We Bought A 50 Year Old Caravan.

Merry Christmas guys! I am so excited for you that you have a place to rest and can hardly wait to see what you do with the van.

Save Merv!

you guys are awesome

I think you made the right choice with the caravan. My 2c worth, see if you can possibly leave a small gap on the wall side of the bed to walk around. If you do, you will thank me every day when making the bed and whenever you have to change the sheets. It would also leave room for a shelf for phone and coffee cup on the inner side of the bed. I realise that every bit of space is precious in a tiny home, I guess it would be my priority if building out a van, but doesn’t have to be yours.

Love this! Keeping some good oldies on the road. I will eventually get my hands on one after this big lap. :) all the best guys.

Congrats on the new van. Vintage Caravan Spares in Victoria will become a great new avenue to purchase original spares. Helped me a lot in my Viscount rehab. All the best.

Congratulations on your purchase of caravan. But oh my goodness the farm is amazing - wow…. I would absolutely feel the same way about wanting a clean organised space to be in and what you did in a week well done again. I think what you’ve achieved so far is fabulous. I wish you a beautiful Christmas and a safe and happy new year.

Excited to see how your build progresses! Honestly though the ensuite needs to be side entry so that you can step into the shower and use the toilet when required. You will see heaps of modern caravans with the toilet / shower combined that I am talking about

Also don’t forget to plan where you are going store your batteries, inverter, dc/dc charger etc. Those old vans never had any of that stuff. Maybe under the lounge near the axles and if your budget allows (maybe your sponsor will help out haha) get lithium

You put your fairy lights up in the house!! That’s gotta make it feel more like your own space 😘

I’m even more excited now that I’ve seen this first video! You’ve already proved to us that you are more than capable of achieving this & I’m really looking forward to going along for the ride 😘😘

Great choice!

You two certainly like a challenge whilst not on the road. Have you considered not partitioning the van into separate rooms? It makes the space feel much roomier. Admittedly, our van is 21’6” with only the ensuite at the rear with a wall and door. The sleeping and eating areas are all open and spacious.

Thanks

Cruise Master suspension perhaps?. Slide out exterior kitchen? Solar farm on the roof and big battery setup to run the aircon. Can go on and on. Where do stop? It's going to be fun watching the progress that's for sure.

Excited to see how this turns out 🍻 how does dusty feel towing the big van

Yay good to see you got the 3rd caravan 🙌🏻 all the best renovating both homes 😛🥰

I honestly don’t think you guys realize what you’ve gotten yourselves in to 😅 but I’m definitely here for the ride!

Good luck to the build and Merry Christmas

Great choice and good luck with the build I am looking forward to watching this build 🎉

Wow I love the shed to live in, great base while doing the caravan, that van will come up a treat, yes it’s a lot of work, but you’ll both smash it, take your time, at least doing it yourselves you will know every nock and cranny. Enjoy it all, be great following the build. Hope you’re using that new sandwich polystyrene for walls, so light and sound proof. Cheers Judy.

Congrats on your purchase, it looks like its going to be lots of fun to renovate. With regards to your rain shower just be careful with regards to how much water flow you will need for it and also how much water storage you will have on board.
Google SketchUp is a fantastic program, i used it when i designed my square drop camper (it only took about 2 hrs for me to design the whole thing, 9 months working very casually to finish the build).

Please be careful of asbestos in them old caravans, even those paper back vinyl floors from the 70s can contain asbestos. Gaskets and so on.

Looks great!!

Mertle is the perfect name for your new home.

Congratulations guys everything you are doing will be a great adventure and you’ll have some challenges but will make you stronger. I bought a Tassie lobster boat in Hobart while on holiday 16 years ago sailed it back to Melbourne trucked it to SA restored it people thought I was crazy best adventure I ever had fitting it all out looking forward to sharing in your new project every thing is raw and messy and you will make it great don’t listen to the negative comments they don’t have the vision you have

Greatcvideo guys! Just seeing Jack's Better Help promo you could see how much it helps him and maybe having some certainty of purpose and location for a little while seems like he is a good head space!

I love my van. You won't regret it.

Hi guys love Myrtle.
My nickname is Murtle, cause I look like a turtle 🐢.
Love you guys.
Peter.

I’m glad you went for number three and that layout Jack did was really good. Have a good Christmas and a happy New Year. Looking forward to seeing how the caravan finally turns out🧑🏻‍🎄

Hello, my name is Freya i am eight years old and me and Craig my dad watch your videos every night before bed! I just wanted to say how much we love your videos! Merry christmas! From Freya and Craig :D

Good luck on your reno, I bought a 15 foot Viscount Ambassador and I am halfway through my renovation, very rewarding when you see it starting to come together. I hope that i get to see the end of your reno as a lot of people give up halfway through, looking forward to future videos.

That old girl is going to have more TIMBER ROT THSN TIMBER🤦‍♂️

Good luck kids, you’re gonna need it. 😬

i am pulling out my gas oven stove from my caravan going cheap if you’re going gas

Congratulations!!! For me, the double axle was the pick of the bunch!! I'm looking forward to the restoration process... (South Africa)

Viscounts used to be $0.69 cents a packet.

12 volt suggestion for you guys if you are interested. I would be looking at 2 x 200ah lithium batteries to run power distribution through the van. The weight of the two batteries would be roughly between 50-60kg which would not eat too much of the Aggravated Tare Mass (ATM) which you guys will be trying to stay under. Based off the age of the van I gather you would be stripping out all wiring and replacing it to reduce potential fire hazard. Then I would run semi flexible or fixed solar panels on the roof into an Enerdrive DC to DC charger. This will allow the van the ability to stay off grid more without needing to constantly source places with powered sites. The good thing with Enerdrive is that you can use house solar panels instead of 12v panels giving more diversity with solar panel options.

If you have this sort of power in the van you can then consider things like induction cookers, 12v upright fridge, 3000w inverter which could potentially provide further weight reduction to the conventional oven/gas top cooker etc.

It’s just a suggestion of the way I would attack this. Good luck with it.

Ohh love the design for the caravan keen to see the small changes as you go, really cool that you’ve got the farm to work from. Looking forward to the build out guys ❤

Congrats guys, this will be amazing to watch. Have fun and Happy New Year to two beautiful people😊

A bad purchase. You should have bought an offroad trailer 4x4 like a Conqueror. There are good used ones. They are go anywhere trailers with all you need for luxury camping and overlanding.

Looks like fun....

You'll need boxes and boxes of T Rex, 5.4 sealed rivets and 5.5 peels. And try and keep a record of the weight of what you put in. It adds up so fast and then you'll be paying an engineer...

Omg how far from Esperance are you. We are here till September. We would love to come see you. We have a 1976 Bedford bus!!

Good on you guys 👍👏👏

The beer sold it!

looks great can't wait to see the restro work

I'd take out the other couch area and build bathroom there

I dig the old 💩 myself cars campers and old farm houses. But. Just FYI be careful asbestos was the hot ticket from around 1940 to 1965. At least in the US.

Good stuff, either of the Viscounts will do.
I bought a 72 6berth Supreme in 2020 and improved it whilst recovering from surgery. Loved the project but did not gut it.
Found only 1 leak and added new timber at that point. Switched all over to 12v and reinstalled a gas cooktop and fridge.
Have had a few trips but now my wife is sick, so trips cancelled for the next 6mths.
Looking forward to catching up on the next episodes, because it brings back so many long days and good memories. 😊😊😊😊

Ah so now I understand how you ended up on a farm. I thought you started the van before you finished your house! You did a good job of cleaning it up.