terra trotter was created in june of 2023 when the search for the perfect van began, but the idea was born back in 2013, when i decided that i would be seeing the world with a camper van, one way or another. in september 2023, when we bought our van, that dream officially became a reality.
who am i?
hi, i'm alba harden, the person behind terra trotter. i am british by blood & spanish by birth, i am a photographer & branding specialist. it has been my dream for over 10 years to live and travel the world in a camper van. in june of 2023, i started working towards that dream.
if you would like to know more about me:
alba harden instagram instagram.com/albaharden_/
alba harden website www.albaharden.com
get in touch & connect
☾ instagram instagram.com/terratrotter_vanlife/
☼ tiktok www.tiktok.com/@terratrotter_vanlife?_t=8heot09ps8v&_r=1
♡ facebook facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554156202141
➢ email us at [email protected]
Пікірлер
Ok. I thought of something. It's looking REALLY good. Keep up the good work!!! (An extra exclamation point -- just to show that other guy. )
he did beat you to it! hahahahaha thank you so much!
I can't WAIT
us neither!!
Hey! Who's this other commenter!? I've never seen HIM before. I'm not sure this KZread channel is big enough for the both of us. Whoever this guy is, he stole my comment. I was gonna say "Looking good". Now, I have to think of a whole new comment. Thanks a lot! I'll have to get back to you guys when I think of something.
hahahahhaha oh no! I'm sure we can make space for both of you! thank you so much for the love 🙏
Its looking great! Well done!!
thank you so much!
Looking great guys! Pretty exciting. Soon, you'll be on the road!!!! Good luck with your paperwork.
thank you very much 🙏🏼
Van's looking amazing!!! You guys are getting done a lot faster than I thought you would. As for the airflow test, it looks like I was wrong. I'm glad. But, as for those donuts... I'm afraid I'm a little strapped for cash at the moment. Sorry. They'd probably be stale by the time they got there, anyway. The van looks really good, though. I'm looking forward to seeing your maiden voyage.
thank you so much! I think we're very motivated by how hot it's getting here, we don't want to be working in the heat any more than we have to so that's really made us want to finish asap! as for the donuts... I guess we will let this one slide... 😋
Great design for the slide-out toilet/hidden safe. I just hope none of your subscribers are jewel thieves. Hope you're feeling better!!!
thank you! we did actually debate not sharing this on the channel 😂 but we were too proud of our invention to not! I am feeling a lot better 🙏🏼
Oh noooo!😱
yes 🤦🏼♀️ but it’s now fixed!!
Looks like it's getting hot there. Don't forget about the airflow experiment! Cabinets look great!!!
yes! we are trying it out this weekend, thank you for the reminder!
Following your project from Canada!
thank you so much! we looooove canada
Cabinets look great! It was worth the wait. I really like your little extractor fan. I've been looking for something like that for my van. I don't suppose you could send me the name or the link to where you bought it? By the way, I really love your opening music. Until next Sunday! Hopefully.
What! No Terra Trotter?! Why did I even get out of bed!
it’s for the best we promise!
What!!!? YOU guys messed up!? Impossible. I have the sneaking suspicion you're just trying to let the rest of us feel better about ourselves. The two-burner cooktop does look better, though. Keep up the good work!!!
hahahahaha we wish! thank you as always for your support though, it really does brighten up our day
<-- subscriber # 119
thank you so much!
Boy! A lot of progress this week! I like the magnetic latches on the seats. Nice idea. And the counter is super cool. I love the soft curves, and I like that you mounted the sink underneath. A very clean look. Great idea to make your own "toe kicks." (That's what we call 'em here in the US.) But speaking of language, why do you Brits always say "bit" when you want to say "part" ? It's very strange. Anyway, it's looking really great. I did have one thought though. In your "gas" storage area, are you using propane? If so, they recommend NOT sealing it completely. It's recommended that you put an escape tube or hole at the lowest point in the gas locker. Propane is heavier than air and will sink to the bottom of the storage area and go out the escape hole, should there be a leak. Wouldn't want you guys to blow yourselves up. I'd have to find a new KZread channel to stalk. Ps. Try to slow down a bit. You're making the rest of us look bad.
thank you so much! I love it, we're going to start calling them toe kicks from now on. as for "bit" instead of "part" I can't say I'd noticed, maybe it's a me thing instead of a brit thing, I honestly don't know hahahaha as for the gas storage area, you have gotten ahead of us! in the next video (we just did it today) we have made a hole in the floor as an escape so that it's all perfectly safe, we wouldn't want to cause you any extra hassle! and we will be using butane. ps. we will not slow down! we're far too excited for that
Sorry. Another boulder fell on my arm, and this time I did have to cut it off. But don't worry. I'm told it will grow back. I love the seating area, but you beat me to the punch. I was looking forward to reprimanding you for not using that area behind the couches for storage. Like an evil arch-nemesis, you always seem to be one step of ahead of me. Anyway, It's looking really cool!!! The fabric for the seats should be fun to choose, I imagine. But you've probably got THAT all figured out too. How am I suppose to make suggestions when you never make any mistakes? It's very frustrating.
oh no! but that does sound like a very cool superpower so you can't be too sad. hahahahahaha we're sorry we beat you to it! and we actually have the material picked out and is already in the hands of the person making the covers so... thank you so much for your lovely comment as always, means a lot coming from one of our og's!
So nice to see everything coming together! :) But why did you insulate your Backdoors like that with stonewool like that? :) I did read a lot that it will start molding because of the water which comes through the door handles etc. and cant flow out… :(
thank you so much! we were aware of this also, we have tried to seal it as well as possible and if worst comes to worst, it is very easy to take off what we've put on the back doors (the wood with the rubber on it) and just take out the stonewool.
Sorry I missed you guys yesterday. I went for a hike, and a boulder fell on my arm. Luckily, I didn't have to cut it off, like that guy in that movie. But as I was trapped there, thinking about cutting off my arm, the only thing that kept me going was knowing that a new Terra Trotter video was out there, and it needed my comment. Anyway, it's looking super cool, guys! I hope you're making a lot of nice dinners for that tireless dad. The bed looks great, rock solid. As it wouldn't be a worthwhile comment unless I stuck my nose in where it didn't belong, I was thinking... I was wondering (since it looks like the little dog house is against an outside wall) if it would be good to have a little fan that brings fresh air into that little cubby. (I know, I know. Again, with the fresh air.) I realize this would be kind of a big job, but I think I saw someone else do it, so I just thought I'd mention it. I'm sure little Hiccup will be happy either way. Looking great guys. Keep up the good work!!!
we were wondering where you had gotten to! that is terrible news! hopefully you're recovering well, and thank goodness you didn't need to cut off your arm, that would have been long. I am definitely super grateful to my dad, the only reason everything is coming long so nicely and looks so good is 1000% because of him! As for the fan for the dog house, that is an interesting point, I'm not sure we'd be able to do it at this point in the conversion though... we will take a look at it! PS.: Hipo is my dad's puppy, only Nox (the little black dog) is mine and will be coming on the road. Hipo will probably grow to be bigger than me and he'd be in the bed and me in the dog house!
Looking good, guys! I like the backdoor panels a lot. I don't know if you remember, but earlier, I had voiced some concerns about possible airflow problems without an extraction fan. I only raise this issue again because I have a bit of experience with it, and I'm worried about you guys roasting over there in sunny Spain. Here's the thing. If it's warm during the day, but cools down at night, you would think that the cooler night air would filter into the van naturally. You would suppose that a natural air flow would be set up by rising warm air moving out the roof. But, at least in my van, this doesn't seem to be the case. Even if you open the windows and roof at night, the air inside tends to just sit, causing the van to feel stuffy and unpleasant, even though it's nice and cool outside. It seems to require mechanical work to start and maintain the process of cool, fresh air entering the living space. So! I propose a little experiment. A friendly wager, if you will. When it starts to get warm were you are, but cools down at night, I propose that you sleep one night in the van where your bed will be. Open all roof and window apertures to their full capacity. If I'm right, you may feel like the air remains rather warm and stagnant even though it is significantly cooler outside. If this does turn out to be the case, you may want to revisit the idea of active ventilation. But! If I'm wrong, and the van is cool and comfortable, I will send you a free box of donuts all the way from America. (Donuts are the only thing we're really good at.) Anyway, it's just a thought. Sorry about another lengthy comment. Talking too much is another thing Americans are good at. Ps. Thanks for another voice-over video. I have to admit, I feel rather spoiled. It's looking great, though!!! Sincerely, Subscriber #40.
hello! I have to admit that we look forward to your comments! that is a really good point, we will definitely try that experiment and see how it goes, although I have to admit, I hope it is lovely and cool so that we get some American donuts... thank you again for your input, advice and support, it means the world to us (and we're so happy to hear you're enjoying the voice over!)
@@terratrotter_vanlife I look forward to the results.
Ginger!
The bathroom looks amazing! I'm a little disappointed that you decided not to put in the jacuzzi tube, though. I think you might regret that later. Also, I absolutely love the voice over commentary. It works especially well with that exotic English accent. Looking great, guys!!!
Thank you so much! And you never know, we may get a jacuzzi that we can put outside when we park up 😂 And I’m glad you like it! It was per your request, I quite enjoyed doing it so will probably be incorporating it into more videos 😊
Boy. I've never had anyone listen to one of my requests before. I feel oddly powerful. @@terratrotter_vanlife
Where are all the friggin' subscribers!? Come on, you guys. Show some support for this poor Harvard girl!
Bathroom looks great!! I guess the jacuzzi tub goes in next? I can't wait!!!
thank you very much and... how did you guess??
Number 6 or 5 as a second choice It's all looking good 👍
thank you very much 🙏🏼
I think I like #1 design the best. How much money do I win if I'm right? Also, you never told us you went to Harvard. No fair being highly educated!
thank you very much! I'm not sure about the cash prize... hahahah and definitely did not go to Harvard, just a cheap hoodie 😂
The van is coming together nicely! I would vote for either number 2 or 4 depending how much you want the terracotta color to show :) But having the lower cabinets the same color as the full-hight cabinet allows the room to flow together better in my opinion and makes the whole van feel more spacious.
thank you so much! we really appreciate you letting us know what you think, and that is a very good point!
Ceiling looks Great!!! Looking forward to the next video!
Hi! Subscriber number forty here. Nice job on the floor!!! But, I just had one question. You floor fits so well, but did your installation instructions say anything about leaving a little gap around the perimeter of the flooring for expansion? I'm not really sure if your flooring needs that, but, I've heard some van people say that they've had problems with certain types of flooring when there was changes in temperature. Also, I know it's common practice to put up little subtitle type notes during the time-lapse portion of a video. But, did you ever consider doing little voice over comments instead. That way we don't miss stuff, trying to quickly scan the subtitles. This is nit-picky, but it's just an idea. Anyway, the van looks great! You guys seem to have done a lot of thinking ahead of time, and it's paying off. Until next time. This is number forty, signing off!
hello again! it had been a while since we'd heard from you and we were getting worried! that is a really good point, thank you so much for checking with us about that because that certainly would have been really annoying! we did however annoy the sales person with a very long list of questions around this (especially as we wanted to put underfloor heating in) and they let us know that there wouldn't be any problems in regards to this so... fingers crossed! as for doing he voice over, I hadn't ever thought about it, do you think it would be better than the text bubbles? you have definitely given me something to have a think about! thank you once again for your support and your lovely comments, we're so happy you're still enjoying our videos! see you soon subscriber forty!
Like I said, it's nit-picky. But I sometimes wonder why people prefer to use text bubbles. I can usually scan them quickly enough, but I always feel like I'm missing a little of the video, especially when they use a lot of 'em. But, like I said. It's just a small thing. I tend to whine a lot. Anyway, I figured you probably checked on the floor expansion stuff. Don't worry. I'll catch you doing something wrong someday.@@terratrotter_vanlife
Great work! ❤
Thank you so much!
Does this mean I have to pause my conversion too? 😥 We were taking notes!
Oh no!! I'm so sorry! Don't worry, we're back at it this week!
We'll miss you!!! Have a good trip!!!!!!
Thank you 🙏🏼❤
Have a great holiday 😀
Thank you so much!
Ceiling looks great! Looking forward to the next video. Happy New Year!!!!
thank you so much!! happy new year!
I like youre Videos really much ❤
Thank you so much!
I didn't see any kind of protection like grommets or flexible split conduits in each place where an electric cable or water piping pass through a metal wall or ceiling rib.
thank you for your comment! we put tape everywhere we felt necessary as to be on the safe side
Boy, you guys really seem to have done your homework! Very impressive pre-wiring job. You guys must be engineers. Maybe you should do this for a living. Until next time!👍
Thank you very much! But we are DEFINITELY NOT engineers 😂 we did do hours of research though… it’s lovely to hear that we’re doing well!
Hi! Subscriber 40 here! This is only the second video of yours that I've watched. I was wondering if you will have an extractor fan, like a MaxAir fan, somewhere. If you are, I did have a little tip. I've seen a lot of people putting their extractor fan somewhere toward the rear of the van, or perhaps at the midpoint. I put mine over the drivers compartment. Then I put stealth air inlet vents at the rear of the van. If you get a good fan (I really like the ten speed MaxAir fan), the air draws through the van surprisingly well, then exits out the front of the roof. I know that you have a partition wall separating your driving compartment from the living area, so you probably couldn't do what I did. But you may want to consider how you would like the air to flow when you decide where to put your fan. I'm really glad I didn't put my fan right over the bed. I'm a light sleeper and, though the MaxAir's are really quiet on lower speeds, they can be fairly loud on higher speeds, especially if it's right over your head. Oh! One last thing. I went cheap and didn't get a remote or rain sensor for my fan. They're a lot more expensive. But, with my fan way up in the front of the van, I sometimes wish I'd got the remote so I could adjust the fan speed without getting out of bed. Sorry for such a long comment! Good luck!!!
Hi Mike! Thank you so much for your suggestions, please don't apologise! As this is our first conversion we welcome any and all advice and suggestions because we are still learning a lot as we go! We actually haven't put in an extractor fan as such. The skylight we put in the bathroom has the option to add in an extractor fan which we may do if we think it's necessary once we start using the van. We have also put in an extractor fan over the cooker in the kitchen. We hope this will be enough coupled with being able to open all the skylights (and if warm weather the doors too!). Your idea to put an extractor fan in the cabin sounds really smart, I wouldn't want to put it above the bed either! Thank you again for your advice and I hope you keep enjoying the videos!
🔥
cool design, where did you find the frame/concept?
Thank you so much! So we developed the concept for this design because we had the shelves. Our van actually used to be a FedEx van and it came with 6 heavy duty shelves. We kept two and sold the other four, and that's what inspired the design!
Hi! That's an interesting idea. I've never seen that before. I suppose you've seen this, but I recently watched a video where they had a system where the bed is winched up to the ceiling during the day, making the bottom of the bed the ceiling until bedtime. I wonder if that would be better. In your system, you're kind of blocking access to the van walls during the day. I just wonder if it would be nice to have access to those blocked areas in "fold-up" mode, maybe for some kind of storage, or if you wanted to put a window in. In my cargo van, the whole ambiance was a lot nicer when I put a window in. Anyway, that was my only thought. But, it's a pretty impressive design. I've never seen anything like it. It looks like you left enough of a space for the mattress too. Very nice!!! I enjoyed the video. I'm a subscriber (number 40, I think), and I'm looking forward to following your progress. Good luck!!!!👍
Hi! Thank you so much for your thoughts (I loved hearing them!) and for the subscribe, it's so appreciated 🙏🏼 We did see the design that you mention, the one of pulling the bed up to the ceiling during the day, and we considered it, but we decided against it because we wanted to put in a skylight above the bed so that when you are in bed you can see the stars! We also decided we were going to only put in three skylights and two windows in the backdoor, so that's not an issue! As for storage, this was something else we considered, so we are compensating for it in other areas. We have quite a large kitchen with overhead storage and cupboards, which not all needs to be dedicated to kitchen things, a wardrobe type cupboard and all the storage under our seating area. We hope that will be enough! Thank you again for your lovely comment and I hope you enjoy the rest of the videos! Happy holidays ✨
I love the idea of a skylight too. But, my van is too small to accommodate a skylight and solar panels. I'm jealous. Looking forward to your next video!@@terratrotter_vanlife
@@themikeh1961 that is a shame... but I'm sure you will still come up with an amazing design!
Soooo cool! Never thought about this type of bed construction. :)
Thank you so much! We’d never seen one quite like it either 😊
Eager to see your progress. I am still in the dream stage, wishing to get a van...but a man can dream :)Take care
I was in the dream stage for a long time, it's okay, it just gives you more time to imagine and plan! thank you for the comment, it's lovely to see your support :)
Hello from Kent.... Looking good, very excited for you.
oh my goodness thank you so much! it's so lovely of you to leave a message, I'm excited to share the journey with you!
This is such an exciting project, Alba. It’s always been my dream - you are 25 plus years ahead of me but it will inspire me to get going too :).
it is truly a dream come true, so so exciting!
Very cool! Hope the next videos will be a little bit longer! :D
thank you very much! that's so nice of you to say!
Definitely!
Terracotta
yes!!
Violet?
it's actually going to terracotta!
is Terra a colour ?
Not quite, almost though 😉
Terracotta
@@AnnabethChaseFan1smarter than I!
So cool! Can I ask what Van it is?
Of course! It's an Ives Daily
Thank you!@@terratrotter_vanlife
neat, have some fun adventures
thank you so much!