So how do you turn a van into a camper that actually works for a disabled person?
The first step wasn’t picking colours or cushions. It was asking a brutal question:
How do we design this so it uses the least amount of energy to live day-to-day?
I only get so many “spoons” each day. If I’ve been driving for hours, meeting people, filming, and documenting the journey, I can’t then face wrestling a dining area into a bed every night. Anything that eats up too much energy has to go.
So we broke it down into real-world problems:
- A bed that doesn’t need to be built and unbuilt every day.
- No gas hob or gas oven – if gas is risky and awkward at home, it’s definitely not going in a moving metal box.
- So… how do I cook?
- A fully self-contained electrical system — different countries, different rules, no guarantees.
- How do I shower, and where does all that water come from?
- How do I wash dishes, brush my teeth, and still have clean water?
- A toilet (non-negotiable).
- Grey and black tanks need hoses, dumping, cleaning, disinfecting — can we avoid them entirely?
- All storage must be reachable within my mobility limits.
- A seating area to eat, upload daily videos, write the diary, and meet people.
- A way to get in easily from the side door.
- An awning that’s both electric and self-supporting.
Then we started solving them, one by one.
1. The Bed
After a lot of research, we found a bed system that rides up and down on tracks and pulleys, lifting into the roof when not in use. Then we stripped that idea back and redesigned it with simpler, more reliable hardware and a bit of ingenuity.
Result: a proper bed that stays a bed, and just moves vertically, instead of turning into a daily engineering challenge.
2. Cooking (Without Gas)
Gas was out. So we went fully electric:
- A twin-drawer air fryer with independent controls.
- A toaster that flips into a mini oven (because of course it does).
- A motorhome microwave.
- A single-ring induction hob for those critical pancake mornings 🙂
Everything is push-button simple and doesn’t involve gas lines, matches, or drama.
3. Self-Contained Electrics
We designed a serious off-grid system:
- 345W of solar panels
- 400Ah of lithium batteries
- A 3000W inverter
It charges from both the solar panels and the van’s alternator, giving me up to 20 hours of full off-grid power with no sun and the engine off. Lights, cooking, charging chairs, running equipment — all covered.
4. How Do I Take a Shower?
We found a recirculating shower system that uses around 7 gallons of water, constantly filtered and reused during the shower.
- Same water, continuously cleaned and cycled.
- No need for traditional grey/black tanks.
- Travelling solo, I can go up to four weeks before the water needs changing.
- When it does, it’s just a simple tap drain and hose refill.
Result: real showers, minimal water waste, minimal hassle.
5. Washing Dishes, Brushing Teeth, etc.
For general water use, we:
- Fitted a 65-litre fresh water tank under the van where the spare tyre would normally be.
- Ran it through a pump and an 1800W electric on-demand water heater for hot water.
- Added a standard water filter and separate drinking-water spout (just like at home) for safe drinking water and coffee.
Waste water?
- There’s a direct drain for when it’s safe to let it run under the van.
- Or, with the turn of a valve, water is diverted into a small (up to 10L) grey tank under the sink that I can easily remove and empty.
6. The Toilet
This one took some serious research. Eventually, we found a waterless toilet.
Yes, it sounds odd. No, it’s not a medieval bucket. It’s a modern system designed to work without flush water or giant tanks, and it’s ideal for off-grid, low-mobility setups. Clean, compact, and no complicated pipework.
7. Grey and Black Tanks
Because of how we’ve designed the shower, kitchen and toilet:
- No traditional grey tank needed.
- No black tank needed.
Problem solved — fewer hoses, fewer chemicals, fewer “Guess what happened at the dump station?” stories.
8. Accessible Storage
All storage is designed around my mobility limits:
- Nothing higher than the “middle shelf” level of a standard home kitchen.
- One wall is built as a full storage wall, but within a reachable height.
If I can’t reach it safely, it doesn’t go there. Simple.
9. Seating Area
Because the bed rises vertically, the space underneath becomes a full seating area:
- A proper table that can be lowered when needed.
- Enough headroom that if you’re under about 5′6″, you don’t need to duck.
- I will have to duck a bit — but that’s a trade-off I can live with 🙂
It’s the space where I eat, edit, upload videos, journal, and meet people.
10. Getting In
We found a compact step that:
- Slides out from a pocket under the van at the push of a button.
- Can be wired to automatically deploy when the side door opens.
- Has a right-hand grab handle for extra stability.
Getting in shouldn’t feel like an Olympic event, so we made it as close to “step in and go” as possible.
11. The Awning
To finish it off, we tracked down a US company that makes a mounting bracket to fit a self-supporting, electric motorhome awning onto a Sprinter van.
- No poles to wrestle with.
- No wrestling in the wind.
- Push a button, get shade.
In the end, what we designed isn’t just a camper van. It’s a low-energy, disability-first living space on wheels — designed so that I can realistically live, travel, and work from it around the world without burning through all my spoons just to survive the day.