dave renton
Member
Hi, People on this site have been very generous with their support and have given me some great advice. It seems only fair to post a few pictures and relate my experience.
First some context: we had converted a T4 20 years ago and after 260,000 miles we felt it was time to move on (somewhat reluctantly)
We rather wanted to find someone who would build us the van we wanted, but that turned out to be difficult, understandably most independents were reluctant to get involved in a truly bespoke project. As a result, we decided to do it again. We would have the roof fitted and we reused our Variotech bed. Jerba did the roof we went for this as it has a 100kg load limit and we wanted to carry our sea kayaks. CMC Kent did the Variotech rails, floor, and Webasto. Originally I was going to do the floor and heater, but we got delayed by Covid and so it made sense to give them the job while the tank was down.
It is a conventional layout with a driver's side kitchen obviously the Variotech determines a lot of the design. Last time we built our own fridge using an evaporator plate and a compressor this time we went for a commercial toploader, we also opted for a gas box.
We use our van all year and ski in the Alps in winter. I included pictures of the "pop-top" silver screens the roof jacks are for heavy snow loads. We have the Reimo roof bed which will fit, but I think I will hang on before fitting it, as the shelf shown in the picture is proving very useful. In the end, we may opt for three shelves that will stack at the end or go end to end to make a bed with a Thermarest. We also fitted a mains outlet on the back of the driver's seat, so a fan heater sits nicely between the front seats without trailing cables. I have already posted about the frustration of the driver's seat swivel in the end I fitted a handbrake lowering kit and that solved the problem. I am retired, so could pretty much work full-time it took 10 weeks to do the build. Hope that has been of interest thanks again for the advice. A couple of things you guys might have ideas about: the Fiamma bike rack is very high I want to lower the platform. I did this to a friend's T5 and he then used a trailer lightboard as the lights are obscured. Is the going rate for a fitted trailer socket £500? The tap works fine, but the water flow pulses. Set up is CAK underfloor tank, Shureflo pump, Dometic tap. I wonder if it could be air locking?
First some context: we had converted a T4 20 years ago and after 260,000 miles we felt it was time to move on (somewhat reluctantly)
We rather wanted to find someone who would build us the van we wanted, but that turned out to be difficult, understandably most independents were reluctant to get involved in a truly bespoke project. As a result, we decided to do it again. We would have the roof fitted and we reused our Variotech bed. Jerba did the roof we went for this as it has a 100kg load limit and we wanted to carry our sea kayaks. CMC Kent did the Variotech rails, floor, and Webasto. Originally I was going to do the floor and heater, but we got delayed by Covid and so it made sense to give them the job while the tank was down.
It is a conventional layout with a driver's side kitchen obviously the Variotech determines a lot of the design. Last time we built our own fridge using an evaporator plate and a compressor this time we went for a commercial toploader, we also opted for a gas box.
We use our van all year and ski in the Alps in winter. I included pictures of the "pop-top" silver screens the roof jacks are for heavy snow loads. We have the Reimo roof bed which will fit, but I think I will hang on before fitting it, as the shelf shown in the picture is proving very useful. In the end, we may opt for three shelves that will stack at the end or go end to end to make a bed with a Thermarest. We also fitted a mains outlet on the back of the driver's seat, so a fan heater sits nicely between the front seats without trailing cables. I have already posted about the frustration of the driver's seat swivel in the end I fitted a handbrake lowering kit and that solved the problem. I am retired, so could pretty much work full-time it took 10 weeks to do the build. Hope that has been of interest thanks again for the advice. A couple of things you guys might have ideas about: the Fiamma bike rack is very high I want to lower the platform. I did this to a friend's T5 and he then used a trailer lightboard as the lights are obscured. Is the going rate for a fitted trailer socket £500? The tap works fine, but the water flow pulses. Set up is CAK underfloor tank, Shureflo pump, Dometic tap. I wonder if it could be air locking?
