Van Life 1 - A Guided Tour

This post is a guided tour of our home for the last 4 months. Hopefully it will help you see how we have been living and give other current/future van owners some ideas for their rigs. Each of the images can be enlarged by clicking on them for a closer look.

The Van


The van is a 2002 Volkswagen T4 Transporter 2.5 TDI. It was originally owned by the AA, hence the fine colourscheme. They put nearly 100,000 miles on the clock then sold it on. The second owner part-converted it, lining the walls with cord-carpet-covered plywood, building the bed/sofa platform and putting in the table and leisure battery kit. Since buying it in February, we have replaced much of the leisure battery electrics, installed a stove and put in the designer soft-furnishings.

A Guided Tour


The image shows the cab of the van, in both driving mode and parking mode. We have so much climbing and camping equipment with us that there isn't space to store it permanently in one place. When we park we have to move a few bags to the front to free up space in the back. We also have a large library bag, which contains books that we aren't currently using. This is mostly filled with guidebooks describing past and future climbing areas but also contains phrasebooks and novels. The paper road atlas is useful for long-distance route planning, while the GPS is invaluable because it knows the names and layout of every tiny town and village that we come across.


The van is different from many other conversions in that it has a sofa across the back. Part of the sofa can be folded forward and supported with three wooden legs to create a bed platform. The back therefore has two modes: day and night.

The top of the image shows the van in day mode. Notable features include the fold-up table, the easily swept linoleum floor, and the boxes for food and kitchenware. The stove is used for cooking meals, but the Jetboil camping stove serves as a fast and handy kettle. We can carry 25 litres of water; 3 x 5 litre containers (convenient) and 1 x 10 litre jerry can (not so convenient). This is enough supply for about five days. Gemma made the coordinated curtains, cushion covers and the pockets. We've yet to see another van with a Laura Ashley interior.

To convert to night mode (bottom image), the boxes are rearranged so that they fit beneath the folded-down bed platform. Conversion takes about three minutes. We have been sleeping in a thin double-duvet cover with sleeping bags for extra warmth. There are curtains for the windows and another that acts as a partition behind the front seats. In the Arctic we had to thicken the partition curtain by stitching on a second layer and attach it above the end of the library shelf to create a 'blackout' to block the midnight sun that shone in through the roof vent. Further south, headtorches are invaluable and are kept close at hand. Baby wipes keep your hands clean when running water sources are few and far between.


Beneath the sofa/bed platform, we have our 'secure' storage. This area can only be accessed through the back doors of the van. Gemma's Dad helped us to attach a bracket to the doors that can be padlocked shut from the inside. This means that even if someone gets into the van, it will take a lot more effort to get to the stuff below. There is storage there for the rest of our stuff. If we weren't going climbing, this space would easily hold everything.


An unexpected bonus of having a carpet-lined van is that you can use velcro to stick things to the walls and roof. Thus the bedleg, family photo, spotlight or lighter can always be close at hand. The photo also shows the brush hanging from the door; it's useful to keep the brush where you can easily get to it, as a brush and a lino floor are the way forward for easy cleaning.

Leisure battery


One thing that really makes the van feel more like a home is the leisure battery setup. This is a spare car battery, stored under the sofa/bed platform, which is charged from the alternator when we drive, but which is isolated when we stop to prevent it from running down the main battery. It powers the lights and stereo in the back, allowing you to use them without any fear that the van won't start in the morning. When connected to a laptop, the stereo can provide surround sound for watching videos. The leisure battery also powers a 600W inverter that lets you plug in 'normal' household items and that we use to charge the laptops. Mobile phones are charged via the extra cigarette-lighter socket that we installed.

The electrics and the gas for the stove are stored beneath the library shelf. In four months we have used less than 2 x 2.75 kg Campingaz bottles. The library box (current books) and misc. items box (radio faceplate, phone chargers), which are held in place by velcro on their bases, can be moved to give access beneath. Kitchen roll is another must-have item. In particular, we use it to 'pre-wash' the dishes. By wiping the worst of the food off them first, a pan of hot soapy water goes a lot further.

Future changes?

Generally, the setup that we have works very well for us. However, it seems that a van is not just a home, but a project, too. In the future we may rewire some of the leisure battery set, swap the incandescent bulbs on the rear lights for a low-energy strip light, and change the sofa/bed so that the extension slides out allowing conversion with the table still up. In the meantime, we will keep hold of the van on our return and it will serve us well for long weekends within the UK.