Reviewing My Campervan After 6 Months

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Six months ago, I bought this DIY converted campervan to travel Scotland, my home country, after 12 years of living overseas. In this video, I’ll be reviewing my campervan after 6 months of ownership.

Since acquiring this Toyota Hiace campervan, I have done some campervan DIY, enjoyed many nights of vanlife Scotland and made some incredible memories. Although I am not living in a van full-time, I have used this small campervan for many extended trips as a solo female traveller.

In my life, I have spent hundreds of nights in vans, doing both part-time and full-time van life. In this van review, I share my thoughts on the vehicle itself, the campervan layout, the campervan kitchen, the campervan water system, my van toilet, the van build electrics and my opinion on Starlink internet.

Whether you are interested in van conversions, looking to start your own van life adventure or are keen to do your own campervan build, I hope this video will be a helpful resource.

🚐 OTHER VAN VIDEOS YOU MIGHT LIKE:
▶ VAN TOUR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5C87dFVZpQ&t=212s
▶ HOW MUCH WAS MY VAN?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4KxHYoE__4
▶ VAN TOILET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWJpUpOA87A&t=5s
▶ FIRST TIME USING GAS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snCsUiqVoNk
▶ STARLINK INTERNET: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op5d3u-O8-c

📖 Thinking of getting a campervan? Download my FREE campervan buying checklist here – https://bit.ly/campervan-checklist

00:00 – Purchasing the van
01:39 – Vehicle Body
02:37 – Campervan Layout
03:18 – Campervan Bed
04:05 – Campervan Kitchen
06:13 – Van Trip to France
07:30 – Campervan Water
08:05 – Temperature
08:22 – Campervan Toilet
08:48 – Campervan Electricity
10:06 – Starlink Internet
11:51 – Window Covers
12:21 – Fridge
13:07 – Future Plans
14:16 – Overall Thoughts

🎥 MY GEAR / TOOLS:
Sony ZV-E10 Camera: https://geni.us/9Fh83fB
Drone: https://geni.us/gIQZ7
Camera Bag: https://geni.us/ecCbc
Epidemic Sound Music (Get 1 month free): https://geni.us/q9WEhb

MY OTHER SOCIALS:
📸 INSTAGRAM – https://www.instagram.com/ruthaisling
🎥 FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/ruthaisling
📱 TIKTOK – https://www.tiktok.com/@ruthaisling
🌐 WEBSITE – https://ruthaisling.com/

WHO AM I?
I’m Ruth 👋 and I recently bought a campervan to travel my home country of Scotland after living overseas for 12 years. I’ve hardly seen anything or been anywhere in my home country Scotland and now is the time to change that!

I am a huge fan of campervan travel and alternative living and I’ve spent over 600 nights living in vans, it’s my favourite way to travel due to the incredible freedom, adventure and affordability.

My campervan is a 2001 Toyota Hiace high roof van. It was originally used by the Royal Mail and then purchased by the previous owner and self-converted into a DIY campervan.

On this channel, I’ll be sharing about my campervan, any DIY I do, and most importantly my road trip adventures as I finally get to travel my beautiful home country of…. SCOTLAND!

DISCLAIMER: Affiliate links may be included in the description.

I’m Ruth, and around 6 months ago, I bought this camper van so I could travel my home country of Scotland after living overseas for 12 years I’ve used this van a lot over the past few months in all seasons And I’ve also done some DIY to make it more comfortable

In this video, I’m going to be sharing with you my honest feedback on this van And if it was the right van for me to buy I’ve probably spent around 700 nights in vans during my life I’ve lived part-time and full-time in vans, and I’ve done two conversions

Before buying this van, I had a fair idea of the type of van I wanted I plan to use this van for extended trips rather than living in fulltime My main three requirements for the camper van were

To be able to stand up inside, fit into a regular parking space, and I wanted one that was already converted This van is a Toyota Hiace high-roof van And this was my first choice of van and I was actively searching for this make and model of van in the UK

I’ve always used Japanese vehicles and I find them to be very reliable I saw this van become available for sale on eBay in Liverpool in England So the next morning I drove 4 hours to go and see the van

The van had been used by the Royal Mail before being converted into a camper van by the previous owner He was a joiner, and shortly after completing the conversion, he passed away And it was his family and friends who were selling the van

The van pretty much ticked all the boxes I was looking for There were a few things I wasn’t 100% sure about, but I knew that I could do DIY and make those changes myself I paid £ 6,600 for the van which I was very happy with

I named the van Ernie after The Man Who Sold it to me When I got the van the miles on the clock were around 92,000 Now, 6 months later, it’s at around 99,000 So in terms of maintenance over the last 6 months

Back in July, I had the MOT for the van The MOT is the annual roadworthy check I know in different countries it’s called different things Prior to the MOT, I got some welding work done on the rusty steps that I discovered

I had tried to repair those myself, but the garage did a much better job In June, I changed the oil and the oil filter Which I shared about in a video However, in September, the oil light came on when I was traveling in a remote part of the north of Scotland

I went into a local garage and they discovered a very small oil leak I’ve had it checked out by my local garage And the van will be going back in next week to get repaired

This van is from 2001, and there’s always a risk of having some maintenance issues when you buy an older van I did expect that there would be a few things that would crop up But overall, the van is running really well and I’m very happy with it

This is the layout of the interior of the van There is a kitchen There’s also a desk and sofa area which then turns into a bed There’s a storage area here at the back And there’s also a space in the entrance area of the van where the fridge used to be

Now I keep the battery in there In the van, there’s more than enough storage for one person And there’s also a vent The space here between the table and the kitchen is quite narrow And although these handles look nice on the kitchen cupboard They’re not very practical

I often catch my leg on them when I’m walking past And I’ve also injured my head I knocked my head on it when I was trying to get something out of the cupboard once So I might look at changing over these handles The bed is really only suitable for one person

So you probably could fit to a squeeze but it’s not very comfortable I’ve done two different trips with friends in the van On the first trip, one person slept in the bed, and one person slept on the van floor And to be honest, it wasn’t a great experience

The van floor is pretty small and pretty narrow So I won’t be doing that again With another friend, one person slept in the bed inside the van And one person slept in a tent nearby the van This worked better actually

But for a longer trip, I really feel like this van is better suited just to one person I found now that in the winter months, the cushions are a little bit damp in the mornings

So when I have an opportunity, I sometimes put them outside just to dry off in the sunlight for a few minutes The hob for cooking in this van is powered by gas I’d never used gas before, and I made a video sharing my first time using the gas in the camper van

There was already a canister of Flogas inside the van in this cupboard here And last week it actually ran out for the first time I wasn’t very sure how to deal with it and change it over Luckily I was near a flow gas depot

So I headed there and the man helped me change over to a new canister The canister that I had inside the cupboard was actually an old model, and they’ve stopped making that size of canister So the one that was put in to replace it is actually slightly bigger And It just fits inside

I don’t know how full the previous canister was when I bought the van But it lasted me for around 6 months So this one should definitely lasts me for a minimum of six months I’ve also bought a carbon monoxide detector And I always open the door when I’m cooking with the gas

So actually only this one works This one used to work, but it’s stopped working now So I need to try and get some help to get that fixed When I first got the van the water and the tap wasn’t hooked up

But Simon, who’s helped me with a few DIY projects, helped me get it up and running So now it’s working However, the way that the van was built And this wire actually connects to the vehicle battery So, in order to get power to this tap here

You need to put the key in the ignition of the van and turn it on To be honest, having to put the key in the ignition every time I want to use the tap is a bit annoying And it’s the number one thing I want to change next with the van

One night I brushed my teeth and I forgot to take the key out of the ignition And the next morning I woke up, and the vehicle had a dead battery Luckily I was staying in a campsite that night

And the man who was in the pitch next to me, he had a jump starter kit And he helped me restart the van So I could continue on my travels I feel like there’s a risk of this happening again Because it’s quite easy to forget to remove the key after using the tap

Last month, I shared that early next year, I plan to go to France in my camper van as there’s something I really want to do there I’ve been continuing to learn some French in preparation for my trip to France

As I always like to know a little bit of the language when I travel to a new country To learn French I’ve been using Lingoda An online language learning platform where you can learn from native-speaking teachers You can choose from English, French, German or Spanish

And you can have either individual or group classes with three to four other people I’ve been doing the Intensive Lingoda Sprint Challenge in group classes to learn French The Lngoda Sprint Challenge is a two-month learning challenge where you take 30 or 60 classes And you can see big progress in your speaking confidence

I’ve been making some great progress with my French And I’ve been able to have more conversations with Jean Paul, the handsome French man in my Village If you’re interested to learn a language or brush up on your existing language skills The next Lingoda Sprint challenge starts on December 27th

And you can save €20 by using the code “RUTH20” I’ll leave the link and more information below For the water in the van, I have a 10L freshwater tank which goes in here beside the gas bottle And I have a 10L gray water tank which goes in the cupboard beside it

I drink a lot of water every day, I make tea and coffee And I’m also washing dishes and brushing my teeth So I find that about 10L per day is how much water that I’m getting through

I don’t want to have to fill up the water every single day, so I bought another 10L tank which I store inside the sofa storage And I’m also considering getting another 10L tank as well I’ve used the van in All Seasons now It’s a really great van for spring, summer, and autumn

There’s no heating system in the van So it does get very cold in the winter months, especially the floors I really want to continue using this van through the winter months so I’m looking at installing a diesel heater When I got this van, it didn’t have any toilet

And with the lack of public toilets in Scotland, I decided to get a toilet The toilet that I’m using for my van is a separating toilet from a German company called Trelino It’s been perfect for my van because it’s very compact and it doesn’t take up much space

And when I’m not using it, I can also store it inside the sofa storage area I made a full video about the toilet if you’d like to know more When I got the van, there was already main’s hookup installed And sockets inside the van

This van had been designed to take to campsites, and there was no 12v electricity I personally like to stay a mix of both campsites and off-grid locations So I installed a 130w flexible solar panel onto the roof of the van And installed a Bluetti AC200 Max portable battery

The portable battery has a huge capacity And it’s been great for charging all of my devices I also attached these battery-powered lights And I’m using rechargeable batteries to power those In the summer months in Scotland, there’s a lot of daylight hours And it’s quite easy to generate solar energy

The sunrise in the summer can be around 4:00 am and the sunset is around 10 pm However, now it’s winter time, the daylight hours are much shorter Recently, the sunrise has been around 8:15 am, and the sunset’s around 3:45 pm So it’s been much harder to generate solar energy

I need to go to campsites every few days and plug in the van to recharge the Bluetti portable battery I can charge the Bluetti when I’m driving, but it charges quite slowly I would need to drive continuously for 24 hours in order to charge the Bluetti from 0% to 100%

If I plug in the Bluetti, it takes around 4 hours to fully recharge I shared a video a few months ago about Starlink satellite internet I like to travel to remote parts of Scotland And was finding that sometimes it was a struggle to get network coverage in these places

For the work I’m doing, I need very high-speed internet to do video calls And also do large file transfers So I invested in Starlink The Starlink comes with a stand which you can place on the ground outside your van However, there are times that it’s not possible to set up the stand

For example, if you’re in a car park somewhere I also had a situation where a dog on a campsite knocked over the stand And after that, I was determined to have the Starlink dish mounted on the roof of the van I attached the Starlink pivot mount to the roof of my van

And also got an extendable ladder which is stored behind the driver’s seat I’m really happy with the pivot mount on the roof of the van But I don’t use it on very windy days And in case anyone’s wondering, I don’t drive along with the dish Inside, I always remove it before I drive

As you can see, on the bottom of the Starlink dish, gap here, and that fits in There’s a spot here for it to fit in here And it will click once it’s get gone in correctly I will slot the Starlink in So there’ll be the wire here

I’m just showing you without the wire Yeah it will come out the top here So it just slots in like that If it’s windy, it really like shakes the roof So on windy days, I avoid using it

And then when Starlink is powered on, it will start to move around to catch the correct signal So I just make sure this is really tight before I go back down The two downsides of the Starlink internet are the cost of it And then also the high wattage that it uses

So when I did the test, I think it was using around 75 Watts which is quite a lot So it can drain the Bluetti battery quite quickly, especially if I leave it on overnight When I bought the van, there were no curtains or window covers for these three back windows

And in the evening when the lights are on people can see in I probably made those window covers on the hottest day of the year in Scotland, and now it’s become colder The window covers have actually shrunk by quite a few centimeters So around the edges, there’s actually now a small Gap

And people can see in the windows again I’m planning to make the window covers again Maybe I can have a summer set and a winter set of window covers When I got the van, it came with a fridge, but it didn’t work So I removed it from the van

12v fridges can be quite expensive And Scotland generally isn’t a very hot country I don’t know if you can see that I also don’t really buy meat fish or dairy So I decided to live without a fridge I feel like for my situation, this space here is better used for the battery

So then I can charge my laptop and camera and make videos to create income Rather than having a fridge so that I can have some cold beers I’ve measured all around the van to see if the Bluetti battery would fit somewhere else

And the only space is really on the floor of the passenger seat And I usually bring my folding bicycle in that position so So, this really is the only spot that will fit the Bluetti battery So when it comes to future things I’d like to change with the van

Number one is changing the power source for the tap and the pump There’s the risk of the vehicle battery dying if I forget to remove the key from the ignition So I’d really like to change that over at some point I am considering installing a proper 12v system in the van

Although I need to weigh up the cost of installing a system like that in an older van If I did install a system like that, I would put it in the back storage cupboard At the moment, I’m just storing things like hiking boots and small camping gas canisters in there

I’ve already measured it as well, and it’s possible to fit certain sizes of batteries and an inverter in there too I’d like to have a bigger battery system so that I can power the Starlink without any worries I would also install some 12v lights

It also means that I could get a fridge since I will no longer need to use the Bluetti battery and this space will be available I also want to store more things above the kitchen on the Shelf

I’d like to put items up there that I use really often, like cups and my coffee maker At the moment, I’m storing them in the cupboard It’s quite narrow and awkward to get inside So I’m thinking to attach some sort of bungee cords along there

And then I can store many things there and they won’t fall out when I’m driving Overall, I’m very happy with the van that I decided to purchase I feel it was a really good van for the price And I’m really enjoying driving it and being able to park it in regular parking spaces

Being able to stand up inside the van also makes such a difference The best thing about getting this van is It’s helped me achieve my goal of being able to travel and see more of my home country of Scotland Having a camper van in Scotland makes travel much more affordable

Because the prices of hotels and accommodation can really add up I hope this video was helpful to those of you who are interested in camper van Thank you for watching and see you next time