Van life

Kate Chapman meets Tom and Emma Coy, the Weekend Wanderer award-winning couple whose van renovations have led to many adventures while enjoying life on the road.

A couple who used the money they’d been saving for their wedding to transform a van into a liveable space which they can use for travelling are delighted their project won a category award in a national competition.

Tom and Emma Coy, who live near Grimsby, decided to forgo a traditional wedding by eloping to Las Vegas and used the cash they saved to buy a Volkswagen Crafter van.

They worked on their project for four months, using eBay parts and accessories to equip the van with a hidden toilet, full shower room, fixed bed and fully off-grid electrical system.

Since finishing the conversion last June, they’ve spent two weeks travelling around France, completed the North Coast 500 in Scotland, and have also explored closer to home.

They were delighted when their hard work was recognised, and the van won the Weekend Wanderer Award in the eBay Van Conversion of the Year Awards 2024.

Designing a dream
Tom, who teaches welding and engineering to apprentices through Humberside Engineering and Training Association, said: “We really enjoyed building it, the actual process. We were really pleased with how it turned out. We didn’t want the interior to look like a caravan, but rather a house, flat or apartment – that was the idea, like somewhere you lived.

“We entered the awards after Emma’s dad spotted them on Instagram and suggested we entered. It was the perfect time, we’d just finished the van and thought why not? We thought we’d done quite a nice job, so wanted to see what others thought. Then we pretty much forgot about it!

“We received an email saying we’d been shortlisted and then found out we’d won the Weekend Wanderer category – it was a really nice feeling knowing other people liked it and could see the hard work we had put in.”

Tom and Emma, a supermarket manager, both enjoyed caravan holidays with their families when they were younger. Tom started camping by himself when he was older and then bought a small van, which he travelled in solo before he and Emma used it together.

He recalls: “We were in Wales a couple of years ago when we decided we needed a bigger one. We’d just got engaged, so looking at weddings and a bigger van, well it was a lot, we were going to struggle to pay for both.

“We decided to elope and marry in Las Vegas, which was much cheaper. We flew out there and didn’t tell anybody. It was brilliant, and having spoken about it since, we don’t think we could have done it any other way.”

Project planning
After tying the knot, the couple set about finding the perfect van in which to enjoy their travels, initially looking at ready-built options. Tom says every time they found one that might work they ended up listing the alterations they wanted to make.

“In the end, we both sat down and agreed that it couldn’t be that hard, and that we should just do it ourselves. There are massive communities of people who have converted vans on Instagram and Facebook, so we began following other people to get ideas and started talking to some, which was a big help.

“We weren’t too specific about the van we wanted and ended up buying one from eBay, which only came from Doncaster,” adds Tom. “It’s a VW Crafter, a long wheelbase version. From the back of the front seat to the back of the van is almost six metres. It belonged to a window company and was used for delivering glass. The only thing was, it had lots of glass shards in that we had to clean out, but other than that there was no rust, it was in good condition.”

Tom and Emma insulated the van’s roof, walls and floor, before cutting wood to create an interior shell, which they could add and screw things into. The next step saw them create a plan of what they wanted to include, with a fixed bed, hot running water, a private toilet and a walk-in shower high on their wish list.

“We started at the end of last February and finished in the last week of June – I was literally putting the last bits in on the morning we went away in it. I had a little help from my stepdad, who knows a bit more about electrics, but otherwise it’s 99.9 per cent been done by us. For the things we weren’t sure about, it was either speak to someone who’s already done it or knew how to, or check out YouTube!

“I’m used to making things through my job, so I was familiar with a lot of it, but it was great to do it with Emma, who has never done anything like this before. It was out of her comfort zone, but she was really enthusiastic. She’d never used any power tools other than a drill, so it was nice to see her using different materials.

“We didn’t have a deadline, we just knew we wanted to go away while it was warm. At first I was working on it at weekends and maybe an hour after work. As it got lighter, and I became more confident in what I was doing, I spent longer out there. In all we’ve spent in the high twenty thousands on it, but we’re so pleased with it.”

Taking to the road
The couple’s first trip saw them take their longest drive in the van yet – journeying to Folkestone to catch a ferry to France before spending two weeks driving around taking in Calais, Saint-Tropez, Cannes and a day in Monaco.

Tom and Emma have also taken trips more locally to Hedon, Bridlington, Scarborough and Donna Nook, as well as Edinburgh and The Netherlands.

“It’s been brilliant, I definitely think I sleep better in the van than when I do at home!” says Tom.

“It’s just so much cheaper if you want to go somewhere, plus you can stay for the night and don’t have to drive home the same day. We love the flexibility. We don’t really like to book things – other than the ferry or the Eurostar. We’re just going to keep going until we run out of holidays!

“To anyone else thinking about doing this, we’d definitely recommend it and encourage them 100 per cent.”

Follow Emma and Tom’s adventures on Instagram and TikTok @coycruisin

Photographs: Tom and Emma Coy

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