Tag Archives: Campervan

Camping and Motorhome Show

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Checking my phone in bed, I see google reckons I am interested in camping and motorhomes, so Google is telling me this is the first day of the Camping, Caravan and Motorhome Show at the NEC. Quick decision, we decide to go. Good idea to see what is changing in this area.

The entry we walked into was the end with the camper vans. There were several companies who did conversions, mainly VW, but also Fords and other makes. Most of the conversions were similar to ours but different in small to large ways. There were oddities in many conversions, some blocking half of the sliding door entry with cabinets. Many cabinets were thinner than ours to get in a wider bed or leave a little more space around the bed, or even leaving horrendous metal tracking on the floor so the rear seat could move. So yes, we came away from there pretty pleased with our van’s conversion. R informed our convertor, CJ Vans.

I was interested in the electrics area and always wondered why with our conversion, we ended up with a lead-acid battery and not a lithium one. A lithium battery is long-lasting, lighter and you can discharge it down to less than 10%, making it far more powerful than the equivalent lead battery. You can also take more power out of it, and run an Inverter, running electric Induction hobs of over a kilowatt-hour. Using solar cells, a lithium battery and an Inverter you can go off-grid camping. Ha, the reason why is the cost. The battery is more than a thousand pounds, and when I had our van converted it was probably a whole lot more than that.

While we are on things to change, I still would like an external gas connector for a BBQ in the fender of the van. Saw one at Download a couple of years ago, and there seem to be people doing it on campers. I suppose using a gas BBQ will use up the gas, our small tank is still going strong after 3 years, more than 160 days of camping.

We took a look around the large vans, enquired about road permits for Switzerland, had a coffee at the Camping and Caravan Club. Decided not to buy the ACSI membership from the ACSI stand, it seemed a lot more expensive than getting it through the CCC.

We checked out the Eriba stand, the little vans are quite cute, though Eriba seems to be doing bigger vans these days. On another stand, there was a life-size Lego caravan. At first glance, I did not notice it was Lego, just thought one window was a rather odd plastic.

R and I studied the different awnings on show. We are not too happy with the ‘Shed’, rather large and difficult to get back into its bag, takes up a lot of space in the van when not being used. We might have been better off with one of the roll-out awnings, the trouble is we have a track in the place where we would have to attach the roll-out awning. Also looked at how similar awnings to the ‘Shed’ attach to campervans, took photos of the way the connecting tunnel connects to the van. Have I been doing that wrong? Not sure! Came away with a Thule catalogue as well as some lithium battery ones.

VW T5 Campervan Conversion by CJ Van Designs

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Our VW T5 campervan conversion  was completed earlier this year.  Rosemary and I decided we wanted to travel more, and not be tied to hotels or tents.  We decided on a small campervan which is as easy to drive as a car, and can be parked in most normal parking spaces.  We went with the VW  campervan dream, well OK a modern VW T5 Campervan  dream.  We bought a two year old VW T5 kombi van coloured blackberry.  It is the normal wheel base, highline model with tailgate, 2.0 litre 140PS engine.  Blackberry is a metallic paint which the DVLA calls purple.  In some lights it looks almost black, whereas in the sunshine it looks a sparkling dark purple colour, to sometimes a brown.  It’s a fabulous chameleon taking on the colours of its surroundings. 

Once we had the van, we needed it converted. Problem here was there was an unbelievable waiting list amongst all the workshops we contacted.  We chose CJ Van Designs in Wiltshire.  Colin the owner was thorough and took us through the many options we could have.  His designs for cupboards seemed to be what we wanted.  We booked the van in for conversion.  In between booking the van in for conversion, and conversion day, we took the van (& tent) for a long drive through France in September. Eventually the day for conversion arrived in January, we said goodbye to the T5, and a few weeks later we had our campervan.  It was glisteningly clean, complete with a bottle of Champagne in the fridge.

The work we had done on the van included:

  • Reimo popup roof, colour coded to the van, which contains a bed
  • Riba rear seat which converts to a bed
  • Cupboards, under sink, under bed, over sink, over the bed & inside the tailgate
  • 12 volt power and lighting
  • 240 volt hookup
  • An extra power socket near the side door, for laptop & outdoor cooking with an electric frying pan
  • Refrigerator (240/12 volt)
  • Twin ring gas hob
  • Sink
  • Diesel space heater
  • Lighting, including lights for the popup roof
  • Insulation in van walls
  • Flooring & carpeting on the sides
  • Rail for connecting an awning
  • Rotating passenger seat
  • Safe 

We did not have to install extra windows as the Kombi van has windows on both sides to part way down the van.  The extra rear seats and original flooring in the van were sold off during the conversion.  New bench-seat/bed from Riba was then installed.

Much of this work is mandatory for the vehicle to be licensed by DVLA as a campervan aka “Motor Caravan”.  Without this complete work the van would not be able to be taken to music festivals like Reading festival where their requirements for a campervan mirror the DVLA requirements.

We took pictures  for the re-registration of the Volkswagen T5 Combi van to a Motor Caravan.  The photographs had to show the registration plate of the van, the fixtures, gas, water, sink, cupboards, table and bed.  These were sent to DVLA and a couple of weeks later we had the new registration certificate.

There are some of the extra items we want for the campervan: a bike rack and an awning.  Choosing the awning is difficult. Do we want a side-less awning to keep the sun off, where we can eat and cook in warm countries, or do we want a drive-away awning with sides where we can leave the tables and chairs under cover, and change our shoes and coats in cold and wet Britain?