My novice T6 camper conversion

[stuartfras]

Hello folks,

I thought I would start a thread about my camper van conversion partly so I can look back at it and feel like I've achieved something and partly because I think it might help other folk who are starting from square one with very little working knowledge of vans and their associated bits and bobs. My dad was a mechanic and recently retired after over 40 years running his own business but unfortunately very few of the practical skills have been passed onto me!

I'm in my 30s, live in Scotland and ride my bike a fair bit and so having a van has always sort of appealed to me but I never took the plunge.

My foray into van life started after, what I thought was, a fairly tongue in cheek conversation about buying a van off a pal who runs a conversion company (PlyGuys) about a VW Caddy (SWB) he bought to convert as a proof of concept. A couple of weeks later I was the proud owner of a VW Caddy "camper". I tinkered with it a bit adding a lightbar, upgrading the head unit and fannying around a bit with some other stuff but I absolutely loved it. For anyone who can't afford a bigger van, I can say with confidence as someone who is 190cm tall, a caddy does the job. It's not perfect by any means, but a relatively tall person can camp in one without much fuss - it has always frustrated me reading on forums and Facebook about how you needed a LWB Caddy - it solves absolutely none of the problems someone would experience with a very compact van! Self inflicted issues with the Caddy were that it was too low for its own good and had rubber bands for tyres, but it looked cool to my eyes.

After over a year of using the Caddy as a daily driver another conversation with my friend spotted a fairly cheap looking T6 advertised in Castle Douglas in the Scottish Borders. It was a pretty good spec, aside from not having air conditioning which the jury is still out on for me. It had 20 inch wheels (which looked better in the flesh), was lowered slightly and had a nice sport line front bumper. Colour coded mirrors, cruise control, auto lights, reverse camera, parking sensors and brand new trim on the seats with a captains chair sold it to me. I managed to get it for £1,000 cheaper than listed with an aux belt, water pump etc all done at a VW approved garage into the bargain.

 

[stuartfras]

The new van is a T6 Trendline with a 5 speed manual gearbox and came with 100bhp. I was a bit nervous about the 5 speed manual as if I believed what Facebook told me it was underpowered (which may be the case for a conversion) and the gearbox was weak, particularly with 20" alloys. In reality, the gearbox and power were absolutely fine for a panel van and it did pretty good mpg too vs what I had read on forums.

I might add that my cars up to this point have been quite nippy so I was fully expecting it to feel extremely slow. Prior to the Caddy (which itself had more power than the T6!) I have owned a couple of Audi S3s, a Prodrive Impreza and a couple of other fairly fast cars.

Being pretty low cost was perfect for me. I don't have the money to throw at something outright so doing it in bits and pieces suits me and I work in education so have holidays now and then that I'm able to focus on it for a week or so at a time.

My first stop was to get rid of the bulkhead which was easy, until I realised there was an angle grinder requirement to remove the fixings. A good opportunity to develop those practical skills I said I was lacking! Out the metalwork came with a real sense of achievement and all 10 fingers still intact. I rerouted the cables under the passenger seat whilst doing this and learnt that putting the handbrake back together is a nightmare - I have ADHD and so I have a tendency to do something, think its fairly simple at the time, and when I come back to it I've completely forgotten every step.








I briefly had a bike rack from decathlon drilled into the floor for a stag do which was fantastic and about £400 cheaper than a branded one I was looking at specific for vans.

Next stop was to get windows fitted. I went with camperglass after considering lots of options including going down the OEM route. Ultimately price won the day and I couldn't justify spending a fortune to have a slightly different looking sliding window. On the sliding window front, I went with the flush one camperglass offer as I thought it looked a bit smarter and might minimise any potential wind noise. I didn't fancy fitting these myself as I was daily driving the van and couldn't afford to mess it up. I paid a local company to do it for me which cost around £250 which I thought was a not bad price and was done over the weekend.

I had 100bhp in the back of my mind and thought with a view to adding a lot of weight via the conversion, it could do with a bit more. I swapped the 20" alloys for Stitches and Steel 18 inch steel wheels (called "the steel") to avoid any unnecessary strain on the gearbox when adding power. The first set they sent were crap, wouldn't balance and I returned them. The set I have now are a lot better but I'm still not sure they're perfectly balanced. Particularly frustrating when I have unlimited access to a calibrated wheel balance...



Here she is parked up with a pal's T5 high top 4motion at Kenmore in Perthshire. I bought an Alpkit Double Dozer inflatable mattress for the back as I didn't have any more money to spend at that point. It worked out really well, was surprisingly comfortable and really got me in the mood to keep the van progressing!

 

[stuartfras]

After switching out the wheels to avoid straining the gearbox it was time to give the old girl a bit more oomph. I had seen several Pendle Performance videos on this forum and also sought them out on YouTube. I was absolutely convinced that they were the only way to go and that they'd do an excellent job of mapping the van. I wanted Martin to tune it as he seemed to be the guy in the know and would be travelling from Inverness (!) down south to get it done, having been so convinced by what I read. I booked my slot for the rolling road and paid my deposit. What followed, was the single worst experience I've ever had with any company I have bought (or tried to buy) a product or service from.

I had noticed after booking I managed to select a bank holiday using their system. Concerned, I wanted to check to make sure they would definitely be open both as a courtesy to them but also to save me a very long drive ending in disappointment. The company describe themselves as "old school" and as such, like to be contacted by telephone and at very specific hours which are listed on their website. One week out I phoned once on the Monday. On the Tuesday I had tried several times and by the Thursday I was letting it ring out until the iPhone gave up and calling again immediately for a full hour. I emailed, I messaged on Facebook and actually resorted to finding Martin's personal Facebook page in an attempt to get a hold of him. Heard absolutely nothing back and thought ok, well if I can't get in touch I won't risk the drive. I had plans that weekend and thought to myself I'll just forget it. I got a phone call that Saturday (ahead of the supposed Monday appt) which I answered but had terrible signal. Guess who? That's right, Martin from Pendle. To summarise, I'd recommend anyone considering dealing with Pendle read the negative reviews on Google and Facebook, it will shock you.

In the end, it was taken to around 150bhp by a local mapping company with a low torque map to further avoid any undue strain on the gearbox or clutch. Like I mentioned, I had also switched to 18" alloys to try and mitigate this - I've got no real world experience of whether that would have made a difference but I decided to play it safe. Additionally, I like the look of the steel wheels! Contrary to what Pendle would have had me believe, there are lots of other people able to map a T6 and indeed a 5 speed manual!

 

[stuartfras]

Fast forward to winter 2023. I had a conversation with my PlyGuys owning pal about a conversion date. I booked for the end of March to give me a date to aim for getting the other bits and pieces done. I will choose my build in February before paying a deposit and then getting the finished product over a weekend towards the end of March.

When I bought the van, the guy that I had bought it from told me that it had been insulated, which I never bothered to check. In fairness, he had, but it was pretty low rent. I thought ok, I am as well doing this properly and decided to go down the (expensive) DodoMat route. I know that it's maybe a bit money for old rope but they have a great reputation and I wanted to make sure I was using the best kit within my budget. My hightop owning pal (see above) reckons this is a massive waste of money but I have persevered. I researched this until I couldn't face reading any more posts or watching any more videos. I decided to go with the TransporterHQ way of doing things - their videos are excellent and lots of what they were saying made sense to me. To repay them for this advice, I decided to buy all my materials direct from DodoMat instead of from them (sorry!).

I bought Dodo Mat Deadn Pro for the wheel arches, interior panels and doors, Thermo Liner Pro 10mm for the interior walls and doors and finally Deadn Duo for the floor. As I write this on Saturday 20th January, technically Sunday 21st now, I still haven't finished this job. Rather than pay a fortune again for DodoMat's fleece liner, I managed to find basically the same thing in B&Q which, for anyone interested, is called: Diall Insulation roll, (L)6m (W)0.37m (T)100mm product code: 3663602481812

I now own 4 rolls of it which is approximately 3 rolls too much!

Whilst fannying around with insulation I was still reading the forum and doing my due diligence on some stuff I'd like to add. I read a few posts that said if I was going to add a pop top, to do it before carpeting! I wanted a pop top because I was absolutely sick of getting changed lying down in the caddy and even in my pals mid-top Ford Transit Custom I can hit my head pretty comfortably standing up. I looked for ages at all the options available to me including Skyline, Vanmax, Stealth and Hi-Lo (now Horizon). Some seemed a bit chunky, some didn't do a LWB version and some never bothered getting back to me - it's difficult for me to phone during school hours so I've relied a fair bit on email.

This is where I started thinking to myself it would be nice if my van looked as standard as possible. I looked at the cheaper options and didn't really like the sort of 'plonked on top' look that some of them had. I got in touch with Horizon on their Facebook page as I had noticed that lots of them seem coy about giving you a price. They told me that if price was my number 1 issue then the roof wasn't for me. I thought, fair enough, maybe it isn't and got in touch with Van and Bus who make the Stealth pop top. Iain and Andy were very helpful and off I went to Macclesfield in December before picking it up earlier this month. Very happy with it save for a couple of small things that Iain is in the process of sorting for me - one of which is my mattress is longer and therefore heavier so I need to upgrade the struts of the bed floor to keep it up. Watch this space.

I got them to fit LED strip lights either side during install as it's something I thought I could fit myself, but didn't want to remove the carpet lining to do it once they were done. I'm very happy with how low profile the roof is and, to the untrained eye, you wouldn't know it had one fitted.

 

[stuartfras]

This weekend, I am trying to get the sound deadening and insulation finished in the van. The floor, I'm not looking forwards to at all as I need to glue batons (after cleaning) and remove all the seats again. Hopefully I have a productive Sunday after staying up until 1am writing this nonsense!

Other things which are on my radar at the moment are...

Electrics
I bought a Roamer lithium leisure battery for under my driver's seat. It's got approximately double the power my electrician mate's has but far more compact. On top of that, I bought an Alpicool fridge as it was on sale and a CTEK DC-DC charger to go under the drivers seat. The folk at Wired Campers were extremely knowledgeable and helpful. I also got a battery clamp and mount for said charger from Kiravans. I'm a bit skint at the moment so the rest will have to wait!

Diesel Heater
A must for Scotland. I decided to go down the OEM ducting route which is probably hassle I could do without but I now have all the plastic bits sitting in the study and will need to just get on with it.

Cycling
I bought upgraded struts for the tailgate but can't yet afford the Wanderway rack that I bought them to hold up, so that's to come. I also opted for a Joolca Hottap V2 which I'm wanting to use with the shower head mounted inside the tailgate, which is something else to add to my list.

Carpeting
I would like the curtains to match the drapes so to speak so I'm going to try and get the carpet from van and bus to make sure its an exact match to what they used for the pop top. Or at least that's the plan. I might see if I can buy some colour samples and maybe save some money there too.

I think that's about it for now. If you are doing your own van and think it's pretty daunting or I have no idea what I am talking about, you are correct on both counts!

 

[t6blo]

Great start to your thread here and nice van @stuartfras

 

[T6Paul]

Great read, good luck with the build.

The pop top is probably the most discrete one I’ve seen.

 

[NicolasH]

Enjoyed reading that Stuart, looks like you’re doing a good job.

 

[roadtripper]

Welcome Stuart. Clocked Kenmore straight away, one of my favourite little corners to visit

Be warned that taking part in the forum will lead you to buying things you never knew existed but suddenly need to buy...

 

[stuartfras]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. @roadtripper, that is exactly how I've ended up with a study full of OEM ducting!

 

[martan68]

A very good story Stuart, some of which seem to be my quandry as well, i dont like the normal poptops and not sure if i really need one. And still unsure what else i do or dont need, like leisure battery or heater.

 

[stuartfras]

A very good story Stuart, some of which seem to be my quandry as well, i dont like the normal poptops and not sure if i really need one. And still unsure what else i do or dont need, like leisure battery or heater.

At one point I actually bought a big EcoFlow power bank but I think with a fridge and other wee bits and pieces I'll be glad of the leisure battery. Rigging everything up to an EcoFlow looked a bit sketchy when I started trying things out.

I'm glad I went with the pop top, but it was a lot of money. The heater sort of goes with that living in Scotland as there will be times I need to dry it out and we dont always have the benefit of sunshine haha!

 

[The Flying Scotsman]

Welcome Stuart. Clocked Kenmore straight away, one of my favourite little corners to visit

Be warned that taking part in the forum will lead you to buying things you never knew existed but suddenly need to buy...

Ain’t that the truth.
This place has cost me a fortune
I spent a large chunk of my life growing up in Kenmore. I still up often to fish the river Tay for salmon.
I know the place like the back of my hand. I’ve got some cracking secret places to visit up there. PM me when you’re next there and I will enlighten you.

 

[stuartfras]

My journey has been continuing (slowly)!

This weekend I managed to get the wooden slats Sikaflexed down and I've covered those with Dodo Mat Deadn Duo. I was going to do the same in the cab at the front but I'm a bit worried about the clearance for my cables from the battery and the matt then having to fit on top, so I'm going to go with the Deadn Pro Hex Pro sheets I used for the panels in the panels of the van. If I have any left I will mess around with the door cards and try and get some in there but I've heard that's a bit of a nightmare.

Other forward progress I've made has been buying the van shade integrated blind/ carpeted panels which solves my issue in the rear of making the tailgate look a bit presentable. The previous owner had screwed a couple of things in there and I was keen to hide the (albeit very small) holes. I also got carpet which is yet to arrive.

I have also bought an Autoterm diesel heater and now need to find someone who has made the OEM ducting and non OEM bracket work, and those people seem to be very thin on the ground.

The plan was to begin running the wires from the engine bay through to where I'm going to park the leisure battery but I'm not sure I'm going to get round to it today!

Booked into PlyGuys for the end of March so not long to get jobs completed!

 

[stuartfras]

Hopefully have a decent update tomorrow but my takeaways from the last couple of weeks are:

- I can see why conversion companies charge so much for diesel heater fitment.
- Carpeting is both easier and more difficult than you think it is.
- I should have carpeted before insulating.
- I was completely against VanShades a couple of months ago but they've been a lifesaver.
- I'm going to need to think about raising my suspension a bit.

Collecting from the PlyGuys tomorrow afternoon and have seen a couple of sneak peaks. Looks excellent and excited to share with folk!

 

[stuartfras]

Some updated photos. Still a work in progress but delighted to nearly be at the finish line of having a functioning camper.

I was very skeptical about the amount I spent on Dodo Mat products but the difference is really noticeable when driving. Will need to wait and see if it makes a difference temperature wise in the van overnight and how quickly it loses heat without the diesel heater on.

Full disclosure: Hamish that owns the PlyGuys is a good friend of mine, so I'll spare you my fawning over their stuff but I paid for everything and I'm very happy with how it has turned out. I'm just waiting on a thunderbox from them that I can put my emergency toilet in and we will be at the races.

Priority jobs left to do:
- Raise rear suspension slightly. Not sure if it's noticeable from photos but it's on its arse a bit.
- Install and earth leisure battery under drivers seat.
- Wiring leisure battery to fuse box to sockets/ diesel heater/ LEDs/ fridge.
- Wiring in kill switch and 40A fuse between leisure battery and fuse box.
- Carpet at top of tailgate.
- Vanshade to be added to tailgate.
- Drill holder for shower into tailgate (and test whether Joolca shower works(!)).
- Swivel base for passenger seats.

Other things on my list:
- Solution for surface rust that I have converted using Hammerite.
- Some kind of solar/ air conditioning solution.
- Bike rack (and maybe ABT spoiler?)
- Additional security, maybe deadlocks for at least the sliding door.
- Some kind of cool helmet mount for the wall. Saw one I liked but it has long disappeared in amongst my phone screenshots!

 

[Gàirnealair]

Love your layout.
Wish more commercial conversions did this (but market forces probably 'expect' two belted seats in the back so I can understand why they do not)

If you haven't already finished your Thunderbox, I jut got rid of a conventional Dometic Porta-Potti and am using this 'camping toilet'
and cat litter which has turned out to be much simpler. Keep it set up in a cupboard so just as convenient and no smelly chemicals or water.

 

[stuartfras]

Love your layout.
Wish more commercial conversions did this (but market forces probably 'expect' two belted seats in the back so I can understand why they do not)

If you haven't already finished your Thunderbox, I jut got rid of a conventional Dometic Porta-Potti and am using this 'camping toilet'
and cat litter which has turned out to be much simpler. Keep it set up in a cupboard so just as convenient and no smelly chemicals or water.

Thanks for the kind words, I'm really happy with it even if it's not that conventional. The rock and roll setup might be something I look at in the future if we ever have kids but for just now this should hopefully be the perfect hill walking/ MTB setup.

I had one of those toilets in my Caddy camper but I thought with the extra room I'd go for something a bit more permanent. I ended up going for the Thetford 335 for emergencies! Helped in part by the fact that PlyGuys make a box for it that can double up as a seat. I may still take your advice RE cat litter, that's a great shout.