My name is Magali Cote and I'm the owner of an F-150 converted into a camper.
I was studying commercial diving, had like three months left on my course but
my rent was over. I didn't want to get into a new rental apartment so I figured
you know might as well just organize the back of my truck and make it work. My
dad helped me. We had both a lot of experience you know him as the
passionate woodworker and me as a welder and he was putting me in like second and
third gear to work faster and we did this in two weeks. We did like 12 to 14
hour days and it was done. My jobs have always been to work away. I either work
up north. I work on the boat. I owned two houses in my life and I felt like I had
to work to pay my house. I did this and you know what? It's been the greatest
thing. I can enjoy the time I have here and I don't have to spend it working all
the time. I can just enjoy life at its purest and simplest. I'm free.
Welcome to my nano home on wheels. This is a beautiful F-150 dark grey. It's a
five liter. There's not much modified on the outside of it so it's pretty stealth.
So basically it's just a little camper shell made out of fiberglass. I cut a
hole on top to install a vent. The other modification I did is install a little
hook to dry my wet suits, that's all. I didn't want to have any
clothes in the back because when I'm cooking everything smells like what I'm
eating so basically my clothes are separated from my little living area. My
walk-in wardrobe. I have some jars here. It's very simple. It's really cheap.
Plastic drawers and I can still use my seats when I remove this and I can have
guests coming in and out and on the other side I store my little insulation
for my window. This is my shower bucket. I open this bad boy up and then I just
throw some hot water in there. There's a little hose and I put it on top of my
truck and with gravity it feeds down and I can just rinse after a dive. I can
put my shoes here. All my tools are in here. The pole here to hang all my
wetsuits and my jackets and in the back of the seat here I can store my free
diving fins. They're really fragile so I'd rather for them behind the headrest
in the back of my truck so that's how I keep them safe.
Everything is accessible from here. Can turn my electricity on. It's two AGM
batteries. When I start my truck it charges my battery. When I'm driving when
I notice my batteries are going down I just flock to a friend's house and
overnight they're fully charged. I have a five pound propane bottle inside there.
This propane bottle lasts me like a month in the winter and I can cook make
coffees and dinners and it cost me seven dollars to fill it up. So I made my own
disposable wipes basically just a little square half-and-half water and the
Natural Mayor's soap and you squeeze the juice out of it and you can wash
everything and you put this away and you throw it in your laundry. I am on
Vancouver Island. It rains half a year here so I cut the tarp into a triangular
shape to make it fit perfectly to the back of my canopy to block that rain
that's coming in so I just have a sticky velcro on each side one on my truck and
then one here and it works. When I sold my big house I had to give away like at
least 25 plants to my friends. I do not call them artificial plants they are
"everlasting plants". You can't maintain a plant if it's gonna freeze anything's
gonna get killed. I have this little heater for when I'm parked somewhere and
I have access to power and if it's cold but all the stuff I have is just plastic
camping stuff or outdoor dishes and you know they make really cute stuff
nowadays so you can get some stuff that you cannot break and you know everything
has to be tiny and or collapsible or you know light construction tools mixed with
utensils. Oh and I have a tuna jig, oh well. The challenging part of building
this truck was how the heck am I gonna screw things in the walls? It's just like
1/8 thick fiberglass. I cannot screw anything through it
so I did glue with construction glue wood blocks behind so I can screw my
stuff here. My little spice rack and I store my teas in there. This shelf is
fairly tiny and I put like a little lip on it to prevent it from falling. My
beautiful double sink it's a very very simple system fresh water and then gray
water here and it's hooked up with a regular drain it's just it's going down
together to the gray water. This pump is just activated by hand just like this
and I use this water basically for my coffees because I find this little
plastic bottle it kind of gives like a little bit of taste to the water and it
goes away in the coffee so I don't mind. It needs to be changed and I
just re-bleach it and make sure everything is nice and fresh so I don't
store this water for a really long time. You can see every item fits perfectly so
I got those two bottles of water and then I got a little container here
that's just you know it fits perfectly in there. I don't know, I guess it's for
cosmetics or makeup, toilet paper and you know my little bags. I have a plug
here that I use with my inverter. Those switches are for the lights and when
they're turned on I have this light here that shows which one is turned on so you
know I've told my friend, "hey, I want to do a kitchen remodel", so I ordered a $20
backsplash. Don't you wish your kitchen remodel cost 20 bucks? It's just a
camping stove here propane operated of course. When I use it
I use the fan or I just open the back of my truck.
For more counter space I have this tiny little jar, it's maple. My dad gave
it to me. I'm from Quebec so maple means a lot for
me. This here is an olive tray. It was probably five bucks and you just screw
it in, can store my jewelry in there or whatever at night. I made myself the
curtains with my sewing machine here. They're really good for at night
you can barely see I'm inside. If I have a double sink I have a toilet, right? So
here it is. Home on wheels toilet on wheels everything's there and when I
have guests it turns into a laz-e-boy. So that's a propane heater. The brand is
Martin. When you fire it up it's just like this bright blue flame that comes
out and it really kills all the humidity I have in my truck and in minus 30 Celsius
I can only tolerate five minutes of it. A lot of people are like, "oh don't get
propane it's a humidity issue for a camper", so first you need insulation and
second if you're gonna go with propane you need a flame you cannot go with like
a ceramic heater. This will create a lot of humidity.
Regular camping mattresses. The bottom one is inflated more and the top one is
barely inflated so basically I have a pillow top camping mattress. When I built
the truck I had another piece of plywood that I would flip and that was the whole
goal of having two mattresses and I can convert it into a double bed but it's
kind of a project on the go and I have to work on it. The bed sheet is from
Amazon. It's a flannel for massage table great for small beds. I can use my
inverter here if I need to and here I have a special compartment that I can
look and open up and use my wheel space and have access to my electrical
basically I use the space to store my spare guns. It's like a safe space to
store my things that have a higher value, I guess. I lock the back of my truck and
I lock this. I have some little hooks to prevent the drawers from opening when
I'm driving.
Every container has to fit. I bought so many and returned so many to use all the
space that I have. Coffee Department. I need to figure a system that you can
interchange your stuff. My fridge is a Yeti cooler. I didn't want to spend
energy on an actual fridge. You can store a lot of food in there.s I put one bag of
ice and it lasts me one week and you can fill it with beers go to the beach
grab your fridge. It's a fridge to go.
When you find a way to get paid to do your passions and to be happy with
everything you do in your life this is what I'm trying to achieve in my life. I
just have a passion for it. I converted a shed when I was 17 and I lived in a shed.
Sometimes I look at some van builds too and I'm like, "wow, I really did fit a lot
in the back of my truck". Doing a tiny home on wheels is accessible to everyone.
You don't even need carpenter skills or an engineering degree you will learn
them as you go and you will grow doing your build and I think it's the greatest adventure.