Don’t worry about the base vehicle, you can up-plate a T28 very easily to T30 or T32 equivalent very easily.
Day van or full camper?
- Thread starter aworthy
- Start date
Isn't it bascially just the suspension that determines the T28/30 etc? If you go T28 and up-plate it to T30 spec - can it then be registered as T30 or will it be a 'T28 with T30 parts" scenario?
AIUI, the T28 and T30 are mechanically identical and up-plating from one to the other is just a paper exercise.
If she’s not interested, give up now & save yourself a load of money & grief.
Oh no, she really wants a van too, has for years like myself. I meant i'll see if she's interested in heading to the NEC for the show
I'd class my van as 75%camper and 25% day van. My furniture kitchen and rear storage cupboard are Vangear pods, so lighter than fitted, hopefully, with a removable Vevor fridge instead of fitted. RIB and Poptop. It's a T28 and very economical 45-55mpg over this summer.
Enjoy your planning of setup.
Enjoy your planning of setup.
Ours is a dayvan.
I started off with camper dreams, but what opened my eyes was going to see a pal that ripped all his units and sink, fridge etc out of his VW. I thought he’d ruined it, he had put a giant full width rock and rool bed in, a small overhead storage locker and a ‘pod’. I didn’t get it…
We sat in his van, had a beer, and chilled on his large sofa (rock n roll bed). He goes to cornwall practically every weekend from spring to autumn, and goes away in it for weeks at a time with his missus and two kids (turned front seats into a bed and a hanging hammock above it for the kiddie winks).
I asked how he managed, why he removed his wall full of units and stuff because to me it was like a little room / lounge on wheels. He told me it was all just hassle and they didn’t need it, so he ripped it all out.
What mattered most to him, was a good nights sleep. Not being squashed on a ‘3/4’ rock n roll bed, smashing his elbows and knees into units, and not being able to access the fridge or other stuff while the bed was out making it a ball ache. And when he had a ton of units, he just filled it with crap he hardly ever used. It was a twin slider too, and one door couldn’t be opened because of the units and crap in the van!
‘But what about washing up, water, brushing teeth, drinking’? He got two cheap giant bottles of supermarket water out ‘thats all the water we need, no need to descale pipes, mess about with maintenance and taking up space when it wasn’t needed’. But what about a bowl? He got out a pop up bowl and said ‘why do I need a fixed bowl, thats annoying, i can pop this out, and use it wherever I want, even outside’. What about waste water? Well of course, he just opens the door and tips the bowl down a drain or outside! Washing up plates? Bowl and supermarket water or, better still, wet wipes, and chuck them in a carrier bag and dump at the next bin you see - easy. And so on and so on.
Point being, all of those campers with 20 cupboards, units, sink, fridge, cooker, etc etc look great and all, and that’s fine if that is what you want, but ask yourself, do you REALLY want or need it? And if not, when you don’t its just taking up space.
After a while of talking it made sense, and his best advice was ‘get a van, throw a blow up mattress in it and some basics, try sleeping in it or using it, then see what you REALLY want it for’.
That was sound advice.
In the end, we ditched the unit idea and the rock and roll bed, as we wanted to use it as a van, and have access to the tailgate and back easy and also for our bikes, and so on. So we kept it minimal. For running water we use a £5 plastic go outdoors pop out container with a tap - has done us perfect all year, plus portable and we can take it outside! We’ve got a diy extendable sofa bed, diy bike holder, diy toilet stool and storage, magnetic hooks that can be used inside and outside. and we can re-arrange things how and when we want, remove the toilet / stool, remove storage bins, remove cool-box, I can ever removed the entire bed with two bolts and its back to a regular nice van to move my daughter to / from uni, or do whatever.
I guess the point of all this is, get a van, use it, and don’t stress over trying to predict what you need. Once you start using it, you will figure it out.
Our van currently doesn’t look ‘fancy’ inside or all singing and dancing like some I’ve seen at shows, I’ve not even got around to getting the foam upholstered yet for the bed or cushions, its definitly a day van, but it’s done everything we wanted it to this year and been super flexible. If we’d have randomly spent money on units, a rock and roll bed blocking the back and so on, we couldn’t have done a lot of the stuff we ended up wanting to do with it this year.
Some random pics of what its helped us with this year as a van
Good luck!
I started off with camper dreams, but what opened my eyes was going to see a pal that ripped all his units and sink, fridge etc out of his VW. I thought he’d ruined it, he had put a giant full width rock and rool bed in, a small overhead storage locker and a ‘pod’. I didn’t get it…
We sat in his van, had a beer, and chilled on his large sofa (rock n roll bed). He goes to cornwall practically every weekend from spring to autumn, and goes away in it for weeks at a time with his missus and two kids (turned front seats into a bed and a hanging hammock above it for the kiddie winks).
I asked how he managed, why he removed his wall full of units and stuff because to me it was like a little room / lounge on wheels. He told me it was all just hassle and they didn’t need it, so he ripped it all out.
What mattered most to him, was a good nights sleep. Not being squashed on a ‘3/4’ rock n roll bed, smashing his elbows and knees into units, and not being able to access the fridge or other stuff while the bed was out making it a ball ache. And when he had a ton of units, he just filled it with crap he hardly ever used. It was a twin slider too, and one door couldn’t be opened because of the units and crap in the van!
‘But what about washing up, water, brushing teeth, drinking’? He got two cheap giant bottles of supermarket water out ‘thats all the water we need, no need to descale pipes, mess about with maintenance and taking up space when it wasn’t needed’. But what about a bowl? He got out a pop up bowl and said ‘why do I need a fixed bowl, thats annoying, i can pop this out, and use it wherever I want, even outside’. What about waste water? Well of course, he just opens the door and tips the bowl down a drain or outside! Washing up plates? Bowl and supermarket water or, better still, wet wipes, and chuck them in a carrier bag and dump at the next bin you see - easy. And so on and so on.
Point being, all of those campers with 20 cupboards, units, sink, fridge, cooker, etc etc look great and all, and that’s fine if that is what you want, but ask yourself, do you REALLY want or need it? And if not, when you don’t its just taking up space.
After a while of talking it made sense, and his best advice was ‘get a van, throw a blow up mattress in it and some basics, try sleeping in it or using it, then see what you REALLY want it for’.
That was sound advice.
In the end, we ditched the unit idea and the rock and roll bed, as we wanted to use it as a van, and have access to the tailgate and back easy and also for our bikes, and so on. So we kept it minimal. For running water we use a £5 plastic go outdoors pop out container with a tap - has done us perfect all year, plus portable and we can take it outside! We’ve got a diy extendable sofa bed, diy bike holder, diy toilet stool and storage, magnetic hooks that can be used inside and outside. and we can re-arrange things how and when we want, remove the toilet / stool, remove storage bins, remove cool-box, I can ever removed the entire bed with two bolts and its back to a regular nice van to move my daughter to / from uni, or do whatever.
I guess the point of all this is, get a van, use it, and don’t stress over trying to predict what you need. Once you start using it, you will figure it out.
Our van currently doesn’t look ‘fancy’ inside or all singing and dancing like some I’ve seen at shows, I’ve not even got around to getting the foam upholstered yet for the bed or cushions, its definitly a day van, but it’s done everything we wanted it to this year and been super flexible. If we’d have randomly spent money on units, a rock and roll bed blocking the back and so on, we couldn’t have done a lot of the stuff we ended up wanting to do with it this year.
Some random pics of what its helped us with this year as a van
Good luck!
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We have a full camper as our daily driver, but with narrow units and a 3 seater rock and roll bed. We are looking at buying a new to us van next year and having it converted. Our perfect interior would have low units front to back so there are windows all the way round, making it much more pleasant for the rear passengers. A 3 seater rib bed on rails so there is room for luggage or other bulky stuff and a pop top. The only thing we can't decide on is 2 or 3 seats at the front. As has been suggested look at what is available. There are converters out there that will do what you want rather than have a range of interiors that are standard .
Richard Fox
New Member
Hi , which company did you use in Shrewsbury
Regards Richard
Richard Fox
New Member
Hi, Company's name please
Regards Richard
Good point well made. There’s absolutely no point in putting a top end conversion in a bottom end van.I think when we're talking about numbers this big I'd put the focus on value rather than price. £45k is a lot to drop on something that you ultimately find isn't quite suitable for your needs once you get out in it. That's why hiring one first is also a great idea as you'll quickly get a feel on things like storage, how much space you need, whether a 3/4 bed works for you or if you need something wider, who sleeps where to make life easier with the baby etc. etc.
My own process has led me to going for the best spec van I can afford on the basis that you can change the interior but you can't change the base van without replacing it! T30, front and rear parking sensors, reverse cam, adaptive cruise control, DSG are all things I wouldn't want to be without personally and I couldn't find a used van with all that kit for less than I'd pay for a new one (accepting I'll have a lengthy wait for it). I plan on keeping mine for many years as the kids grow up and I know three years down the road I'll be happier having a van with that kit on it than I would be with a 110PS, so am happy to spend a bit more.
Maybe make a shortlist of what's important to you from a base van spec perspective and then look for a used one and compare it. Again, hiring one may also help to work out what you do and don't need (a T28 with a 110PS would be an excellent hire so you can see what you think of the engine performance).
Oh and at the end of the day, the best value for you could well end up being spending 45k on a pre-converted one, I am not saying you have to spend more and go totally custom to be happy with your purchase. It's just about making sure you get value out of whatever you end up spending
Buy my low mileage camper for £37kGreat info on this forum
Currently living in West London for a few years (due to work, not choice
Our plan is to replace our car and have the Van as the daily driver, we want to just find somewhere during the week (probably use pitchup) and disappear for a few days over the weekend with baby+dog! Probably find a site with toilet/showers and just explore the area a.k.a pub. I have a few questions initially:
1: This is the sort of thing we've looked at: Clicky click, clicky click again . Is it worth getting a diesel heater added if we plan to use the vehicle in autumn/spring time - or is it not needed?
2: Has anybody else swapped their car for a van and used it as a daily drive/commuter car? It's approx 30miles a day of driving to work and back.
3: Babies! We have a <12 month old baby, anybody tried camping with a baby this young? I've seen there are loads of tips and tricks you can do to make it easier. We'd 100% want a pop top so we can sleep up top, then baby+doggo would sleep down below (at least that's the plan initially!)
4: How do you rate camperking conversions? The place in the link above ^^ deals with primarily camperking conversions, please don't judge us for buying a blank van and doing the conversion ourselves, we just don't have the time.
5: Any issues with the T28 van that I should be aware of while shopping around?
6: What are the MUST HAVES for your camper? For us its 100% pop-top and an awning! I've seen a few vans with microwave/grill type setup - is it worth it?
And finally, are we being stupid in going for something almost brand new at £45-50k? With it being our daily driver I was worried about reliability issues with buying an older van/camper with 80~k miles on the clock for £20-25k.
Thank you, really excited
After a lot of travelling around the country visiting many converters I chose Rolling Homes. I liked their use of solid oak but the real clincher for me was when the boss didn't turn away from my need for an interior shower in a pop top. I mean a proper shower, in the middle of the winter when the doors are closed. Not a shower out the back for cleaning wellies. We sat down and he listened to my special needs and found an answer. There were a few compromises of course such as the shower tray could not be sunk below the floor because of a crossmember but he even found a way of fitting everything in a SWB which is great for me as it's my daily driver too and will park anywhere you can fit a family saloon. I've made a number of modifications myself to make the vehicle even more user friendly and completely self sufficient for wild camping. Basically I'm happy with what that company did for me and after five years of very mixed driving...I'm still happy.
The raised shower tray where I can store the curtain and frame courtesy of Rolling Homes. The hose and trigger plug in the side of cupboard and the heat exchanger is under the sink unit.The toilet with a box and seat that can be dismantled if necessary is by me. Great place to sit and watch the world go by with first coffee in the morning.
Volkswagen Campervans, Specialist Dealer & T5 T6 Conversion Expert
We specialise in Volkswagen Transporter Campervans & Conversions. Browse our latest stock and contact us for more information on our range.
www.vw-t.co.uk
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@Richard FoxVolkswagen Campervans, Specialist Dealer & T5 T6 Conversion Expert
We specialise in Volkswagen Transporter Campervans & Conversions. Browse our latest stock and contact us for more information on our range.
My Google review: Google review of VW Transporters Ltd by Peter Massey
RobbieHall81
New Member
Hi just wondering what your 6 month old slept in or how you set up sleeping arrangements? We have a 7 month old and want to plan a trip in our van soon
We put our little one across the front seats in a sleepy head inside a dog hammock type thing with mesh sides so they couldn’t climb / fall out.
