We’re Ceri, Will and Piglet, or you might know us as To the Mountains and Back. We’ve been travelling in our self-converted Sprinter camper van since the beginning of 2019, having spent quite a bit of 2018 creating our cosy home on wheels.
We started van life in the winter and whilst many people would head for the sun we fully embraced the cold (and we’re talking as cold as -30ºc). We headed to the very top of Norway, stopping to ski and look for moose along the way! So if you’re after winter van life survival tips you’ve come to the right place! We’ve also seen our fair share of sunshine too so don’t worry if you’re not quite brave enough for the frozen north just yet.
Our van is a silver 2014 Mercedes Sprinter that we bought second hand with 34,000 miles on the clock. She’s a Long Wheel Base (170”) van with a high top and standard 2WD. We wanted our kitchen to feel like a normal country kitchen and not a traditional campervan kitchen. Our worktops are made from recycled scaffold boards stained with natural walnut. The cupboard shells are made without 12mm plywood and the cupboard doors with 18mm mdf.
A bathroom was an essential for us in our van build. At only 76 x 56cm it’s pretty snug (and slightly smaller than we planned on) but we didn’t want to reduce the size of our kitchen any more than we had too. Our bed is tucked away in the ceiling when not in use. This does reduce head height underneath the bed but means we’re able to have a large sitting area as well as a proper bedroom.
We work on the road so somewhere comfortable to work and relax was essential. We have two benches: 204cm long, 60cm wide and 44cm high. Our benches double as storage space with room for clothing, ski boots, laundry, outdoor chairs etc. Half of one of the benches contains our fresh water tank and part of the opposite bench has our battery, fuses and inverter.
Our van has 5 x 100w solar panels mounted on a rack on our roof that feeds in to our 300AH lithium ion battery. We also use a buck boost to charge as we drive.
Follow Ceri, Will & Piglet On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tothemountainsnback/
and their website: https://www.tothemountainsandback.com
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