have it placed here as it is easily accessible when we are filling our main tank.
We have a reclaimed wood table that we attached to a Lagun swivel mount it's easily moveable so we don't have to put it up and down each time we want to use it. Taco also loves this for looking out of the window so now it is permanently in our way so he can do just that.
Our thermal and blackout blinds are from Wanderbug, they just magnet onto the window which makes them so easy to put up. They also roll up and clip into place for the times we occasionally have a nice view.
The hatch - we do have a hatch that means the cab of the van is accessible. This was important to us as if we ever don't feel safe enough to leave the van we can just climb through and drive away. We have just used Velcro and a blackout curtain to separate the areas.
Bathroom:
Our bathroom is a cubicle which we wanted so it felt a bit separate and private to the rest of the van. We normally have a shower curtain going across but Taco loves to climb it and has shredded it to pieces.
Our toilet is a 12L Porta Potti (this is only ever used for number 1s - unless it's an emergency), and then we have our shower. This is only used if we are on a site hooked up to electric as our water heater is too powerful for our inverter. However we still use the cubicle to have a wash with our trusty kettle and washing up bowl. We are living the life of luxury.
Kitchen:
The kitchen is the main area of our van. To one side we have our full sized sink and our 2 burner gas hob, we have a real tile splash back which is very controversial in the van due to the weight of them but we love them, they are easy to clean and have stayed in place for years. We have overhead cupboards for our dry food and plates etc and we have under sink cupboards that has our water heater, gas locker and mainly Tacos food in.
To the other side of the kitchen we have our fridge which is a 12v compressor fridge with 42L capacity. This did have a freezer compartment however we took this out as it didn't leave much fridge space, if we had the space we would definitely have a bigger fridge/freezer but we cant fault how this one has performed.
We have more storage this side where we keep our Ecoflow power bank - This has been a lifesaver over winter when we're running low on power. We also run our air fryer off this which we now cannot live without. This is where we keep our drinking water container and some boxes for underwear.
We have more cupboards above where we keep our toiletries, electricals and this is also where our electrics control panel is.
Bedroom:
Moving on to the bedroom we have a fixed double bed, it wasn't even a consideration for us to not have a fixed bed, we are way to lazy to be packing a bed up and down every single day so we love having our bed ready to be jumped into at any moment, and lets be honest we spent more time sitting in bed than at our table. We had some space to spare at the side of the bed so we've added some extra storage boxes, these come in handy for things like our laptops and bed clothes.
Our clothes cupboards are hand built using ply and pallet wood and our leather handles were made by Solway leather. We also have a book shelf that houses all the books we've never actually read. But most importantly is the tea shelf that we made out of pallet wood, this is pretty self explanatory, this is simply a shelf to put our cups of tea on while in bed.
The other side of the bed we have our pinboard which has a load of pictures from our travels and we also have a scratch map of Europe which hopefully we will be scratching a lot more off this year (stayed tuned). These make the bedroom area feel a lot more cosy and homely. Lastly we have our diesel heater switch so we don't even have to get out of bed in winter to put the heater on.
Garage:
Having a raised bed means there is plenty of storage below, we have given up most of this space for our new furry family member. Taco has his own den under the bed that we built so he couldn't get near our electrics and so that he has his own little area. This has his litter tray, scratching post and toy box.
The little space that's left in the garage area has storage boxes for all our van maintenance bits, spare clothes, BBQ equipment and we even have our longboards mounted to the wall. We also have our electrics and batteries in this area.
Electrics:
We have a 230ah lithium battery from Ecotree, this is powered by our 600w solar panel as well as a split charge relay and hook up if needed. We have a 320w invertor so we are able to charge our laptops and small electric equipment off this. Our electric system powers the following:
LED Lighting
Various 12v and 240v sockets (to charge phones/laptops/toothbrushes)
12v compressor fridge
Water pump
Diesel heater
Maxxair fan
Thank you..
If you have made it this far then thanks for reading, if you have any questions please comment below or check out our van tour video on YouTube.
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