So yesterday Janneke and I went van browsing at a huge used van centre near Heathrow. Exciting times!

We just wanted to get a better idea of the dimensions of the vans we’re considering buying for our conversion. Currently our favourite is the VW Transporter with the long wheel base and a high roof, but we’re also open to other options such as a Ford Transit (read our last blog on all the van considerations here).

So many vans everywhere…

The gentleman in the sales office directed us past through the 100s of vans to the VW section, giving us an overview of the stock he had in.

We’d given a hazy introduction to our need to buy a van… ultimately we’d never be seriously considering buying in the UK because we need the van to be left hand drive, but we didn’t want him to think we were complete time wasters. He mentioned the different mileages – “This one does have quite a high mileage at 100,000 but I expect you’ll be fine if it’s just for touristy things. I caught Janneke’s eye and gave a wry smile… our plans for Pan Am would be putting at least another 30,000 miles on the clock.

After the introduction he left us to explore – giving us the opportunity to play around with a couple of different vans and get a feel for how much living space we’d get in the different options.

Testing dimensions in different vans…

It was great to get a more real sense of what is available and what it actually feels like – rather than just having to visualise from pictures on the internet. We’re hoping to get over to Germany in August to actually buy the van – but we might not have much time to make the decision once we’re there. So, this preparation is (in theory!) helping us to whittle down our must haves list.

Now that we have a better idea of the differences of the different types of vans, but also of what they all have in common, we can start making generic plans for the kitting out process. Once we then have actually bought a van we only have to make small adjustments to our general plans to fit the specific dimensions.

So long, I’m off making plans, researching solar set-ups and electrical wiring. Happy adventuring!