Brummli

Swiss German inspired: from brummen, to rumble or hum, with the affectionate Swiss -li. In other words, our little rumbler.

And so another campervan project begins!

After building and travelling with Nomad, our VW T6 campervan, we decided it was time for something a little bigger. This time the starting point is a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter panel van, and his name is Brummli.

The plan is to take Brummli from a completely standard working van and turn him into a proper campervan from the ground up. Unlike buying something already converted, this gives us the chance to decide exactly how we want everything to work, from the layout and furniture to the electrical system, water, heating, ventilation and all the little details that you only really discover once you start using a campervan.

Buying a van without actually seeing it

The purchase itself was perhaps a little unconventional.

We found Brummli on a popular Swiss online marketplace and ended up buying him completely sight unseen. No test drive. No crawling underneath with a torch. Just plenty of photos, information about the van and a bit of faith.

Then we paid for him.

At that point there wasn’t much going back!

Fortunately, Brummli appeared to have lived a relatively sensible working life. The cargo area had been heavily protected with steel and wooden panels, which wasn’t particularly pretty, but was potentially very good news for whatever was hiding underneath.

Of course, we wouldn’t really know until we got him home and started taking everything apart.

And first, we actually had to collect him.

The Van
Rob
Written by Rob