Layout & DIY
Getting Electricity in Off-Grid Vanlife
From fixed solar installations to portable batteries and smart energy management, we'll explain everything you need to know.
Layout & DIY
What is the Ideal Size for a Campervan ?
In this article, we'll try to shed some light on the best size for your road trip. Several factors will influence this decision.
Layout & DIY
Designing Your Van or Camper Layout with 3D Software
Have you just bought a van or camper and want to customize it to suit your style? Here are three software tools that will help you visualize your van.
Layout & DIY
Water in Your Camper Van, Van, or RV for Vanlife
Layout & DIY
Emptying the Waste Water from an RV
Layout & DIY
What type of vehicle to choose for vanlife?
Layout & DIY
Which camper van battery to choose for autonomy?
Building the Van Around Your Life
A good conversion is not about copying someone else’s Pinterest board, it is about matching a layout to how you actually live, and that mindset runs through everything here. We learned most of it the messy way, rewiring and re plumbing more than once, so this section is the practical DIY reference we wish we had owned from day one. If you are still at the drawing stage, sketching it out in 3D layout software saved us from mistakes that would have been welded in permanently.
Choosing the Base Vehicle and Its Size
Everything downstream depends on the metal you start with, so the vehicle question comes first. We weighed the trade offs in what vehicle to choose for vanlife, then tackled the eternal argument about the ideal size for a campervan, where a metre in either direction changes daily life more than you would guess. Get these two right and the rest of the build stops fighting you.
Power, Water, and Going Gas-Free
The three utilities are where budgets and headaches concentrate, so we gave each its own honest guide. On electrics we cover getting electricity off-grid and how to actually choose which camper battery suits you, because that single decision shapes your autonomy. For plumbing we explain handling fresh water in your camper alongside the less glamorous job of emptying waste water. And for anyone nervous about bottles on board, we tested whether a gas-free camper is genuinely possible, spoiler, it mostly is.