Thinking of coming over to the dark side and buying ourselves a campervan. Should just state we have had 2 in the past, well one actually, one died on the motorway just after purchase. Our plans are to buy a base vehicle and have a company do the conversion.
Vehicle we have in mind is an Ldv Convoy (can almost hear the intakes of breath!!!) Why an Ldv? They are cheap, they are generally reliable, and can be quite economical, from experience you can get 40mpg out of them, driven with a very gentle right foot.(Peugeot engine)
Thinking of an ex government low mileage one, the last where made on a 56 plate I think and we shall try to find on of them. Got £3000 as a budget to buy the base vehicle.
Then we want to find someone to convert it. We could do it ourselves but our home has no drive way and there is no way am doing anything like that on a public road, don't think the neighbours would be impressed as well!!!
Conversion will be basic, a false wall across the back doors with say an 18 inch gap, for spare tyre, battery, storage. Then bench seats which will convert in to a double bed, the bed will be across the van. Behind the drivers seat a toilet compartment fitted, we shall just buy a Porta potti to go in there. Squeezing in to any available space left will be the sink unit and fridge. The fridge we want would be the biggest we could buy.
There will be no fitted cooker or oven, no onboard waste water or onboard water, would like to do them caravan style. No heating as well.
Would like the finish on the walls ceiling and floors be anything but carpet style material, we have had the grey carpet interior camper van before and we was not impressed!!!!
If you have any comments, ideas, know a good converter, etc. please, all comments are welcome.
We will be looking for a van, not a mini bus, preferably a van with a window in the sliding door, we might have to fit another window in the van, apparently the DVLA will not accept a van being registered as a camper with out windows being fitted.
We are not going down the stealth camper route but we don't want a shouty camper van with graphics all over it.
Again all comments welcome, some will think we are barking mad and hopefully one or two of you will plug in to the idea. Hope to bring it all together with a budget of £6k hey god loves an optimist!!!
Somebody posted a DVLA link on here that stated what was & what was not a campervan. Perhaps somebody will post it up again. I think you will have to fit a permanently installed cooker.
It's a shame that you haven't got anywhere to tinker with it yourself because I would've thought that getting someone to do it "professionally", would really bump the costs up....
Going off on a tangent a bit, but you'd probably get this one within your total budget, although its older than you wanted, but would save time converting it.
Just found some useful info on what qualifies as a motorcaravn for DVLA, although they do seem to change/add requirements especially regarding size of water tanks, so it may not be upto date.
Having just reread your post(properly,this time), it seems as if you don't really want any built in kit in it anyway?..and if that is the case, are you really looking to make a "campervan" as such?...aren't you really just after a van, that can be "morphed" into a basic camping base?..(a "camping" van?).
We've got a lined out and insulated Hiace van, in which I've just fitted a simple, removable, slide out bed frame. We just strap a tarp off the side or use our Quechua base tent and use standalone camping kit(stove, porta loo etc).
No insurance issues as it's "..just a van, transporting our camping equipment officer.."..
(..we'd don't bother trying to get it onto any CC sites with it though! )
I converted a Peugeot Boxer Hi top a couple of years a go. I joined the http://sbmcc.co.uk site as pepe63 mentioned. Its worth having a look around to see what people have done. You can do this wth out becoming a full member.
To give you some idea of the cost:; My van was an ex fire service van which had covered 35k miles. It cost £5k from a dealer. It was in great nic. This was the hardest part of my self build. i.e finding a straight low milage van.
Walls & roof are insulated with Kingspan sheet & foam. Lined out with ply & covered with auto gray fabric (not carpet). It has a a built in full width shower room with built in toilet at the rear. Fitted 2 ring hob with grill. on board gas. Bench seat that pulls out to make the bed. Fitted lockers. Mains hook up & 12 volt system with all led lighting. Hot & cold water tanks. Hot can be mains or draw heat from the engine as i drive along.
All the above was put togther with new parts for around £3k. The van is upto DVLA spec & is now classed as a "Motorcaravn" on the log book. Which is straight forward.
As for the insurance:- I insured it as a selfbuild conversion from the start. The insurance company gave me 6 months to do the job. Photo & update email at the end of each month so they would increase the cover value as the conversion went from a "van" to a "camper". Which has to be to DVLA spec.
All I can add is you need to start out knowing what you want your van to do & fit it out to suit. Plus if you want someone to fit it out for you your looking a adding quite a bit of cost. My guess is nothing less than £2k on top.
What ever you do have fun & welcome to the dark side
Thanks for the comments, am now looking for a donor vehicle, so far no luck, the likely ones are at the other end of the country. think I have found a converter but they are 70 miles away, so if any one knows a converter around Lancs. or Mancs. please let me know
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Topic: Our campervan plans
), it seems as if you don't really want any built in kit in it anyway?..and if that is the case, are you really looking to make a "campervan" as such?...aren't you really just after a van, that can be "morphed" into a basic camping base?..(a "camping" van?).
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