Onto converting plans in Nottingham

[mcmac74]

Evening

I’m now 90% sure I’ll be doing the base van + conversion route so a couple of questions around that…

1. I’m in Nottingham and want to stay fairly local so I can be around to check samples/ interior etc in person as it progresses. Anyone with fairly recent experience of converters in this area? I’ve already been in touch with a couple but neither long established, albeit feeling positive about both.
2. I had been considering forgoing the standard hob/ sink set up and felt I may get better use from a microwave and more worktop space for a portable electric hob/ small kettle. I hadn’t realised that you can’t use standard 240v sockets unless on grid, unless you fit an expensive converter (which also means you need a more expensive leisure battery). Most of what I do will be on grid but I hope to do festivals in it and occasional remote one nighters so I’m coming back round to the idea of the more trad set up. I know it’s very much horses for courses but what have been peoples experiences and regrets when considering the kitchen set up. Does anyone stow a microwave on board rather than having one snuggly fitted??…do you use the hob for anything other than tea water and reheating prepared food? I’m not precious but the (nice idea) of bacon sizzling on the hob is somewhat dampened by thoughts of fat spitting all over those new nicely upholstered seats
3. I’m in two minds about a diesel heater. Most of what we do will be in the warmer months, likely with pop top up. My wife is likes it warm but I imagine most of the trips with her will be onsite with hook up and a small electric heater will do the trick. I’m assured that a good conversion with good insulation mostly negates the need for a diesel heater ( when pop top is down)unless you’re off grid regularly during the colder months. £800-1000 seems a big chuck of my conversion spend for a potential non necessity… Thoughts on this?

I think that’s all for now but they’ll no doubt be more! Cheers!

 

[JOG]

The Cadac in the awning is invariably what most prefer for that bacon butty….you’ll find that very few actually cook in their van.

I have a California Beach and we have got a kitchen “pod” that can we pop in and clamp to the rails. We can use it inside or out. Best of all, we can remove it out of season as I use the van as a daily driver.

 

[Bigsidavies]

We have a traditional gas hob/sink arrangement and we mainly use the hob to boil the kettle. But if we do cook inside stuff like steak, burgers, bacon etc then we use the Ridgemonkey which contains any fat and much of the smell. Although I'd only cook like that with the pop top up and the mesh windows open on both sides.
Using a cadac in the awning isn't always a possibility for us as we tend to travel around, moving each day or two and don't put up an awning. At best we occasionally use a debus canopy.
A diesel heater is usually a very simple item to have fitted post-conversion.
We didn't have one fitted initially but after using the van over winter we decided to have one fitted. So maybe save that chunk of cash and put it towards the conversion spec you want and see how you go.

 

[Salty Spuds]

Evening

I’m now 90% sure I’ll be doing the base van + conversion route so a couple of questions around that…

1. I’m in Nottingham and want to stay fairly local so I can be around to check samples/ interior etc in person as it progresses. Anyone with fairly recent experience of converters in this area? I’ve already been in touch with a couple but neither long established, albeit feeling positive about both.
2. I had been considering forgoing the standard hob/ sink set up and felt I may get better use from a microwave and more worktop space for a portable electric hob/ small kettle. I hadn’t realised that you can’t use standard 240v sockets unless on grid, unless you fit an expensive converter (which also means you need a more expensive leisure battery). Most of what I do will be on grid but I hope to do festivals in it and occasional remote one nighters so I’m coming back round to the idea of the more trad set up. I know it’s very much horses for courses but what have been peoples experiences and regrets when considering the kitchen set up. Does anyone stow a microwave on board rather than having one snuggly fitted??…do you use the hob for anything other than tea water and reheating prepared food? I’m not precious but the (nice idea) of bacon sizzling on the hob is somewhat dampened by thoughts of fat spitting all over those new nicely upholstered seats
3. I’m in two minds about a diesel heater. Most of what we do will be in the warmer months, likely with pop top up. My wife is likes it warm but I imagine most of the trips with her will be onsite with hook up and a small electric heater will do the trick. I’m assured that a good conversion with good insulation mostly negates the need for a diesel heater ( when pop top is down)unless you’re off grid regularly during the colder months. £800-1000 seems a big chuck of my conversion spend for a potential non necessity… Thoughts on this?

I think that’s all for now but they’ll no doubt be more! Cheers!

Boil in the van, fry/grill outside. A microwave/oven/grill is a waste of space in a van imho, take up too much space, have higher energy requirements. There’s a very good reason that the gas burner/sink combo is the “trad” design….it works. We can happily live off grid in the Alps in -20C temps with a “trad” setup, and eat well. We have a gas bbq for outside cooking in warmer climes.
All just my personal opinion FWIW

 

[kipperman]

Can't comment on 1) buut
2)we relatively rarely use hob, but 90% of time is out in the awning where we just have a simple burner on top of a 907 Camping gas cylinder, as well as a remoskva ( Lakeland sell these) - and they are extraordinarily versatile, even to the point of baking bread. Never seen the point of a microwave oven.
3) Unless you particularly wish to fall out with your wife, I would reconsider the heating aspect. We spend a lot of time in the south of France, and even there I can assure you that it can be chilly in the morning. No idea who told you that with good insulation you can forgo heating as I beg to differ on that one.

Remember that you want to enjoy the experience - if it becomes an ordeal because you are too cold, or you are fed up with ping meals, then you might want to rethink

 

[sdlnet]

Evening

I’m now 90% sure I’ll be doing the base van + conversion route so a couple of questions around that…

1. I’m in Nottingham and want to stay fairly local so I can be around to check samples/ interior etc in person as it progresses. Anyone with fairly recent experience of converters in this area? I’ve already been in touch with a couple but neither long established, albeit feeling positive about both.
2. I had been considering forgoing the standard hob/ sink set up and felt I may get better use from a microwave and more worktop space for a portable electric hob/ small kettle. I hadn’t realised that you can’t use standard 240v sockets unless on grid, unless you fit an expensive converter (which also means you need a more expensive leisure battery). Most of what I do will be on grid but I hope to do festivals in it and occasional remote one nighters so I’m coming back round to the idea of the more trad set up. I know it’s very much horses for courses but what have been peoples experiences and regrets when considering the kitchen set up. Does anyone stow a microwave on board rather than having one snuggly fitted??…do you use the hob for anything other than tea water and reheating prepared food? I’m not precious but the (nice idea) of bacon sizzling on the hob is somewhat dampened by thoughts of fat spitting all over those new nicely upholstered seats
3. I’m in two minds about a diesel heater. Most of what we do will be in the warmer months, likely with pop top up. My wife is likes it warm but I imagine most of the trips with her will be onsite with hook up and a small electric heater will do the trick. I’m assured that a good conversion with good insulation mostly negates the need for a diesel heater ( when pop top is down)unless you’re off grid regularly during the colder months. £800-1000 seems a big chuck of my conversion spend for a potential non necessity… Thoughts on this?

I think that’s all for now but they’ll no doubt be more! Cheers!

I used a company near Huntingdon, might be too far for you?

​

 

[mvw]

We've only had our van since June, but so far we only use the hobs for tea/coffee or heating things up. All other "cooking" is done outside on a cheap camping stove we already had. We also have a gas grill, but we've never used it. By the looks of it the previous owner didn't use it either. When we were looking for a van I had these great ideas of cooking in the van and using the grill for breads, bacon, etc. But after we got it I didn't want to stink the van out with cooking smells so more than happy to cook outside. When it gets too cold I think I will try a ridgemonkey to see if that could be a compromise. But definitely wont use the grill so that's just taking up space and if I can find a way to remove it, I will. The sink/water is an interesting one as well, when we've loaned vans in the past we'd used them for a full week or more and having the water in a sealed tank fillable from the outside worked really well, so we looked for a van with this set-up. In reality we mostly only do overnight stays, couple of days at the most and for that use case it doesn't work that well. We don't use the water enough to warrant filling it up (and then having to empty it) so really only use bottled water. The tap and sink are pretty much redundant, I definitely would consider if you really need one.

Our heater is gas rather than diesel, but although we don't use it a lot, when it is cold it's great just to get the van up to temperature, especially after a cold walk or early in the morning.

So for us I'd say hob and heater, yes, microwave a definite no, get something to cook with outside and think about if you really need a sink and if you do, maybe go for the ones with a portable water tank to make it easier to empty after a trip

 

[icn05]

Ten months into campervanning and after several trips ranging from a couple of nights to just over a week plus quite a few day trips my thoughts are:

Gas hob. I can see why not having one is a good idea from a having more counter space perspective, but then you’ve got to carry a portable means of cooking which takes up valuable storage space. Personally I’d rather have it than not. We cook, reheat & boil on the van hob and don’t really have a problem with smells as we open the sliding window and use a usb fan to help extract any fumes. We do have a portable electric induction hob which we use on hook up but that takes up next to no space at all.

Sink. Tbh could probably do without it, that goes for the 60 litre underslung water tank that we’ve barely used.

Heater. We have a diesel heater and do use it when off grid. We’ve used it on cooler summer nights but also camp in the colder months so wouldn’t be without it. We take a small electric heater when we’re going to be hooked up to electric.

 

[drinfinity]

We mostly do day trips for bikes or walks throughout the year, and some weekends.
Gas hob - use it all the time for tea coffee, and make food in at the weekends. With the roof up there is plenty of ventilation, no issues with cooking smells.
Sink - use it regularly for rinsing mugs. 27L underslung water, use for some trips.
Diesel heater - I bought a Chinese one before the van arrived, the most essential add on. You can go cheap Chinese or brand name Webasto, everyone has their own opinions, but heater is very useful.
Our old van had an oven&grill, we never used it.

Poptop fabric is an important consideration. I wanted a breathable canvas, rather than impermeable vinyl, to avoid condensation.

 

[Ricardo T]

Knights near Spalding might be worth considering.

 

[mcmac74]

Thanks for all those reviews of your set up…really, really helpful. I already have a camping stove / electric induction twin hob so weighing up the benefits of the onboard hob/ gas. I’ve ruled out grill / oven.

On the sink, I’m still undecided. I can see the benefits (with young kids) of teeth brushing without a trip to the camp toilet. As a compulsive tea drinker, the water on tap useful to avoid taking bottles of water. What do most people manage for a waste water capacity?…I've seen a couple of campers with water for cooking stowed under bed…but no one has pointed out where waste water is stowed if off grid?….and I’ve not yet thought to ask.

Heater, I’m thinking of adding the diesel heater later if we find we’re using into the colder months / off grid but I’m not spending until we have a clearer idea of how we’ll use it.

So…..toilets. How do folk manage this? In the awning, in the van, a no no if no awning?….pack em off to the camp toilets?

Does anyone forgo the fridge and use a plug in cool box?