Van Mods & Hacks: 15 Real Upgrades We’ve Made on the Road
If you’re setting up a camper van or caravan for travelling Australia, especially off-grid, there are always a handful of things you wish you’d done differently from the start. Some of ours we sorted before we even left the dealership. Others we figured out the hard way along the way.
We’ve got a Maverick camper van, and Maverick were great to deal with when we ordered, they allowed us to make some modifications before the van was built. Below are all the mods and hacks we’ve done, from the practical to the dead simple. Hopefully a few of them save you some time, money, or frustration.
1. Swap the Gas Bottle Storage Side
The gas bottles were originally on the left-hand side of the van. We moved them to the right-hand side and kept the right-hand bin for day-to-day storage, things you’re reaching for regularly. That’s the side of the van you normally live out of, so you’d always be walking around to it anyway. Moving the gas to the other side just made more sense.
These front hatches are where we keep all the smelly stuff, diesel, gas, the rubbish bin. None of that goes inside the camper. It all stays on the outside, which works pretty well.
2. Upgrade the Diesel Heater Tank to One With a Gauge
The tank that originally came with the diesel heater had no way of telling how full it was. We swapped it over to a tank with a gauge on it, so you can actually see what you’ve got left.
We also put it on the same side of the van as the fuel filling point for the car. Now when you pull up to a fuel station, you can fill the car and the diesel heater at the same time without having to get around the other side of the van. Just makes it a lot easier.
3. Add a Battery-Powered LED Light to the Storage Hatches
These hatches don’t come with lights inside. We just put a little LED light in there from Bunnings, screw it in, battery powered, done. Lights it up and makes it a lot easier when you’re putting stuff in, especially at night.
💡 Tim’s tip: Bunnings is your best friend for small van hacks. Cheap, easy, and usually works better than you’d expect.
4. Pop a Level Gauge on the A-Frame
We’ve just popped a level gauge on top of the A-frame. Whenever you’re levelling up, you can see exactly when the van is level without guessing. It always comes in really handy, makes it a lot nicer when you’re inside and sleeping, and it’s one of those things that only takes a minute to set up. If you want the fuller rundown on getting level every time, we’ve written about that here: How to Level Your Caravan.
5. The DO35 Hitch: Worth Speccing When You Order
When we ordered the van, we specced it with the DO35 hitch. These are apparently really, really good, super strong. They’ve also got the full motion, so when you’re doing some forward driving there’s a lot of articulation there. Very popular, and they seem to be a pretty good thing. Quite easy to hook up and disconnect from the car as well.
👉 Need a hitch or other towing gear? Shop Caravan RV Camping and get it delivered to your door.
6. Build a Simple Shoe Shelf by the Door
Down underneath the entry door we put a little shelf in there for shoes. When it’s wet it keeps the shoes up out of the mud and out of the rain, right there by the door. Just a nice little pocket. Stick the shoes in and they stay nice and dry. Dead simple and makes a real difference when you’ve been out in the mud.
7. Keep Your Wind Break Up With a $2 Ocky Strap
A quick little hack with the wind breaks on the outdoor kitchen. We just hold them up with an ocky strap, a $2 ocky strap. Without the strap on, they can tend to fall over, and it doesn’t take much of a breeze. Just hook it over and it keeps everything up and stable. One of those things that costs almost nothing and saves a lot of annoyance.
8. Upgrade the Sullage Hose
The sullage hose that came on the van was just a fairly cheap plasticky sort of thing, they end up getting caught and sort of half ripped off. We put a decent one in and added a little rubber connection, so it’s actually quite easy to take out when you need it.
We’ve got a small sullage hose for free camping, put a bucket underneath and away you go, and then the long sullage hose for caravan parks, which gets all the waste water out into the drain properly. Once the short one’s pulled out, it’s free for the kitchen waste water to go in.
9. Mount Your Starlink With a $15 Bracket Instead of Leaving it on the Ground
So many people talk about the problems they have with Starlink, putting the satellite dish on the ground and worrying about people tripping over it or running over it. We put a little bracket up in the top corner of the roof. That bracket cost about $15 from the hardware store, it’s a PVC pipe with the same diameter as the spigot on the Starlink, with a couple of saddles screwed on.
It sets up nicely out of the way, still has full movement when it’s trying to find satellites, and keeps it off the ground entirely. We take it down when we’re travelling, we don’t leave it up there the whole time. When we get to our destination, just pop it up. It’s easier to put it on before you pop the roof up, just easier to reach.
💡 Tim’s tip: Put it on before you raise the roof. Much easier to reach.
10. Add an Extra Solar Input for a Portable Solar Blanket
We have solar panels up on the roof, but any time you want a little bit of extra solar you can put out the solar blanket and plug it in. We added an extra solar input underneath the van so you can connect a portable solar panel and get some more watts into the system for replenishing the batteries, handy on cloudy days or in shade.
11. Store the Anti-Flap Kit Right Next to the Awning
The poles and the anti-flap kit for the awning get stored right next to where you put the awning up. When the tyres swing up it’s just sitting behind the tyres, nicely tucked in. Everything’s right there when you need it, no hunting around.
12. Put the Truma Cover in the Front Hatch Every Time You Remove It
The Truma hot water service has a cover on it. Whenever you’re using it on electricity you can leave the cover on, but whenever you’re using it on gas you’ve got to take the cover off. The trick is where you put it when you take it off.
We always put the cover in the front hatch, right next to the gas bottle. Every time we travel, we turn the gas off, so whenever we go to the gas bottle to turn it off, we see the cover sitting there and we never forget to put it back on before we start driving. Simple system, works every time.
13. Use a Water Filter and Pressure Regulator on Mains Water
Whenever we’re running on mains water at a caravan park, we always run it through a filter first. You never know what the town water is going to be like, so we always like to have filtered water going in.
The other thing worth doing is using a right-angle connector at the van’s water input point. If you have the hose going straight out and pulling down, you’re putting lateral pressure on those little connections, and they’re notorious for breaking off. We’ve snapped a few before and learnt the hard way. The right-angle connector means the hose pulls straight down with no sideways pressure on the fitting.
We also use a pressure regulator on the tap end. Some towns have really, really high water pressure, and if it’s too high it can potentially burst the pipes or connections within your van. This one reduces it down to 300 kPa, enough flow, but not enough to cause damage. Both of these are available at Bunnings.
14. Delete the Air Con and Add More Solar: 500W on the Roof
When we ordered the van, we deleted the air conditioner and put on two extra solar panels instead. That’s been a bit of a double-edged sword, there have been a couple of times we’ve thought ‘I wish we had the air conditioner.’ But we’re mainly using this off-grid, and you’re not really going to be able to use the air conditioner much when you’re off-grid and just relying on your battery.
We’re now running 500W of solar input on the roof, plus a 200W solar blanket at the back. That’s a lot of solar input, and we’ve generally been pretty good on power with solar alone. The roof is getting pretty full now, there’s not really much room left. We could probably fit one more panel if we really needed to, but so far it’s doing the job. If you want the full rundown on how it all fits together, we’ve written about that here: Your Caravan Electrical System Simply Explained.
👉 Looking at portable power options? Check out BLUETTI for solar generators and power stations.
💡 Tim’s tip: If you’re planning to go off-grid regularly, think hard about solar over air con. You can’t run an air con off batteries for long anyway.
15. Keep a Small Stock of Hose Connectors and Fittings
This one’s less of a mod and more of a habit, always have some spare connectors on hand. Hose fittings break, connectors wear out, and when you’re in a remote town the hardware store might be hours away. A small bag of connectors, right-angle fittings, and clamps has saved us more than once.
A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Modify
Most of these mods are pretty straightforward and don’t require a sparky or a plumber. The electrical work, like the extra solar input, is worth getting checked if you’re not confident, but a lot of the small stuff you can sort yourself.
If you’re still in the planning stage and trying to work out what everything is going to cost, our Travel Australia Budget Spreadsheet is worth grabbing, it’s designed to help you plan the financial side of a trip or lap properly, before you hit the road. You can find it in our shop.
