Vanlife

August 21, 2021

Vanlife

How do you call a person who takes angle grinder and attacks a two year old bus? I guess there can be very many answers. Maybe somebody should call a police.

So, we bought a regular empty van. Its a Citroen Jumper L3H2, that has around 3.6 meters of free space in the back. L2H2 would be too small and L4H3 with 7.6 meters of total length would be already overkill. On the very first day we got it we started cutting holes into it. Also to the roof. I told the rain not to come during that day.

Then we removed the back wall and cut holes for the outside electrical plug.

We put some noise-cancelling rubber plates and some insulation and moisture-stop to warm it up.

We added Thule Vent to the roof, which is pretty nice piece of hardware - the cooler can work both ways, inside out and outside in. Toilet? No toilet inside. Not for now. About one week later from buying the bus it was time to take off to the south, where we travelled around 1000+kms. Well, a lot is needed to be done more, but the urge to travel was tougher. At this point we had running water, 220V electricity, electrical heater and a fact, that we will have +8C outside during night. Lets go.

We stayed alive. Only one minor loss that we had a hole in the tyre from the woods. Things can happen!

Anyway, the 400w solar panel is connected through Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/15 charger to a 200 amps battery bank. Victron products are great because of their bluetooth connectivity. I have seen around 250watts coming in on a sunny day, so I lose around 150watts because of the angle. Behind the battery there is a 1kw inverter and a lot of different apps starting from lights to chargers. I also put a 100 liter water boiler and a 150 watts heater inside it, which is behind a Victron BatteryProtect controller - if battery is more than 12 volts, then it heats, if not, then it disconnects. I also can heat the boiler up to 80 degrees from 220V shore power, so I have central heating with ~8kw heated power with me. When driving, then I also can also charge the solar battery from the car alternator, if there isnt any sun... So a lot of switches and smart logic. I found a 12V TV and installed an internet router so we can watch digital-TV over wifi (GO3). I did some tuning with the audi-alike turning lights and HUD display.

We even couldn't dream views like this from our window before.

Inside we put a huge 200x200cm bed and a kitchen. Under the bed we have tools and water tanks and bikes. The kitchen tap is actually a shower, that can be used outside the window. The kitchen has a portable gas stove. We basically have done absolutely every food on it.

The speakers are pretty good with the van, but we also have a bluetooth boombox. Now from the outside it still looks like a regular van, and it was intentionally done that way. We all know that tourist vans are points of interest by robbers - vans have a lot of equipment like laptops, drones, money, inverters etc inside it.

For exterior lights I bought a 12V remote controller, that allows me to control lights with a tiny remote control. Sometimes when you need the light in the dark, you can be away from the switch. And when taking shots of aurora borealis, you'd need some light to get outside, but from 20 meters away you'd like to kill the lights. Or put them on for couple minutes to change batteries etc.

Drilling a hole is not a problem anymore to me after cutting large window holes to the bus. You just need to cover the area with metallic anti-corrosion paint and add a lot of supertight supermoistured supercoldproof supersilicone.

So we have 60+60 watts led power. I can light up either one side or the other side or both sides. About wires... Always put more wires, than less wires - you never know when you might need some. I am already short of them, so adding a new line is a challange.

For interior reading lights on the bed I got warm led-s these from Aliexpress. Well, most of my simplier gadgets are from there and so far everything has actually worked also.

About things that want to move either on the shelves or in the cabin... Just put some lines of gasket on shelves to stop the movement and you will be fine. Nobody wants to move anymore off the shelves inside lockers.

Heating... I installed a 5kw diesel heater meanwhile. I cut a couple 25mm holes through the floor for the pipes. Here you can see exhaust and air inlet.