663 Days, 40.000km, 3 tire blowouts
This page shows a glimpse of the buiding proces of my van Jiggy, that took me around the coastline of Australia.
Named after the one tool that did 90% of the work: the jigsaw. My second option; cordless drill seemed to be less of an ideal name.
December 2019: touchdown in Melbourne, on the hunt for a vehicle that could show me the vast lands of Australia.
January 2020: a plane to Sydney took me to what seemed to be the perfect van, and took me away of the roaring bushfires.
I scored a low mileage Toyota Hiace 1997- high roof
Two weeks later the build could commence, on the driveway of a families place that was on holidays and needed someone to take care of their rabbit for 2 weeks. Plenty of time I thought, little did I know I was about to start a 3 month building adventure with the help of minimal tools, in Mudgee, a rural town a couple of hours inland from Sydney. The help of a homecoming-cake but mainly the great hospitality of the family secured me my homebase for the coming months to fiish of the build.
3 months of jumping out of bed - like a kid about to build his treehouse - and designing and building out my rig.
I wanted a self-sufficient van, one that could comfortably take me off-grid for a while. I knew I was going to be hunting for those premium, off the beaten path camping spots! In other words I needed a leisure battery, a fridge, solar, a roof-vent and plumbing, so I could store plenty of drinking water, have a shower and do the dishes. Next to that I wanted a place to cook inside and outside, a sofa that could be converted into a bed, some sort of a desk area, gereral storage, a garage and finally somewhere to store surfboards. It was challenging but super fun to fit all of that in a space not bigger than 290x150x170cm
The bright and curious kid of the family loved the van conversion as much as I did, by the second month we had to build him his own little project so he wouldn't want to 'help' me all the time. It didn't always work...
The first stage of the build was ready, everything was in place except the solar panel, roof vent and cutrains. If I wanted to tackle those jobs I would need more tools, besides, I could not wait any longer to go out and explore. Massively grateful for the hospitality I left the welcoming family with a big smile in search for epic adventure.
I landed myself a job as gardener at another super hospitable family. This time the house owner was a retired tradie, or tradesman. The Walhalla for van uprades with all possible tools at hands.
However, installing the solar panel proved to be a challenge, since roofracks were not readily available with legs that would reach high enough to pop over the top of my roof. I was not planning on giving up on the idea, so I ended up making them myself out of some scrap aluminium sheets. I swear I could have made a business out of these roof racks hearing the interest of all the other Hiace owners troughout Australia. Next to the solar roof rack, curtains were sewn, mattress covers made and the roofvent got installed. The best part, all of it was made out of second hand, and thus free material.
A simple mechanism would clamp the roof rail after tightening the bolt down.
To date I dare to say that jumping head first into a project as diverse and challeging as this one - in a foreign country - has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had. The van held up perfectly around Australia's roads, some of which were brutally corrugated and riddled with potholes. Something I would pat myself on the back for for the rest of my journey. Next to being an absolute cornerpiece to the experience I had in Australia the van was a great conversation starter as well!
10/10 would recommend.
