The adventure is getting real. We picked up our van (we call our little truckie: Tucky). We booked the Truckcamper T17 of Cruise America. It says on the brochure that there is space for 3 people. Well, we would recommend you only use it with two people. It is spacious, if you don’t have a lot of stuff (haha, LOL).
Let me start at the beginning.
PRESENT IN THE VEHICLE (living area)
The Truckcamper T17 has:
- a water tank of 83,3 litres or 22 gallons
- electricity connection
- a propane gas tank of 18,9 litres or 5 gallons
- a microwave
- a gas stove
- a little sink (kitchen)
- a small bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower
- a dining area
- a fridge
- storage places in the kitchen
- a sleep area with a wide mattress
- storage places in the sleep area
(Yes, this all fits in that little truckie on the photo)
PRESENT IN THE VEHICLE (car)
- two spacious seats for the driver and the passenger
- a seat in between the two seats in the front, for a third person or you can fold it to a small table
- 3 small seat in the back of the car for 3 (very small) people, or you can fold the seats up so you can put your luggage in there (like we did!).
OUTSIDE OF THE VEHICLE
The best part is: the Truckcamper T17 is still a car. It’s not a Mobil home or big camper (which is most of the time harder to drive with), but our van is still a car. You don’t need a special license or exercise with it to drive. It’s an easy drivable car with a living area on top. The car itself is an automatic transmission!
On the outside, everything you need is present: a hole to fill you watertank, access to the propane gas tank, a hole to empty your grey and black water (the water of your cooking and the dirty toilet water). There are also lights which you can turn on, on the vehicle so you have the lights you need to do things outside. There is an electric cable with the car that you can connect to a campground's electricity to give you electricity in the Truck Camper!
(If you wish more information on any of the pictures, feel free to mail us on contact.globewatchers@gmail.com)
INSIDE THE VEHICLE
When you are entering through the door (there is also a screen to keep the flies out in front of the door) you have a small bathroom on your left side. In here, one person can sit on the toilet and close the door. This leaves the person in a tiny space. If you sit on the toilet, you are also standing/sitting in the shower. If the shower is working, everything in that area will be wet. Besides the toilet and the shower, there is also a tiny sink and a mirror storage cabin in which you can put about 4 tupes of soap together with 3 other small bathroom things.
When you enter the door on the outside, you have the dining area on the right (sounds big and fancy, but we will have to disappoint you…). In here, you have a bench and a table. On the bench, 3 people can sit down with ease, only the table is a bit small. We are with two people, so we turned one corner into a storage corner so we still have two places to sit down.
(The second pictures belongs to Cruise America)
In the kitchen area, we have a small sink, a microwave (only works when connected to electricity on campground), a small gas stove and storage space. We have two drawers for small kitchen utilities and one small storage space for plates, cups and glasses. This is everything. There is no space for pots, pans and other kitchen stuff. When we are driving, we put these things in the little sink so it will not fall of smash to the floor.
(This photo belongs to Cruise America)
In the sleep area you have the mattress for two people, the fridge and some storage space. The fridge is spacious enough for bottles in the doors, there are 2 shelfs in the door, 2 shelfs in the main part of the fridge and a small freezer space. (Little bit weird that the fridge is located near the bed, but hey! Who doesn’t love eating/drinking in bed, right?)
Next to the fridge, there are two storage spaces for clothes, and 3 little spaces for other utilities.
It all sounds big and much, but believe us: it isn’t. Maybe we are not used to camping, trucks etc. But we had a hard time searching for enough storage place. The Truckcamper T17 itself is okay if we are speaking of space, but the storage space is nihil. We had to find a solution to storage shoes, our food (non-fridge), our coats, the kitchen pots/pans/…, our laptops, the trash, cleaning stuff, …
We found solutions! A big box located in the dining area, in which we put our food (non-fridge), a hanger with little boxes in which we put socks, handkerchiefs, laundry, sunglasses, slippers… A little bit improvising at the moment is necessary!
In the total living area, there are also a lot of light located so you will always have a light nearby (working on batteries). There are also 5 windows in the bus: one in the dining area, one in the kitchen, in one the sleep area and 2 ceiling windows. One of those ceiling windows is located RIGHT ABOVE YOUR FACE WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPING. So you will wake up early, because of the sun (we still have to find a solution for that problem. We tried carton, a sleeping mask… well, we are still searching!)
Our overall experience so far: it’s okay! It definitely is enough for 2 months of our 3-month-roadtrip with two people. We can stock all our stuff and we still have enough place to live, you just need to adjust yourself to the available space and don’t be needy for more.
Everything is present and remember: When traveling small, you learn a lot and you will appreciate the things at home even more.
Save travels!
GLOBE WATCHERS
