What to do when you crash?

Newbie's Corner
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Introduce Yourself…

Hi all,

Myself and my husband have quit our jobs, sold the flat, sold the car and left Scotland to travel round NZ on a working holiday visa. We’re still pretty new to the vanlife.

We originally had a 2008 Toyota TownAce which was quite compact but it worked very well. My cousin’s husband basically helped build it for us and it was perfect.

However at the end of October, after travelling for only a month, I hit a bump in the road quite literally and rolled the van. It was an immediate write off. So we basically lost our home.
Fortunately the campsite we are staying at has the nicest owners who gave us their camper to stay in until we got ourselves a new van.

We now have a 1995 Toyota Hiace which is already self-contained and has a bed and fold down table. We’ve done our best salvaging from the old van and it’s coming together but neither of us are quite sure how to make more shelf space. If anyone is able to give ideas that would be amazing.

Looking forward to being part of this community and to get some inspiration for our Frankenstein Van :joy:

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Greetings & Welcome!

Do you have upper cabinets by the roof? That’s usually the best place to add shelves for lightweight things. Always keep your center of gravity as low as possible though. Adding things like roof top solar panels can greatly increase your chances of roll overs, and lower your gas mileage as well.

Cheers!

"I can live like a king because I work like a dog." ~ An anonymous vandweller


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Hi there,

Thank you so much for the tip. Will definitely keep that in mind.

Cheers :grin:

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I don’t really know how your van is laid out, how high the roof is, etc. So, can’t offer advice. The best thing you can do is surf the web and look at storage ideas that other folks have come up with and figure out what will work in your van. That’s the great thing about the web. :+1:

Enjoy NZ!

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