The Green Vanper
Forum Member
Hello,
I've found the forum last night and decided to register, as it's very much in my range of interests now.
I'm Rafal, a linguist, ex-sales, working as an IT engineer. But I adore all kind of DIY. Large scale DIY...
I had the idea of getting myself some kind of a mobile home a few years ago before it got so popular. I've considered several options and finally got to a conclusion that with my atypical needs the only solution is a conversion.
The first step was finding an appropriate base. As the main idea is to spend as much time as closely to the nature as possible (which for me means literally 'no diesel'!), the choice was extremely narrow: Sprinter, Daily and Ducato. For the moment I've even considered some electric vans, but the real possibilities of such use are close to zero. Sprinter got off the list due to the fact it is not a single fuel vehicle. So it couldn't be considered as ecological in the EU.
So I started to look for an Iveco Daily or Fiat Ducato with the 3 liter CNG engine. Each of them has pro's and con's, but I oriented myself to the Ducato, as it has a galvanized body. And Daily tends to rust heavily. But in fact it was much easier to find Ivecos
In the meantime, after checking potential build possibilites on a typical cargo van and a luton... it all became clearer I've seen cooling boxes, delivery vans, shop / food trucks and even a horse transporter But finally I found a 2011/12 8,25 sq meter typical luton box with just under 100 tkm on the clock in central Italy.
The 'major problem' is it's... red
So I had to add another job on the 'to do list'. But this one will wait until the end. Hiding in nature in a red van will be quite difficult
Until now the process is not as advanced as I'd like it to be, mostly due to lack of time + perturbations in life. But in the meantime I'm getting lots of stuff that I could use afterwards.
A side door, five smaller windows (still to buy one bigger), roof vent, solar panels, LTO batteries, DC-AC inverter, MPPT controller, lightbars and lots of smaller stuff is already here. I've installed a 2DIN radio + reverse cam, did some mechanical / electrical jobs that needed to be done and some other works in the cab (ie. insulating the steps, as the cab floor itself is insulated, but the steps aren't).
I'm struggling with installing a cruise control unit. Which was the option from factory, but is not described anywhere. But also here, some small steps are being done and I hope to be able to say on day that I've done it myself. Especially that no one else does
I hope that I'll be able to spend the long winter evenings on finishing the project. So I could start with some real progress next spring / summer.
Keep your fingers crossed, please
I've found the forum last night and decided to register, as it's very much in my range of interests now.
I'm Rafal, a linguist, ex-sales, working as an IT engineer. But I adore all kind of DIY. Large scale DIY...
I had the idea of getting myself some kind of a mobile home a few years ago before it got so popular. I've considered several options and finally got to a conclusion that with my atypical needs the only solution is a conversion.
The first step was finding an appropriate base. As the main idea is to spend as much time as closely to the nature as possible (which for me means literally 'no diesel'!), the choice was extremely narrow: Sprinter, Daily and Ducato. For the moment I've even considered some electric vans, but the real possibilities of such use are close to zero. Sprinter got off the list due to the fact it is not a single fuel vehicle. So it couldn't be considered as ecological in the EU.
So I started to look for an Iveco Daily or Fiat Ducato with the 3 liter CNG engine. Each of them has pro's and con's, but I oriented myself to the Ducato, as it has a galvanized body. And Daily tends to rust heavily. But in fact it was much easier to find Ivecos
In the meantime, after checking potential build possibilites on a typical cargo van and a luton... it all became clearer
I've seen cooling boxes, delivery vans, shop / food trucks and even a horse transporter But finally I found a 2011/12 8,25 sq meter typical luton box with just under 100 tkm on the clock in central Italy.The 'major problem' is it's... red
So I had to add another job on the 'to do list'. But this one will wait until the end. Hiding in nature in a red van will be quite difficult
Until now the process is not as advanced as I'd like it to be, mostly due to lack of time + perturbations in life. But in the meantime I'm getting lots of stuff that I could use afterwards.
A side door, five smaller windows (still to buy one bigger), roof vent, solar panels, LTO batteries, DC-AC inverter, MPPT controller, lightbars and lots of smaller stuff is already here. I've installed a 2DIN radio + reverse cam, did some mechanical / electrical jobs that needed to be done and some other works in the cab (ie. insulating the steps, as the cab floor itself is insulated, but the steps aren't).
I'm struggling with installing a cruise control unit. Which was the option from factory, but is not described anywhere. But also here, some small steps are being done and I hope to be able to say on day that I've done it myself. Especially that no one else does
I hope that I'll be able to spend the long winter evenings on finishing the project. So I could start with some real progress next spring / summer.
Keep your fingers crossed, please
