The bit that really struck me in this was watching your dad help with the solar panel installation. I’ve lost count of how many times my dad has come to help me on a project, and I usually end up trying to get as close to him as possible to see what he’s doing, just like you did when you stepped up the ladder to watch. It’s a silly thing, but I loved that.
Definitely would have been lost without him, on many occasions! I'm not sure why but I've never really lost the attitude of a child that "my Dad can do everything". Always my first port of call when I've got myself in a bind. Solar panel is still firmly attached :) Thanks for leaving us a comment.
Glad you found it useful! It was a bit of an undertaking, to be honest I haven't seen it since we uploaded it :P But we're happy that people are benefiting from it, makes it all worthwhile :) Cheers.
Hi you two I watched the vids as they first came out and this one was no exception I was glued too it.. Absolutely love your van especially how it evolved. Can’t wait for part two and your unique but best presentation skills. 👍thanks for sharing xx
Hehe thanks once again Peter! Yeah, almost all of it has been in previous videos but now we have a chance to reflect on what we did, what went wrong and what went right. Hopefully some will benefit from it! See you in part 2 ;)
Flora & The Novice Explorers , I think a lot of people can benefit from this what I like is the layout I really don’t like the transverse bed and the kitchen opposite the sliding door I reckon you’ve smashed it , well done and hurry up with part 2 😊
Hey! Thanks for watching our video :) Here's our comprehensive list of products we used throughout our build www.amazon.co.uk/shop/florathenoviceexplorers
Useful... omg absolutely 💯 brillant , explained so simple, genuine & complete honesty, well done, I'm following you guys now, look forward to more but need to get off to work now 😀
You guys are amazing! I am certainly inspired by your efforts since i am currently deciding whether to buy an off the shelf camper van or buy the shell and refit it myself. I have zero skill in any DIY!! Thank you for sharing and well done indeed. Subscribed
Thanls Stephen! Converting this van was hard for us, having very little knowledge or skills. But we learned so much along the way and it turned out to be one of the most rewarding things we've done thu far. Building your own van is great if you have the time, but next time round we might buy something that's had the professional touch 😜
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Thank you very much for getting back to me and your advise about what go go for. Since we intend to use straight way I will take your advice about buying one ready to go. All the best with the channel 🙂
We have been with you from the beginning and have thoroughly enjoyed watching you both grow in skills and blogging. It was great seeing you and Flora at Camp Quirky 19, safe travels guys, come July and take us all along with you 😊
Hi Brian! Thanks for your comment :) we’re glad you’ve stuck around for so long! Yes, not long now until we set sail. Well do our best to capture the highs and lows in an entertaining manner :p
Cheers Darren! Will note that down for next time ;) Hoping the little holes aren't too bad, fortunately (from what I remember) it wasn't too bad. Thanks again.
A sweet, genuine build with lot of love, hope and honesty. Love the way you worked though first time I think you did your best. They say a home is not by bricks and Mortar here by tin sheets around but it's by the love and care, congratulations and wishing you both good luck from India.
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers thank you for the quick response, yes a home is never complete it needs constant changes, improvements and I'm sure you guys will do the best. Guys be safe and take good care, God bless you.
Thanks Aron, well worth all the effort :P Been travelling in it for 1 whole year now, currently sat on a cliff overlooking the sea in Sardinia! Cheers.
Hey there. in the nicest possible way the silver type space blanket is not insulation, its used purely to go over insulation and to act as a vapour barrier, it has no rating of any significance, If you can still get behind your panelling try to get the insulation in there, it will be like an oven come the sun and vice versa winter. sorry to be the harbinger of bad news Good luck
Hello! Thanks for taking the time to drop us a comment :) Do you mean our Dodo thermo liner? It might not come across well on camera but it’s a 7mm high grade, moisture resistant closed cell product. It does have a reinforced reflective foil on the back giving the appearance of a space blanket type product but it does have a certain weight and thickness to it. Admittedly we haven’t taken the van to extreme temps, but so far it’s been okay. 👍
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Yes, sadly I only just realised this was done sometime ago, you've obviously not much chance to put an insulation in now. Sorry but it has more less zero thermal rating, 7mm will only ever be a light sound/vibration pad for the likes of noisy vans/trucks, people are being lead astray in self builds for this stuff as an insulation, it just is nothing of the sort. I use many insulations in my profession. Its a damn shame, fan assisted roof vents will help you when our summer does eventually kick off. All the best
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers You have your planar for the chilly ones. For a future build 50mm celotex/kingspan type board for floor roof, 100mm quilt fibre walls, expanding foam holes, all overlaid with vapour barrier taped with aluminium tape... Its the best, you'd really notice the difference.
This is brilliant!! I've been bingeing on your individual build vids and have just found your 'start to finish' ones! Thanks for putting this all together, it really is honestly so helpful. I love the give-it-a-go-attitude that you guys have and your hilarious humour, it's much fun!! I didn't really know the #vanlife was so huge and decided after seeing vans in summer over Christmas (Australia) that it would be a great idea! Thanks for being so informative and entertaining!!!
Thank you 😊 recently these videos have been receiving a lot more attention and we’ve had good feedback. Especially from people who are just starting out or have minimal skills/knowledge like we did/do 😛 makes us happy to know that people are giving it a go after seeing us two fumble our way through our van build from the start 😛 I’m glad we documented so much of it. Yeah, #vanlife is HUGE. I’m not so sure how popular it is in Aus but in the U.K. and Europe it’s very popular. One of my friends hired a van in Aus recently, travelled around for a while surfing etc, he loved it!
Flora & The Novice Explorers Just the detail you have gone into with the TH-cam vids, and your website is so fantastic!! And going from the very start to being where you are now is amazing to see!! ☺️💜 I’m really grateful that you’ve posted it all! As for vanlife here in Australia, I’m sure it’s big but once I dive in deeper I’m sure I’ll find out just how big! 😃💃🏽To be able to drive through Europe would be such a dream.. Not that any of us can do much at the moment! Plenty of van research for me tho! Stay safe team! ✊🏽💚
Good job guys. Well thought out. I really like the roof rack/box/panel. I know you've mentioned Alloys previously. I think i'd keep the steelies and spend the money on good tyres. Stay safe and keep up the good work. 👍
Haha. Thanks for commenting! It’s a bit cliché, but if we can do it anyone can. We’ve left for Europe in the van now, currently sat by a lake as I type :) we have more parts to this video coming, think part 2 is scheduled for tomorrow!
Excellent video, well done. I am about to start my project so I was looking for something like your video that shows the oops moments that we all get wrong to save time.
Hello 👋 thanks for your comment, we really appreciate it! We're really happy with how the van turned out, but there were many "oops moments" along the way 😂 we've certainly learned a lot. Hoping this video gives people the confidence to do it themselves, we had zero experience but ended up with a conversion we love. Thanks again, hope your prokect goes well! Are you converting a van too?
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers I am looking for a T4 to convert, I have the design in mind and I am currently getting a list of materials so your video helped as you showed all the extra bits that normally get missed out. If nothing else it will be an experience and I hope it turns out as well as yours did.
Ah brilliant! We're sure it'll turn out great 👍 we'd love to do another van at some point (took a while to get over finishing this one 😂). Hope the search for a t4 is successful, you'll know when you find "the one". Give us a shout if we can help with anything... But we're no experts 😂
Great vid guys..looking to start a conversion on my t5 in 2020 and I think I’m going to use your design for the cupboard doors, they look great! Really good job all round, I’m a bit worried about attempting the lights in the ceiling myself, but your vid has given me some confidence ! Thanks. Looking forward to the next episode 😎
Hi Tom! Is this going to be your first conversion? Yeah, pallet wood has done us well. Looks decent and is nice and tough. The hardest thing to do about the lights (from what I remember) was getting the roof lining down / up. We knew nothing about electrics but had a huge sense of achievement when they came on for the first time. And they’re still going strong today! Good luck with your conversion!
I started my conversion this January and I've only got about two more weekends to go until it's finished. Each time I started a new project/section in the van, like insulation, cupboard building or installing the seat swivel I first began by looking to see if you guys had covered it in a previous video. Most of the time you had so I simply followed your instructions and tried to learn from your mistakes. I just wanted to say thanks for helping me along the way, it's been tough and costly but I'm very happy with how my van is looking and that's partly thanks to you guys. It didn't always feel like I was doing it alone. Great videos and I'm sure I'll continue watching once my van is completed. Cheers.
Hi Conner! Thanks for taking the time to leave us such a lovely comment! We’re so glad that the videos could be of some use, when we started out we really had no idea... about anything! But we’ve had such a great response from people regarding our van build and accompanying videos. Comments like this completely justify the extra time and effort we took to document our journey. Glad you’re nearing the end, it can feel like the conversion takes forever. Happy travels once your all done and dusted! Thanks again :)
i'm lucky i'm pretty tooled up ..however i just bought my first t5, it's a caravelle ! ...very excited so rabbit holing t5 camper conversions...enjoyed this...torn betwixt the roof rack or a pop top .gahhhh
Hi! Nice, is this your first conversion? Yes, to pop-top or not, that is the question! We obviously we haven't but we carry a fair bit on the roof. All about compromise, depends what's more important for you. Good luck! :)
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers first vw and camper conversion yes..i'm used to building stuff like jeeps and done some classic car commissioning...so this is my first vw ..so much money you can spend lol.... cheers
Ah! Sounds like you’ll be fine then :) haha, yes. Potential money pit 💰 but well worth it! We’re certainly reaping the rewards now :) good luck with your conversion!
Hello guys, I love this video, it's been helping me plan for my build, how is the van dealing with moisture? Have you done anything extra to help deal with the condensation and is there anything you think you'd do if you could start again? Thanks in advance!!♥️
Hi Leon 👋 great to hear the vid has been helpful! Moisture has been an issue now and again. One of the first jobs we’re going to do when we can is to instal a fan over the hob. That’ll help a lot with reducing a lot of the moisture and increasing air flow. We’re also going to instal a refillable LPG system instead of the bottles we currently use. We do have a video called something like “van build regrets” where we talk about things we’d like to improve. Might be helpful for you? Cheers
Cheers! Yeah, we were trying to keep clear of builders vans if possible, wanted something that might not have been bashed around so much :P We saw it advertised on eBay through a garage/dealer. The van only had 1 previous owner, a florist shop (so thought at worst there may be water damage under the ply). This garage has always sold the florists vans for them once their done with them and this just happened to be one of them. We got lucky, but we did blow our budget haha.
Haha 😂 thank you! Yeah, we’re really happy how it all turned out. We’ve got a few things we want to alter but we didn’t do too bad 😛 cheers for your comment, we appreciate it!
Meg, I swear I saw you in Pooley Bridge yesterday!? It was driving me nuts for a good few hours trying to think where I knew you from... then the penny dropped :-D
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Haha I knew it! It was outside a cafe we were both awkwardly waiting for the toilet, I spoke to you briefly because I wasn't sure whether you'd been waiting longer than me ha. If you spotted a black T5 parked up around the corner that was mine, freshly converted a couple of months back thanks to your videos :)
Haha! Good old toilet small talk! The lakes are the perfect place for vans! Can’t wait till we’re back up in the next few weeks. Did you stay for the weekend in your van? I’m curious - how many videos have you watched of ours to recognise me? X M
Haha in all honesty probably not that many but I watched your older videos on insulation / carpet lining / flooring over and over and over until I had the confidence to get stuck in! I'm lucky enough to live just on the South Lakes border so I spend most of my time around Windermere :) but yep this weekend I was camped just up the road from where I saw you!
Well done guys , just a wee question ,,When you done the flooring and put the wood strips ,How did you get your side-step and rear plastic to be even ,I am using 6mm ply strips and 12 mm ply ,just want to see what you gut done ,, lLooking forward to seeing your road trip
Hi Donna! Thanks for your comment. Once the new ply floor was down and we had laid outlet vinyl, we bought strips of black plastic trim that fit perfectly. We do show this in our vinyl flooring video I think, but it will be in part 2 of how we converted our van. Hope I understood your question correctly:p
For all the videos previously we used a DJI Phantom 3 Professional. However, we hit for a little foldable DJI Mavic Air, which is great to travel with. But haven’t uploaded anything from that drone as of yet!
Hello and thank you! Roof rack is doing great! From what I can remember there wasn’t a huge noticeable difference in wind noise. I’m positive it does to it obviously but we’re used to it now. Can’t really remember what it was like before. As for weight limit, off the top of my head I’m not sure. I remember looking a while ago and thinking that we were well within its limits. We’ve only added a few things since which shouldn’t have a huge impact.
If I'm honest, I'm not sure 😂 luckily they were just there and also had a rubber gland I could use. They've worked out perfectly! They're still in place. So glad I didn't have to drill extra holes!
Stop showing off,, I’m desperate for a Transporter (T5),, even at 60 😩, instead I bought a Golf R, the van looks great, the colour is just what I’d want,, definitely not white. Looking forward to the journey you guys are going on, the world awaits
Thanks Ian! :) if we were to do another T5 and we had the option between the LWB and SWB we’d definitely go for the LWB. It may not seem like much of a difference on paper, but it certainly helps and gives you that bit extra to play with. We’ve not had any issues with it being longer, parking etc isn’t a problem!
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers that's great advice as usual. You two really could be professional presenters. You've inspired me. Hope you keep all your viewers up to date with your travels and any ups and downs along the way. Stay safe and enjoy your trip. Love from Durham. X
Hi, you two. was your T5 a swb or lwb? We have a lwb T5 and are just thinking of making it a camper. What id like to know is, did you miss not having a pop top? I have watched all your travels. are you going off anywhere, after lock down is over? you are both lovely people.
Hi Patrick! Thanks for your comment :) The van is a LWB. Ah nice, will this be your first conversion? Whilst we are home we're taking the time to make some upgrades, a pop-top is not one of them! We've never had a high roof/pop-top so maybe we don't know what we're missing. But for us, it works well. We have a lot of other "stuff" on the roof making it too heavy currently. A low roof might not work for everyone though. We're currently planning/getting excited for our next trip. Nothing major for this year probably, but 2022 we intend to be back on the road in a big way! Hope you've been enjoying the content, cheers!
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Hi, thanks for coming back. No I’ve done a few and canal barges too. I’m a carpenter and have built houses too, lol. I’ve used the van for work, but now I work from home. So was going to make it a camper. Just didn’t know about having a pop roof. They cost a lot and are they really worth it. We live in wales, well for the last 3 years. We come from Aylesbury Bucks. I hope you both of you are safe. Pat
Haha, you'll have no problem converting a little van then :P we had no idea, experience etc... we learned a lot and would feel a lot more comfortable doing another van (or similar) in the future. Yeah, those roofs are a bit pricey for us, there's a lot of other smaller jobs we'd rather spend that money on. I'd never say never, but as of right now we're content with the low roof. Oh lovely, we're only a short drive from the Welsh border, looking forward to crossing it and doing some camping when it's safe and legal to do so :)
Hello! don't suppose you remember which shelving unit you used? I've been searching for one that's half height for ages but can't seem to find one which is and fits t5lwb? cheers!
Hi Ben! Our shelving unit was from a company called Demar Vans (if I remember correctly). I'll double check and get back to you if that's not the case! Cheers
HI Phil! 👋 if we’re in front of the camera wearing mics we’ll be using zoom handy recorders with a £20 lav mic plugged in. We use them a lot now. However for this particular video the voice over was recorded with a behringer c-1 (if I recall correctly). Relatively inexpensive options but sound okay. What are you using?
Hi thabks for the reply we been usein my gopro my phone and a nikon d3400 but the sound is not good lol im goin to look for the ones yous have suggested
@@phildubztv8785 no problem, on our nikon d3300 we use an external mic, can be seen here: www.amazon.co.uk/shop/florathenoviceexplorers under the vlogging equipment. It helps but the sound isn't always great.
The dvla classification system for camper vans is ridiculous. If you have a pop top, it isn't a campervan according to them. That means there must be millions of non campervan campervans on the road, that everybody else apart from the dvla calls a campervan. I have recently had a full professional conversion done, seen the qualifying regulations and never even bothered to try and change the classification of my van - absolutely ridiculous.
It's a shame that they made this decision and made it so much harder (or impossible) for people to change their classification over. We gotucky and did it a few years ago, otherwise we'd have never got ours reclassified.
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers No worries. It just shows the "why is spain so popular for van lifers" I tried looking for part 2 in your videos and could only find the "day 2" pretty sure thats not it but, it seemed more vloggy. Great work :-)
@@tobleroneyremorse1117 haha, yeah that video isn't the natural progression from part 1 :P there is a part 2. I haven't checked but the link may be in this video description. The thumbnail isn't great so it might not stand out. I'm in the process of going over everything and giving it a revamp. Some videos are quite old now, think we have a better idea of what works and what doesn't now so slowly updating everything. Thanks again for the heds up, just changed the ending of these videos to carry on chronologically.
Awesome job on you video. My Gf and I are just getting started on our van. This video was really great to watch. You can follow our project on instagram old.ben.van page. Thanks again maybe see you on the road.
Thanks for your comment, glad it could help out a bit! :p what van are you concerting? Is it your first? Will definitely have a look at your progress! Haha, you may see us on the road, we’re clocking up some miles now!
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers instagram.com/p/B0agF64l0D2/?igshid=4cqv9ovmxlff it's a Volkswagon t5 we just bought it. Right now we have it with our mechanic to check all the mechanical. We can't wait to get started on our build. We watched all 3 of your videos today especially like the after thoughts when you realised the little things that would have been a better way of doing the jobs. :)
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![ทางเดินชีวิต - ธีเดช ทองอภิชาติ x อ.ไข่ มาลีฮวนน่า [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1f3wcG16dd4/mqdefault.jpg)
The bit that really struck me in this was watching your dad help with the solar panel installation. I’ve lost count of how many times my dad has come to help me on a project, and I usually end up trying to get as close to him as possible to see what he’s doing, just like you did when you stepped up the ladder to watch.
It’s a silly thing, but I loved that.
Definitely would have been lost without him, on many occasions! I'm not sure why but I've never really lost the attitude of a child that "my Dad can do everything". Always my first port of call when I've got myself in a bind.
Solar panel is still firmly attached :)
Thanks for leaving us a comment.
This is an excellent vid. You are very thorough in your explanations, and very clear about the products used. Top job! You guys are mustard!
Glad you found it useful! It was a bit of an undertaking, to be honest I haven't seen it since we uploaded it :P But we're happy that people are benefiting from it, makes it all worthwhile :) Cheers.
Hi you two I watched the vids as they first came out and this one was no exception I was glued too it.. Absolutely love your van especially how it evolved. Can’t wait for part two and your unique but best presentation skills. 👍thanks for sharing xx
Hehe thanks once again Peter! Yeah, almost all of it has been in previous videos but now we have a chance to reflect on what we did, what went wrong and what went right. Hopefully some will benefit from it! See you in part 2 ;)
Flora & The Novice Explorers , I think a lot of people can benefit from this what I like is the layout I really don’t like the transverse bed and the kitchen opposite the sliding door I reckon you’ve smashed it , well done and hurry up with part 2 😊
Hey! Thanks for watching our video :) Here's our comprehensive list of products we used throughout our build www.amazon.co.uk/shop/florathenoviceexplorers
Ha, I love your style, your laidback presentation, I'm now starting my first conversion, I really appreciate your trial and error... nice job.
Cheers! Glad you enjoyed it :) oh cool, got it all planned out?? Haha, hopefully people can learn from our mistakes, we sure did :P
This was really helpful without the pretentious time waste these videos normally have - you guys are awesome. Thanks so much!
Hello Ami 👋 thanks for the feedback, we really appreciate it 😊 glad you found the video helpful in some way! Are you converting a van currently?
Useful... omg absolutely 💯 brillant , explained so simple, genuine & complete honesty, well done, I'm following you guys now, look forward to more but need to get off to work now 😀
What a brilliantly documented conversion!
Cheers Iain! We're so glad we filmed as much as we did, although it caused a few headaches at the time 🤣
You guys are amazing! I am certainly inspired by your efforts since i am currently deciding whether to buy an off the shelf camper van or buy the shell and refit it myself. I have zero skill in any DIY!! Thank you for sharing and well done indeed. Subscribed
Thanls Stephen! Converting this van was hard for us, having very little knowledge or skills. But we learned so much along the way and it turned out to be one of the most rewarding things we've done thu far. Building your own van is great if you have the time, but next time round we might buy something that's had the professional touch 😜
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Thank you very much for getting back to me and your advise about what go go for. Since we intend to use straight way I will take your advice about buying one ready to go. All the best with the channel 🙂
We have been with you from the beginning and have thoroughly enjoyed watching you both grow in skills and blogging. It was great seeing you and Flora at Camp Quirky 19, safe travels guys, come July and take us all along with you 😊
Hi Brian! Thanks for your comment :) we’re glad you’ve stuck around for so long! Yes, not long now until we set sail. Well do our best to capture the highs and lows in an entertaining manner :p
Love the build and videos, but red oxide won’t stop corrosion, you need a rust stopper, primer and a waterproof top coat to do that.
Cheers Darren! Will note that down for next time ;) Hoping the little holes aren't too bad, fortunately (from what I remember) it wasn't too bad. Thanks again.
Cracking honest vlog buddy and thanks for sharing!
Cheers! Hope you found it useful 😁
This confirms to me I did the right thing spending the 45k on an already finished one ......
Yeah, it's not for everyone! But we're glad we gave it a go and were pretty happy with how our van turned out. Learned lots for the next one we do ;)
A sweet, genuine build with lot of love, hope and honesty. Love the way you worked though first time I think you did your best. They say a home is not by bricks and Mortar here by tin sheets around but it's by the love and care, congratulations and wishing you both good luck from India.
Thank you for your lovely comment
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers thank you for the quick response, yes a home is never complete it needs constant changes, improvements and I'm sure you guys will do the best.
Guys be safe and take good care, God bless you.
Brilliant - well done guys!
Thanks Aron, well worth all the effort :P Been travelling in it for 1 whole year now, currently sat on a cliff overlooking the sea in Sardinia! Cheers.
Beautifully edited as always 👍 another really good video 😊
Two colors light blue and white and Van will be looking amazing.... Only suggestion...
We do like the two-tone vans! Seen ones in a similar blue to ours, with white. But not an exact match yet. Would be interested to see the results!
Very beginner friendly, so helpful!
Your blog is great too!
Thanks Daniel 🙏 glad you found our content helpful 😊 good luck if you’re starting a conversion, it’s great fun... mostly 😉
Hey there. in the nicest possible way the silver type space blanket is not insulation, its used purely to go over insulation and to act as a vapour barrier, it has no rating of any significance, If you can still get behind your panelling try to get the insulation in there, it will be like an oven come the sun and vice versa winter. sorry to be the harbinger of bad news Good luck
Hello! Thanks for taking the time to drop us a comment :) Do you mean our Dodo thermo liner? It might not come across well on camera but it’s a 7mm high grade, moisture resistant closed cell product. It does have a reinforced reflective foil on the back giving the appearance of a space blanket type product but it does have a certain weight and thickness to it. Admittedly we haven’t taken the van to extreme temps, but so far it’s been okay. 👍
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Yes, sadly I only just realised this was done sometime ago, you've obviously not much chance to put an insulation in now. Sorry but it has more less zero thermal rating, 7mm will only ever be a light sound/vibration pad for the likes of noisy vans/trucks, people are being lead astray in self builds for this stuff as an insulation, it just is nothing of the sort. I use many insulations in my profession. Its a damn shame, fan assisted roof vents will help you when our summer does eventually kick off.
All the best
Thanks. Fortunately it’s not the only product we used to insulate. So hopefully it holds up! Time will tell...
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers You have your planar for the chilly ones.
For a future build 50mm celotex/kingspan type board for floor roof, 100mm quilt fibre walls, expanding foam holes, all overlaid with vapour barrier taped with aluminium tape... Its the best, you'd really notice the difference.
Well done you two. Looks great
Cheers Nathan!
well done guys, super sweet vid and thank you for taking the time to share.
Thanks for taking the time to leave us a comment, we always appreciate it :)
This is brilliant!! I've been bingeing on your individual build vids and have just found your 'start to finish' ones! Thanks for putting this all together, it really is honestly so helpful. I love the give-it-a-go-attitude that you guys have and your hilarious humour, it's much fun!! I didn't really know the #vanlife was so huge and decided after seeing vans in summer over Christmas (Australia) that it would be a great idea! Thanks for being so informative and entertaining!!!
Thank you 😊 recently these videos have been receiving a lot more attention and we’ve had good feedback. Especially from people who are just starting out or have minimal skills/knowledge like we did/do 😛 makes us happy to know that people are giving it a go after seeing us two fumble our way through our van build from the start 😛 I’m glad we documented so much of it. Yeah, #vanlife is HUGE. I’m not so sure how popular it is in Aus but in the U.K. and Europe it’s very popular. One of my friends hired a van in Aus recently, travelled around for a while surfing etc, he loved it!
Flora & The Novice Explorers Just the detail you have gone into with the TH-cam vids, and your website is so fantastic!! And going from the very start to being where you are now is amazing to see!! ☺️💜 I’m really grateful that you’ve posted it all! As for vanlife here in Australia, I’m sure it’s big but once I dive in deeper I’m sure I’ll find out just how big! 😃💃🏽To be able to drive through Europe would be such a dream.. Not that any of us can do much at the moment! Plenty of van research for me tho! Stay safe team! ✊🏽💚
Good job guys. Well thought out. I really like the roof rack/box/panel. I know you've mentioned Alloys previously. I think i'd keep the steelies and spend the money on good tyres. Stay safe and keep up the good work. 👍
Thank you! :) yeah, steels are staying. Brand new tyres all round soon among other bits and bobs!
Great video, really enjoyed it, was great to look back to the start of your journey. Look forward to future presentations....
Thank you! Was fun to make and look back at what we’ve achieved! Almost ready to hit the road now! :)
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers I bet you can't wait?! Take care & enjoy!
Hehe, been a long time coming! Just trying to get everything ready now, bit of a mad rush! :)
Well done to you both good video and simple advice.
Thanks Kevo 👍
Thank you so much for this. Starting my van in the next few weeks and this makes it much less daunting!
Haha. Thanks for commenting! It’s a bit cliché, but if we can do it anyone can. We’ve left for Europe in the van now, currently sat by a lake as I type :) we have more parts to this video coming, think part 2 is scheduled for tomorrow!
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Very jealous! Thanks for the encouraging words. Hope you're having a good trip
Excellent video, well done. I am about to start my project so I was looking for something like your video that shows the oops moments that we all get wrong to save time.
Hello 👋 thanks for your comment, we really appreciate it! We're really happy with how the van turned out, but there were many "oops moments" along the way 😂 we've certainly learned a lot. Hoping this video gives people the confidence to do it themselves, we had zero experience but ended up with a conversion we love. Thanks again, hope your prokect goes well! Are you converting a van too?
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers I am looking for a T4 to convert, I have the design in mind and I am currently getting a list of materials so your video helped as you showed all the extra bits that normally get missed out. If nothing else it will be an experience and I hope it turns out as well as yours did.
Ah brilliant! We're sure it'll turn out great 👍 we'd love to do another van at some point (took a while to get over finishing this one 😂). Hope the search for a t4 is successful, you'll know when you find "the one". Give us a shout if we can help with anything... But we're no experts 😂
Great video folks!
Thank you Jason! :) appreciate the comment
Great video. Really informative
Thanks! Glad you found it useful 👍😁
Great Video Guys!
Thank you 🙏😊
Great vid guys..looking to start a conversion on my t5 in 2020 and I think I’m going to use your design for the cupboard doors, they look great!
Really good job all round, I’m a bit worried about attempting the lights in the ceiling myself, but your vid has given me some confidence ! Thanks. Looking forward to the next episode 😎
Hi Tom! Is this going to be your first conversion? Yeah, pallet wood has done us well. Looks decent and is nice and tough. The hardest thing to do about the lights (from what I remember) was getting the roof lining down / up. We knew nothing about electrics but had a huge sense of achievement when they came on for the first time. And they’re still going strong today! Good luck with your conversion!
I started my conversion this January and I've only got about two more weekends to go until it's finished. Each time I started a new project/section in the van, like insulation, cupboard building or installing the seat swivel I first began by looking to see if you guys had covered it in a previous video. Most of the time you had so I simply followed your instructions and tried to learn from your mistakes.
I just wanted to say thanks for helping me along the way, it's been tough and costly but I'm very happy with how my van is looking and that's partly thanks to you guys. It didn't always feel like I was doing it alone.
Great videos and I'm sure I'll continue watching once my van is completed.
Cheers.
Hi Conner!
Thanks for taking the time to leave us such a lovely comment!
We’re so glad that the videos could be of some use, when we started out we really had no idea... about anything! But we’ve had such a great response from people regarding our van build and accompanying videos. Comments like this completely justify the extra time and effort we took to document our journey.
Glad you’re nearing the end, it can feel like the conversion takes forever. Happy travels once your all done and dusted!
Thanks again :)
i'm lucky i'm pretty tooled up ..however i just bought my first t5, it's a caravelle ! ...very excited so rabbit holing t5 camper conversions...enjoyed this...torn betwixt the roof rack or a pop top .gahhhh
Hi! Nice, is this your first conversion? Yes, to pop-top or not, that is the question! We obviously we haven't but we carry a fair bit on the roof. All about compromise, depends what's more important for you. Good luck! :)
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers first vw and camper conversion yes..i'm used to building stuff like jeeps and done some classic car commissioning...so this is my first vw ..so much money you can spend lol.... cheers
Ah! Sounds like you’ll be fine then :) haha, yes. Potential money pit 💰 but well worth it! We’re certainly reaping the rewards now :) good luck with your conversion!
wow,, you guys did an amazing job
Thank you Jill! :)
Fantastic video!! Thanks
Cheers James 😊 appreciate the comment. Glad you enjoyed the content!
Great job!
Thank you Jackie! :)
Great video thank you for sharing👍
Cheers Mark, hope you found it useful in some way! Thanks 🙏
P.S,,, a TV series on your travels..the new Judith Charmers and co,,,,
Hi very nice vid thanks i just bought me one and idd be very helpfull to start and havings some ideas Thanks
Hi! That's awesome, we hope we gave you some useful information and a bit of confidence! Good luck with your conversion :)
Hello guys, I love this video, it's been helping me plan for my build, how is the van dealing with moisture? Have you done anything extra to help deal with the condensation and is there anything you think you'd do if you could start again? Thanks in advance!!♥️
Hi Leon 👋 great to hear the vid has been helpful! Moisture has been an issue now and again. One of the first jobs we’re going to do when we can is to instal a fan over the hob. That’ll help a lot with reducing a lot of the moisture and increasing air flow. We’re also going to instal a refillable LPG system instead of the bottles we currently use. We do have a video called something like “van build regrets” where we talk about things we’d like to improve. Might be helpful for you? Cheers
What a great base van! Nice and clean, no builders cr*p or dents, even the ply lining looked ok. How did you find it?
Cheers! Yeah, we were trying to keep clear of builders vans if possible, wanted something that might not have been bashed around so much :P We saw it advertised on eBay through a garage/dealer. The van only had 1 previous owner, a florist shop (so thought at worst there may be water damage under the ply). This garage has always sold the florists vans for them once their done with them and this just happened to be one of them. We got lucky, but we did blow our budget haha.
❤✌😇👌❤
I ALREADY LOVE YOU BOTH JUST BY WATCHING ONLY 4 VIDEOS. LOVE FROM ACROSS THE POND, NEW YORK CITY AREA, USA. ❤LOVE FROM~LISA.💋
Haha, thanks Lisa! We appreciate you taking the time to leave us a message, it means a lot :) do you have a van or are you looking for one?
Yeah
To say this was your first attempt . What a fantastic job great vid love the paint stirrer does it double up as a pen 😂🤙
Haha 😂 thank you! Yeah, we’re really happy how it all turned out. We’ve got a few things we want to alter but we didn’t do too bad 😛 cheers for your comment, we appreciate it!
not bad m8s,
Cheers Greg 😊
Very good yes ...😁
Love your voice!
Meg, I swear I saw you in Pooley Bridge yesterday!? It was driving me nuts for a good few hours trying to think where I knew you from... then the penny dropped :-D
Haha yes you did! We’d been in the lakes for long weekend with some of the family. Whereabouts were you at the time?
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Haha I knew it! It was outside a cafe we were both awkwardly waiting for the toilet, I spoke to you briefly because I wasn't sure whether you'd been waiting longer than me ha. If you spotted a black T5 parked up around the corner that was mine, freshly converted a couple of months back thanks to your videos :)
Haha! Good old toilet small talk! The lakes are the perfect place for vans! Can’t wait till we’re back up in the next few weeks. Did you stay for the weekend in your van? I’m curious - how many videos have you watched of ours to recognise me? X M
Haha in all honesty probably not that many but I watched your older videos on insulation / carpet lining / flooring over and over and over until I had the confidence to get stuck in! I'm lucky enough to live just on the South Lakes border so I spend most of my time around Windermere :) but yep this weekend I was camped just up the road from where I saw you!
Grand stuff! Just wondering .... I best behave myself when we are out and about! Thanks for taking the time to comment! 👌
Well done guys , just a wee question ,,When you done the flooring and put the wood strips ,How did you get your side-step and rear plastic to be even ,I am using 6mm ply strips and 12 mm ply ,just want to see what you gut done ,, lLooking forward to seeing your road trip
Hi Donna! Thanks for your comment. Once the new ply floor was down and we had laid outlet vinyl, we bought strips of black plastic trim that fit perfectly. We do show this in our vinyl flooring video I think, but it will be in part 2 of how we converted our van. Hope I understood your question correctly:p
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers ,Looking over a few of your other uploads ,I am intersted to find out what drone you are using for your filming
For all the videos previously we used a DJI Phantom 3 Professional. However, we hit for a little foldable DJI Mavic Air, which is great to travel with. But haven’t uploaded anything from that drone as of yet!
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Thanks , Looking forward to seeing some of your cinematics when your on tour
Great channel! May I ask how your roof rack is faring? Wind noise? Weight limit?
Hello and thank you! Roof rack is doing great! From what I can remember there wasn’t a huge noticeable difference in wind noise. I’m positive it does to it obviously but we’re used to it now. Can’t really remember what it was like before. As for weight limit, off the top of my head I’m not sure. I remember looking a while ago and thinking that we were well within its limits. We’ve only added a few things since which shouldn’t have a huge impact.
I''m wondering what those two holes are that you used to pull the solarpanel cables through?
If I'm honest, I'm not sure 😂 luckily they were just there and also had a rubber gland I could use. They've worked out perfectly! They're still in place. So glad I didn't have to drill extra holes!
We actually have a video about the solar install, might be clearer on that video!
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Thanks i'm going to watch that one for a better view!
Stop showing off,, I’m desperate for a Transporter (T5),, even at 60 😩, instead I bought a Golf R, the van looks great, the colour is just what I’d want,, definitely not white. Looking forward to the journey you guys are going on, the world awaits
Haha thanks John! Nothing wrong with a Golf, we miss ours. Maybe we can do a swap when we get back? :p hehe, thanks for commenting!
Another great video. Will be starting my conversion soon. Looking for the right van. Still haven't decided on lwb or swb. What do you think?
Thanks Ian! :) if we were to do another T5 and we had the option between the LWB and SWB we’d definitely go for the LWB. It may not seem like much of a difference on paper, but it certainly helps and gives you that bit extra to play with. We’ve not had any issues with it being longer, parking etc isn’t a problem!
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers that's great advice as usual. You two really could be professional presenters. You've inspired me. Hope you keep all your viewers up to date with your travels and any ups and downs along the way. Stay safe and enjoy your trip. Love from Durham. X
what kind of millage did your van have when you bought it??
Just under 90k if I remember correctly!
Hi, you two. was your T5 a swb or lwb? We have a lwb T5 and are just thinking of making it a camper. What id like to know is, did you miss not having a pop top? I have watched all your travels. are you going off anywhere, after lock down is over? you are both lovely people.
Hi Patrick! Thanks for your comment :) The van is a LWB. Ah nice, will this be your first conversion? Whilst we are home we're taking the time to make some upgrades, a pop-top is not one of them! We've never had a high roof/pop-top so maybe we don't know what we're missing. But for us, it works well. We have a lot of other "stuff" on the roof making it too heavy currently. A low roof might not work for everyone though. We're currently planning/getting excited for our next trip. Nothing major for this year probably, but 2022 we intend to be back on the road in a big way! Hope you've been enjoying the content, cheers!
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Hi, thanks for coming back. No I’ve done a few and canal barges too. I’m a carpenter and have built houses too, lol.
I’ve used the van for work, but now I work from home. So was going to make it a camper. Just didn’t know about having a pop roof. They cost a lot and are they really worth it. We live in wales, well for the last 3 years. We come from Aylesbury Bucks. I hope you both of you are safe. Pat
Haha, you'll have no problem converting a little van then :P we had no idea, experience etc... we learned a lot and would feel a lot more comfortable doing another van (or similar) in the future. Yeah, those roofs are a bit pricey for us, there's a lot of other smaller jobs we'd rather spend that money on. I'd never say never, but as of right now we're content with the low roof. Oh lovely, we're only a short drive from the Welsh border, looking forward to crossing it and doing some camping when it's safe and legal to do so :)
May I know the color code of the car?
Hello! don't suppose you remember which shelving unit you used? I've been searching for one that's half height for ages but can't seem to find one which is and fits t5lwb? cheers!
Hi Ben! Our shelving unit was from a company called Demar Vans (if I remember correctly). I'll double check and get back to you if that's not the case! Cheers
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers thanks!
Hi great vides love them can i ask what mic set up do you use as when i do vids on my van the sound is always very low
HI Phil! 👋 if we’re in front of the camera wearing mics we’ll be using zoom handy recorders with a £20 lav mic plugged in. We use them a lot now. However for this particular video the voice over was recorded with a behringer c-1 (if I recall correctly). Relatively inexpensive options but sound okay. What are you using?
Hi thabks for the reply we been usein my gopro my phone and a nikon d3400 but the sound is not good lol im goin to look for the ones yous have suggested
@@phildubztv8785 no problem, on our nikon d3300 we use an external mic, can be seen here: www.amazon.co.uk/shop/florathenoviceexplorers under the vlogging equipment. It helps but the sound isn't always great.
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers thanks for that
Hello . what kind of exterior panels did you take ??? best Regards .
Hello! Sorry we don’t understand what you mean? Can you tell us more? 👍
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers Sorry my englisch.I meant outside panels.I search for a long time for my super bugger Projekt .
oh sorry this is the wrong video. the question was for the super bugger video th-cam.com/video/CX_zmmPmYBk/w-d-xo.html
The dvla classification system for camper vans is ridiculous. If you have a pop top, it isn't a campervan according to them. That means there must be millions of non campervan campervans on the road, that everybody else apart from the dvla calls a campervan. I have recently had a full professional conversion done, seen the qualifying regulations and never even bothered to try and change the classification of my van - absolutely ridiculous.
It's a shame that they made this decision and made it so much harder (or impossible) for people to change their classification over. We gotucky and did it a few years ago, otherwise we'd have never got ours reclassified.
why is part 2 ot in the end thumbnails?
Hi! Not sure, it should be, maybe we accidentally changed something. Thanks for the heads up.
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers No worries. It just shows the "why is spain so popular for van lifers" I tried looking for part 2 in your videos and could only find the "day 2" pretty sure thats not it but, it seemed more vloggy. Great work :-)
@@tobleroneyremorse1117 haha, yeah that video isn't the natural progression from part 1 :P there is a part 2. I haven't checked but the link may be in this video description. The thumbnail isn't great so it might not stand out. I'm in the process of going over everything and giving it a revamp. Some videos are quite old now, think we have a better idea of what works and what doesn't now so slowly updating everything. Thanks again for the heds up, just changed the ending of these videos to carry on chronologically.
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers you rock :-)
Give you a thumb up? I would've given you two if it was possible.
😃😃🙏❤️ that’s very kind!
always wanted to say this.....first!
Awesome job on you video. My Gf and I are just getting started on our van. This video was really great to watch. You can follow our project on instagram old.ben.van page. Thanks again maybe see you on the road.
Thanks for your comment, glad it could help out a bit! :p what van are you concerting? Is it your first? Will definitely have a look at your progress! Haha, you may see us on the road, we’re clocking up some miles now!
@@FloraTheNoviceExplorers instagram.com/p/B0agF64l0D2/?igshid=4cqv9ovmxlff it's a Volkswagon t5 we just bought it. Right now we have it with our mechanic to check all the mechanical. We can't wait to get started on our build. We watched all 3 of your videos today especially like the after thoughts when you realised the little things that would have been a better way of doing the jobs. :)
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