The couple behind, Charlie and Dale climbing vancombine their technical background with a love of the great outdoors to run an off-grid electrical systems business.
Charlie Rowe and Dale Comrie have lived, traveled, and run companies nomadic energy From full-time campers from 2021.
Their business is online only, so a reliable website resource is a lifeline for the couple. Hostinger has allowed them to explore nature while growing and driving audience demand.
Off-grid settings
It’s no surprise that Charlie and Dale met on a mountaineering trip.
“Climbing and living in a van are synonymous,” says Charlie. “I often see people bringing campers into his climbing area, combining the comfort of home with his roadside adventures.”
The couple dreamed of converting their camper into a house on wheels so they could conveniently embark on more mountaineering trips. They eventually bought a Ringo, a yellow ex-DHL delivery van, and started working on it. They planned to take a year off once the conversion for travel was complete, then return to work rejuvenated.
Along the way, they documented the conversion process Instagram I started a blog and gained quite a few followers as the project progressed.
Unfortunately, a week after the van’s conversion was completed, the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world. The UK went into a nationwide lockdown and Charlie and Dale’s travel plans were effectively canceled.
This has been a catalyst for greater change for both. The couple wanted to completely change their lifestyle rather than just take a year off.
carve a new path
The couple’s hobbies presented them with a golden opportunity. While modifying a van, I found it difficult to get reliable and well-researched information. Recognizing the obvious gap in the market, the couple set out to write the definitive guide to modifying campers themselves.
In April 2021, after thousands of hours of research, they published an aptly titled book. van conversion bible, Just like they moved into the van full time.
They didn’t stop there. Knowing the ups and downs of conversion and life in a van, Charlie and Dale wanted to help others. They surveyed thousands of people who want or have modified vans. This gave me a better understanding of what people find most difficult: getting the electricity right. Interestingly, this matched their own experience. So Charlie had a physics background and Dale had an engineering background.
“Sometimes when people first wire up a system, everything seems to work. But it can quickly stop working and it’s not always obvious why,” says Dale. .
Charlie further elaborates: They are inherently unthinkable because we don’t know until they actually happen. That’s when you realize you’ve been tricked. “
Shortly after the book’s publication, they launched Nomadic Energy, a motorhome and off-grid electrical system design service.
Charlie and Dale have created an ingenious system that uses the information they collect to do the math for each conversion project. “It’s like a calculator. You can figure out how much power someone is using, what kind of battery they need based on what appliances they have, what they plan to use their van for,” Charlie explains. .
Driving a fully online route
Since their business is entirely Internet-based, Charlie and Dale realized they needed to take their online presence seriously and build a robust website.
Our previous blog was barely able to keep up with the increased traffic. In short, we needed a flexible content management system to improve the SEO aspect of our site and check all our content.
The couple chose to rebuild the Climbingvan website using WordPress. I used Elementor to handle the frontend and filled it in with more structured and detailed articles.
At the same time, their new site needed a reliable web host to facilitate the growth they were experiencing. Charlie found out about his Hostinger through recommendations and his reviews online. A Hostinger customer’s positive feedback on her service made her decide to give it a try.
Charlie says that whenever he contacts Hostinger’s Customer Success, the agents are always helpful, friendly, and ready to help with any issues or concerns.
“We honestly refer to Hostinger as an engineering benchmark when it comes to providing support,” says Dale. “Sent Hostinger support screenshots and a small GIF of him, etc. It’s very, very good.
Today, the company’s website receives over 60,000 hits a month from around the world. It’s the heart of 23,000 businesses. van conversion bible Copies were sold and 34% were purchased through the site. It is also the storefront for custom Nomadic Energy electrical systems. And since Climbingvan first made its name as a blog, people have been stopping by for helpful information on modding their vans.
“We don’t have buildings, offices, shops, etc. The website is literally everything to us,” says Dale.
Future trip
The couple’s passion project, Climbingvan, has grown from just Charlie and Dale to a team of eight. All involved lead a nomadic off-grid life. And with Nomadic Energy’s off-grid electrical system, you can work from anywhere. This ensures that their customers are served by like-minded people who actually talk to them.
Now that their business has taken off, the couple has big dreams for the future. We both agree that we like to be agile and nimble, so we don’t plan on settling anywhere anytime soon. Charlie and Dale stress that their entire business is about off-grid electrical systems, so having a physical office somewhere feels almost wrong.
That said, they dream of building their own off-grid home. The team also plans to expand to other off-grid electrical systems and geographies. The US market is particularly attractive. The United States is undoubtedly home to campers, RVs, and nomadic life.
And while planning for the future, the couple remains committed to sustainability. 1% for the planet – 1% of the proceeds will be allocated to apply solar energy to community organizations.Plus, for every book they sell, they plant a tree ecologyis an environmental organization that partners with businesses to offset their carbon footprint.
Do you live, travel and work on your own terms while giving back to the world? Mother Nature should be proud.
