Getting started with your own van conversion

3 July, 2023 By: Brendan Batty

In July 2011, New Yorker, Foster Huntington, quit his job to travel full-time in a four-wheel drive VW campervan. Along the way, and before being a social media influencer was really a thing, he grew a following just because he was doing something enviable.

As well as posting about his adventures, he began posting pictures of campervans he saw, captioned simply with #vanlife. In a 2017 interview with The New Yorker, Huntington coined the phrase ‘van life’, and it’s stuck.

Since then, van life has become not just a lifestyle – it’s become a movement. Today, young people the world over are decking out vans of all shapes and sizes and loving life as a result.

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Van life is about making a home on wheels, hitting the road and exploring, while embracing a minimalistic and nomadic way of life.

There's no doubt that those same desires drove people to travel extensively in campervans well before Foster Huntington made it fashionable.

Indeed, campervans had been a staple of the recreational vehicle market since the end of World War II, and some of the most Instagramable campervans were built in the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

The difference is that social media has made it much more visible, and for many, disenchantment with the suburban dream has made it much more attractive.

Turning suburban life into van life

Jared Melrose runs his own campervan conversion company, Vanlife Conversions, in Torquay Victoria. He's what you might call an early adopter.

"Obviously, people are attracted because of a sense of adventure, but I think there's more to it,” Jared says.

“The cost and pressures of living and housing affordability are extremely hard at the moment. A lot of people can't afford, or don't want a mortgage or to pay someone else's. When people realise they can buy and convert a van for about the same cost as a year's rent (or often less than that), that's very attractive."

Perth woman Hannah Beattie is one of many that have been drawn to that enviable lifestyle, where you wake up to an epic view from your back door.

During COVID's second wave in 2021, Hannah asked her housemate Mary-Anne if she'd like to help convert a van. Within a week, they'd bought a used Toyota HiAce and began ripping out the very hasty conversion left in it by the previous owner.

She agrees with Melrose, "Owning a property isn't as important to me as it was to my parents at my age. When my parents were in their 20s, there was a solid expectation that you get married, buy a house and start a family well before age 30. Times are different now and my generation is definitely afforded a lot more freedom to live life on our own timeline.

“I'd been following people like Jade Elise Collins, Elise Cook and Kendall Baggerly on Instagram. Just seeing them post pictures of these amazing places, really just appealed."

What type of van do you need?

You can join the van life movement even if you're travelling in a Toyota Prius with a fold-out mattress in the back (there's a whole sub-culture of people who do this). Others travel in four-wheel drive wagons, particularly Toyota Troop Carriers or Land Rover Defenders.

But most commonly, campervans are converted from commercial grade vans – the Toyota HiAce or Coaster, Volkswagen Transporter or Crafter, Fiat Ducato and Mercedes-Benz Sprinter are amongst the most popular.

Vehicles with a four-wheel drive transmission are highly prized in Australia, particularly the all-wheel drive Sprinter and Transporter, Mitsubishi L300 or Delica.

What you choose will largely determine the sort of travel you get to do. Travel in a two-wheel drive van, and you’re probably going to be restricted to bitumen roads and well-maintained gravel roads. Carefully driven, you could get all the way around or across Australia.

But in a four-wheel drive van, you can drive on beaches (where permitted) and find more remote campsites. In a converted four-wheel drive wagon, there's probably not a campsite in Australia you couldn't get to if you've got the desire and skills.

What skills do you need to convert a van?

As Hannah and her housemate Mary-Anne demonstrate, you don't need trade skills to start a campervan conversion, but you will learn some along the way.

"Mary-Anne grew up in a small town to a father of four daughters who vowed all would be able to use power tools, but I work in marketing and Mary-Anne's an environmental scientist, so neither of us are tradies,” Hannah says.

For a large part of a campervan conversion, you’ll need some carpentry and cabinet-making skills. But you'll also need to do some metalwork (particularly if you're cutting holes in your van for hatches and windows), plumbing and, potentially, 12-volt electronics.

Vanlife Conversion’s Jared Melrose adds that you’ll need a certified electrician for any 240-volt electrical work and an accredited gas fitter for any gas plumbing if you fit a permanent gas stove, gas hot water system or gas heating system. You’ll also need to speak with an engineer if you're modifying the seats or seatbelts in your van as these are essential to passenger safety.

"I've had people come to me after buying a campervan and it can't be registered because the inspector rightly points out the mod plate says it's a goods-carrying vehicle, but clearly it's a campervan, or it's supposed to have 12 seats, but instead it just has a bed and a kitchen."

Various Australian Design Rules (ADR) legislate what must be compliant in campervan conversions, particularly ADRs 42 and 44, which deal with general vehicle, electrical and gas safety.

Of course, hundreds of professional conversion companies exist in all parts of Australia if you'd rather leave it to people who know what they're doing and can navigate the legal requirements more easily.

What tools do you need for a van conversion?

If you really want to get your hands dirty doing your own campervan conversion, you'll need to equip yourself with the right tools. If you’re on a budget, instead of buying new, consider checking out what’s available second-hand.

For woodworking, cabinetry, light metalwork and basic plumbing, you'll need the following:

A circular saw - There will be a lot of timber to cut to size, so at a minimum, you will want a circular saw. As cuts get more intricate, a power or manual jigsaw (which can also cut sheet metal at a pinch) will come in handy, as will a good old hand saw.

A drill or two - One drill is essential, but a drill and driver are ideal so you can make holes with one and drive in screws with the other without changing bits constantly.

A tape measure - Measure twice, cut once. A triangle measuring (or rafter) square will also help ensure your corners and cuts are square.

You'll also need clamps, something to cut timber on, woodworking glue and screws and the preparedness to head back to the hardware store for the things you forgot last time you were there.

If you fit your own 12V electrical system, you'll want the following:

Wire strippers and crimpers - There will be plenty of wires to join and this tool makes it so easy when combined with the right connectors.

A soldering iron, solder, and flux – This is for connections that won't shake apart when you explore remote areas. Get the highest-powered soldering iron you can afford.

Wire terminals, heat shrink, corrugated conduit and cable ties – These are to keep everything neat and help prevent short circuits (which could start a fire).

A circuit test light or multimeter – This will help you find and test circuits or troubleshoot problems.

What's the bare minimum electrical system I need?

The sky is the limit in modern campervan electronics, but most people will only need enough power to run some lights, a fridge, and to charge laptops, phones, cameras and toys.

The easiest way to keep those things reliably running is by fitting a secondary 100-130Ah house battery that's charged by a DC-DC charger with solar input. Melrose says in a basic fit-out, 175W of solar capacity is ideal.

From the house battery, you can power lights, your fridge, 12V charging points, and a small inverter if you need to charge laptops or camera batteries.

None of these items are complicated to fit, so it's within the realm of DIY, but if in doubt, an auto electrician will be very familiar with jobs like these.

Plan your conversion well before you start

In rough order, the campervan process involves stripping the interior, preparing the electrical system, lining the walls, floor and roof, and then fitting out the cabinetry.

The blanker the canvas you have, the better your conversion will be, as you can line the walls, floor and roof effectively with insulation and pre-run your electrical circuits. You'll also be able to see where you can fasten wall and floor linings and cabinetry, and where you can't.

Most campervans are built around the bed, which usually takes up the most space. After that, you essentially fit everything else in what space remains.

Your campervan cabinetry could be as simple as a bed platform with a simple storage cavity underneath, to something as sophisticated as a modern apartment. A good tip is to use drawers, rather than cabinets for under-bench storage areas as much as possible, as they're much easier to access and organise. You should also plan your kitchen to be a social space, so you're not cooking in a corner and shut off from the amazing place you've travelled to.

Melrose says a small van conversion can take a professional builder three weeks to complete, and a larger one, nearly three months. If you choose the DIY option, accounting for lack of correct tools, learning as you go, and only working weekends, then time and patience are two virtues you'll also need to plan for.

Hannah Beattie agrees. "We originally intended to do the conversion in our share house backyard, borrowing or renting the tools that we needed, but we quickly worked out that wasn't a good option. We drove it to Mary-Anne's dad's shed in Bunbury and worked on it with his help every weekend for about six months."

If you’re undertaking your own conversion, a realistic timeframe is six months to a year if you can only work on weekends.

So is van life worth the initial effort? According to Hannah, it’s worth every bit of effort it takes to get on the road.

“When you sit in the back of a van you've built, and it's exactly how you wanted it, it just feels incredible. Looking out the back door at the ocean in a space that is just so homely, it's 100 per cent worth it.