A pair travelling round Australia have detailed how they remodeled an outdated Coca-Cola truck into their “dream” dwelling on wheels – full with a queen-size mattress, kitchen and toilet.
Pauli, a 32-year-old carpenter, and his girlfriend Clara, a 27-year-old registered nurse, bought the 2005 Isuzu truck for $17,500 in early 2021 after planning to embark on a endless highway journey.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Couple’s ‘home tour’ of Cola truck.
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The pair, who met in Japan throughout the snow season in November 2018, transformed the truck after work and on weekends whereas renting a share home with mates.
After spending 11 months changing and constructing the final word house, the duo moved all their private belongings into the standard truck, aptly named Cola, by the top of 2021.
The couple are actually having fun with a rent-free, off-the-grid lap round Australia amid the rising price of dwelling.
“It feels superb being rent-free and never having to cope with the troublesome activity of looking for and apply for overpriced leases,” Pauli tells 7Life.
“We really feel very blessed. We completely love our tiny dwelling on wheels.
“It is a terrific feeling to have the ability to get up in one thing you’ve got labored so arduous in direction of.
“It makes it even higher that we get to get up every single day and discover this stunning nation.”
‘Nice sense of freedom’
Pauli and Clara have been dwelling within the NSW coastal metropolis of Wollongong and juggling full time jobs after they began speaking about their plans to discover what the nation needed to supply.
“It has at all times been on our bucket listing to journey round Australia,” Clara says.
“We love touring and happening adventures and have each traveled rather a lot abroad however by no means in our personal yard.
“We have been actually drawn to the thought of being on the open highway with nowhere to be and nobody to reply to – hire free and work free.
“It is a terrific sense of freedom.”
Eager to embrace “van life”, the couple began caravans and buses.
However they struggled to discover a “good match” that suited their price range and way of life.
“The vans and buses have been much more costly with greater kilometers,” Clara says.
“Buses and vans are tougher to construct as they’ve curved partitions and brief ceiling heights, as an alternative of being a sq. field like a Pantech truck.
“And Pauli can be too tall for lots of the buses and vans which solely supply a 6ft (182cm) top, max.”
‘Ticked all of the bins’
Throughout their search, they stumbled throughout a second-hand Coca-Cola truck that was on sale in Sydney.
“It simply ticked all of the bins,” Clara says.
“There’s a lot of room, heaps of storage inside and outdoors, greater weight capability.
“It is a mild, inflexible truck so that you want that license which permits us to drive with a complete weight of as much as 7.5 tonnes, which implies you possibly can match masses extra in our dwelling on wheels.
“It appears like a house greater than a camper.”
The truck was properly inside their price range, featured the fitting dimensions for his or her structure, had low kilometers and was positioned only a one-and-a-half hour drive from Wollongong – so it was excellent for them to rearrange a check drive.
The pair has not appeared again since.
Constructing prices
The truck got here as an empty shell, and the couple spent $44,519 changing it right into a fully-functioning dwelling on wheels.
As Pauli works as a carpenter, they have been capable of flip the house into a spot they’ll now name dwelling.
Couple spill particulars on how a lot it prices to transform their truck.
“It took us 11 months to finish the construct,” Pauli says.
“We have been renting in a share home with our mates the entire time whereas changing our truck. We have been working an everyday Monday to Friday grind.
“We have been solely engaged on changing the truck on weekends and afternoons.
“We began the construct in February 2021 and we have been dwelling within the truck by December 2021.”
‘All the pieces we’d like’
The breakdown price of the intensive work included $675 to boost the roof, $8189 constructing supplies, $2550 on home windows and doorways, $6285 wiring up the house, $8220 home equipment and $1110 plumbing.
“The truck has nearly every thing inside,” Pauli says.
“All the pieces you would wish in your regular day-to-day life in a home dwelling we now have within the truck. All the pieces we personal is in right here.
“The truck has air con, a full kitchen with a fuel oven and range, a queen-sized mattress, two seats, a foldable desk, a rest room with a bathe and bathroom and loads of storage.”
Coke ‘curtains’
In the course of the renovations, Pauli and Clara started warming as much as the truck’s exterior facet curtain that includes Coke’s iconic brand.
“We have been going to eliminate the Coke curtains altogether however as soon as we began constructing, we fell in love with the thought of maintaining them,” Clara says.
“It protects our exterior partitions, home windows and so many different issues, together with mud, bugs, theft, solar, rain and rangers.
“It is extra stealth for once we are tenting. They act as precise curtains as properly.”
On the skin of the truck, they retailer all of the “enjoyable stuff”, which incorporates push bikes, a bike, surfboards, tenting chairs and tables and skateboards.
One among their favourite options of the truck is the kitchen.
“It is very practical with a great deal of bench house, three burner fuel cooktop with a fuel oven beneath, massive sink, rangehood and a 110L fridge,” Pauli says.
“The structure and home equipment enable us to prepare dinner as we’d in a home kitchen.”
Six adults can match comfortably within the truck.
“We are able to have teams of our buddies within the truck to play board video games or sit back,” Clara says.
The couple lived for a yr within the truck – whereas juggling full time jobs – to save cash for the highway journey round Australia.
After taking “brief little holidays” and having fun with a life on the highway at Thredbo, the pair stop the rat race.
They formally began the large lap of Australia in January.
“We’re roughly 2000km in in the meanwhile,” Pauli says.
“We began down on the Victoria border and have been working our manner up north.”
The couple gives a have a look at the fact of dwelling on the highway.
After placing her nursing profession on maintain, Clara began a enterprise together with her sisters promoting hand painted indigenous artworks.
Bills on the highway
To save cash on the highway, Pauli and Clara go for “free tenting” 95 % of the time so that they park their truck solely at designated spots for campers – with out having to pay a cent.
“There are such a lot of good spots in each city you possibly can park without spending a dime, you simply have to have an eye fixed for it,” Clara says.
“You need to be pleased with simply pulling up wherever for the evening.
“We spend the day at good seashore spots with ‘no tenting’ indicators (then) have dinner and, after darkish, we simply shift to a pleasant flat spot with none indicators.”
The couple spends about $250 every on dwelling bills each week, which incorporates meals, necessities and petrol.
“We prepare dinner most nights, do free actions like browsing, using, swimming, mountain climbing, paddle boarding and simply sit back,” Clara says.
“We have now solely been on the Australian lap for a month or so, so we have not actually acquired an correct projection of the weekly spendings but, however we are attempting to goal for $500 every week for each of us.”
Some challenges they face are costly diesel costs and the truck’s “gradual” engine.
Couple share have a look at ‘earlier than’ and ‘after’ truck transformation.
“The truck is not excellent on gasoline,” Pauli says.
“It is also very gradual however that is okay as a result of we aren’t in any rush.”
Typical day
The couple at all times begins the morning with a cup of espresso earlier than exploring the environment close to the place the truck is parked.
“We often go to the seashore, go for a bush stroll or see a waterfall,” Clara says.
“Then we drive 30 minutes to at least one hour each couple of days to discover a new spot to camp.
“As soon as we’re parked up, we go for a motorcycle experience across the city to discover.
“Pauli may go for an arvo fish or I might work on my enterprise for a number of hours. Then we each loosen up after dinner.”
How couple saved cash on their truck transformation.
As they get pleasure from their adventurous highway journey, they haven’t made any plans to return dwelling simply but.
Taking it daily
“We’re simply taking it daily,” Pauli says.
“We do not have a plan, and that is what’s so nice and free about dwelling on the highway – we do not actually have something we’re speeding again for.
“But when I needed to put a timeframe on our journey, the minimal we wish to be on the highway for is one yr.”
For these eager to journey, Clara says: “Make a practical purpose, set a date, keep it up and do not look again.
“Earlier than you realize it, you will be on the highway.”
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