15th February 2019

An eight month tour of the USA in an Ecowagon Expo VW conversion – how did it hold up?

We mentioned VANLIFE by Paul and Mirjam in our earlier story – an eight month grand tour of the USA in an Ecowagon Expo VW T6 conversion.

So how did the van and conversion hold up on the trip? We thought you would like to know (we don’t shy away from issues that occur on rigorous trips and adventures).

Paul mentioned that there had been a few mechanical issues with the van – not surprising considering their “heavy trip”. He also fed back to us on how our gear held up. Suffice to say that we are repairing our equipment and fixing the issues they encountered under our three year warranty.

Here’s a list of things that succumbed to their punishment (only joking P&M)…

The ring fell off the USB socket but we just super glued it back on and we are happy with it like this and it’s doesn’t need changing.
The control panel for the electrics sometimes flashed and made a beeping noise before shutting itself off, maybe a power surge?
The LPG gauge had a tendency to show only a few bars even although it was full.
The Velcro which the bed sits on very quickly wore though and as you can see from the photo (below) we just put a couple of bits of towel to stop the rattling.
Cracks appeared on one side of the bed where it fixed into the struts.
The knob fell off the thermostat.
Needs a new hinge on the back door of the cupboard… my fault as I closed the back doors on it without it being closed properly.
The back left blind (looking from inside) doesn’t close up properly , it broke after a short space of time. The rest of them are working fine.
One of the gas hobs is not working… it was ok one week and the not lighting the next week. When it was alight it didn’t stay on when it sprang back up.