Welcome to Vanaheim, our self built tiny home on wheels. A bit of background. As an American, I am very familiar with the ease of living in an American RV - 38 feet long with 3 slide outs - all the amenities, who wouldn't enjoy the free wheeling lifestyle? My British husband, Mechanical Engineer and classic car restorer, said "I could build that". We were off on an adventure.
Lots of research into the best European vehicle to convert into our American style RV. We could have just bought an RV and shipped it over but it would never fit on many of the UK roads. Best to find something that was built for the lovely tiny single track roads.
We started to draw our dream but somewhere along the way another dream popped up. My husband has always wanted to rebuild his 1979 Ford Capri to race in the HSCC 70's Sports Car Championship. We now needed a vehicle that could tow a race car and give us someplace to sleep at the circuits.
Enter the idea of the van conversion. He spent months researching which would be the best type of van for our purposes. Because he has the skills to repair and modify vehicles we didn't need a brand new van. On 13 July 2020, in the middle of a pandemic and the UK in lockdown, we bought a 2011 Vauxhall Movano which we have now named Vanaheim.
Vanaheim (Old Norse Vanaheimr, “Home of the Vanir“) is one of the Nine Worlds that are situated around the world-tree Yggdrasil.
Vanaheim was supposed to be our racing tow vehicle but as time went on and plans progressed, it became clear that this was now going to be our permanent tiny home on wheels. We will still use it to tow the Capri to the circuit but it will also take on many other adventures.
The day we brought Vanaheim to the workshop. The list of what needs to be done is growing by the minute, starting with a new rear door.