In case you missed it on our social media this year we’ve been very busy building a new overland home. It’s not quite finished but we’ve now moved in and are excited to get on the road again. One of the biggest challenges for doing these builds, whether it’s your first or your fifteenth, is deciding on which components to buy. So, I’ve decided to create a bit of an overview of our best buys to try and help you with your own overland home build.
Unlike our regular articles this won’t just be an unchanging chunk of text. The plan is to create a bit of a working review, so I’ll include what we bought and how we get on with it as we settle in and test everything out. I will update this regularly as we go. There will be some affiliate links which means we receive a commission if you decide to purchase through our links, at no extra cost to you and we only recommend products that we use and trust.
So let’s get started!
Construction
Windows
After making our own windows in the previous build, we decided to fit household windows this time around. We chose to buy them from Modern UPVC Windows and after making them to measure, our windows were delivered in under a month. They were easy to fit and look really smart!
Electrics
Solar set-up
We worked together with Dave from Roadtrip Industries and Chris at BSPK Solar to create a powerful Victron solar set-up. Dave knew all about our mobile mechanics and engineering work and these two specialists worked together to ensure we could run all our tools and our ‘home’ set-up without ever having to worry about running out of power. With 2020 watts of solar across four solar panels, two 24v 200AH Lifepo4 batteries, two 3kVA inverters, two MPPT solar converters and the battery-to battery-converter, along with all the Victron kit to tie it together we’ve got more power than we should ever need. We worked Dave hard when it came to installing the system but there were no complaints, and he doesn’t mind answering my ‘silly’ questions about ‘what it all means’!
We have started using the system and so far, have been able to reach maximum battery charge each day and consistently ‘solar dump’ extra solar energy into the immersion for hot water without having to run a noisy diesel, liquid heater. We’re looking forward to seeing how it handles welding very soon.
I am planning on writing a more in-depth piece about our electrical system, so let me know if you want to see this!
Generator
When we began building our fire truck conversion, we knew we needed a generator as we had a limited power supply on the site where we were working. So, one of the first buys for the whole build was an Excel Power XL6000i generator and it’s done a great job, allowing us to carry out welding work and charge everything we needed to build our new overland home without a mains connection. Since we now have our shiny new Victron power system installed in the truck, we don’t need the generator for general power requirements, but we have decided to install it in one of our locker boxes for those ‘just in case’ moments.
Water system
Water tank
We decided to fit a 350-litre water inside one of our sofas to keep it inside and insulate and taking weight distribution into account. This is smaller than the 400 litre tank we fitted in our last build but after assessing our needs and determining the biggest dimensions possible within our seating area we decided that 350 litres was plenty. Having used them previously we bought the Wydale Plastics tank through Tanks-Direct. The ordering process was simple enough but when we received the tank, we discovered that the lid sat a lot higher up from the top of the tank than expected, meaning we had to modify the sofa to fit. We did plan on ordering a couple of additional tanks for wastewater but the excess delivery charge for a ‘multi-purchase’ delivery changed our mind.
Calorifier
To be updated.
Filtration system
We chose to fit an inline water filtration system from Atlas Filtri just like we did in our previous built. We fitted a single filter housing into the tank and a double filter housing from the tank to the taps. This was simple to fit and it’s easy to replace the cartridges.
Waste water tanks
We chose Wydale Plastics tanks once again, but ordering through GK & N Services this time. In order to fit around locker boxes and the rest of our under-truck we chose one slimline 51 litre tank and one 95 litre tank. We were able to order the tanks pre-drilled so Stuart could choose where to drill out the input and output holes. Since the company were local to where we’ve been building, we were able to collect them, and meet the staff who were lovely and gave us an interesting overview of their work.
The kitchen
Induction hob
We turned to Amazon to buy our induction hob and discovered loads of different options. We chose this Starcharts hob based on the reasonable reviews, dimensions and power usage. Initially we wanted one with the two rings side by side but eventually decided for space saving to fit it front to back. This was lucky because we really struggled to find a fitted (non-portable) two-ring hob that faced the other way and we almost decided to fit one sideways!
The hob so far has proven to be extremely efficient, boiling a large kettle in a couple of minutes and running both rings easily. The only downside so far is that we’re having to replace some of our pans as they’re not all compatible with induction cooking.
Air Fryer Oven
We decided to fit a Tefal 10in1 air fryer oven instead of a full-size household cooker this time. It runs off our solar set-up and has been very easy to use so far. We opted for the Tefal oven as we already know the brand to be reliable, although it might have been nice to go for one of the slightly larger options.
So far the oven has been great, although I’m still learning to adjust my cooking to suit since it’s a bit more effective than our old gas cooker. Instead of adding a few minutes to cooking time, I’m having to reduce the time so I don’t burn dinner – not a bad problem to have I suppose! Oh, and we have to pre-cut or buy smaller pizzas when we want a cheat meal, because a normal one won’t fit!
Inlander Fridge/freezer
A friend recommended Inlander Low Voltage Refrigeration for our fridge freezer, and it turns out they have some great deals, because the company not only sells new units but also offers graded (slightly damaged) units for a lower price. They basically take household fridges/freezers and convert them to run on 12/24-volt power, making them much more efficient than the old 3-way gas fridges, and not reliant on 240-volt, which can be an issue if you ever have a problem with your inverter. The site does focus primarily on 12-volt as standard but if you contact them they will swap it to 24-volt instead.
We chose a graded SIA Freestanding 153ltr Combi Fridge Freezer and while we did have some initial issues with the conversion components they’d fitted it didn’t take them long to resolve the problem and now it runs great! You can sometimes hear the compressor unit running but to be honest I don’t even notice it now unless Stuart mentions it.
The Bathroom
The Toilet
It took a little while for us to make this decision, as we knew we wanted a separating toilet but were torn between a couple of options. These toilets are basically designed so that when you go to the bathroom the ‘deposit’ is separated immediately, with a urine bottle and a solids bucket which you pre-fill with a layer of coir which helps get rid of any smell and break down what goes into the bucket. We eventually chose the Airhead Compact toilet from WooWoo Waterless Toilets.
We made our choice based on the solids capacity (which should only need emptying every 3 weeks or so), the easy access to the urine bottle, and the overall dimensions as it had to fit in a relatively small space. Setting it up wasn’t a problem, though I think it will take a couple of attempts to get the ‘water to composting material’ ratio just right. Having started using it we’re really pleased with how easy it is, and with the ventilation pipe mounted high up there’s no smell, inside or out. It has a more mechanical look than some of the other composting toilets out there but we quite like that about it too.
Final Thoughts
We spent a lot of time researching and choosing all the different components for our latest build and overall we can say we’re really happy with the results so far. I will continue adding other purchases to this piece, and updating our ‘reviews’ of them as time progresses, but please do let me know if there’s anything specific you would like me to include and which ‘best buys’ you have also chosen, or will be buying for your own overland home build.
As we have moved into our new conversion our previous build, Dinky the Leyland DAF T244 is now for sale.
