A few questions about Panel Van Conversions

[madstacks]

Hi all- hope you are well and enjoying time on the road, we are still saving and searching for our perfect motorhome - have 3 years until we buy but savings are now up from £1400 to £2000, slowly but surely going up.

This is going to be a bit of a long post

A quick background - we are saving for a motorhome to spend at least 9 months of the year in including the winter months. to travel the country for our work. and we also work online.

We had it in our heads that we needed a coachbuilt with an island bed, it would offer us the space we need with a great level of comfort. But we worry that it will be a pain to park and we need to make daily trips to the post office. also we will be pretty much spending our life savings on this van and the thought of damp issues is of the upmost concern.

Wear and tear is also a concern, we even briefly considered a caravan and tow car instead! that way we can unhitch for the trips to the post office and if we wear out the caravan buy a new one but keep the tow car, but Damp again could be an issue and it does seem to plague the whole industry. Did look round a few, but "spongy" floors seem to be a real issue as well.

So in a complete turn around we are now considering a Panel van conversion! They may be small but we like the fact they are easier to park, strong and solid, any damp issues should be able to be traced to a window or vent seal rather than structural integrity, and we feel we could use it on a day to day basis for work a whole lot easier. Plus they have great payloads (3500kg limited licence) We could even tow a very small trailer for outdoor extras like deckchairs, BBQ ect if needed but I dont feel we will need to.

We realise the thought of spending a long time in such small vans will seem like madness to some, but we do feel we can make it work and be happy, they are small, but we see them as cosy!

We have gone and looked at a few. We are considering something from shire conversions, and specifying the highest level of insulation with insulated and possibly heated water tanks.

I do have a few questions I am wondering that may make us reevaluate.

1. Do PVC vans hold up better to heavy use? there seems to be less to go wrong with them and i see some with very high mileage compared to Coachbuilt, but these may have just been converted at a much later date?

2. Can PVC vans be serviced at standard garages instead of motor home specialists?

3. Are PVC vans as welcome as coachbuilt on most campsites? (we wont be wild camping much if at all)

4. Does anyone here have any experiences with PVC vans in very cold weather?

5. Does anyone know if the windscreens on PVC vans are much cheaper to replace than Coachbuilt so we would not have to have windscreen insurance?

6. If we did go for a custom conversion from a smaller company like Shire, would that be any harder for a garage to work on compared to say an autosleeper (assuming warranty was out and we were taking somewhere else)

That's all I can think of for now, but i am sure there is more

Thank you for reading, sorry for the wall of text here - very interested in any replys! In a way I am really glad its 3 years until we can buy because the more we think things through the more we are changing what we think will be the right van for us.

 

[mitzimad]

nothing wrong with correcting some thing thats incorrect thats how rumours start

 

[ymfb]

We spent a long time thinking a CB was what we wanted, including a whole day at the NEC, but after we learned from a dealer that the best layout for us was a fixed rear bed PVCs started to become more attractive for reasons of driving/parking/servicing.

We ended up buying an AutoSleepers Kingham and so far we are very happy with its layout. Rear fixed French bed, two seatbelts. The compromises we made were manual transmission and small bathroom. We have used every gadget/appliance and have a very short list of gripes. Not everyone is as happy but we are.

Before buying our previous van a VW T5 California we looked at many conversions, none came close to the quality or functionality of the California. Some even had significant safety issues so be careful with small converters.

Good luck and enjoy.

 

[MyrtleGuru]

I think people have already answered your questions pretty comprehensively, but I just wanted to add our experience of working on the road in our van and in cold weather.

The pair of us have worked in our van (a PVC) quite often. The maximum stint was one month but we reckon if we can do a month we can do it indefinitely. I think the most important thing is to get the layout that best suits you. We went to a few shows and looked at as many vans as possible. From memory, the ones that stick out were Globecar, Wildax, Tribute, Devon, IH, but there are many more converters that would likely suit. We decided a rear lounge was what we wanted -- we can both work at the large table in there. Alternatively, one of us works in the back and the other up the front in the swivelled passenger chair with another small table. The van is 6m (well 6.128 to be precise). If there are only ever going to be two people (like us) it's worth getting a van designed for just two. That way you can save a bit of space by leaving out the extra belted travelling seats and beds. There were other things that we didn't need like a wardrobe -- unless you have suits, ball-gowns, etc. it is wasted space. A decent-sized shower room was a must for us, so we did not have to rely on campsites. Keeping things as simple as possible for maintenance on the road was also a factor.

Underslung LPG tank and solar panels with two large leisure batteries mean we can last over a month in terms of gas and almost indefinitely as far as the 12v system goes. We have 12v power supplies for everything, so that we do not need a power inverter. The water tank is 100 litres, which can see us through quite a few days, if we are careful. Similarly the toilet lasts maybe four days, but you can generally find other opportunities (or carry a spare cassette).

When it comes to winterisation, it very much depends on how you use the van. If you are going to be on electric hook-up, you can have the luxury of endless heating without gas usage concerning you. On hook-up you can also use 'fish tank' heaters to keep your fresh and waste water from freezing. We have heaters fitted in our tanks (external, but insulated), but rarely use them as we are invariably not on hook-up when they are needed and they would flatten the batteries very quickly. We have spent quite a bit of time at sub-zero temperatures and have only been caught out once, when we turned the heating off at midnight when it was a little under zero and woke at 8am to -25 degrees C. A pipe to the bathroom partially froze, so we had no water in the bathroom, but the kitchen sink was ok. No permanent damage was sustained -- it thawed in about 20 mins. If we'd left the heating on low, I guess we would have been ok. The main item to keep from freezing is the water heater -- that would be killed quite easily -- but as that is well inside and under the bed in ours, it is not very likely when the van is occupied (important to drain down when not occupied of course -- we don't have a temperature-sensing auto-dump protection valve on ours). By the way, we have never felt cold in the van -- I think it must be pretty well insulated and the blown-air heating is effective.

Communications, mobile Internet, etc. are so much easier these days too, so we rarely had any issues with that at home or abroad (just avoid having a single point of failure -- always have a back-up plan).

 

[Langtoftlad]

I think people have already answered your questions pretty comprehensively, but I just wanted to add our experience of working on the road in our van and in cold weather.
The pair of us have worked in our van (a PVC) quite often...

A very fair & comprehensive review - just one thing, you left out what brand & model you eventually chose, or was it a custom build?

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[mitzimad]

if going for a custom build ensure you order the best insulation and get a good ducted heating system with vents along the whole space that was my mistake in the self build in my avatar one single heating vent will not heat the whole van

 

[MyrtleGuru]

A very fair & comprehensive review - just one thing, you left out what brand & model you eventually chose, or was it a custom build?

We opted for a Wildax Europa, but with a bit of a modification to the standard design.

 

[Langtoftlad]

We opted for a Wildax Europa, but with a bit of a modification to the standard design.

Good choice

 

[RidersofRohan]

if going for a custom build ensure you order the best insulation and get a good ducted heating system with vents along the whole space that was my mistake in the self build in my avatar one single heating vent will not heat the whole van

Its probably our main gripe to our custom build. We have too many heating vents at the back of the van and only one at the front, the van gets warm as I think the heating is 6kw, but to different levels of toasty.
Nice thing about custom build is that you are much more likely to be prepared to make odd changes as you go along, there's no set pattern, its yours to improve and adapt as you wish. We originally devised a seat belted rear seat that converted into a bed, we have now accepted that there is only two of us (!!!) and now the bed is fixed down most of the time and we have removed the seat belt frame. At any point in the future the seat belt seat / bed can be re-instated.

 

[mitzimad]

Its probably our main gripe to our custom build. We have too many heating vents at the back of the van and only one at the front, the van gets warm as I think the heating is 6kw, but to different levels of toasty.
Nice thing about custom build is that you are much more likely to be prepared to make odd changes as you go along, there's no set pattern, its yours to improve and adapt as you wish. We originally devised a seat belted rear seat that converted into a bed, we have now accepted that there is only two of us (!!!) and now the bed is fixed down most of the time and we have removed the seat belt frame. At any point in the future the seat belt seat / bed can be re-instated.

we did exactly the same the seating wasn't really that comfortable and with just two we didn't break the bed down it was at this point i fitted an under slung gas tank and cut the bases back raised the bed and gained an enormous boot area
like you it was the front that needed the heat several cabs are very draughty

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[jezport]

There are a number of extra plus points with a PVC not mentioned very often on forums.

1 Side door is larger so is like having a patio door.
2 Rear doors offer a larger entry for getting large objects in
3 Rear doors and side doors can be opened when hot allowing the van to cool and ventilate easily
4 Smaller area heats up faster in winter
5 Better fuel economy