Back in November, my girlfriend and me decided to build our own van and travel through Europe for a couple of month. I always loved traveling and after watching Expedition Happiness from Felix Starck, I asked myself: Why not? Back then I had a great full-time job as a Business Developer at imgly, a B2B SaaS company. When I told them about my plans, they allowed me to work remotely during my travel. So here are my main insights from months of research, planning, converting and living the #vanlife 🚌.

1. Build or buy?

Most people buy already pre-build vans, but we’ve decided to build our own for the following reasons:

it’s way cheaper

you can design everything just as you need

we’ve both missed working with our hands and it was a tempting challenge

it’s inconspicuous compared to regular vans

most vans and campers are designed for the preferences of my grandparents

In the end, the decision is up to you. There are a lot of different self-made vans out there and the internet is full of guides and tips. Common base models for building a van are the Fiat Ducato, the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter or the VW T5, but we’ve decided to go for a 2001 Mercedes-Benz 308 CDI formerly used by DHL to deliver parcels. Why? Because it has a width of 1.95m (Sprinter only 1.78m and Ducato 1.87m) so the bed can be laid across, it is already insulated and I wanted to drive one of those delivery trucks since I was a little kid. 😉

The inside of our van

2. What you need to be truly independent

From the beginning, we planned to stay off campgrounds and be able to work anywhere. That means dealing with electricity, gas, water and most importantly: mobile internet 😉. As a result we’ve decided the following configuration: A gas-powered stove and fridge, a 40 liter freshwater tank, solar electricity and a mobile LTE router.

The gas tube and ventilation system for the fridge

Gas-powered fridge and stove

Gas is the way to go if you don’t want to be hooked up to external electricity or install a massive solar system. Even with a big battery, two days with just a few hours of sun (or in the winter) will kill your battery anyway. On the other side, installing gas tubes was the most difficult part of the van conversion as the German authorities have a lot requirements how everything needs to be done. All in all, this took us two days to cut the steel tubes and get them all tight at the end (including a few outbursts of rage 😤). To be on the safe side, we’ve installed a gas detector as well as a smoke detector. The positive thing is that our Dometic absorption fridge is completely silent and the small 5kg gas can lasts about 2.5 weeks for both, cooking and using the fridge. It’s even possible to make a few ice cubes.

Using the outdoor shower for the first time

Freshwater and shower

Water is crucial. You need it to cook, shower, drink and wash. As space is precious in any van, we’ve decided not to install a bathroom, so we are using a portable PortaPotti and have an outdoor shower to not miss out a refreshing shower after a long hike in the sun. To have enough water for roughly three days, we’ve installed a 40l freshwater tank. This is sufficient as long as you don’t take a shower for ages and be responsible with the water you use. We are currently thinking about doubling the size to stay longer off campgrounds and don’t worry about the remaining water. For grey water we currently have a small 20l portable tank we put under the van.

Solar system and battery

The command center for all our electricity

Solar systems are very affordable by now and most devices don’t need much energy. We’ve bought two 100w solar panels for the roof and one 120Ah AGM battery from Offgridtech to use our electronic devices even in the most remote areas. Charging two phones, one Sony A7 camera, a DJI Mavic drone, an UE Megaboom, our laptops from time to time and using the LED stripes in the evening is no problem (when there isn’t a series of rainy days). To charge them, we’ve installed two 12v outlets, four high power USB ports and we’ve even got a new MacBook charger to directly work with my 12v battery (unfortunately, it melted after a couple of days though 😀). When plugged in to an external power source, the battery charges and two additional 230V outlets can be used (very useful for rainy days).

We’ve placed the LTE router below the bed

Mobile Internet

Most people who travel know that Wifi hotspots in South Europe are often a pain. That’s why we’ve installed a LTE wifi router (Huawei B315s-22) and purchased a German SIM card with 10GB LTE data allowance per month. To save traffic, we’re using TripMode for our MacBooks, deactivated app updates on our iPhones and blocked all Apple update servers in the router firewall. Worked perfectly for three days and the volume was gone… 🙈 We forgot to deactivate iCloud backups and the Apple Photostream. At the time we arrived in Italy and planned to stay there for a couple of weeks, we switched to a local prepaid sim card from WIND with 30GB LTE for 20€ which is a fair deal. But especially in the Alps, signal can change from LTE to no service from corner to corner. That’s why we check the signal with nPerf before moving to a different location.

Conclusion

Building a van requires research, planning and manpower - especially with our requirements mentioned above. My girlfriend an me didn’t have any experience with electricity, gas or carpenter work before, but if you’re handy with tools, you’ll be surprised how great the things will turn out! The whole conversion took us two months (almost) full-time work plus some research and planning in advance.

If you’d like to see more picture of our conversion, check out our Instagram channel @tracknyellow.