Journey to Vanlife stage 1 complete!

[Paul_B]

Just put deposit down on a van. 3 year old vauxhall vivaro sportive. Went against getting a biturbo sportive 2 years older but at least this is a nicer colour for a camper (metallic blue). Plan is convert over time.

Ultimately lid, windows, line out, bulkhead out, swivel plate to passenger bench seat (possibly drivers if we can), rock and roll seat (2 seater), kitchen and all the plumbing/gas/electrics etc.

The order of attack is according to money. Overspend on the van (it is worth the money in our opinion) means initial build might not get first four items as originally planned.

Any advice from other self converting vanlifers? Self converting, as I meant, means choosing what you want even if you're still using a coachbuilder / converter to do the work.

We especially would like any advice on order of conversion. Can you retro fit a pop top lid afterwards? It's cutting a hole afterall, does it really matter if the hole is cut in a lined roof a year down the line?

 

[Woody girl]

I converted an old transit van (well my fella did most of the work to be honest) many years ago and we were on a miniscule budget. It was a very rough and ready job but we found a caravan scrap place and managed to save oodles of money by getting a cooker and sink unit from an old caravan. We didn't have a fridge just a cool box and the tap was a foot pump type with a single tap. We also got a cassette toilet. All needed fettling. .. cleaning , etc but as we had no money we didn't mind too much. Guess who got the cleaning jobs? The port a potty was 'orrible but it came up fine in the end. Rubber gloves and a nose clip were in order that day! We had plans to insulate and make it better over time but it dramatically failed the mot so we ended up scrapping it, though I kept the fittings and still have the cooker in the loft somewhere. Sold the rest of the fittings to someone who was converting another van. I think the lot cost us about £30. Obviously prices will have changed in the intervening years but it could be a good option to save money untill you can afford better stuff.
We had no electrics as neither of us had a clue on that score and we had no insulation. The biggest thing we did was cut the roof out and put on a fibre glass roof we found in the scrap yard as the original roof was too low for a 6+footer. That added a foot or so to the headroom. It wasn't realy enough and got annoying at times so I'd say make sure you got enough headroom!