Meet Big Rig, the bus conversion worthy of a rock star

Ronnie and his bus, Big Rig, have recently returned from a lap of Australia. And now that the big adventure is done and dusted, Ronnie and Big Rig have found themselves taking calls from touring superstars, in need of a top-notch space to call home. We caught up with Ronnie, who’s based in Sydney, to find out more about renovating the bus and his epic journey around Australia.

What inspired you to renovate the bus? Have you done any fit outs before?

In 2021, once lockdowns were no longer a thing, I found myself with this huge chunk of metal just sitting there. I was very much learning on the go; I’m in construction, but very much off the tools and with absolutely zero experience of doing a vehicle fit out. It all felt very new. The wife and I had never done a paint job, for example, but we were quoted something ridiculous like $20,000, so we watched a couple of YouTube videos and got it done in three days at a fraction of the cost.

That was very much the process; watch a video, stumble through it, begin the next thing. It took eight months in total, and because we were converting a bus to a motorhome, there were also a few issues around compliancy that had to be checked off by an engineer. You have to meet certain criteria, like having an outward-opening door, separate cooking and eating areas and the amount of beds as there are seats. I was lucky to get hold of the list before I began designing the fit out.

Tell us more about Big Rig. What does it cost to renovate a bus like this?

Big Rig was born in 1990, same as me, which is one of the reasons I was drawn to it. But the big reason was the low kilometres. It’d been in storage for 10, 15 years and only had 180,000 kilometres on it. These big diesel engines get serviced around the 1,000,000-kilometre mark, so it’s still very much in its early stages of life.

I got the bus for $20,000, which I thought was a really good deal. Then I spent around $100,000 on the fit out, including checks and engineer reports and everything. Solar was the most expensive thing, but now the bus can run all day and night, with AC, while off-grid. In Darwin, we had two ACs cranking without having to tap into the battery at all. The electrical set up cost $15,000, but at my age I’ve done enough of choosing the cheap option only to pay for it down the track.

How was your lap of Australia?

We went anti-clockwise and tried to chase the warm weather. We left in mid-September and didn’t really get any rain until we hit Esperance, in Western Australia. We loved the rainforests in Far North Queensland and travelling through Darwin and Katherine, which was as close to the desert as we got. But Western Australia, where red rock meets the water, was my favourite by far. Ningaloo, Exmouth, Shark Bay, Monkey Mia – I couldn’t get enough of that coastline. It was just sunset after sunset and so laidback compared to the east coast. We were driving a 12-metre bus but people were happy for us to park up anywhere.

Do you have any tips for someone contemplating the Big Lap ?

I’d say you have to be adaptable and ready for change. You can plan as much as you want, but once you’re on the big, bad adventure, you’ve got to be ready for anything. It’s definitely an adventure, not like you’re sipping mojitos by the beach in Bali. There are tough times, good times. Highs and lows. I mean you’re circumnavigating a continent and there are harsh environments. I’m a city slicker, and trust me, it was a pretty rude shock. Minor things stuff up and you’ve got to be a bit of a bush mechanic, as they say. You’re living off-grid for a long time, so a lot of thought has to go into the days ahead.

We heard Post Malone was interested in Big Rig. What happened there?

I thought someone was pulling my leg, to be honest. I got a call from one of the event managers from Sydney Showgrounds. He wanted the Big Rig delivered to the showground but I’d just lent it to my parents for two weeks, so it wasn’t clean. He said it was for Post Malone, who didn’t like his changeroom and had his team looking for another option. But negotiations didn’t work out in the hour, hour-and-a-half, turnaround time, and I couldn’t find time to organise it or move the bus while I was at work. Hopefully one day.

Ready to take van life to another level? If you’ve got a medium-rigid license, you could be driving Big Rig into the sunset. Just be sure to book before Post Malone gets another chance.