About to buy, what are the conversion 'must haves' ?

DC7

DC7

New Member
Hi all, first post so be gentle.

The wife and I are about to buy our first VW Transporter Camper (4 berth) and are a bit bamboozled by the amount of conversions out there. We also intend to hire it out when we're not using it so it has to be appealing to potential clients too. We've got a budget of £40/45k.

So my questions is, whilst I'm happy with the actual van VW specs I want/need, what are the 'must haves' in the Camper conversion?

Happy to hear about any 'luxuries' too...

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

DC7
 
lol you have opened a can of worms there lol be warned... you asked what are forum Van luxuries ha ha

But good luck with your VanVenture might be worth having a word first with @BognorMotors has some lovely vans that might interest you... and not to far from London
 
For hire I’d expect

Heat
Water
Loo
Cooking
Comfy beds
Edit Fridge too

Job done
 
Last edited:
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DC7 said:
Hi all, first post so be gentle.

The wife and I are about to buy our first VW Transporter Camper (4 berth) and are a bit bamboozled by the amount of conversions out there. We also intend to hire it out when we're not using it so it has to be appealing to potential clients too. We've got a budget of £40/45k.

So my questions is, whilst I'm happy with the actual van VW specs I want/need, what are the 'must haves' in the Camper conversion?

Happy to hear about any 'luxuries' too...

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

DC7
Click to expand...
Factory LED headlights on base vehicle would be my No.1 on the list.
 
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Hi for hire I would suggest keeping it simple, the more options you have there are more things to go wrong or get broken. If all year hire a diesel heater is a must but a simple controller.

Fridge, is also a must. You could have a inbuilt in hob or keep it simple and supply a gas canister standalone hob, a briefcase type. Your customer can then cook inside or out. You won’t need to have large gas bottles to replenish or worry about.

Internal water bottle rather than external, external more hassle and your customers may not want to drive to drain points etc.

Good quality roof and bed systems which are simple to operate and not liable to injure customers, some beds can be back breaking to operate.

Solar panel to keep battery topped up

All the best,
Ian
 
Designs with a ‘built in’ loo are definitely in the minority but most have some kind of porta-potti tucked away. You’re pretty limited without this I would say.
 
Not having a loo of any form would put ‘er indoors right off.
I like the idea of offering it as an option.

Fancy headlights are great but I suggest pretty low down on a hirers check list, and at nearly £2k money could be better spent on a vehicle expecting to earn some cash
 
Oldrat said:
For hire I’d expect

Heat
Water
Loo
Cooking
Comfy beds
Edit Fridge too

Job done
Click to expand...

Pretty much this is the answer for must haves if you intend to rent it out also.

  • Heating - gas or diesel
  • Water - underslung or internal (underslung tanks to save storage space in our van but I don't think i'd bother if it was a rental)
  • Loo - in the covidy times like these then a toilet on board i'd think would be essential. Hopefully we won't see more lockdowns like we've had but if toilet blocks are shut again then you won't be renting your van out i'd imagine.
  • Cooking - built in hobs or travel hobs, diesel powered hobs. Loads of choice but the cost of a basic gas solution and say a diesel hob are vastly different
  • Comfy Beds - Lots of different solutions here with varying price tags, the difficult thing is narrowing down what you find comfy.
  • Storage - Seems to be overlooked especially in rentals. what few cupboards there are end up filled with water tanks, pots/pans and food and then there is no room for your clothes and other odds and sods so you end up with bags floating around the cabin. This was basically our top priority when we had ours converted, each of the above tied into how much storage would it take up.

Knowing we wanted to maximise storage and space inside so there wasn't a single item floating about then pretty much dictated we needed to underslung the water, gas, and the hot water and heating kit. It also meant a LWB van for the extra 40cm which gives us a bit more room to move around the dog and the extra cupboard it allows.

If you haven't already and budget allows, renting 2 or 3 different vans for a few days at a time will tell you a lot on what you do and don't want in your own van.
 
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We hired a van before buying, maybe you should do the same if you haven’t already but I think @Eclipse Campers has it right, keep it simple. Does it need to be self contained? Possibly. Do you want to provide an awning and a loo, possibly not (I don’t fancy cleaning up someone else’s doings though). Simple robust traditional camper build is probably what most people want and should give the best in terms of longevity and maintenance costs.

Good luck with it! We ended up getting a conversion from the same company as did our hire van but paid for loads of extras and now I would never let anyone hire my van (I don’t even like the wife going out in it!)
 
If I was buying a van to hire out, I'd spec it very differently to my own van. They are two very different things.

Your plan is to buy a van for yourself and also hire it out on the side? In this case, you have to prioritise what you want and just make sure it's hardwearing enough to stand up to hire use.

Having said this, I would consider very carefully whether you really are going to want to hire it out. I know the thought of hiring ours out passed my mind (briefly!) as a way to recoup some of the costs. However, when you actually take a long hard look at the practicalities it was obvious to me that there was no chance. The combination of faff of dealing with bookings, insurance, cleaning, serious loss of convenience in the ability to just jump in your van and go wherever/whenever you want are serious downsides, and that's before you consider the emotional effect of letting out your pride and joy and having someone trash/crash it!

It's different if you really want to basically start a hire business, in that case you really need to just treat the van as a commodity and not get emotionally attached to it in any way...!
 
If you hire the van what is the plan if it breaks down? Those hiring will expect a replacement to continue their holiday, even friends and acquaintances
 
DC7 said:
Hi all, first post so be gentle.

The wife and I are about to buy our first VW Transporter Camper (4 berth) and are a bit bamboozled by the amount of conversions out there. We also intend to hire it out when we're not using it so it has to be appealing to potential clients too. We've got a budget of £40/45k.

So my questions is, whilst I'm happy with the actual van VW specs I want/need, what are the 'must haves' in the Camper conversion?

Happy to hear about any 'luxuries' too...

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

DC7
Click to expand...
I bought my van for £50k and have spent another £7k on must haves. Must haves are endless from cushions, toilet tent to new headlights ( to be fitted tomorrow)

0913B602-7146-462E-979B-7FB872DF85D4.jpeg

AD78BF94-0E53-47A8-B8FF-B8231B98A7DA.jpeg

756DCB96-EDFB-4961-A9AB-1A64BF2761AA.jpeg
 
Thinking about it I would NEVER hire out my van. A hire van would be basic and there to make a profit so ignore my previous post what you see there is MY van not a hire van two very different animals
 
There are less risky ways to earn money than renting out campervans.
’ Look at me Dad, the vans got an upstairs trampoline!’
 
Worth noting that if renting out and it’s got a gas hob, you’ll need a gas locker and gas safety cert.
 
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