I CONVERTED THE SMALLEST CAR ON EBAY! | Ultimate micro camper!

this is not the end of Van life a mere extension of it a run around a getar around vehicle and a micro camper not so much miles for Smiles but more so Smiles for Miles in the fact that you get 80 miles per gallon if you drive it like a nun with aritis in the left wrist anyway she's a 1 L 3 Cinder 68 horsepower go-kart she may have a few things letting her down like it sounding like a b32 bomber When You Reach above 60 M hour or the fact that the clutch feels like it's made from digestive biscuits but double the MPG of the van sometimes even triple if you behave yourself on the gas means that we can get double the adventures overnighters out in the woods up north all around the country she can take us for less than a tank of fuel which really is about the same as around of drinks unless you're in London then that's going to cost you the same as a detached house now this BD is a 2008 five door CH pretty buzzing about and it's got these special opening Windows on the side that I remember my friend's parent that used to take me to school when I was a young boy had on their Ford KA onto the boot this is probably where you're wondering is this a micro camper or a dog's bed because there isn't really much chance of you sleeping well if really doing anything in the back of here but I tell you something with the seats folded down which they might just do if you pull the front ones forward you get a little bit more space now h we'll talk about the build specs but I think it's going to have to be a case of losing the passenger seat if we get rid of that then we can build a bed single sort of width from front to back of the vehicle what that's going to do for us is open up this area by removing the front seat and having a bed that comes in line with this front dash when we open the passenger door it's going to give us this full area underneath the bed to put daysacks Bergens anything that we might need for the camping experience so the fact that this thing will take me from cheshier to the Hees and back on 40 quid has got me pretty excited it's opening up a whole new realm of Freedom really I've worried since leaving the army with the van of going too many places of spending too much money because I am limited I am on a budget and the fuel amount it became ridiculous 25 M per gallon if you get anywhere with haste if you were to drive a little bit slower then you might see 30 if you were lucky but but 80 out of this thing world's our oyster I'm going to start on the car away from the van what I'm going to do is take it back to the garage and work on it there there's a few ideas that I need to play about with I don't want the system to be permanent I want to be able to unbolt the seat put it in the garage and then be able to slot this wooden structure into the back of the car in 10 minutes now that's the idea if we can make that work that's going to be ideal so what we're going to need we're going to need 2x1 supply for the bed length uh and that's about that really electrical wise I'm thinking we're going to run off the jackary 500 that I've got which will power me for multi-day Adventures that can be left under the where the passenger seat would have been uh and then we'll be in a good place maybe looking to improve the carrying capability of the vehicle by adding a roof box at some point but we'll see and it's a pretty stealth camper so with fear of me starting to Waffle let's get this back to the garage and let's start the build so I didn't end up back at the garage I decided to come down to the field move location of the van bring the car down as well and this is where we are now there we are we've got the setup going now it's been a quick minute because the weather dropped off the absolute deep end freezing temperatures hurricane force winds and it wasn't quite the right time and place to start building a car camper more a time of hunker down not to mention I got super ill you could hear my voice in the previous Clips not sounding the best now I'm just getting over it and I'm just getting back into it and we're ready to crack on now so we need to get on with this build the only thing is because I've been ill and been away for so long oh sorry I'm just just dodging the massive puddles that we've had from the storms that have been ravaging this area I've got to head south in the next few days because I'm heading down South for Christmas to Becky's parents uh and we're chilling out there over Christmas so basically what I'm doing now is packing down bow hence all the mess over there and stuff I'm packing down bow figuring out what I need to take with me on the road in the car uh and then I'm going from there to visit some of my family members and then bounce down for Christmas there so before I go anywhere I've got to whip this seat out because I can't be lugging this round and having crazy mess all over the place so I'm going to take this seat out and I'm going to leave it here in the van for now until I figure out somewhere to ditch it at a later point so in order to get this seat out it looks like we're going to need some sort of Torx I have moved back to the GoPro for this filming section because I just want it to be easy I want to be able to have that wide angle that we've got in here it's not punched in like it is on the Sony and also I was having some technical issues with my audio go these are hard to get them done I've had to resort to my ratchet setup because the standard uh like Alan key style talks uh wasn't quite enough to uh get the job done so here we are janky but it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] works harder than I thought yeah man look at the real estate that free up with that se out oh my God you get loads of room we take that down as well man that's about 7 foot from front to back what I am interested in is if I can lay down in it without having to pop this down behind me because if I can oh that would be ideal uh not quite actually let me pop you over there you know I can just about but it' mean that I'd have to put the bed lower than that uh drawer there uh and then I'm going to lose real estate underneath it so I don't really think it's worth it it's better to have the bed highter have more storage underneath it and then I'm in a good place look at me trying to spice this up already with the sheep skin rug and the wo blanket hey that's cashmere actually so uh we're doing it stylish I'm just trying to decide and I can't quite figure it out yet the bed length is a little bit too short if I just run like a bed platform right up to the bench seat here and then have this foamed up to it and then use that as like the where your feet go then you've got like a couch across the back there that's all one height and you can have your legs down and across here it' make sleeping slightly more uncomfortable but it then does mean that you can differentiate between the boot and the front living quarters which I quite like because it then means if you just pop your boot open you can Chuck your duffel bag in down there if you go to the gym or whatever or that's where your clothes live or you have like a plastic box that lines the bottom of this with like your cooking equipment in and stuff so yeah I'm just trying to figure it out in the minute cuz it's all a bit up in the air I think I'm going to give it a few days and just sort of mull it over in my head cuz although it's not permanent it'd be nice to get it right first time but we'll see hello we are back at the unit and it is time to get on with the car now I'm going to show you how I've got it set up at the minute with the pieces of wood that I put in and that is what the general configuration of the bed is going to look like now I've apologize for the audio moving forward the mic that I was using before is there was a little bit of bleeping going on so we'll back to the standard mic on the camera so let's get it done so I've got these lengths running front to back and they're going to make up the general shape of the bed that we're then going to lay this big old piece of 9 mil ply on top of and cut to shape and that's pretty much going to be the bed structure that we're going to go for first first things first as you can see these lengths of wood are too long sticking out the back even though they're at the front of the vehicle now I think they're 2.4 M so we've got to cut the ends off these so they'll actually fit inside the car quick mark up and we're laughing blow it outward so it does end up in the boot causes more drama and work now those are both fitted in nicely I can put a piece in that goes from there to there and that'll can join those two and I can sit them flat while we'll sit across the back of the seat that dips down [Music] here you know what at this rate it might actually be removable the bounds up so that length up there is in and now I've just added another one here I'm going to take this out again and screw that in you don't need to see that though it's just rins and repeat in the same process although we are losing [Music] light hello it is a new day I ran out of light last night but I've been for a haircut I'm finally short haired again instead of the long mop that you've been seeing for it's not really a good entrance is it for the new fresh trim but yeah we'll get on with it anyway right this is what I've been getting up to I've put four legs on this one in each Corner one down there down there and one here oh just hit my head on thing then we got a leg there at the rear and a leg there at the rear and the center balance is on the seat that is folded down this now is pretty sturdy and good to to go so what I've cut out is this panel that's going to sit on top like so we're going to CHP that down there slides in and then we're going to screw it down okay so that's now in and in place and looks pretty cool to be fair but this section here where it's like missing 9 mil ply I'm going to cut out a smaller section of that now to sit on here and it'll hinge up um and that just means that I can get access down into the storage in the boot there so you've got the bed over the top of it and you've also got the storage down [Music] below right that's sanded and good to go I'll have to put a hinge on that at some point but let's get these beasties in we have a bed and I'm super buzzing with that to be honest excuse me because it looks awesome check this out this is now your picture from the rear we've got the cushion that run the full length I can lay in there we still got the driver and passenger seat so you can bring that driver seat tilted forward all the way to the steering wheel and have loads of room in this seat to just chill on an evening and then get yourself up onto the bed sweet as a n and it's not inhibiting any of the driving faculties in there so it's not going to cause you any dramas when driving on the road I can fit 120 L issued Burgen in there and then you've got the storage off to this side if you lift that up and you get into there I will put some hinges on that at some point rear passenger door you've got all of that room under there which you can see better from the front serious real estate man you can get loads of stuff under there get all your gear and you've got your bed to chill out on and do your thing right I've got a punch out from here now guys but that is looking cool I'm glad we finally got the bed in I'm going to pull out of here and then over the next few days I'm going to be doing some tiation to sort out bits and Bobs we've got the bed in let's talk about the electrics let's talk about lighting in there cooking how I'm going to do all that sort of stuff but yeah it's a camper van you can get in there you can sleep the night yeah it's kind of like a day van sort of thing but I'm H man it's just freedom and it's so cheap to run I was like driving and I got 48 MP gallon and that was driving not like a nun so I'm going to dip now and I'll catch you when I'm ready to carry on with it now it's excuse me if I have to make a little bit of haste while filming this because the rain is upon us and I don't fancy getting absolutely drenched so the build itself I wouldn't say is complete there's still bits that I want to titivate and make a little bit more functional but these are the basics that are going to get us out for overnight trips and multi-day trips like I mentioned earlier in the video a fraction of the price of going away in the van so without booger in about let's show you what we've got up to now you've seen the beds that I've erected over the space of this video that just gives me the ability to camp overnight and for those multi-day trips it's pretty cozy and what I've got over to the right here is my old military sleeping bag and what I can do is throw that straight in there that was that wasn't as smooth as I as I thought but I can Chuck that straight in there you're good to go and you get a bit of Gunk for the night down here what I actually can do that I've been storing this bag inside is I can fit a military 120 L Burgen that's brilliant I have to zip one side pouch off which I can slot under here in the little cubby that I showed you earlier in the video pull that out zip it back on and I'm good to go and do a little bit more bushcrafty aspect out in the woods the usability of this rear seat now at the minute I've got my driver's seat set back quite a bit I can just about get in here but once you've parked up for the night and you're good to go at the touch of a button you can push this forward Lean Forward into the front and push this all the way forward now that gives you with your bed set up over there a little bit of a chill place to enjoy with your feet up chilling out on your laptop or whatever it might be watching your Netflix on your phone and you're good to go as you can see under the driver's seat I've got some British Army 24-hour rations and I've got some other ideal bits that you should be carrying in your vehicle at this time of year anyway because of the cold weather if you get stuck you get EMB banked in the snow something like that then you want to make sure you've got something like a wool blanket some food to keep you warm keep you surviving if you are stuck in a snow drift anything like that it doesn't really apply to people down south but if you're in the North or you're up in Scotland or somewhere and you get stuck then you ain't going to make it mate so what I do usually carry in there as well now I've left it back at the ranch for the minute is a small shovel which I'll leave down below in there great compact bit of Kit that's going to get you out of Dodge if you either get bogged in or you get stuck in snow in the underneath storage here I've got my jackary Explorer 500 and that's just the power station that I'm going to be using for this build I plug it straight into the electronic Port that the car provides straight into the front of the jackary and then the alternator is powering that and getting it charged back up as you're on the move so this bit of Kit then it is the jackly Explorer 500 it's got the 240 W inverter on the front three USB outputs and a 12vt output there and you can check how much you've got on the front so that's a good bit of GE well so behind that then I've got my electrics I've got my MacBook to do my editing and all those sort of bits I've just got a warm jacket off the side here and underneath here I've got a uh a road map just in case you never know if the uh if you run out of battery or that power bank's dead even though it charges all the electrics in here something happens to that then you know you're uh you're a bit offg grading your your booger in the door panel then couple of rolls of bog roll you can't actually fit full full ones in there so I've just got two half ones good to go I've got a slim pair of gloves just to keep the uh the old wind Chell it Bay and in the front bit there I've just got a super ultra light Montaine Podium jacket which is uh a super lightweight windproof and highly waterproof jacket like I mentioned before the idea of the build was that I had loads of room under this bed and that's exactly what I've got I've got my tool kit frying pan I've got a big uh bag for Life there which has got all my cooking and food utensils in um got a little bit of extra water here hello boy come on boy hello this is Buster Buster say hello come on yeah yes oh you thirsty come on yes yes oh good boy oh you are thirsty oh not back in the bottle man I don't want you back was M slobber right go on then boy away go on so obviously behind that I've got my food equipment no as soon as he is food in it but Buster you stay there boy and you can get access to the rear there for your food and your bits and Bobs on the inside when you're in bed here what I've got is just these little poke lights turn those on and you're good to go just gives you a little bit of a reading light slash you can see what you're doing if it whether that you as a cook inside then do any other bits and Bobs that you'll do in your campus like I say it is far from done there's loads of little bits I want to do I'd love to have just some fairy lights going around the ceiling stuff like that I'm going to do a flap out from the bed for in the rear so there's a sort like tray that comes out so I can cook on that rather than having to mess around cook on the bed or figuring out where to cook at the minute so I'm going to make some improvements and then uh we'll talk you through a full tour and stuff like that but you know like my door panels I've just got this bit gear here cuz these cars tend to steam up as it is quite easily um I've just got a quick grab pouch which has got a couple of um first field dressings like Israeli bandages uh and tornay in there just in case you've run into any uh like major collisions on the road um I've got a couple of chicken legs in there uh which is my snacky bit coming up uh crunchy uh as well as my sunglasses yeah Center tray water bottle uh few charging cables for the phone stuff like that and then my beloved out of the van CER window vac which you just press the button and and you're good to go that just gets rid of all the condensation off the inside there what I have got on order is some reflective insulation which I'm just going to Chuck up against the windows with some uh suction cups um and that will just cover the windows stop people looking in bounce back some heat and uh give you a bit privacy so yeah that pretty much covers it we've got a great little D van that's just here now that can use Goan adventures and does amazing MPG so yeah if there's any questions about this build or any ideas that anyone's got then throw them in the comment section let me know what you think and uh look forward to the adventures that are going to come in this uh as well as the adventures in Bow as well as the adventures on the bike if that's something that people uh are down to look at and anything out in the woods and all that good pish it's a new year it's a new dawn and uh I'm sure that's a song is that James Bond new anyway um thank you so much for watching it has been an absolute pleasure don't forget to like comment subscribe and hit that Bell notification if you want to know as soon as I upload another video signing out peace it's Jake for God's sake boy you're supposed to be a professional stop licking [Music] [Applause] [Music] your [Music]

Channel: Jake’s Journey Mate

Views: 145,230

Keywords: micro camper, van build, camper start to finish, camper build, car camper, car camper build

Id: EWVCgcr2fqs

Length: 22min 1sec (1321 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 02 2024