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Dream Big, Travel Far Van conversion



Hi there, we are Cazzy & Bradley!


Over the last 5 years we’ve travelled to 40+ countries around the world and have been blogging our adventures over at Dream Big, Travel Far. In early 2020 we found ourselves in sunny Malta, before being suddenly forced back to the UK into lockdown. Unable to backpack as we had been for the last few years, we decided it was the perfect time to fulfill our joint dream of converting our very own campervan!



Entering Vanlife with humble beginnings

Prior to beginning the conversion, we had precisely ZERO experience in using power tools, running electrics, understanding how gas works. Basically lacking in all the skills needed for such a job! But that didn’t stop us, and 3 months later we had our very own campervan! Check out our full 13 week conversion series here.


She is a long wheelbase Peugeot Boxer, with 107k miles on the clock at the time of buying. To help us in completing the job we watched a tonne of YouTube videos and had great support from various van groups on Facebook. We are incredibly happy with the finished product, and it exceeds even our wildest expectations of what we could have accomplished!


In fact, our layout is (as far as we are aware at least) entirely unique as we couldn’t find any previous van layouts that matched what we needed. It includes:


  • Fixed double bed

  • Second guest double bed

  • 3 front seats and 2 rear belted seats

  • Large living/dining area

  • Shower & toilet

  • Midi Heki skylight above the bed

  • Maxxfan Deluxe roof Vent

  • Porthole windows in the rear doors

  • Oven

  • Large kitchen sink

  • HS2000 air heater

  • Malaga 5E water heater

  • 70 litre onboard fresh water tank

  • 50 litre underslung water tank

  • 2 x 220ah AGM deep cycle leisure batteries

  • 1500 watt inverter

  • 480 watts of solar

  • 60amp B2B charger

  • 25 litre underslung LPG tank


Total build costs

In total, the build cost came to somewhere in the region of £16,000. Here’s a rough breakdown:


Van - £6500

Vehicle servicing/fixes - £400

Insulation - £200

Cladding - £150

Flooring - £200

Rear seats (fitted) - £220

Water system - £300

Solar setup - £700

Batteries - £600

Other electrics - £300

Gas system (oven, water heater, air heater) - £1600

Roof vent/skylight - £700

Toilet - £60

Shower - £250

Labour (auto-electrician, mechanic, gas engineer) - £700

Finishing touches (paints, curtains, plates, dishes, bedding, mattresses etc …) - £800

New All-Season tyres - £400

Windows - £250

Kitchen (sink, work surfaces etc …) - £150

Wood - £500

Tools - £400

Underslung LPG tank - £500

Other - £1000


What does the future hold?

As of writing, we have just returned from a 2 month trip around Scotland (which was epic). We’ve used the time being home to install an underslung LPG tank which freed up more space inside of the van for storage. It also means we can more easily fill up gas when abroad. We also re-did our entire gas piping system, this time installing a 3-way manifold which allows us to isolate the gas supply to each appliance.


After Christmas, the plan is to head over to Europe and spend 6 months touring around and discovering the countries we haven't yet finished. After that, the plan is to drive around the entire world (which was the reason behind converting our van in the first place). We will be vlogging our entire journey on Youtube (be sure to check us out!).


Thanks for reading!








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