Archives for January 2018

One of the first steps to converting a Toyota Coaster to a motorhome is coming up with a floor plan.

Designing the floor plan for your motorhome can be tough but getting it right will save you time and effort during the building stages.

First, you need to decide what you want out of your conversion.

What will make it feel like home? What do you need to survive?

Will you need the essentials to survive off grid, or will you be somewhere with amenities most nights that you don’t need to worry? We have had many discussions about this… or should I say arguments? Our Toyota Coaster motorhome plan is something we have been thinking about non-stop since purchasing our new bus.

Shane and I both want the finer things in life, normally reserved for a large house, squeezed into our beautiful bus to be taken on the road. This was a tough one for us. We had to think about what was really important; what was a necessity, rather than a want. We needed to work on minimalising our current life to fit everything we own in a 10 metre squared living area.

Our wants

Shane’s wants was his home theatre room. For me, it was a dressing table. How do you go about fitting a home theatre room and a dressing table in a Toyota Coaster motorhome?

Short answer, you can’t. There has to be compromises.

We have had to design the bus so we still had a large enough lounge to rug up on and watch a good movie or two, with a reasonable size TV and soundbar. Despite Shane’s best efforts, a 43inch TV would not fit.

For the dressing table, a large mirror on the closet, and some internal storage space was the best compromise to make sure we were getting what we wanted.

I guess this is all what it comes down to; deciding on what you need to make you happy and comfortable and what is something you can compromise on.

Our needs

And then of course there are the necessities. The things we need to live, to survive.

We have all the standard plans for a nice fridge, oven, stove, washing machine and toilet. We know we will require a lot of storage in our Toyota Coaster motorhome and have worked out how we will achieve this with what space we have; under bed and lounge storage, above head cupboards and built ins where possible.

There will be gas bottles and solar, a hot water system, water tanks and batteries, all the requirements to live off the grid and spend most of our time free camping.

It may sound a bit cliché, but the best place to start is to write a list. Ours looks a little like this –

Needs	Wants
Off grid system Enough solar, and water storage capacity to survive for minimum 4 days or so if necessary	Large, comfortable lounge
Shower and toilet	“Home theatre” area
Kitchen – sink, fridge, oven, microwave etc	Blender, slow cooker
Proper mattress	Full length mirror + Dressing space
Gas bottles X 2	Washing Machine
Storage	To look like a “home”

Next step is to work out a layout. This is where you need to know your dimensions, so you can accurately draw up your space.

For our Toyota Coaster the dimensions are –

Length – 5.3 metres –  (This is the living area length from behind the cabin seats)

Floor Width – 1.87 metres

Height in the centre – 1.83 metres

Width at the middle (Widest point) – 1.98 metres

Then you need to decide if you are going to build it completely custom yourself, or use companies such as Noq Noq RV fit outs, or DIY RV Solutions to help you with your build. There are a lot of flat pack options, even from hardware shops such as Bunnings or Ikea that can be integrated into a build.

Putting it all together – Creating a Toyota Coaster floor plan

This is how the floor plan looked for our Toyota Coaster.

Once these decisions are made, it is time to take everything from your list, and make it work in your floor plan.

We opted to go completely custom, and build everything ourselves. The only thing we decided against doing ourselves, was a bathroom cubicle which was purchased from Custom Coaster Conversions. As this is a wet area, we didn’t want to struggle with water leaks so went with an all in one design.

Research here is key.

Websites like Pinterest have been invaluable when it comes to planning and designing our bus. There is loads of inspiration and it gave us so many ideas we may never have thought of. A gas lift bed with storage underneath, a couch that slides out to a sofa bed, and a slide out extension to our kitchen bench. We created a board, https://www.pinterest.com.au/roamingonrubber/ideas-for-our-bus-conversion/, to save and keep these ideas for inspiration. Other sources of inspiration were blogs like this one, Instagram and Facebook groups of like-minded people.

Downloading and reading the installation manuals for appliances will also help make sure you plan correctly. For example, after reading our oven manual we had to move it away from the fridge as it could not be next to any other appliances.

What we have learnt

We didn’t specify on our layout where we would install things like our gas bottles, electrical system, hot water heater etc. This was a rather large mistake as we constantly had to make changes on the fly when we would learn new information.

It also meant we didn’t cut holes in the bus prior to walls being installed, making the job harder.

A good idea is to plan for these things first, that way you can cut holes early. It also allows you to run wiring and pipes in the wall cavities. Something we also were not planned for.

Weight distribution is something that must be considered. We thought about weight between the passenger and drivers sides. But didn’t think enough about weight behind the rear wheels. This has caused the back of our bus to be lower to the ground then usual.

We thought going completely custom was going to be the best option for us. However, there were a few issues.

We couldn’t get the nice finishes on our cupboards that we wanted, so ended up going to a cabinet maker to make them for us. This ended up being fairly expensive.

Our kitchen area was designed to look sleek with cupboards. As these cupboards were all custom built, they were not built to standard sizes. This meant any slide out drawer or tray did not fit, or at least did not fit correctly; especially cutlery inserts.

If we were to do it again, we would probably plan for and buy a flat pack kitchen and reinforce it.

Time. Time is huge. Whilst we thought doing things custom would look better and save us money, we didn’t quite realise how much additional time it would take us; all the extra research and finding things that would work, and then physically having to make everything. This can be a major impact if you are on a time limit.

So whilst planning your layout is definitely a must for your bus conversion, it is also good to know how different things can impact you and your build.

Knowing what you need to have and how much space you have is a must. Then deciding on how you want to achieve your results, and what timeframe you need to do it in are important steps.

So many things took so much longer than we expected, but having a good solid floor plan is the best way to ensure you reach your goals, and get what you want.