the van

I'm the very fortunate owner of possibly the most super fly van known to mankind. (well, except for this one: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230542966486#descr)

1980 Toyota Hiace. Absolute Gem. She's been around for more than a few years, but still has lots left to go as she only has 128k on the clock with the original engine. Changed all the belts, plugs, fluids, oils etc. and didn't find any problems. Changed the brake pads just as a precaution, but even they still looked pretty good.

Pretty standard pop-top camper setup with fridge (runs on 12V, 240V and gas), stove and a few sweet seats that fold into the bed. Got a couple of batteries so when you're parked up you can run the stereo (got a couple of speakers in the living area, obviously) and a few of the lights off the second battery. Also plugs into a 240V wall socket via extension cord to power bigger gear and recharge the battery. Dad's got mad sparky skills so he got in and sorted it all out so the wiring's all tight as a tiger and it pretty much just runs itself all day long.

Internally it was missing a table so I grabbed a table leg from a camping store and knocked up and varnished a nice little wooden table top. Looks pretty rustic, but does the job. The bed's surprisingly comfortable and with the roof up I've got plenty enough head room. So far I've only done one trip to Lancelin and camped in the backyard, so haven't really had a go at really cooking and cleaning in there on a fulltime basis, but so far its ticking all the boxes.

Fitted a safe and a mounting for a spare gas tank. Also threw in and mounted a couple of chairs and a sweet little folding camp table ($20!! Can't make it for that!). Plus added an annexe so when I'm chilling after a surf watching the sun go down over the beach I've got plenty of shade so I don't get burnt by those late evening UV rays.

So basically I couldn't be more happy if I tried. Picked her up for a good price, runs well, looks sexy as all hell (by my standards) and should be good for some ridiculous ad-van-tures. The only issue now is that she's currently nameless. I'm assuming she'll find a great moniker along the way, but for now any suggestions are more than welcome.

Peace