A few moths ago whilst building my van I decided to install a purchase for the previous build, a 2kw wood burner from Dave at Glastonbury wood burners, am I glad I did?
The short answer is a resounding yes! But if you’re interested to know why and how I’ve coped then read on.. Firstly I would like to say how helpful Dave is, I’ve had numerous questions and one issue since installing the wood burner and Dave is always happy to help, he’s never grumbled or stumbled when it comes to helping me out with answers or suggestions so I would highly recommend buying from him due to his ‘after sales care’ if you will.
I made a mistake! Apparently a common one, but I still felt rather stupid none the less, a learning curve and a mistake I won’t be making again! What was the mistake you ask? I installed the flue the wrong way, is that even possible? Yes. You need the female joint on top facing the ground when you join the flue, otherwise you will end up with water leaks when it rains and it leaves a horrible brown sticky mess all around your flue. This wasn’t a hard job but it was a messy one, removing the deck tight and all the silicone took a while then trying to clean it all up again so I could get a nice watertight seal ensuring no more leaks in the living area.
I added a wind shroud to the flue, at first I didn’t want to because I think they’re ugly and it makes the roof line a lot higher too! It also looks like some sort of sailboat driving down the road, surprisingly I don’t get any noise whilst driving and it really helps the fire light up faster and helps stop rain coming down into the firebox. It came in galvanized silver so I sprayed it black to match the flue. I will attach a link to the one I purchased on eBay.
How does it stack up to a Propex? In my personal opionion there’s no comparison, everyone has their own ideas about this and some people can’t be bothered with the hassle of keeping a wood burner going, it’s easier to flick a switch and leave it to work it’s magic, you need to be prepared with a wood burner making sure you’ve got good wood to burn. Personally the peace of mind that I never need to worry about running my batteries low far outweighs the other cons, I’d like to spend more time in ski resorts and I don’t believe it’s possible to stay comfortably warm all evening and night with a Propex, to charge my appliances and run my lights on one leisure battery.
How have I been getting on with the wood burner? In the beginning I tried running it on scraps from the build, some thick bits of wood and various dry logs dad had in store but I could never get it to stay lit more than 3 hours, during the last week I’ve been spending time on the Czech/Polish border in temperatures of around -1/-7c for most of the week so I had a lot of practice with vent control! I’m now at the point where I can stock it up and close the vents down and the burner goes for around 6-8 hours before needing attention meaning if you stock it before bed you can have a good nights sleep, the vans still warm in the morning and if you’re not planning on going out it’s still hot enough to stock up again.
I owe most of my success to firelighters and eco briquettes! When at home we always lit the fire with free newspaper but if you get this wrong everything needs to come out and then back in for a second attempt, it’s messy and frustrating if it’s -2 and you just want to get warm! So firelighters to the rescue, they’re cheap, you can get eco forestry approved ones in Lidl and they’ll guarantee your fires roaring within 5 minutes. I love eco briquettes because they’re cheap, good for the environment utilizing the waste from saw mills and they’re consistent! Once you learn how to control your burner you’ll figure out how long one can last you and then you rarely need to look at it between stocking the fire.
Is a wood burner cheaper? This depends on where you live and how much you pay for fuel if you’re not collecting the wood yourself and drying it, I think I will continue with the eco briquettes because they give such a consistent heat and burn time, in -5 I would average 4 eco briquettes an evening I get 12 in a pack and 1 pack (10kg) is £1.90 in Poland £0.63 (logs) to stay warm and boil water all evening I collect the kindling wood for free when I’m out walking and the firelighters cost around £.10 each that’s a grand total of £0.73/night! Looking in the UK however eco briquettes are around 3x the price so shop around!
Drying clothes. If you live in a van and know what it’s like to spill water all over your only pair of jeans when it’s -4 and snowing outside you may understand my panic! However, having a wood burner means I could wake up with lovely warm dry jeans! I wouldn’t suggest drying all of your laundry in this fashion but it’s great to have the option and always keeps the kitchen towels dry!
Fire board has been added behind and to the side of the burner spaced off the wall to allow air to circulate.
If you want to know how I installed the wood burner click here to see my other post.
Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @aboutavan to see more regular content. Do you have a wood burner? Comment below and let me know how you get on with yours!
So this is my second build and I’ve opted to go for a wood burner this time for my primary source of heat, why you may ask? Well read on and I’ll tell you, I’ll also explain how I fitted my wood burner. Disclaimer: don’t take this as a guide for doing it yourself, always speak with a qualified gas/fire engineer.
In the last van I went for the Propex HS2000 LPG heater, I opted for this as I had a refillable LPG tank and thought it would be the cheapest option, it was also a lot cheaper to purchase than diesel heaters from reputable companies, diesel heaters were around £600-800.00 and the Propex set me back around £450.00, I have to say I wasn’t super impressed with the Propex, it did the job but I never felt it was powerful enough for the size of the van or living space it needed to heat, I also wasn’t a fan of the heat, I always had a dry throat and dry eyes, it also took a long time to dry wet clothes and the fan was noisy.
I bought my wood burner from Dave at Glastonbury burners, after seeing Matt from Vanlife TV had installed one and liked it very much, so much he bought a second one. I purchased the Gnome which was £160.00 in early 2018, this is just the bare unit, it doesn’t come with flue or extra fittings, I’ll provide a list of links for the products I’ve used during this installation. Dave rates this burner at around 2kw output, it’s only designed for wood and eco fuels not coal.
There are a lot of people who believe having a wood burner in a van is insane given you can get 12v powered heaters that run on diesel or gas however there’s something very romantic about a wood burner, and the simplicity! As long as it’s installed safely a wood burner will provide you with years of cheap or even free heating.
My first job was to figure out where I wanted to place my wood burner, I opted to have it by the slide door against the bulkhead as I could install a straight piece of flue out of the roof, the next step was to look under the van and see where I could drill through the floor to bolt the wood burner down so it’s nice and secure when driving in case of an accident, once I’d located the place I could bolt the wood burner down I then drilled out a hole big enough to fit in my air vent.
Once I had drilled through the floor and installed the air vent I needed to find a way to raise the hearth stone off the ground to allow airflow from underneath, I took 2 large pieces of pallet wood, sanded them down then drilled holes in the appropriate location, I then screwed those into the floor and placed the hearthstone on top. Drilling through the hearthstone wasn’t easy! I set the drill to hammer mode, used lots of water and a masonry drill bit.
Once the hearthstone was placed on top of the wood and I made sure the holes lined up and I could get threaded bar through both it was time to bolt the wood burner down. I then inserted the first section of flue, I needed to line this up with the roof to see where I would need to drill my center hole so I could begin installing my flue through the roof.
Finding the center of the flue pipeWood burner bolted down with flue in place ready to centerAluminum surround
I used string as you can see in the photo to find the center of the flue so I had something to aim for when lining it up with the roof, I then attached a pen to a piece of string and hung it from the ceiling to find my drill point, once I drilled through the roof I cut a circle that was around 3 and 3/4 inches around, I then used my jigsaw to make little cuts around the outer edge, this enabled me to flare the metal roof to just over 4″ in diameter meaning the flue could come through the roof, this is a tip Dave gave me as it helps to get a very tight fit meaning the flue cannot move around. Once you have inserted the flue you can tap the metal tabs back down with a small hammer to secure the flue in place.
Flue inserted through the roof3 & 3/4 inch hole drilled with tabs cut
Before I put the flue through the roof I cut a hole in the aluminum plate inside, I made this a tight fit as well so it grips the flue and this is screwed into the ceiling inside the van. I then applied fire cement to the join in the flue and around the collar inside the wood burner before seating the flue. After this the only job left was to install the deck tight seal, the kit I ordered came with some good self tapping screws so it’s a case of drilling pilot holes through the deck seal and the roof and then driving the screws into the metal, I used a bead of the clear silicone that came in the kit on the underside of the seal and then around the outer edge.
Deck seal for installing a wood burner in your van.
The install isn’t completely finished at the moment, I have ordered a rain cowl from eBay so I need to fit that and I also need to install fire protection on the wall behind the wood burner, for this I will be using hardy backer board from B&Q which I will then tile, I will update this post when I have done that, I hope you have enjoyed seeing how I installed a wood burner in my van, if you have any questions please leave them in the comments and I will try to respond to you.
If a wood burner isn’t for you but you would like to install a gas or diesel powered heater to your van you can check out the heaters below.
Check out the updated page here to see updates on the fire place and what I’d change, I hope this blog post has been helpful! Be sure to head over to Instagram and find me there, Adam.
If you’re in the Granada region you’ll most definitely be looking for some hot springs, the area is littered with them! Here’s my recent find, they’re free to use.
Access would be especially hard in wet conditions and I wouldn’t attempt it unless you have a 4×4, even then I’d advise caution.
You can park here for the night without any issues and the locals are friendly.
There are 4 pools in total, two smaller ones at the colder end of the set and two larger ones closer to the source.
The springs are fed by a water outlet rather than individually filled.
These photos are unedited, it’s a lovely spring to relax in for the night, I hope you enjoy as much as I have! I’ll attach the location below.
(37.6612848, -1.3499920) coordinates
Google Map location: CLICK HERE
If you can see this you’re in the right place. The hot springs are located behind the wall.
Please take your rubbish with you and treat the area with respect, enjoy! @aboutavan
I love Instagram, it’s the source of so much inspiration and possibility, there are a few different accounts I enjoy all for different reasons, some for the builds, some for the travels, others for interesting people I like. Below I’m going to list my nine favourite UK accounts.
The Travelling Makers Heather & David previously known as @dustyvanlife are full of innovation! I am always inspired by their builds, they do everything from woodwork to welding and resprays!
Jack is a little newer on the “vanlife” instagram scene for builds but once again he’s full of inspiration and innovation! He focuses on the MWB & LWB Sprinter/Crafter body shell turning empty vans into weekend sports vans in as little as 3 weeks! He’s based in Shropshire and has just completed build number FIVE!
Matt has a great Youtube channel and Instagram account, he’s not been so active recently but he posts quality content, based in the south west of the UK you will often see beautiful park ups of Dartmoor, check out his youtube channel! He documented most of his build it helped me a lot when I started building.
Sammi and Oslo are currently making their way around Europe in a converted ambulance, Sammi is a very down to earth van lifer who’s definitely in it for the long haul and not just because it’s now a fashionable trend. Travelling as a solo female with her dog she’s an inspiration to girls wanting to live and travel in a van.
This has to be one of the most eye catching vans I’ve seen so far in the UK, Georjie’s building a home that’s a piece of art! This isn’t a fast build and there aren’t hundreds of photos on her Instagram but it’s a build well worth following.
Tom’s build is certainly an eye catcher, previously serving as a British army truck it’s a huge 4×4 Leyland DAF, the section on the back was fully fabricated and constructed by Tom! It’s certainly a tiny home on wheels along with being an awesome overland vehicle.
You’ll find Alex on Youtube (where he’s most popular) and Instagram, he’s been on the scene for a few years now with his van build video reaching over 1M views now on Youtube. He’s the definition of a digital nomad, working from his laptop as he snowboards in the winter and kite surfs in the summer!
Dom and Christie are a lovely couple who had been travelling Europe for a year in their big bus “Magnus” they’ve recently returned to work in London but they have a great account with great photos from all over Europe, so if you’re looking to explore then it’s a great account for travel inspiration.
If you haven’t heard of The Indie Projects then you’ve either been living under a rock or you’ve never searched “vanlife” on youtube. Theo and Bee are a very dedicated couple in the community and probably the biggest name in the “UK Vanlife” scene, recently moving to Portugal they’ve purchased some land which boasts a wood fired hot tub! They’re pictures are always amazing and their van tour videos on youtube are an inspiration to people all around the globe, thanks Theo & Bee!
I hope you enjoy following these accounts, they’ve all provided me with ideas and inspiration I’ll be using in future builds and travel. Comment below and let me know your favourite accounts? Adam @aboutavan
If you’re in the Granada region you’ll be wanting to stop at some of the hot springs, this is one of may in the area, it can be a little tricky to find as it’s so simple to find! In this short blog I’ll give you some photos and a map location.
Here’s the drive down to the hotel, you can’t park here but you can park just outside the hotel gates, follow this drive down until you come to the bridge.
Once you’re on the bridge look to the left and there you have it! FREE HOTSPRINGS in Alhama de Granada.
The pools are around 40 degrees C, as you can see there’s a shallow river beside to cool off in between soaks, these pools can get busy, especially on the weekend.
Here is the google map location for the hotel entrance, you can park outside on the road or you can park where we did, I’ll include that link too!
Road parking: (37.0187131, -3.9846310) or Google maps
Where we slept for the night: (37.0213344, -3.9843782) or Google maps
Enjoy relaxing in the thermal pools! Adam @aboutavan
Vanlife in Morocco? The land of colourful markets, extensive history, cheap food, friendly people and surfing. The only trouble when going to this beautiful land is the lack of information. Most most of the information you come across is written in French & Arabic the information that isn’t often has a lot of hearsay and rumours attached to it.
Ferry tickets
First let’s start with the ferry, looking online I came up with many different prices and ferry companies, everything I could find in the beginning was around €210 for the return journey. When I was in Portugal I met a man who told me about a company in Palmones Spain, he couldn’t say how much the tickets were, just cheaper than I’d seen online.
I don’t believe he’s the cheapest you can find but he’s extremely helpful providing you with an information pack and everything you’ll need to board the ferry and pass customs. I’m not being sponsored or paid to refer his services.
If you don’t use this company don’t fear, there are hundreds of ticket booths around Tarifa and Algeciras where you can purchase your ferry tickets, as I didn’t visit them I can’t comment personally on their prices however, speaking with others it sounds like they’re the same price.
Motorhome insurance in Morocco
Unfortunately in the UK we are not as lucky as many of our European neighbours, most insurance companies in the UK do not include Morocco as part of your insurance policy. It is often something you can add on for a premium, as it was with my insurance company, unfortunately I think insurance companies in the UK see this as a licence to print money, they quoted me £230.00 for 3rd party only for just 30 days!
One major thing to consider here is the value of your vehicle and how comfortable you feel only being covered 3rd party only. When you buy insurance from the border they’re only insuring you to make you legal on the road in Morocco meaning if your motorhome gets stolen they won’t be helping cover the cost of it, personally I was willing to take the risk as we’d been told morocco was very safe and the driving surprisingly is better than in Portugal.
Almost everywhere we parked we used the parking areas that have guardians, you’ll pay these people between 5-15 dirham to watch your car and the time doesn’t matter, you can be there an hour or 6 the price is the same. On top of this I used a steering lock regardless of where we parked or who was watching the van, the reason for this is we have been told if the vehicle is stolen in Morocco we would have to pay tax on the value of the vehicle before leaving the country, again consider this when choosing how to insure your motorhome in Morocco.
You can purchase your vehicle insurance just after the custom checkpoint, we landed in Tanger Med and had been told the insurance kiosk would be visible where we left the ferry, this was incorrect! You will pass through customs first and before you leave the ferry port there’s an area on your left hand side where you can purchase tickets, insurance, currency and food. I will attach a photo below with the insurance kiosk.
Fuel & LPG
You will be pleased to know the fuel here is cheap! So enter empty and fill up once you cross the border, when we visited (March 2019) fuel prices were between D9.2/L – 9.6/L or €0.83-0.87/L £0.71-0.74/L which is cheap even by Spanish standards. The prices listed above are for DIESEL not gasoline, like the rest of Europe gasoline is more expensive in Morocco.
make sure you carry cash with you in Morocco even for fuel stops, stations on the highway all accept card, if they’re attached to a large supermarket they’ll usually accept card also but most others will not.
LPG We were warned before going to Morocco that LPG is hard to come by, this is certainly the case if you have a refill bottle. If you’re looking for a normal LPG bottle then you aren’t short on places to buy them from, however I only saw large ones.
Toll roads in Morocco
When you think about Morocco you may think about dusty tracks, mountain roads and bumpy village streets, although this is the case for a lot of the country they have some amazing motorway stretches, theres very little traffic, the road surface is perfect and you can do 120kmh. There are a lot of speed checks on the motorway as well as the back roads in Morocco so watch your speed, the advantage with speeding tickets in Morocco is they’re cheap and you don’t gain points on your license!
The downside to these perfect roads is the toll charges, fuel is cheap in Morocco compared to Europe and the U.K. but probably not so when you factor in toll roads. Each one varies in price, they only accept cash! So make sure you have at least 400.00 dirham in cash when you use them, they’re a great place to change your larger notes for smaller ones too!
On our journey we went down as far as Sidi Ifni, the toll roads stop a little outside Marrakesh where it changes into smaller roads which vary in condition, comparing most Moroccan roads with Portugal? Morocco comes first! There was only one section of road we hit between Sidi Kouki and Safi which was horrendous, crawling along at 20kmh for much of it with huge pot holes! But that aside the roads in Morocco are good to very good! For our time in Morocco our tolls totalled 710.00 dirham around €64.00 or £55.50 at the time I’m writing this blog.
Don’t do anything stupid around the toll booths in Morocco, there are police often before and after the tolls, if before they’re usually conducting speeding checks so make sure you observe the speed limits when approaching, after they are usually pulling vehicles aside to check documentation, they don’t seem to stop tourists at these points, only local Moroccan vehicles, I also haven’t met anyone who has been stopped at these checkpoints, sometimes they will tell you to slow until they can see the driver then they wave you on.
If you do get a speeding ticket like we did, you will pay between 150-300dh I have been told there is nothing higher than 300dh, it is common practice when not on the motorway for the police to take less but they won’t complete any paperwork, I wouldn’t recommend suggesting this, wait and see if you’re offered a lower amount.
Below I’m attaching a photo of the toll booth price list from one of the tolls we passed through, you’ll notice that smaller vehicles pay less, vans and motorhomes pay more then trucks and towing vehicles pay even more.
Toll Road Morocco Pricing
Paying for things in Morocco
As I mentioned in the Paragraph above toll roads are great for getting smaller notes and change, one thing that’s totally different about Morocco vs Europe is the lack of places you can pay by card, I wouldn’t try and pay by ApplePay they’ll think you’re insane! Almost everything is cash, even fuel which you’d expect to have a card option given that a fill up will still be around €60.00. If you hand them a 200dh note they’ll often hand it back because they won’t have change for you or the price will increase. Villages never have ATM’s towns and cities do! So when you’re passing through my advice would be to stop and take cash out to last you until you hit another town that’s likely to have an ATM.
Orange SIM Cards
I was lucky here, I met a Swedish man in the ticket shop who was looking to sell his SIM card with 10GB of data included! However Steffie didn’t have one so I have experience buying one in Morocco and loading it with credit, I also have experience with how not to load it as I made a mistake the first time loading the card and wasted 100 dirhams of credit! You can find SIM cards in small shops, on the street there are often people selling them in the north and in larger supermarkets they may also have Moroccan SIM cards.
We only went with Orange Morocco so these details are specific to Orange. You will pay around 30dh for a sim card and 100dh for a top up, 100dh is the cost for 10GB of internet but you have to be careful here, you need to load it and change it to an internet add on immediately, if you don’t it will be loaded as credit for texting and calling!
Step 1: buy a top up voucher from the shop Step 2: Scratch the silver strip on the reverse to reveal the code Step 3: enter 555 followed by the code and then *3 Step 4: Press dial
Screenshot topping up with Orange Morocco
As an example I have included this image to clarify the instructions above.
It will call through then it will cut you off after telling you that you have charged your phone with the top up, within a few seconds you will receive a follow up text letting you know your phone has been successfully topped up. If in doubt ask in the shops if they can load the credit to your phone, most are happy to do so.
Morocco has better data connection than many parts of Portugal I stayed in however, a lot of the country or areas you will end up camping may have a limited connection, the best data connection I had whilst in Morocco was in Tafroute or “van valley” as van dog traveller calls it in his post, full 4G all the time! If there are 2 of you travelling together I would suggest getting 2 cards from different providers, this will increase the chance of having a good connection especially if you’re working on the road.
Markets in Morocco
Probably one of the biggest reasons Morocco is so busy with tourists are it’s busy market towns, with anything on offer from spices to live animals Morocco has it all! It’s an aspect of Morocco we both thoroughly enjoyed, there’s an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables at a reasonable price, depending on which stalls you go to.
When walking around the markets people will try to get you to go to their shop or stall, they’ll try to shake your hand, ask you how your day is or just engage with you in general chit chat, if you’re not interested just walk on, ignore them, being ‘polite’ is often seen as a sign to keep going, if you don’t engage they give up. I don’t believe they take offence to this but even if they do it’s better to carry on walking rather than being trapped in a small shop whilst almost being forced to buy something you don’t want.
Rough prices for food at Moroccan markets
Strawberries: 12-15dh/KG Bread 1-3dh: per piece Potatoes: 8dh/KG Carrots/Tomatoes/Zucchinis/Cauliflower & many other vegetables: 10dh/KG Olives: 16dh/KG Lettuce: 8dh/Piece Amlou: 150dh/KG (Famous Moroccan spread) Medjool dates: 80dh/KG Mint: 1dh/bundle
These prices can vary depending on the markets location, many of the vegetables are grouped together at the same price.
Water fill up points
Much of the country doesn’t have a mains water supply, so getting water in smaller towns and villages can be extremely difficult. There are not many running water sources like rivers or springs any water you find will most likely be filled with plastic or lost of other nasty things.
I will be writing blog posts on camping in Morocco and taking a dog to Morocco very soon!
I hope this article has been helpful if you’re considering a trip to Morocco.
About A Van 