How much weight difference between a day van/full conversion?

[aworthy]

Hi all!

Roughly what’s the weight difference between a day van (pop top/rock and roll bed/small fridge unit) and a full conversion?

We’re close to finalising our requirements for our T6.1 which will also be our daily driver. A decent day van will cover almost all of our needs when going away in it, so as it’s a daily driver it made sense to me to ‘save weight’!?

I was wondering how much difference do you think it is for a full conversion? If it’s minimal (ie the weight of a person for example) I might just go for a full conversion with the mentally of ‘rather have it and not use it, than not have it and need it’!

Thanks

 

[Shaun Witts]

Funnily enough, I was thinking about that on a rare drive into the office this morning. In my case, I have low level side units that combine with a 2-seat California bench to give a full width bed. The interior is lined & insulated with a leisure battery and a smallish fridge in the storage. With a pop top as well, there can’t be much difference in weight between mine and a full-on camper with the higher kitchen worktop and wardrobe storage. I’d much rather have the full-width bed though…

 

[drinfinity]

Not much I’d say. The big weight items you already have. I used around about 4 sheets of poplar ply to do my units. If you use 15mm that’s 4x19.5 call it 80kg for furniture.

 

[aworthy]

Not much I’d say. The big weight items you already have. I used around about 4 sheets of poplar ply to do my units. If you use 15mm that’s 4x19.5 call it 80kg for furniture.

Yeh so I was guessing around 100KG~ of added stuff to get a full conversion. It just doesn’t seem right to me. That’s just like always having a 6ft middle aged man as a passenger. Id honestly have thought the extra weight for a full conversation would be more.

 

[cgtmiles]

I would have thought it would be more than that with gas, water tank, cooker sink, table etc. Also we keep our kitchen fully stocked with cooking equipment, crockery and basic long life food stuffs. The wardrobe is filled with 4x sleeping gear and boot with chairs, canopy, levelling ramps etc etc so we can just add clothes and booze and go. You may be too sensible to leave all this gear in but for me the idea of having a full camper is that you can jump in it and go. FYI, it’s comes in at 2.3 tons with this get up in.

 

[aworthy]

I would have thought it would be more than that with gas, water tank, cooker sink, table etc. Also we keep our kitchen fully stocked with cooking equipment, crockery and basic long life food stuffs. The wardrobe is filled with 4x sleeping gear and boot with chairs, canopy, levelling ramps etc etc so we can just add clothes and booze and go. You may be too sensible to leave all this gear in but for me the idea of having a full camper is that you can jump in it and go. FYI, it’s comes in at 2.3 tons with this get up in.

Yeh I’m thinking it should be more as well but I’ve no idea how much

 

[drinfinity]

List out all the extra items you would add, with their weights. For bare cupboards on top of your day van option, Timber 80kg. Then for the extra camper bits if you want to add them - sink+cooker 6kg, extra leisure battery 24kg (Li, depends on size of course, and you would want this anyway for your small fridge unit), plywood floor could be 40kg depending on materials, water pump 2kg. Gas 2kg (Cadac Duo + 2 spare cans. Calor in a traditional bottle is more)

Either way, you will need to budget for some sound deadening. This is heavy stuff, but you don’t need to cover every surface completely.

If you want to keep the weight of the camper down when not camping, be diligent about taking all the stuff out. I drain the water tank, and take the bedding out, but I have to confess the rest of the stuff stays in.

If your daily driver is doing lots of short journeys, regen when parked would be a useful option.

 

[aworthy]

List out all the extra items you would add, with their weights. For bare cupboards on top of your day van option, Timber 80kg. Then for the extra camper bits if you want to add them - sink+cooker 6kg, extra leisure battery 24kg (Li, depends on size of course, and you would want this anyway for your small fridge unit), plywood floor could be 40kg depending on materials, water pump 2kg. Gas 2kg (Cadac Duo + 2 spare cans. Calor in a traditional bottle is more)

Either way, you will need to budget for some sound deadening. This is heavy stuff, but you don’t need to cover every surface completely.

If you want to keep the weight of the camper down when not camping, be diligent about taking all the stuff out. I drain the water tank, and take the bedding out, but I have to confess the rest of the stuff stays in.

If your daily driver is doing lots of short journeys, regen when parked would be a useful option.

This could be a stupid question (haven’t had a coffee yet) but what is regen when parked? Haven’t come across that term before

 

[drinfinity]

If you do lots of short journeys, the DPF regeneration cycle gets cut off when you stop. Do this too often and it is bad news (long threads about it on here). The regen when parked option allows the regen to continue when vehicle is parked and you can walk away and leave it going. I didn’t know what this was when I got my van, I might possibly have spaced it if I had.

 

[aworthy]

If you do lots of short journeys, the DPF regeneration cycle gets cut off when you stop. Do this too often and it is bad news (long threads about it on here). The regen when parked option allows the regen to continue when vehicle is parked and you can walk away and leave it going. I didn’t know what this was when I got my van, I might possibly have spaced it if I had.

Oh wow that makes sense! Yes I can cycle to work for most days in summer, but winter I usually drive and it’s about 10mins so very short!

Is the regen thing a spec from VW or conversion companies? Sounds like a sensible option to save some pain later on!

 

[drinfinity]

VW spec. It’s a bit obscure though.

 

[ginkster]

To give you an idea of weights, the Mass in Service of my T28, 110kw, manual panel van was 1961kg (‘theoretical’ weight inc 75kg for driver and kit). When I weighed it last year post conversion it was 2280kg which included full tank of fuel and adblue, full side kitchen (inc chest fridge, sink and twin hob), 907 gas bottle, 30kg leisure battery plus electrics, diesel heater, Reimo pop top, sliding RnR bed, tailgate bike rack and about 20kg of equipment (pans and stuff!). There were no water or people.

Rough figures that is approx a 400kg increase but taking away the excess and the bits you have (pop top, RnR etc) it leaves about 150kg. The MIS is based on a sample vehicle and can have a pretty large variation, possibly up to 100kg. To check this figure a pretty standard SWB side kitchen from Evo Designs weighs 90kg according to their website so approx 100kg is probably a good baseline. So the equivalent of a larger adult, or a full tank of fuel and adblue (vs empty) or 5% of the MIS. Personally there is absolutely no appreciable difference in driving dynamics or economy when I put an extra 100kg in the van. The pop top however has far more effect given its weight is high up.

I’d say don’t worry about having a conversion as you already have the heavier items in the pop top and RnR bed, just get what suits your need or what you find on the market.