This Van Conversion Feels like a Tropical Beach Get Away
Sylvain is 28 years old, from Switzerland and together with his girlfriend they are currently travelling through Greece with his self-converted Ford Transit L3H3 Van. He wanted to get into vanlife for a long time and jumped into it without any previous experience. The van alone cost him approximately $9,500. As it was used for carpentry, there was quite a lot of rust on the in as well as the outside, which is why it took Sylvain a long time to figure out how to start dealing with the built. Even though he made a lot of mistakes and had to redo multiple things, he eventually finished the built after one year working on it every weekend. For the built only, he paid around $16K, including solar panels, fridge, shower, wood and everything else that is inside. With additional improvements on the van, he paid a total of $30K.
The wooden roof rack holds two solar panels of 160W each. It turned into a lovely terrace as well as a transport surface for snowboards and ski equipment, all accessible through a ladder at the back of the van. On the side is one water inlet, to fill up the 100-liter tank. The back door fully opens – for nice views from the bed that is 1,75m long and 1,40m wide – and on one door is a simple shower head. The bed/sofa inside is built onto a deck that serves as a storage accessible from the outside, storing climbing equipment, foldable chairs and tables and an extendable bar table. They also store a 15-liter gas tank there out of fiberglass. One thing Sylvain would have liked to have figured out before building it in is that this kind of bottle doesn't exist in every country: sometimes the bottles are bigger or the connectors are different. Another nice addition to the van is extendable aluminum bars to hang two sitting hammocks on.
The Inside looks gorgeous and has plenty of storage spaces – for shoes, a diesel heater for winter, clothes, kitchen supplies and much more. The shower cabinet has been installed by a company, which cost Sylvain another $400 – it works perfectly, however, they don't use it that often in the end. For their composting toilet they use sawdust in a ten-liter bucket which makes it stay odorless. It can be taken out easily from the cabinet when one wants to shower.
The big kitchen was something both Sylvain and his girlfriend wanted in order to be able to cook nicely and properly. There are two countertops of 1,60m and 1m, a three cooker which is linked to the gas and a sink. A warm lighting system above the counter gives the van a cozy feel and the Lux fan takes any smoke out. The spice rack took Sylvain an impressive nine hours to build (he's laughing about it). The 100 liters fridge has a 15 liters freezer inside, fits perfectly and only needs 12V. The water pump gets switched on right above one of the counters and a thermostat from Simarine shows not only the temperature, but also how much water is left in the water tank as well as the status of the battery of the vehicle. In the living room/bedroom area, the table can be moved to all sides, including downward, in order to turn it into a bed. Another small highlight: a projector to watch some Netflix.
Sylvain’s advice for anyone wanting to jump into vanlife is to first figure out what kind of vehicle one wants: if it's for weekend use or living in it full-time, four-wheel drive or back-wheel drive. Even if one is afraid to do the necessary steps, Sylvain says "Just jump into it, don't feel too afraid, because even if you don't have much experience in the end (like me), you get help and advice. Watch tutorials, ask for help, be patient and it will go easy. The beginning might be a little uncomfortable, but you get pure enjoyment in the end!"
