This is what we call home. Small and maneuverable, slow but steady, home is literally wherever we park it. Our little 1981 Westfalia known as the PennyWagon is our adventure foundation and source of a more than a few sleepless nights.

Little miss Penny started life with a tiny 2.0L Aircooled motor boasting 67hp. Now this may leave much to be desired in a drag race, but the mechanical simplicity and worldwide parts availability were definitely a selling point. The day we bought this girl she was far more naked than the images you see above, but through countless hours of work she's now a fully-self-contained adventure mobile.

In April 2015 we took the PennyWagon as far as Guatemala and experienced the limitations of only having 67hp. We were literally stuck on the hills. After several insane tows up the side of mountains we decided to finally take the plunge and do a motor swap. Turning north we put the last couple thousand miles this little motor would ever see and began to convert her to a turbo diesel beast!

When we first bought Penny!

Penny's new TDI power plant!

If you would like to read in detail about our TDI motor-swap check them out here:

Motor Swap Part 1

Motor Swap Part 2

A preview of the ridiculous amount of work we've done while living out of our van!