Albie the Transporter
The walls of the van used to include the natural light of windows all around it, however the plan was to ditch the back two by blacking them out and cladding over them. We then incorporated the window over the fridge by building a timber frame and pushing it hard to the glass. Then blacking out the perimeter of the glass so only the opening is visible from the exterior of the van.
Other specs of this Van include:
- 30L water storage and ShurFlo 12V Pump with Tap
- Dometic CRX50 Fridge
- Maxxfan Ceiling fan
- 120AH Battery System
- DC-DC Charger for solar compatibility
- 12V power supply near bed.
- Strip lighting under step for night access
- Kitchenette drawer with cooker mounted and pull out bench for extra bench space.
- 12mm Messmate overlay flooring
- Tas Oak Wall and ceiling lining
- Tas Oak benches and cabinet tops
- Couch to Bed operation
Please scroll down for the full gallery of images.
Maddie initially contacted me with the plan of converting her 2010 Transporter into something she could pack up and take on the road when and wherever she felt like it.
The condition of this van was perfect, it had already been well looked after by its previous owner but it had nothing but a ply carpeted floor in the base of it.
Maddie's brief and design was one that she had spent many moons dreaming of and had thought it out exactly how she wanted it to be as a finished product. Together we came up with some options in terms of materials that we decided to use throughout the build.
The plan was to be able to have a quick getaway that featured the ability to cook and camp wherever she decided to pull up stumps. It was to have the ability to have a bed that could fold into a couch and ample storage underneath and in the cabinet to the side of it. I maximised this idea with a half height cabinet and used a rail to take the support of the bed frame. This cabinet is openable from the top and includes open areas for storage below either side of the wheel arch. This also allowed us to get plenty of insulation around it to reduce the road noise. The drawer underneath the bed has heavy duty drawer runners supporting up to 275kg of your heaviest of items.
Lighting and mood was another topic we discussed and decided on two downlights over the front half of the van for when cooking or accessing the water tanks for practicality. We also added some mood lighting with some strip lighting angled at the ceiling to throw some warm light across the stunning Tasmanian Oak lining boards that line both the walls and ceiling.
