Paul Battenally and Clara Trindall are both Australians who met in Japan while traveling and working. They had always wanted to visit their vast country, which is nearly as large as the United States. ”
We started looking into getting a motorhome and saw a few vans, but a lot of them were quite small, and I’m quite tall, so the ceiling height wasn’t great,” Battenally explained to Insider. “Then we found the Coca-Cola truck, bought it in 2021, and began converting it.”
Over the next 11 months, the 32-year-old spent weekday afternoons and weekends restoring the $17,500 2005 Isuzu truck. “When I bought the truck, I was living in a shared house with a bunch of friends in a coastal city in New South Wales, so I worked on it after work,” he explained. “I’m a carpenter, so I had all the skills I needed to build it, and it wasn’t too difficult for me.”
The Wollongong couple moved into their tiny home on wheels in November 2021 and spent a year living in it while saving money for their dream trip. They set out in January 2023 with approximately A$40,000 to fund their adventure. The couple spent about A$17,000 on appliances, electrics, plumbing, and fixtures, and A$8,000 on truck materials. Paul and Clara are now rent-free and spend approximately A$500 per week on fuel and food.
The truck is outfitted with a queen-sized bed, a kitchen with an oven and gas stove, a compost toilet, and a shower. They keep their surfboards, dirt bikes, and sports equipment in a storage area on the outside of the truck. They kept the Coca-Cola logo on the truck’s tautliner.
They use it as a bug screen and have added a timber cladding wall behind it. The couple has a A$10,000 kitty for diesel, and the majority of their expenses are for fuel and food. They’ve recently visited the Great Barrier Reef’s Double Island and Tully Falls in far north Queensland.