Putting the van up for sale

The last 5 and a half years, we've travelled most of Europe from Kotor to Tromsø. From Vilnius to Amiens in our self-built Sprinter 2001. As can be read in this blog, it's been ups and downs but overall it's been a fantastic experience! The next two years, we have other projects planned (extensive interior work on the house and building a garage) that'll take up all our spare time, so it does not make sense to just have the van idle.

From the first part of the build during Covid in November 2020 until this summer, the van has been our favorite project! Travelling with a stealth van like ours, you can go to any town and just park at a public parking spot. The van has light-blocking curtains and it's own toilet, so you never disturb the people around you. We really love this bit - drive straight into the town you want to spend the day in, park and go enjoy everything. In the night, your bed and all amenities you need are right by. When in the mountains, you can wild-camp as long as you're on public roads and not in anybody's way. In all of Northern Europe, you more or less never need to pay for camping unless you want access to facilities such as showers or emptying your own toilet.

In the southern & eastern parts of Europe, it's a little stricter in terms of parking but it's also cheaper per night to stay at camp sites. The only restriction we've had is the lack of air conditioning in the van that it hard to reach the southern most parts of Europe.

Why we're selling

At the end of this season, one of the leaf springs broke. The car was still working since the damper and the damper spring worked, but it wasn't very drivable. We were quoted a price of somewhere between 15 and 20k NOK for this job by Snapdrive. Given that the car has 4 springs, we envisioned this to possibly cost us up to 80k in the future. Now it didn't end up all that bad. We found a shop outside of the Oslo area that did the job for 5k, so the van is back in business. We'll pass that contact along to whoever buys the van.

This did however make us rethink a bit and we've had other projects lined up for a while. 2026 is the year for these projects, so it makes sense to sell the van at this point in time. Fighting rust has been a battle from the start and the annual cost are annoying AM despite me paying most of it. I think we'll do other things for a few years and then we'll get a new van that has proper aircon and travel the souther parts of Europe as well?

So for now, the van is out for sale on Finn. If you're looking for a cheap and lovely way to see Europe, it's a good buy! We're selling the car for just a little more than we bought it for originally. Given that it's ready to travel, it's a very good price. We're selling it with all the lights, 4kW diesel heater, propane burner, Dometic 976 toilet (w/supplies), Dometic fridge, backing camera, Android car stereo, front/back camera (w/recording and auto-switching), roof-rack, gas alarm, water tanks, sink, custom shaped matresses and a 25m shore-cable. We've taken out the single most expensive item, the battery & solar. Whoever buys the van can make us an offer for these.

Some random things we've learned

Having not done much carpentry when we started the project, we've learned that there is a reason why cabinets have thicker doors than 4 & 6mm. It's to prevent things from warping when the van alternates between dry and cold climates. 4/6mm seemed like a smart and lighweight choice at the time.

We've also learned that magnets will not hold a cabinet door - given enough force. The very solid drawer rails we installed for the fridge, did not hold up when filling the fridge with cheese and beer and making a very steep turn at good speed.

We've learned that when the NATO summit happens at a towns only camping site, it can be hard to empty your porta-potty.

After two weeks on the road, it's great to just drive and listen to an audiobook for yourself - with your spouse doing the same next to you.

Two weeks is just about as long as we want to be on the road at a time. We love the van, but we wouldn't live in it for a long time.

Air conditioning is important if you want to go south! Our next van will have that!