I would say it all started back in 2015 when I was 24. I had just become a self-employed plumber, a trade I studied in college following in my father’s footsteps. To celebrate, I gave myself a couple of months off before I was due to start my new life as a self-employed plumber.
I decided to choose 8 weeks in the French Alps, skiing and soaking up the local culture. It was here that I discovered Manu Fombetirre, a freestyle skier who travelled in a converted bus called ‘The Chanchita’. At first, I was blown away that people actually lived like this.
When I got home, I began to follow numerous Facebook pages, all filled with like-minded individuals travelling the globe in their tiny homes – with some choosing to live this way full time.
At the time, it was a completely new concept to me, and I quickly fell in love with the idea of having a tiny home on wheels that you could use to explore the world.
It wasn’t long after that I bought Bruce, a Mercedes-Benz 709. Using the skills I had learned through years of working on a building site, and with a lot of trial and error, it took me just over a year to renovate Bruce. I took a lot of inspiration from other tiny homes and mixed that with my own ideas to create my first tiny home.
Once complete, I shared Bruce on Facebook, and surprisingly, it went viral. Over the next few weeks, I was flooded with messages of praise commending me on how well the van looked. I then had people asking if I could build them their very own tiny home.
Then, it clicked.
After a long think, and working out if this could work, Supertramped Co was born.
– Ashley Webber, founder of SupertrampedCo.
Bruce
