On the road

for discovery

My MAN TGE is my daily travel companion and I want it to be as functional as possible. I’m looking forward to discovering even more photography on the road — during assignments in Belgium and abroad. The van is currently in its configuration phase. The insulation phase is over, but since I’ve been doing more transport work lately than expected, I’m now carefully designing how the interior should look and function.

Introducion.

I became serious about photography when I was 22. I’ve always loved creating images in a chaotic world – trying to simplify objects and sceneries. At the office, I work on cycling brands Veloe® and Van Nicholas®. During those early years, photography naturally became a part of the job — especially when working with limited budgets – it powered me to learn photography. It turned into a fascinating process: capturing a bicycle in a way that tells a story is an exciting challenge.

Not long after, a local organization asked me to photograph all kinds of entrepreneurs — people with stories worth telling. And honestly, that’s what I enjoy most: talking with people about their ambitions and setting the right mood for a shoot – portrait.

After 4 years in wedding photography – I’ve learned that a vehicle to sleep in is no luxury. Well, it kinda is when you own a MAN TGE – let me get into that later on.

For the next years – I’m curious to discover photography on the road. As I’m traveling for work, I’d like to add travel photography to my portfolio. Let’s see what happens!

Curious on how the MAN build is progressing and my photography?
Follow me at @rembrand.travel and be in the loop. 🚐 📷

Step 1.

Choose the van.

I choose MAN TGE 3.180 because of the space, height and the cost. It is cheaper than the VW Crafter – yet exactly the same. I did visit a VW dealer that didn’t had any time for me (I needed to make an appointment – impressed by the showroom but then I visited MAN (Neyt – Lokeren BE) and I had my first testride right there, sat next to the person in charge at his office, looking for possibilities. He told me the reason why MAN is more affordable is just because they didn’t had a showroom.

“Yeah, this sales person sold me a MAN – and after 10 months now, I’m really happy with it.”

Step 2.

Insulation.

After research, I landed on sheep wool and Armaflex. Little doubt on using 3M as adhesive insulation, but I couldn’t find it anywhere available in Europe.

Gluing the sheep wool, creating a framework and mount on all hole possibilities – didn’t screw anything – did use plusnuts of course. After this – I used around 3,5 packs of Armaflex: extremely adhesive and practical to cut.

No wiring yet – step by step – and actually, I don’t mind cutting the Armaflex back open – enough material to close it back up.

Step 3.

Just go.

Like we did last year – we just started riding. Well, the plan was Switzerland, the Czech Republic, but we decided we needed the sun. So we took 2 bikes (Van Nicholas®) and drove of to Spain. Using park4night and let the day decide where to go next.

After trying to fit an Ikea bed in the van – we decided to build a much stronger bedframe. Easy peasy! Installed a Ikea cabinet and loaded everything. We did bought a 57 liter freezer and a Bluetti battery with addition 100W solar panels (and we used them!)

The best way to travel – for us (Rembrand & Amber)

> See Travel Photography here.

Step 4.

Design it.

Start designing by telling Claude your thoughts. I started with a floorplan in Adobe Illustrator with the official dimensions of the van. Seems pretty good. That was the base for Claude to take it to the next step.

Have a look on how the van will look like around February 2027.