When you have the plan to make a one year world trip in a camper van you will come to the point that you start thinking about what your tiny home needs, or better, what you need, that would also fit into that tiny space.
Finding the right car as a basis
During the car-finding-phase I was still alone in chasing the world trip dream, so I made up my mind which characteristics are essential for me. After several talks with my coworkers and plenty different ideas I start searching for a car that is or has:
- Headspace. After living on a boat for a couple of months where I cannot stand upright (and I am not super tall), that was one very important thing. So I was looking for a car with a high roof.
- Bathroom. Privacy is a thing that I can barely let go, so I definitely need a space for doing women things and in case I am argueing with my s.o. I can just shut the door and bee for myself a bit.
- Compactness. Having heard stories about finding parking lots, driving through cities and reading bridge hight signs I wanted the car to be as compact as possible.
- Simple technology. Being underway sometimes means you have no other helping hand than yours. That’s why the car should be quite old, which would mean that not too much electronics is inside of it ( I am terrible with electricity, but best in repairing things with a hammer).
- Overcap bed. Wanting the car compact but still wanting a lot of space means to have the bulkies item of a camper sowhere else than down where you want to live, unless you really like to make up your whole bed every day.
Having these aspects in mind, I went seraching for (affordable) camper vans. What I found was the Volkswagen LT28 Florida, which was just as compact as I wanted, with the equipment mentioned above and so old, that I was wondering if he still has a steam engine.
After almost one year of searching I found this pretty gem for an almost reasonable price. Being a reliable friend I christened him uncle Ernst, which means “seriousness”.
My mom wished my luck before all the imoprtant new life periods, like primary, secondary, my first job, university and things like that. She than always said: “Now the serious side of life starts.”. So with this new life period I decided, that NOW the seriousness really starts, which in this case needs a bit of pre-heating and choke and will result in an enormous exhaust cloud.
We then did some test tours and found that he was almost perfect. Almost? Yes, you know, there is always room for improvement. So we made up a plan, which things we needed to change, upgrade or rebuilt. Saving you saturday evening, this odyssey will fill one of the next entries.