In this episode, we speak to kendall and glenn who are living the van life australia dream!
Travelling Australia in a Vintage VW Pop Top (VW T3 Westfalia), Vance, this van life couple are making the most of the freedom. They made a beautiful diy conversion, so join us as we get a van tour of a 1982 VW T3 Camper Van!
Name of the Van:
Vance
Type of Van:
1982 T3 Westfalia Pop Top
Vane Make:
Volkswagen
VAN
“There’s ups and downs, but you get to have some pretty awesome experiences in van life!” – Glenn
ONBOARD
Vance is a 1982 Volkswagen T3 Westfalia pop top that has been converted into a beautiful tiny home on wheels. The van is decorated in light colours and has some very interesting inclusions to live van life Australia very comfortably.
A DIY slide out camp kitchen, a beautiful big awning, storage that doubles as a moveable bench seat and a solid sized bench that includes the original sink and hand pump. Roof racks on the pop top also allows Kendall and Glenn to easily carry a few surfboards with them.
LIVING IN A VINTAGE VW POP TOP WHILE TRAVELLING AUSTRALIA
Kendall and Glenn live van life Australia while they travel.
ALTHOUGH SMALL, IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A COUPLE TO LIVE IN A VAN FULL TIME.
THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS THE WEATHER!
When asked what the biggest challenge is, Kendall and Glenn replied, “the weather!”.
When you live is such a space, you do a lot of things outdoors. So you become very reliant on the weather. If it rains for two weeks straight, then you have to deal with it!
Even simple things like making dinner become a challenge…
Van life Australia couple give tour of their 1982 VW T3 Westfalia
12 VOLT ON THE VW T3 WESTFALIA POP TOP CAMPERVAN
This vintage Volkswagen is setup with 12V electricity and has a 105Ah battery, 600W inverter and 120W solar panel blanket. The 12V setup helps them to stay powered on the road so they can earn money taking amazing video and pictures as they travel around Australia.
Another nice feature of this VW poptop is the DIY slide out camper kitchen. This pull out kitchen is made from plywood and has heavy duty drawer runners. The slide out kitchen has a pantry and storage for a portable two burner gas cooktop. When the drawer is packed away, it is fixed by two leather straps. And there’s extra storage accessible from the lifting top that uses a piano hinge.
Opposite the slide out kitchen, there’s another storage box that fits perfectly under the bed. This storage box is moveable and has the handy ability to double as a bench seat!
A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS
CAN ANYONE LIVE IN VAN?
- A lot of it will come down to your mindset. Massively! I think you have to be open to adapt to things and you have to be open to discomfort.
- Normally in life you will have some lows and some highs but they’re all sort of here (fairly even). But with van life it’ll be lower lows, but the highs will be so much higher as well.
- It’s a trade off! The magnitude and frequency increases, but it gets you to have some pretty awesome experiences!
WHY DID YOU THINK ABOUT VAN LIFE TO START WITH?
- We were just paying so much to live in Sydney in a little studio apartment.
- Paying so much money just to rent, and constantly on the weekend we just left Sydney.
- And after a while we wondered, why are paying so much to work in Sydney and then leave every weekend?
- So, in the end we just decided to try van life!
