Hey there guys, my name is Jordan and this is my home!
She's a 1986 Toyota Hiace with a pop-top roof and as of two and a half weeks ago
it is now my full-time home and office on wheels.
So in this video I wanted to show you guys the process
I went through in converting it into a camper van and
then give you a detailed tour and a look of the inside and show you how I've got
everything set up. So let's get into it!
So after buying the van the first thing
I did was completely gut the inside. It was set up as a basic camper but it was
old, it smelt weird, and it just wasn't set up how I needed it.
Once I had a blank slate I started by laying down a timber frame for the floor.
Then I put down Earthwool insulation and covered it with a vapor barrier.
I then made the vapor barrier as airtight as possible by sticking down the edges
with aluminium tape.
Shout-out to Mum and Dad for helping throughout various stages of the build.
Next I put down the plywood floor and screwed it into the timber frame.
This was going to be my home so it was really important to
insulate it the best that I could I made a timber frame for the walls and
then covered them in a vapor barrier then I screwed pine lining boards into
that timber frame
then I framed up the shelves that would go beside the bed
after the shelves are built the frame for the bed 30 centimeters off the
ground so I could have storage underneath from once the bed was
completed it was on to building the kitchen because I was so focused on
finishing the van this is all the build footage I have so I spent two and a half
months converting the van probably spending about 6 hours a day on it I
paid 6 grand for the van and I think I spent around 4 on the conversion I think
that's pretty good for a home
so welcome to the kitchen I like to cook so I prioritize having a decent-sized
kitchen in the van and tried to make the most of the small amount of space that
I've got to work with so this is the sink I just reused it from the old camp
conversion and change the position of the tap that's why there's this black a
little bit of rubber here to cover up the hole it's a hand pump tap that is
connected to this 23 litre water container at the bottom here it's made
of glass it's a brewing demijohn I don't like to drink out of plastic if I can
avoid it so this was the best solution I could think of as a cheap solution in
the future I'd probably like to get a custom tank fitted for under the van but
for now this is working really well I've got a ratchet strap here that is screwed
into the wall and it's securing this really well so when I'm driving it's not
moving it's just staying put so it's a hand pump tap that the
drinking water hose just sits in the water in the demijohn and then I can
just go like this and I've got drinking water and so the sink drains into this
20 litre jerrycan here that I can just take out an empty it's also secured to
the wall so it doesn't move around and I've plugged it into the sink and just
made this drain trap here just out of hose fittings and the old hose from the
original van and this stop smell from the jerrycan coming back up into the
sink that's what this shape here does I've also got these fancy magnetic
springy cupboard openers that I was pretty
pleased with and this is just a simple 2 burner
camping gas cooker that I've taken the lid off and screwed it into the bench so
it's secured and the gas line comes in through the bench and the gas bottle
sits in its own fiberglass housing under here that's vented to the outside you
can get fancier cooktops that are all stainless steel and they sink into the
bench but they're like 8 times the price of one of these
I just went with this and it's been working great so this is a draw here
that slides out and I keep my cutlery in there and other cooking utensils I was
gonna have three drawers along here but making one of these was enough of a pain
in the ass that I just decided to have another cupboard and in here I keep
saucepan frying pan bowls and stuff and below there I keep my compost bin
recycling and rubbish and just other bits and pieces and so I tried to use as
many recycled materials as I could in this fan and so these bench tops here
are just an old bed head that I found on the side of the road in Melbourne and I
just standed them back and stained it and they look amazing so I'm super happy
with those and so these are pine lining boards that I got from the tip for $20
there were probably like 300 bucks worth of timber that was being thrown away had
just been taken out of an old house and so I picked it up and used it everywhere
I could I just sanded it back and stained it and used it for the cupboard
doors here and for the lining of the entire van and under here is the
electrical system
so I've got three 160 watt solar panels on the roof and that is fed down into
the van into this breaker box here and then into this 60 amp charge controller
and I've got a hundred and thirty amp power deep-cycle AGM battery here and
then 375 watt inverter I did have 230 amp hour batteries in
parallel but when I was wiring this all up I was rushing and accidentally fried
the other battery it was pretty devastating but I plan to buy another
one in a couple months time and then just pop it back in here and join the
backup in parallel and for the 12-volt stuff the connection goes from the
charge controller up into the fuses here and then I've got this switch panel on
the front here for the lights as you can see I've just got these little fairy
lights I love how they look just pinned up around the whole edge of the van I've
got a switch for the fridge and one for the pump which is underneath the van and
that powers my gas shower and here I've got a little USB port here for charging
my phone and other things that are connected by USB so this is my fridge
that is connected to the solar setup it's a Waco CF 40 and it's been great so
far it doesn't use much power and it's big enough for what I need for
ventilation have also got a 12-volt exhaust fan in the roof so here's my bed
it's a futon mattress under here and I've built it 30 centimeters off the
ground so I could have storage underneath here so there's hinges in the
middle and the slats fold up from each end and the storage can be accessed from
either inside here or from outside at the back of the van so the bed isn't
long enough for me to sleep on in its state like this so I've got an extension
that sits under the mattress here that I can pull out and it slots in at the end
and I can have two meters of bed space which
is how tall I am so if I had two meters of bed it would just take up too much
room so I've made this little extendable part and the bed extension doubles as my
desk so I can take the extension out and put it into these bits of timber here
and then put the legs down and then I've got a little surface so I can put my
computer mouse keyboard and I've got my little office here so you can kind of
think of this as version one of the van it's probably going to be an ever
evolving design but now that I'm living in it there are small tweaks that I
would like to make that I've become aware of since actually using the space
and living here full-time so one of those things I'd like to tweak is the
desk setup because I have to sit on the bed cross-legged I can only do that for
about 40 minutes or an hour before my legs start to hurt and I need to go for
a walk which is fine but if I need to work for longer periods of time it's
just a bit uncomfortable and yeah there's just little finishing touches
I'd like to make one day because I was so keen to get on the road I just did
kind of what I had to do to make it livable and functional and there are
some bits and pieces that are still unfinished like the edge of the door
here where you can see the insulation I'm kind of excited about that that I
can continually just work on it and refine it and tweak it as I go and over
here I've got my shelves so I've got food stored up here and down here
and then on this side I've got computer stuff and camera gear and other
electronics and then I've got clothing underneath just down here and this is my
hot water bottle Whaley like Whaley keeps me warm
and over here is my little bookshelf that I can fit a small amount of books
in I've just made it out of plywood and some brackets that are screwed into the
shelving so this is my shower setup I've got a gas camping shower here that I've
just mounted some brackets on to the van that I can just hang it on this is
connected to the gas bottle which lives in here and I've got a water container
that is plumbed into the pump that's underneath the van and then the pump
goes into the unit and then out the showerhead and I've got hot water and
I've got a shower tent that I can just set up in front of the unit and I've got
a shower so I hope you all enjoyed this little look at my home if you've got any
questions please leave them in the comments below and I'll make a video
just dedicated to answering a bunch of questions so thanks for watching and
I'll see you all in the next video