Positive Evolution

In April 2016 I bought a MAN TGL 7.150, it had been a Night Freight lorry but didn't have very high mileage and was in good condition. The box was 6 metres long, 2.5 metres wide and 2.5 metres high. It took 7 months to get it pretty much finished although there was a few things that I did after moving into it like tiling the kitchen and getting the shower door on. The actual shower didn't get finished until I moved out!

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When the build was complete I took it to a weigh bridge and it weighed exactly 7500kg with no passenger and so I used the company SV Tech to uplate it to 8400kg so as there would be no issue with being over weight. Obviously you do need a different class of licence for over 7500kg which my partner had. I had the lorry changed to motor caravan on the V5 and changed to private HGV for the tax class.

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I used top quality products as much as possible with this build as I was working full-time in a well paid job at the time. I used insulation board (Celotex) throughout, the ceiling and floor was insulated with 50mm board and the walls with 25mm board. I put 25x50mm battening where I needed to attach any furniture and where I needed to attach the plywood walls.

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I used 9mm plywood for the walls and 3mm plywood for the ceiling. I then put 7mm tongue and groove over the top of the plywood on the ceiling. On the floor I used 16mm floor boards. I used 25x50mm battening to make frames for most of the furniture and used 7mm tongue and groove for cupboard doors and the front of the seat boxes. The lids of the seat boxes were 12mm plywood. I used 50x75mm battens for the false floor and bed frame.

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I bought 4 Seitz double glazed windows and 2 Seitz skylights and made the door myself from the GRP box body. I fitted a 12v and 240v system run by 2 x 260w solar panels fitted to a custom built roof rack and stored in 2 x 115amph batteries. I put in a shower tray, 70ltr water tank and a pump to feed the shower and tap at the sink.  I installed recessed lights throughout the truck with the bedroom and living room ones being on dimmer switches.

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I took off the roller shutter door from the back and had custom made back doors put on the back on the lower half to gain access to the garage space under the bed. At the top I had a fixed piece put on with a small porthole window in. I had a wood burner made to specific measurements and installed that on to tiles which I also used in the kitchen area.

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I haven't got an exact breakdown of what I spent but the over all cost of the build materials was around £12,000 with the lorry costing £5,000 initially. The breakdown here is approximate and does not include everything:

£1000 = Battens and plywood

£400 = Insulation

£350 = Floorboards

£1500 = Seitz windows and skylights

£1200 = Solar set up

£250 = Metal for roof rack (and fitting)

£750 = Metal for back doors (and fitting)

£350 = Wood burner and flue

£350 = Tiles

 

See the photos below of the lorry conversion taking shape: