Camper Van Setup

In the 6+ months of travel that our family on the road did we learnt an enormous amount. The foremost point being that two small kids in a tiny camper is not for the faint hearted. I’m sure it has aged us at least 2 years.

Being in extreme temps above 40d ensured no sleep would be had by a one year old. There was no adulting done on these days as the unbearable heat reduced me to the similar coping levels of a toddler having a tantrum in the supermarket isles. Either travel with the good weather or have a van that is insulated and well ventilated or has air- con for those unbearable days.

I had back problems along the way due to the large amount of set up involved. Trying to wrangle a kid in one arm while pulling up ground pegs put me in the fetal position until enough Valium and coedine was administered to allow me to crawl into bed for a few days. Our advice for anyone with a history of back issues is to buy something with an easy set up.

We found that having young kids and a camp with a large set up/pack up involved we weren’t the free wayfarers we imagined. This fantasy was quickly squashed as our kids still expected us to adhere to nap and meal times. As campers that are respectful of others we also had to follow some time frames so we weren’t setting up our pikey camp at 1am next to some poor couple enjoying their retirement years.

You will be garanteed to spend your whole time fixing things if travelling in a rickety old van over corrugated roads. Our advice would be to spend a bit more on your van if you can and reduce money in other areas ie. site fees, tours.

After Troy landed himself in hospital for 3 months I pretty much put the camper in the too hard basket. I did miss the travel during this time but our setup was too much to handle for myself. I missed not having a home to be in during this time but thanks to some wonderful family and friends myself, the kids and Zeus had a roof over our heads. If buying a van being able to set it up without your partner might be one thing you would like to consider.

Our thoughts around travelling in a small pop-up are just related to our family situation. If we weren’t on the move frequently it would have also made things easier. Basically we found moving every few days with a 2 and 3 year old is for the insane. We have seen other families with this set up that have older kids and it seems to work great as they all have jobs to do which makes it faster and less tiring.