VW T4 related camper van content...
- Thread starter timbob
- Start date
I am still in the planning and budgeting phase and finding a perfect donor coach but will be doing a YouTube channel as well. Plan is to travel Europe and Asia with it
Please pm me when you start
Correct. Haven't seen the need so far - everything is going to be contained within the cabinet which runs the length of the offside. There's no bathroom, we're not having a TV or any other fancy pants electrical stuff.
Plan is for the leisure battery to go either under the driver's seat or under the bonnet. Fridge, all the split charge/electric hookup stuff, water container and pump, any simple stereo speakers etc will live inside the cupboard units and run inside cable runs inside this. Will mount a couple of angle poise or goose neck type LED lights to the outside of the cabinet and possibly an LED light strip under the bottom of some cupboards over the sink but there's going to be no ceiling mounted lights as the plan is to put a pop top in in the next couple of years (when funds allow) so any lights up there will be redundant in the end.
We'll see how we go, but I'm not envisaging the need for anything else? If we do decide we need an extra LED reading light over on the other side or something, it's a simple 10 minute job to unbolt and replace the wall panels to run any wires behind it.
Long overdue update time! (Edited to hopefully finally fix images...)
Late spring and early summer seemed to go by in a flash. The wife and I booked ourselves an epic roadtrip to Scotland - all the way up and round the top, and back via two weeks of island hopping and ferries. I figured a deadline was the best way to get things cracking!
First things first, we finally decided on a bed. We went for the traditional 3/4 rock and roll bed arrangement as there's soon to be an extra addition to the family - and extra (safe) seating was a must. Eventually, we ordered a Blade2 bed from Caledonian Campers in Glasgow. We hired a van from them for our honeymoon a couple of years ago and the service was excellent. They're now on the market with their own in-house bed which is competitively priced and well built. One trip to Glasgow later, the bed was in:
Once the bed was in, the final measurements could be made to get started on the cabinets. The other half's dad was able to supply a decent amount of quality birch ply which was the material of choice for the interior. I thought about lightweight furniture ply, but decided against it. Reasons being a) it's horrifically expensive, b) it's awkward to finish the edges once cut, c) I quite like the raw ply look for furniture, and d) the van has a 1200kg load limit - so weight isn't exactly an issue.
We sat down in the van and drew up a set of plans for the interior cabinets. We've gone for a sliding drawer for a thermoelectric coolbox instead of spending £600 on a fridge, two drawers above two cupboards, a tall side wardrobe with a tamour/sliding door above a gas cupboard which will be accessed from the rear. All fairly standard, but I didn't want to be spending a grand on a kit, or pre-made kitchen.
Initial progress:
Wardrobe taking shape:
Worktop cut to size and aperture for the sink cut out, many coats of lacquer and fettled into place:
Taking shape - 12v electric cables run along trunking to the rear of the cupboards:
Gas pipe going in, and mains hookup/leisure battery kit installed:
Swivel seat base in for the passenger seat:
Aaaaand, to cut a long story short - not finished entirely, but to a degree suitable to go away on holiday in. With about 12 hours to spare....! Managed to beat a seemingly endless "finishing off" to do list - fire extinguisher in, make a table and fit the table rail, fitting the sink and hob unit, connecting the gas supply up, wiring for the lights, pump and plumbing for the water, drop out vents.... etc etc etc:
And a few snaps from the van's first outing - our (perhaps slightly foolish) 18 day, 2400 mile, 6 ferry road trip round Scotland. In which the van performed flawlessly:
A few more bits to do to really finish off this initial first phase. There's some shelving to go in to the rear of the wardrobe area for example, and a cab-curtain to go across behind the driver's seat but nothing major. The next big change will be a pop-top, but there's a bit of saving to do first!
Late spring and early summer seemed to go by in a flash. The wife and I booked ourselves an epic roadtrip to Scotland - all the way up and round the top, and back via two weeks of island hopping and ferries. I figured a deadline was the best way to get things cracking!
First things first, we finally decided on a bed. We went for the traditional 3/4 rock and roll bed arrangement as there's soon to be an extra addition to the family - and extra (safe) seating was a must. Eventually, we ordered a Blade2 bed from Caledonian Campers in Glasgow. We hired a van from them for our honeymoon a couple of years ago and the service was excellent. They're now on the market with their own in-house bed which is competitively priced and well built. One trip to Glasgow later, the bed was in:
Once the bed was in, the final measurements could be made to get started on the cabinets. The other half's dad was able to supply a decent amount of quality birch ply which was the material of choice for the interior. I thought about lightweight furniture ply, but decided against it. Reasons being a) it's horrifically expensive, b) it's awkward to finish the edges once cut, c) I quite like the raw ply look for furniture, and d) the van has a 1200kg load limit - so weight isn't exactly an issue.
We sat down in the van and drew up a set of plans for the interior cabinets. We've gone for a sliding drawer for a thermoelectric coolbox instead of spending £600 on a fridge, two drawers above two cupboards, a tall side wardrobe with a tamour/sliding door above a gas cupboard which will be accessed from the rear. All fairly standard, but I didn't want to be spending a grand on a kit, or pre-made kitchen.
Initial progress:
Wardrobe taking shape:
Worktop cut to size and aperture for the sink cut out, many coats of lacquer and fettled into place:
Taking shape - 12v electric cables run along trunking to the rear of the cupboards:
Gas pipe going in, and mains hookup/leisure battery kit installed:
Swivel seat base in for the passenger seat:
Aaaaand, to cut a long story short - not finished entirely, but to a degree suitable to go away on holiday in. With about 12 hours to spare....! Managed to beat a seemingly endless "finishing off" to do list - fire extinguisher in, make a table and fit the table rail, fitting the sink and hob unit, connecting the gas supply up, wiring for the lights, pump and plumbing for the water, drop out vents.... etc etc etc:
And a few snaps from the van's first outing - our (perhaps slightly foolish) 18 day, 2400 mile, 6 ferry road trip round Scotland. In which the van performed flawlessly:
A few more bits to do to really finish off this initial first phase. There's some shelving to go in to the rear of the wardrobe area for example, and a cab-curtain to go across behind the driver's seat but nothing major. The next big change will be a pop-top, but there's a bit of saving to do first!
Last edited:
Love it, nice one. Something Id like to do again as well. Done it with a Transit a few years ago, sold it and made a wee profit but should have kept it
Hope you enjoyed Mull, love that place so damn much
edit: Images were there but not now for me
Hope you enjoyed Mull, love that place so damn much
edit: Images were there but not now for me
Last edited:
Have my images disappeared again?! I've just re-edited the whole thread for the third time to get them all visible again.... They're on google images at the moment and seem to have lasted about an hour before disappearing 
where's best for image hosting for forums these days??
where's best for image hosting for forums these days??
Soldato
I use IMGUR
Soldato
Yeah get them up on Imgur, I want to see!
Soldato
I want to see too!
Soldato
I'm between vehicles at the moment and at the start of the year I was massively looking into getting a van and turning it into a van like this. It looks so satisfying and there's so much independence (which appeals to me) The progress looks great!
Truth be told I still keep on having thoughts of doing so!
Truth be told I still keep on having thoughts of doing so!
Soldato
Great thread - sister-in-law bought my brother a tired, classic VW camper for their first anniversary. It had a refresh over the first couple of years, giving them and their boy thousands of miles of adventures over the last ten years. h
They recently sold it - which allowed the purchase of a much larger Hymer (I think they doubled their money) - now they're a family of five, the space was very much needed.
I hope you get just as much enjoyment as they did.
They recently sold it - which allowed the purchase of a much larger Hymer (I think they doubled their money) - now they're a family of five, the space was very much needed.
I hope you get just as much enjoyment as they did.