In 2014 we bought our very first campervan, a small Mazda Bongo Friendee. After a few trips we’d had a great time but quickly realised we needed something a bit bigger. Fast-forward to January 2022 and we’ve just bought an ex-courier long wheel base 2015 Mercedes Sprinter. An empty shell of a van, but a project we just couldn’t wait to get stuck in to. We were going to be building a tiny-home on wheels, from scratch, on the streets of Edinburgh. We had no idea what we were doing but thanks to Youtube University, and the wonderful Instagram community we built up we managed, and in 2023 we made our maiden voyage to France, Spain, and Portugal; three months living on the road.
Our Van Build posts cover a lot of our self conversion journey; we share what we did, where we went wrong, and how we might do things differently in the future.
Here we’d like to share links to some of the products we used which we either installed in our van or found useful during the build. These are affiliate links where we may earn a small commission, but will not cost you anything, or affect the price you pay!
Books
The Van Conversion Bible
This incredible book from @climbingvan was priceless during our build. It covers every single aspect of a DIY build, from start to finish.
Electrical
We used @climbingvan’s Nomadic Energy service to size and specify a custom setup for our electrical needs, and would highly recommend, especially if you’re in anyway unsure about electrics. Their knowledge and support was invaluable and helped us make sure we built an appropriate system for our needs.
Products we used in our build:
Gas
As novices doing this for the first time, we opted to buy a complete kit from LPGShop. Knowing all the components were compatible, plus the excellent support from Mario at the shop, we knew we were in safe hands, even though this part of the build was scary.
Products we used in our build:
Water
Products we used in our build:
Appliances
Products we used in our build:
Tools
We didn’t own a single tool when we started, and now have quite the workshop. If you’re like us, we’d recommend getting the following:
Consumables
Products we used in our build:
Other
Other products we used during our build: