Nick & Lil
Name: Nick and Lil
Based: Australia
Instagram: @outbackgearsolutions
1. Tell us about yourself. What makes you tick?
We’re a young couple from the east coast of Australia. We’ve been living out of our Troopy (affectionately known as Jenny) for the last two years and counting now and we absolutely love the lifestyle and freedom it provides us. We’ve never wanted to live an overly conventional life, constrained by the expectations of society and the monotony it brings with it, so living this way has kept us excited and horny for life and the experiences that it has to offer.
2. Tell us about your rig build. What sets it apart from the rest?
Jenny is literally our home on wheels, ‘home is where you park it’ couldn’t be a more relevant cliché for us. She’s got a pop top and interior fit out complete with a kitchen and dining suite which means we have a fully functional indoor living space. This has been priceless for us when the weather is average outside and means we can still cook a meal, clean up and knock back a few beers in comfort out of the wind and rain.
All the bar work is completely custom which gives her a unique look and the sunrise stripes help her stand out from the crowd. We love her retro yet modern aesthetic and it’s always a pleasure to look back and check her out as you leave her behind in the carpark.
We’re able to carry 180L of diesel, 102L of water and have 200W of solar power which means we can be off-grid for about 3 weeks before we need to think about re-filling the pantry and tanks (and maybe consider taking a shower).
3. What is Outback Gear Solutions?
Outback Gear Solutions is our business but to us it’s more of a hobby and passion project. We design and market creative, top quality, 4WD gear bags that are 100% made in Australia, from Australian materials. Living on the road full time has given us a unique insight into the realm of functional touring storage and we love that we can bring our quirky ideas to our customers. We get a real kick out of what we do and it makes us happy as a pig in shit to see others benefiting from the products we release.
4. You spend quite a bit of time away from the office, how have you managed to find that co-existence between work and play?
As long as we’ve got a half decent internet connection we can always work remotely and to be honest it doesn’t feel like work to us. We genuinely love what we do. At times when we head completely off-grid we just put notices up on our socials and website. I think that our small but loyal customer community understands and appreciates that we’re not living a 9 – 5 life and don’t mind if we’re sometimes a little slow to reply to enquiries or a product sells out before we have a chance to restock it etc.
5. What is one piece of advice you’d give to those who’re chasing a similar lifestyle to you?
Dive in sister, balls to the wall. When we first made a commitment to start OGS and move into a 2m2 tin can on wheels we had basically no business experience what so ever. Our mantra was like ‘hey if this works out then that would be f**king amazing, but if it doesn’t then hell at least we learnt a lot in the process.’ We put the hours in and I still can’t believe how much it’s grown in the last few years. In the beginning we would have been stoked to buy a case of beers every week if we made enough from the sales, and now it’s at the point where it’s our primary source of income. Life’s too short not to give something your passionate about a crack, just jump in and see where the road takes you. I also am definitely not qualified to be giving business advice so if you go bankrupt then please don’t email me.
6. Finally, what is your all time favourite camping spot?
We get this question a lot and it’s always a tough one to answer. Australia has some very unique and diverse landscapes (and some ripper outback pubs) which makes it a bloody excellent continent to travel around. If we HAD to decide we would probably have to say the Kimberley region (Western Australia), Cape York (Queensland) and Tasmania as a whole, but if you shout us a beer around the campfire and have a few hours to spare we’d be happy to rattle off the full list.
Go follow Nick & Lilli's adventures on Instagram: @outbackgearsolutions
& check out Outback Gear Solutions range here.