Meet Milly, the 30-Year-Old Military Vehicle Turned Into the Ultimate Campervan

Paul Jackman is a factory worker from Lincolnshire, East Midlands, in England, who calls Milly his home. Milly is an old ex-military truck that's been converted into what adventurer and journalist Ben Fogle described on the latest episode of Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild on Channel 5 as "the ultimate caravan."

We tend to hear descriptors like "ultimate" a lot these days, especially when it comes to motorhomes of all shapes and varieties, but Milly does seem to fit the bill.

A relatively recent conversion completed in the spring of 2020, right before the entire world was forced to shutter due to the health crisis, it's traveled across the country while serving as Paul's permanent home. And it's just getting started with the travels.

Since the New Lives in the Wild episode focused on the vanlife community, which counts some 120,000 members in the UK, the chat with Paul revolved mostly around the topic of parking, overnight stays, and the locals' reception of Milly when they show up.

Paul also went to great lengths to emphasize the fact that he was forced into this lifestyle by his 2015 divorce and the realization that he couldn't afford to pay for another house, not when he had to pay child support as well. And that was before the cost of living went up!

Paul already had some experience with living a more or less unconventional life by that point, though. He had a van that he'd travel in on the weekends, so he moved into it for a while. Then, he lived in a narrowboat, which was convenient but, according to his two boys, too slow in moving around, so he decided to switch it up.

This is how he settled on the DAF truck, a 30-year-old military vehicle that would become Milly, 8 meters (26.2 feet) long and 2.4 meters (8 feet) wide. The DAF 4X4 T244 truck cost him some £6,000 ($7,600 at the current exchange rate) to buy, but he invested another £50,000 ($63,200) in the conversion, which was done by professionals LGF Commercials in Oldham.

In the end, he wound up with a fully custom rig that allows him to go off-grid for an entire month if he wants to.

This is how he settled on his online moniker, Off Grid Nomad. Milly has solar panels on the roof, a generator, and a 200-liter (53-gallon) fuel tank, while smart planning allows him to buy and freeze food supplies to have on the road. Paul prefers to park in free parking spots, though he says he never lingers in one place for more than two nights for fear he might upset the locals.

Whenever he needs to empty the waste tanks or fill up with water, he pulls in at a camping site, where they charge £5 to £10 ($6.3-12.6) just for that. If he can, he opts out of staying for the entire night because prices usually start at £30 ($38) per night.

Milly can sleep up to four people and the "guard dog" Roxy, who is really more like a mascot than doing any actual guarding of anything. There's a comfy king-size bed at the rear and a dinette that converts into another two-person bed, so Paul and his two boys have plenty of space and privacy when they start off on their weekend-long adventures.

Milly's rugged, very competent interior hides all the creature comforts of a modern home, from central heating and WiFi to a washing machine, all the necessary kitchen appliances, a couple of TV sets, a shower and toilet, and even a coffee station. You can do with a lot of things in life, but coffee – or a good cup of tea, if you're British – shouldn't be among them.

Milly also has ample storage both inside and outside, a terrace on top of the driver's cabin, and a bike rack at the rear. Because of the truck's size and capabilities, whenever he's not working at the factory during the week or traveling with his two boys, Paul uses it to volunteer as a search and rescue driver. He tells Fogle that he believes gestures like that help fight the misconceptions that vanlifers are travelers, i.e. gypsies.

So there you go. If you ever find yourself thinking that many vanlifers are probably bored youths looking to make some money without actually having to work, Paul and Milly are here to show that they're not all like that.

As Fogle says on the show, Paul is a "very decent bloke," the Everyman that was forced to live a very ordinary life in an extraordinary way. And he plans on doing it for as long as his health allows him to climb in and out of that truck.