European_Vandweller

European Vandweller

My name is Jan, my wife is Elvira. We're Dutch but we live and
work in Spain. We run a non-profit organisation called Amata
(look at www.amata.es - it's also in English). Amata organises
small craft fairs and medieval markets throughout Spain. We
own a high top standard length Ford Transit with a 100 hp diesel
motor which we use for:

travelling to and visiting potential sponsors
transporting goods to be used for setting up a medieval
market
sleeping and cooking over the weekend of the market
longer holidays spent in other parts of Europe

Based on our previous experience (we have lived five years in
other vans when we first started travelling) we opted for what
we called a Q-ship (from the Wikipaedia article "A Q-ship would
appear to be an easy target, but in fact carried hidden
armaments") but is now apparently called a stealth camper. No
windows, no grilles, no bits and pieces tacked on the outside, no
pretty pictures or sign writing. Just a plain van that we can park
anywhere, stay for the night and carry on without exciting
comment or getting attention from either cops or robbers
(photo 1). This particular model is fairly standard in Spain and
western Europe. There is room enough inside to stand, which is
fairly important if you want to spend longer than the odd
weekend in the camper. Inside, from the driver's seat to the
rear door we have a clear length of 2,90 m (9' 6").
Obviously we don't have to pay overnight charges for camping in
a designated camp site - and these can be pretty steep in Spain,
though they are much less in many other countries in Europe. We
don't attract the attention of police wanting to check papers or
thieves wanting to empty one of those pretty plastic
motorhomes. Some countries will not allow you to spend the night
outside a proper camping, others are fairly relaxed if you keep
out of nature reserves or away from the sea. Often police and
forest rangers will tell us that we cannot stay where we are, but
wilol recommend a really good spot elsewhere - they know the
area.
Our usual technique is to cook a warm meal in the middle of the
day. At night we drive along a country road till we spot a wooded
area and watch out for side roads that take us into the woods.
We drive a little further on along the road till we can safely turn
round, wait till there is no traffic in sight, and then drive along
and nip into the woods. A little further along the track through
the woods we look for a spot to turn off the track, so that even
if a car were to drive along this track, it wouldn't spot us easily.
   Our van uses about 1 litre of diesel to 12.5 km (35 mpg UK,
29.4 mpg US) running around the neighbourhood but this goes
down to 1 litre every 13.5 km (38 mpg UK, 32 mpg US) over
longer distances. Normally we cruise at about 95 k/h (about 60
mph) although we can easily hit speeds of 140 k/h on French
peages and German Autobahns but that's not our idea of
travelling in comfort. Still, we can accelerate so as pass slow
vehicles on narrow roads, something we weren't able to do in
less powerful vehicles we have owned in the past.
    The van came equipped with a single driver's seat and a
double passenger seat. The passenger seat is tight for two
people and you sit at a funny angle if there's just one passenger,
plus you can't go between the seats to the back if you want to
stop for a cup of coffee when it's 20 degrees below zero
outside. So we replaced the double passenger seat with a
driver's seat taken from another Ford Transit van. Behind each
seat is a bulkhead; we can pass direct from the seats to the van
interior via an open doorway which can be curtained off at night
(photo 2).
     We use the van as a mobile office and hotel when visiting
potential sponsors. As these can often be as much as 500 km
(300 odd miles) away, we try to combine several visits in one
morning (Spanish offices usually only work from 8 to 3) which
means that our first visit often is at 8 o'clock. So we drive up in
the afternoon or evening before, spend the night somewhere
unobtrusively, and present ourselves bushy-tailed at the
sponsor's office at eight the next morning.
    In the van we work mostly with a small netbook (uses only 10
watts/hour) which has about 15,000 photographs of past events
to show to sponsors, and a database of crafts people and
entertainers. A small widget at the side allows us to receive and
send e-mail. A laptop (using 40 watts/hour) is used for
designing printwork for leaflets and posters when we are away
for a week or two and we need to prepare artwork for events
coming up shortly; the design is sent directly to our printer by e-
mail and we can pick up the finished printwork on our way home.
A fairly basic scanner and a back-up hard disk plug directly into
the netbook and laptop USB ports. We use a digital camera to
take photographs of sites, and can store these almost
immediately on our netbook and back-up hard disk. We can also
up-date our web site, since within a few days we post 60 or so
photographs of the most recent event we have organised and we
also announce forthcoming events.
     On these two- and three-day trips we keep clean using a
small plastic washing up bowl and a face flannel; if you stand on a
towel to catch the drips, you can stand next to the table and
wash yourself all over. The great outdoors provides sanitary
accommodation, although occasionally we use the toilets in a
public building if we are spending all day in a large town.
          Our van has a very small but fully equiped kitchen (of
which more later) and we mostly cook our own meals at mid-day
with the sliding side door open; in the evening we enjoy a glass of
wine with all sorts of nibbles before we go to bed. And a decent
cup of coffee made using our espresso coffee maker plus a
couple of croissants straight from the baker's oven is our idea
of heaven.
    The van's interior is designed for maximum flexibility as
regards storage. Our storage system consists of 8 large green
plastic boxes plus 4 medium sized blue and pink plastic boxes, a
kitchen unit with 4 drawers, plus two large overhead storage
spaces for bedding, hammocks, awnings and the like (photo 3 and
4). Thus the van can be used for light removals if all the boxes
are taken out, or converts into a comfortable motorhome with
plenty of storage for a three-month journey. The big boxes
came from a company supplying boxes for the fruit packing
industry, the medium sized boxes were supplied by a wholesale
butcher. All the boxes stack with an ingenious design that allows
them to lock on top of each other.
     Our seating area (photos 9, 10 and 11) converts into a double
bed at night (photos 14, 15 and 16) using the foam rubber squabs
of the benches which sit on the large plastic boxes; the quilts
and sheets we store in the space over the kitchen. We can seat
four people at the table (but cannot legally travel with more than
two people, and to change the van specifications so that we can
carry more people is extremely complicated and very expensive
in Spain) so that we can invite people for a meal or a drink only if
they have their own transport.
      When we travel to an event that we have organised, we need
to take a lot of equipment and attributes with us. The table lifts
off and is stored over one of the wheel arches. The plastic
boxes that support the benches are taken out, the benches fold
down, and the full boxes are placed under the kitchen counter.
Thus we are left with a huge amount of space (see photos 7 and
8) which we fill with a set of stocks (collapsible), a gallows
complete with victim, 8 boxes of decoration, 4 boxes with
clothes, photo boards, music equipment, folding benches and
tables - well, have a look at our web site and you'll see a lot of
the stuff we take along. When we get to the market, we unload
the van and then it converts back into our stealth motorhome so
that we can sleep and eat in comfort. At the end of a very busy
weekend, all goes back and we collapse once we get home.
Incidentally, on such a weekend, there will often be 40 to 70
crafts people, most of whom will sleep in their own vans, although
few of them have made their vans really comfortable.
     At the fair or market I will be taking 500 or more
photographs using a digital camera, including a lot of detail
photographs of the craftwork being sold. I can transfer these
photographs direct to my laptop so that I can examine them
inside the van to see if they are exactly what I want, and take
further photographs if they don't come up to scratch. Often I
make a CD copy on the spot to give to the sponsor or to some of
the participants.
     For longer trips we travel thousands of kilometres via
France to England, Holland, Germany, Denmark and the Czech
Republic. Most of it is along secondary roads since main roads
are expensive (in Spain and France) and very boring (almost
everywhere).   We buy fairly small quantities of fresh food
every day and store cold or frozen items under our duvets to
keep cool till we are ready to cook. Cold drinks are the one
luxury we miss but a small electric fridge simply drains any
battery within 24 hours, although there are new types coming
onto the market which promise a much lower consumption. Gas
fridges don't work very well and are more than a little
dangerous.
    Perhaps we are fussy, but we believe that there is no real
need to rough it as far as eating well is concerned. Although
they are not common, it is possible to find gas burners with three
rings - one for meat (we're both carnivores), one for potatoes
or rice and one for vegetables (see photo 13). Instead of an
oven we use a Dutch oven - a small cast iron pan with a heavy lid.
We store a small gas bottle in our kitchen unit (see photo 12), of
a type that can be replaced everywhere in Europe. When we
first started our travels (25 years ago) we used to make a small
fire every evening and grill our meat, but most countries now
have strict laws about open fires, so these days we stick to a
frying pan or Dutch oven on the gas burner. Our kitchen work
top is big enough for our three ring gas burner plus a little space
for one person to prepare food, but we can also use the table if
we both work to prepare the meal. As soon as we sit down to
eat, we put on a pan of water for the washing up, which we do in a
plastic basin resting on the table; one washes, the other dries.
     Our kitchen is designed so that there is enough room for
everything and no wasted space, with shelves at various levels to
suit the content. The washing up basin slots in to place and can
contain a few dirty dishes if we want to continue to travel in a
hurry and wash up later. Everything else is arranged so that
nothing can shift - if we break or lose an item, we have to
replace it, otherwise we have to listen to it all rattling about.
The gas burner unit slides out of its travelling slot when we want
to make use of it for cooking or making coffee. We have three
pans, two frying pans, a Dutch oven and a cast-iron griddle. Cups
and mugs, big and little glasses, plates and bowls, as well as a
drawer full of eating and cooking utensils. We can - and have
done so in the past - cook and serve a proper four-course meal
for four people. Our water is carried in 5-litre and 8-litre
plastic bottles - easy to carry to and from a spring or water tap
for a refill. After a few years it becomes almost automatic to
watch out for taps, pumps and springs in the street or along the
road - we make a habit of filling up as we go and rarely need to
take more than 15 or 16 litres (2 or 3 bottles). If we feel
desperate about a shower, we park near an official camping,
take along a carrier bag with towel and soap, and head for the
showers - we've never had any trouble.   Some big restaurants
on main roads also have shower areas - they are there to attract
the custom of long distance lorry drivers.
    The little doors to our kitchen unit either hinge to their left or
above/below. To keep them shut while travelling over some very
rough forest roads, we use a wooden bar which sits across all
doors (see photos 5 and 6). It is easy to see from the
passenger seat whether we have remembered to put this bar
into place.
       Lighting in the van is through the new LED lamps which use
very little current - we buy the 12-volt type and push the two
pins at the back into the openings of a small plastic connector
block which can then be screwed to the ceiling or wall. Most of
our travelling is done in summer, but the interior of Spain can be
extremely cold in winter so we take along a small gas radiant
heater but only use it in day-time for 10 minutes or so at a time,
with an open window. I am thinking of installing a direct flue
caravan heater but it's a major operation and rather expensive
so I keep putting off the day.
    The ceiling is insulated using sheets of expanded foam plastic
and then finished with tongue-and-groove timber which is just
flexible enough to follow the double curve of the roof. There is
not much van side to be insulated, since from the middle rib down
the walls and doors are finished in hardboard panels by the Ford
Motor Co and the space above the rib we left since we want as
much room as possible for our bed - we can get just 1.84 metres
(6') sleeping across the van, if we leave out insulation. We are
both 1.73 long (about 5' 8") but to sleep really comfortable the
bed needs to be a little longer than standing height. To stop our
feet freezing fast to the bare metal we stuck carpeting to the
inside of the outside metal van panels. The floor consists of
sheets of plywood finished off in floor paint, sitting on 4 cm of
expanded foam. We haven't been able to find any old-fashioned
linoleum, and vinyl just tears whenever we load the van with
heavy stuff. (Continued on next column)

When we go for a few weeks, we put all our possessions into
the four green plastic boxes under the benches plus four
additional ones that go under the kitchen unit - that makes 8
boxes alltogether. Easily more than enough for six weeks or
so, and we know from experience that we would not need
there are four medium sized plastic boxes with tools and
components (hinges, nails, screws etc.) that also sit under the
kitchen workbench. Lastly we add a large bottle of gas
under the kitchen unit, since to fill the large bottle (enough
for three months) costs the same as filling the small bottle
that lasts us barely a week. I have found a 12-volt drill and a
12-volt jigsaw that is extremely useful, after I removed the
bulky and heavy battery component so that the tool will plug
directly into the van's 12-volt system. On longer journeys I
usually take a work-mate along so that I can continue to work
on the van as we travel - there's always room for
improvement, and I enjoy a bit of DIY standing in the middle
of a forest.

An extra battery (deep cycle solar type 200 Ah) under the
passenger seat is connected via a no-return relay so that it
loads up as we drive but takes no load from the starting
battery when we park and enjoy life. Now that we have
12-volt tools, a 12-volt music system, 12-volt lighting and an
adaptor for our netbook and notebook, an inverter is
something we do not need. I can't imagine using a microwave
oven, and when it gets hot we park underneath large trees
which provide pleasant shade - it easily gets to 45 degrees
(about 113 Fahrenheit) in Spain - so that we don't need air
conditioning.

We have stored the equivalent of 300 or so CDs on the hard
disk of our netbook and this plugs into the van's built-in CD
player - and if we needed more we could use our back up
hard disk. We also take along books that we can read on our
screens, although we like to stop in bookshops selling
second-hand and remaindered books on our holidays.

On our longer journeys we take along two light-weight
hammocks that we can string up between trees for a cool
siesta. We also have a large sheet of plastic awning that we
hook onto tiny holes drilled in the roof gutter of our van and
are held up by two poles knocked up out of broom sticks.
Not so impressive or quick as one of those pull-out awnings,
but remember, we are a stealth van. The awning means that
we can keep the side door open if it rains not too heavily so as
to let in some light; in the summer it provides shade if we eat
outside, although we usually take care to park under trees if
at all possible.

We are still exploring possibilities; we may well decide to
buy one of the new small fridges, since cold drinks of an
evening while watching the sun go down seems to us the acme
of luxury. We may also invest in some electric legs to level
the van when we've found a nice spot that slopes more than
somewhat. Lastly, we are still looking into the possibility of
an electric winch to get us out of muddy or icy spots when we
camp in the middle of a forest, since the ground under trees
stays muddy or slushy much longer than when camping out in
the open. Other than that we have we feel that we have
everything we really need in our 5.2 m (17 foot) van and can
enjoy a luxurious weekend or a year out.

Contact us at janfrank@amata.es

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