This is Desiree and Andres. We live in our van since eight months now. In the past we traveled
with the Toyota Land Cruiser and we want to go on a bigger trip. I'm too old to
stay two years in a Land Cruiser. We think we like to travel slow and we like to
see how the landscapes change and we want to have our small home with us
on four wheels. It's the reason why we are actually in a van.
This is our van. We call it Papa Pitufo. It's Papa Smurf in Spanish and yeah because it's blue.
It's a 4x4 Sprinter in the age of 2004. We imported that from Germany to
Switzerland. That kind of van was never sold in the US. 4x4 system
it's from Ober Eichner. I think that it's a joint venture between Daimler and
Ober Eichner. Small engine inside. It's just a 2.2 liter engine. Yeah we have done some
small modifications because we like to travel down to South America. For us it was
important that we have an additional diesel filter system. They clean the
diesel additionally and it also it takes out the water of the diesel if you have
inside. It's a Euro 3 engine. That means a really old engine.
They have not a problem if the diesel starts to build paraffin. We
mounted an additional pump that if we run out of diesel that could pump easily
the diesel from from the tank back to the engine. In Canada we saw that all the
locals they drive with that additional mosquito net and we mounted too just to
see how many bugs we collect here. Have done some modification in the lights,
additional LED bulbs inside. To the cockpit area we have done also here
some modification to see the temperature. We have here for the voltage
we mounted some additional USB ports. Safety things, we have here a bear
lock system. If we pump, we do the back gear in and then we lock the complete part. That
means if somebody steal our car you have to do that in the in the back, back gear.
Is that correct in English? Reverse. Reverse gear. We put some additional lights here for one
it's a blue light. It's if I'm driving that the light doesn't have an influence
when I drive. In the back additional LED's, we have a camera system mounted here.
Under the door are LED's. If the door gets opened they light up the complete
area outside. Here on that side we have external fuel station for propane that
means we are able to refill the bottles from outside. Propane for us
was also important that we have our own bottle because about safety reasons. We
have a mini wood stove and we have a propane heating system. The system to
refill our water tanks. 160 liters, I think that is about 42 gallons of water. We
have three different water tanks. One it's directly here under the car. They're
specially built for the Sprinter. If you're in area where it's minus
ten or minus twenty degrees we are not able to use that but we have hundred
liter inside. BF Goodrich tires an additional one here on the back and the
pipe here for the stove. From the backside here is our Swiss number plate.
We are from Switzerland. For us was important that we have a good solution
to store all our things, what we have with us. That system is called Roco box
system, you have that in all different dimensions and we have here a water
filter system with three filter units. Here you can see some some parts about
the heating system. Those pipes they are bringing the hot air here to that
area and because if we fold the bed out like in that direction, our
head is directly here. We have 200 watt solar panels. Generally we have an
additional battery. It's an AGM battery, it's directly here.
230 amp per hour. We have a/c tech control system, that
battery management system. Load that battery with the alternator of the
engine if the car is running and if not we have 200 watt solar panel on the top.
One of that panel it's able as I'm able to dismount that we have here additional
connectors. Normally if the sun is shining
I really like to park the van in the shadow and bring the panel's to the Sun.
In Germany that's a normal system. It's called Kaiter Chevey. Yeah we have
that additional Jerrycan. We have also two more under the van. That means we
have additionally 60 liter of diesel. We have here major control system for
propane. We say for us it's important that we have that directly here on the
door because if it's not directly on the door I think we yeah you get lazy and
you you you don't use it. The same with electricity we have here one major
switch. Here an additional table. We have here a fridge SnoMaster
yeah they build very very good fridges. They are built specially for off-roading.
Actually we have three different sensors. One of them looks for propane and other
gases and the other tools are for Keo gas. I think that's not a big topic
actually in US but in Europe it's a big problem. If you are asleep on a rest area
on a highway that some bad people they let gas in your van and then you get
really hard to sleep and then they steal everything in the van and you are
laying in the back and sleep for 12 hours.
Wow, Desiree! *laughter*
Hi and welcome inside to the van. Start with the kitchen that's where we
cook. We also have running water system which is very practical and Andres did a very
good job he just cut out all this the wood we don't really need because we
don't have so much weight. Here's the rest of our cooking stuff like all the pans
and all the spices. Here we have our trash, olive oil, all the big bottles
because the drawers are not high enough here.
That's where the gas bottles are. That's where our toilet is. You can slide it in or out.
Here is a wardrobe. For everybody we have like one drawer and yes it's full
because it's mine. *laughter* And Andre's, yeah.
Andres knows that I always have cold feet and yeah we had to build all the
pipes of the propane heating system in the car and he thought it's maybe a nice
idea to have this it's like it canal where the hot air is going through and
this copper plate gets very warm and so you can warm your feet here and yeah
which is perfect for every woman. Here we can switch out the free water
and when one is empty you can go to another. Talking about water, that's
how we shower because for us it was very important to have a shower because we
love to make sports and we said if you are on a two years trip maybe we
won't do so much sport as we want when we don't have the option to shower
afterwards. We don't want to lose room because of the shower and this is the
best solution for us and it works so well. Yeah first we thought we have to do like
four walls that nothing gets wet, but we realized that it works good enough with
just three walls. So we also decide you want to have a big bed because we will
go to so many places where it's so hot and yeah you need space when you share
the bed. We have that piece, additional piece of mattress, we put it then in the
front or in the end. If we are in warm places we can leave it like this the
whole day because we can sit outside we don't need the table and this area for
for dining. When the propane heating system works on this there comes also out
warm air, which is very perfect on my side so yeah.
Andres just did that for me.
What makes me very sad is when when I talk to people and they say, "What? You're
travelling like this. That was always my dream" and I think what why haven't you
done it? It's like it's possible and a lot of people told me in my age you
have to focus on your career and don't be scared of your career or also
of countries. A lot of people told us, "Oh, don't go to Mexico - Mexico it's so
dangerous", but if we asked them, "You you went to Mexico that you have bad
experience?", they said, "No, we never been in Mexico, we saw that in the newspaper", and
then we talked with people they are really ranting (about) Mexico and they said, "Yeah!
Do it! Do it!". We really want to say also thank you to a lot of friends, they
helped us to build the van. Especially to Winston and Alex and Chrishi that's three
person they are yeah were really involved in that project and guys, thank you
so much for your time and everything. Yeah, we'll never forget about that.
I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. If you did be sure to LIKE comment and
subscribe. And follow our trip on PapaPitufo.com or on Instagram, also on
Facebook. Have a great week...bye!