My T6 To Camper Thread...

[Guy Dawkins]

Our van was also a Three Bridge build with a long time planning and scandanavian winters in mind. Service was superb and the fit and finish faultless. Simplicity on the surface but intended for -20C. 80L of water in anti frost tanks etc.. We started out with a new T32 LWB 4mo 150ps mapped to 180 and 420 torque. No lowering, 235 65 17 Falken Wildpeak on devonports (24mm raise) and 20mm spacers to avoid rubs on full lock as per Seikel advice. lots of insulation for sound and warmth so we can live aboard in all seasons. lockdown has restricted us to the home counties and visiting family for now. Main practical challenge we have had is storing spare wheel when the spare wheel recess is taken up with propane tank. Wheeliams fabrications and SGS engineering combined has produced a tailgate mount and oversize 32mm gas struts at about 1500N lift and custom mounts. Otherwise Three Bridge got it right for us with no problems so far as we approach 2 1/2 years.

 

[andys]

Our van was also a Three Bridge build with a long time planning and scandanavian winters in mind. Service was superb and the fit and finish faultless. Simplicity on the surface but intended for -20C. 80L of water in anti frost tanks etc.. We started out with a new T32 LWB 4mo 150ps mapped to 180 and 420 torque. No lowering, 235 65 17 Falken Wildpeak on devonports (24mm raise) and 20mm spacers to avoid rubs on full lock as per Seikel advice. lots of insulation for sound and warmth so we can live aboard in all seasons. lockdown has restricted us to the home counties and visiting family for now. Main practical challenge we have had is storing spare wheel when the spare wheel recess is taken up with propane tank. Wheeliams fabrications and SGS engineering combined has produced a tailgate mount and oversize 32mm gas struts at about 1500N lift and custom mounts. Otherwise Three Bridge got it right for us with no problems so far as we approach 2 1/2 years.

Any pics of that rear mount and strut fitting?

 

[Guy Dawkins]

 

[Guy Dawkins]

these images: gas strut on M8 fittings replace directly the OE, diagram shows the through tailgate bracing to carry the wheel mount

 

[andys]

these images: gas strut on M8 fittings replace directly the OE, diagram shows the through tailgate bracing to carry the wheel mount

View attachment 85574View attachment 85573View attachment 85574View attachment 85573

Thanks, looks really good

 

[t0mb0]

My VW Transporter and Conversion to Campervan Journey.

Around six(ish) years ago I was camping with a friend at our usual campsite near Bodiam Castle. We go there several times every year in the summer to camp. On this particular occasion a family rolled up in a VW California – an amazing vehicle that I was very impressed with – having never seen one before. At that point the seed was sewn.

A few years passed and we continued to camp but were getting a bit fed-up with the ever increasing amount of camping stuff that we were having to lug about. At this point we started looking at Eriba Caravans and were very impressed with them (UK stockest - https://www.automotiveleisure.co.uk). The issue was that we would have to change our car to be able to tow one. We changed our Rav4 to a Touareg and had planned to buy the caravan… but the more we thought about it and the storage of it the more it was evident that it would not be for us at this stage… We had the car on a lease for two years so I was not particularly worried that we had wasted our money.

At this point, on the way home from camping, we stopped of at a motorhome dealer and started to look around – we broadly liked what we saw but could not see a configuration that we could buy in to and, again, the issue of parking it out front of our house came up.

It was then that I thought back to the VW California that we had seen a few years back and so I started looking at Californias – the issue that I found when I looked into them was the lack of personalisation and configuration. It was now that I discovered custom build campervans!!

This was two and a half years ago and this is when my research proper began. I searched the Internet for any and everything camper related – and found lots of info and almost too much. It quickly became apparent that a campervan was the perfect option for us as I could park it outside the house and it could double up as my ‘big car’ when needed – I’d have a little run around for day-to-day travel.

I spent quite a long time looking for a ‘local’ convertor and almost pulled the trigger with Sussex Campervans - including them sourcing the vehicle. I came very close as they were relatively close to me and I wanted a quick fix… It was then I first visited the NEC Camper Show (October 2018), it was like going to Aladdin’s Cave, it was an amazing but tiring day and I left with at least two trees worth of leaflets.

From that point my priorities changed – it became much more of a two part search:

1. Finding the right van / or ordering from the factory.

2. Finding the right convertor and specify what I wanted out of the conversion.

The Van

My initial focus was on the van so I spent a lot of time looking at options and reviews and then looking for a stock/second hand T6 – of course while doing this my expectations grew and it became clear that I would have to buy new.

I went to my local dealership and was given a very high quote and so decided to search around. I ended up going to dealerships in Wales, Yorkshire and North London. I phoned round more and got the best price possible. During this period I discovered this forum and of course my wish list increased (LED headlights were suddenly a must!), I then went back to my local dealer and tied him down to the best price that I had achieved elsewhere.

Note: Also received a very competitive quote from Oli at @BognorMotors and I hope to put some modification work his way when I can afford it.

In summary my van spec is a T32 Kombi Highline, 204, LWB, DSG 4 Motion. I pulled the trigger in early May 2019. I decided against waiting for the T6.1 as I did not want the electronic drive train and wasn’t bothered with the dash ‘improvements’. The T6 comfort dash is fine with me!

Note: When buying a new van or from a dealer always (IMO) take out the servicing options and extended warranty at the time of purchase!

Full details of my Van Spec can be found here, Cost Of Base Van....

The convertor

In parallel to the van search I also took the opportunity to visit a lot of convertors, information on this can be found here, Converter Reviews.

At the Yorkshire VW dealership they recommended that I visit Exploria (https://exploria-online.co.uk) and I spent a good two hours there – this really set the bar in terms of what I wanted to achieve!

I then discovered a lot of ‘run-of-the-mill’ converters and was not overly impressed again until I went to visit VanWorx (https://vanworx.co.uk) down in Portland.

I now had two on my shortlist (both very pricey) but was not satisfied so I visited the NEC again in February 2019 and discovered CMC (https://conceptmulti-car.co.uk) and Three Bridge (https://www.threebridge.co.uk). Both were added to the shortlist along with New Wave (https://www.newwavecustomconversions.co.uk) and Celtic Motorhomes (https://www.celticmotorhomes.co.uk). After a lot of thought I ruled out all but CMC and Three Bridge, as they were the most accessible to me.

In total I visited CMC and Three Bridge twice (Three Bridge at their old premises and new) and my mind was finally made up at BusFest 2019 where I saw both again with there offerings in close proximity to each other. While at the Three Bridge stand I was lucky enough to meet up with a couple who were customers of Three Bridge. We started to talk and then discovered that we were both forum members. @Sammy, then took us to see his van in the T6 Forum area, where we had the nice opportunity to meet some of you .

It was then my wife and I made the decision to go with Three Bridge. Our rationale:

Great team – Big thanks to Dan, Lyle, Dom and Richard amongst others. Best furniture and layout.
Open to new ideas – I had specific requirements of my electrical system (to run a coffee machine and a microwave off grid).
Good communication – kept up-to-date on the build.
Confidence – their approach and reputation made me feel confident that if I did have any issues in the future that they would be there to put it right.
Price – While not the cheapest they were not the most expensive either and I felt that I did not have to compromise.
Location – Only a two-hour drive away.

My final van spec was (the main items anyway):

Furniture: Three Bridge Tourer cabinetry
Rear seats: Reimo Variotech 3000 Sliding Seat System (LWB)
Interior: Fully carpet lined and insulated
Windows: all round with limo tint, Blackout blinds with mosquito nets for opening windows
Roof: LWB Reimo Easyfit Elevating Roof inc. comfort bed upgrade
Roof rails: 2x Reimo multi-rail
Heater: Webasto 2000stc Heater With Digital Control and ThermoConnect
Electrical (main bits):
- 2000W Pure Sine Inverter
- 2x 100ah Lithium Batteries
- Battery Charger - Triple
- 250w Solar panel
Gas: Under slung tank
Water: 48 Litre under slung, Dometic sink, rear shower
Hob: 2kw Induction
Dash cam: Blackview DR900s

So apologies for the long post but I wanted to give an idea of my journey to the Campervan Nirvana. The only irony is that I am now not sure when our first trip will be…

Here are some photos:

Nice camper!

I'm totally confused by the mention of a 2kw induction hob though! Is that really feasible to run off EHU? If it's running anywhere near 2kw, it must pull about 167A out of the batteries! You've got a beefy lithium setup (and presumably some truly massive cables between the batteries and inverter!) so I guess you can handle the huge draw but surely that's going to absolutely smash the batteries in terms of charge loss? If you ran it for an hour, you'd have the batteries down about as far as most people would be comfortable with? Doesn't a couple of meals plus a few cups of tea flatten the batteries completely?

 

[ThreeBridgeT6]

I think it depends on how you use it. I've got a 3kW inverter (twin 100Ah lithium) as I have a 2 zone induction hob (3kW max load) as well as an oven/grill/microwave combination (800W max). If I ran both at full chat I'd be overloading the inverter and flattening the leisure batteries pretty quickly. However, in reality you don't use everything at the same time, or at full power. Last weekend we cooked a full breakfast - and I mean full - using both zones and the microwave, and it took minimal juice from the batteries. Weather was fine so we were getting 4+amps back off the pv too.

 

[czmate1999]

Nice camper!

I'm totally confused by the mention of a 2kw induction hob though! Is that really feasible to run off EHU? If it's running anywhere near 2kw, it must pull about 167A out of the batteries! You've got a beefy lithium setup (and presumably some truly massive cables between the batteries and inverter!) so I guess you can handle the huge draw but surely that's going to absolutely smash the batteries in terms of charge loss? If you ran it for an hour, you'd have the batteries down about as far as most people would be comfortable with? Doesn't a couple of meals plus a few cups of tea flatten the batteries completely?

Thanks. To be brutally honest I do not use the induction hob. It’s there in case of need or if required an any future dvla rule change. I prefer induction for safety and for the fact its flat with the worktop. I have a jetboil for boiling water and as we have an underslung gas tank use either a campingas hob outside or my cadac for cooking. In terms of the electrical items I use the microwave and coffee machine a lot and after last weekend ‘forumfest’ I only went down to 75% on my batteries.

 

[SENTINEL]

We use a small portable induction hob regularly , no problem with power as we only use it when on EHU on site. The portable models available now e.g.. Vango Sizzle, Tefal & Outwell Grimsby all are low power (designed for camping) but are extremely efficient. We have a Tefal at the moment but are about to replace it with the slightly smaller Sizzle. Their is also a Double Sizzle available now.
They are clean, safe, very fast and nothing hot and nasty to touch but do need induction suitable cookware.
We do not cook inside the van.
I am guessing that built-in induction hobs might have the more powerful domestic ratings?

 

[LiamW]

Evening Czmate. This is uncanny, as you have just described our journey almost to the letter. Having been campers for the last 30+ years, well before kids came along, we've progressed from the lightweight Robert Saunders backpacking tent (Spacepacker Plus - 30 seconds to erect and good for force 10 winds/rain), through medium and very large multi-wing tents, accumulating a vast array of equipment to make our trips more comfortable over the years. As you pointed out, it's all well and good having all the kit, but humping it down from the loft on a Friday afternoon and trying to squeeze out into the boot and the roofbox only to have to do the same in reverse on the Sunday evening became a chore. We then progressed to a trailer with hard top, bars and bike racks, which allowed us to just hook up and go, but packing up an enormous tent plus all the clobber would take hours on the Sunday morning, once more taking be shine off the weekend.

My wife had always had desires for a camper van (she initially wanted a motor home but there was never going to be one of those on the drive!), so when a friend said he was selling his 2011 plate California for £32k I agreed to take a look. We'd seen it several times as they'd been away on our school camping trips, and we had hired a converted Transporter with pop top and rock n roll bed for a friend's 50th, so we had a fair idea of what was on offer. I was however somewhat taken aback at the price for a 9 year old bus with 65k on the clock! A test drive up the M5 out of Bristol finally convinced me that it was time to make the change, but we both felt that this wasn't the right one for us as it was a bit battle scarred externally and rattled internally. I loved the car-like feel of it and the high up driving position, but the filler and aerosol resprays let it down! I quickly realised that my shock at the price being asked for the California was nothing compared to what I was potentially letting myself in for, and began to prepare myself for spending twice as much (or more!) for a new one.

Whilst I knew that it was possible to buy all the kit and fit out a van ourselves, doing our own conversion was a non—starter. Helen already had a list of jobs I’d started and haven’t yet finished, so I wasn’t going to add to it! I was pretty much convinced that we needed a California, and probably a new or virtually new one, but I didn't know anything about the specifications and options available. I also had an idea that there were companies doing conversions available using Transporters, but again I didn’t know how many, what they offered and if they were any good. Recognising that we needed to do some research, Helen quickly googled camper van shows (this was still during our test drive of the Cali) and announced that the NEC Camping, Caravan and Motor Home show was actually taking place that very week. We therefore headed up the M5 again the following Sunday.

I used the few days beforehand to do more research on the current California, having convinced myself that this was what we needed. In my mind, we were going to the NEC to learn about the options list so that we could then start to search the new and used market, and I was therefore only really looking for the VW Commercial Vehicle stand. However, as luck would have it they happened to be the very last one on our long route march round all 5 halls, the first 4 of which were almost exclusively motor homes and caravans, and this meant we discovered lots of independent conversion companies. And what a revelation that was! We looked at and had discussions with several of the larger - Hillside, Danbury, Westfalia, along with Bebo, Volksleisure, Westward, Rolling Homes, Visiontech, and Three Bridge. It’s fair to say that we learnt a lot in a relatively short space of time, and the offerings were very impressive, with stunning presentation from some, innovation from others. And then there was VW... Complacent doesn’t come close. Ignoring for a second the guy who was having to swap a control panel from an Ocean to a Coast as one had failed (worrying!), the young guy to whom we spoke obviously didn’t have a full understanding of all of the features and had a ‘this is what you get, take it out leave it’ style. I wanted to grab him by the lapels and drag him no more than 50m to some of the independents to show him what the competition was offering!

We headed home after a long and informative day, armed with tote bags stuffed with brochures, discussing all the things we liked and disliked about designs and finishes. We were able to narrow things down to the essential, desirable and the ‘not on your life’ categories, but two things were obvious:

First - The Cali I’m afraid doesn’t cut it. Yes, there’s the snob factor (which therefore puts me off straight away!), but it just doesn’t have the individuality (especially if you talk to the guy on their stand!), and in addition to the faulty controller, the catches on the cabinets on the Ocean version they had on display just wouldn’t close consistently. Whilst I accept that the demo vehicles are probably getting a fair bit of mistreatment over the 5 days of the show, they’re going to have to put up with years of use on the road, so I was expecting better.

Second - we were both completely blown away by Three Bridge designs and finishes. Having seen/sat in their Infinity and chatted at length to Dom about power options, cooking options, heating and hot water, roof and bed options, lighting, upholstery, customisations, warranties, sourcing a vehicle, we both said the same thing - it looked and felt gorgeous and now we knew it was there, if we bought anything else we would always be comparing it to a Three Bridge. Given that this is hopefully (given current circumstances and having just lost my brother to Covid-19) a purchase that we will be using for the next 15-20 years, we have concluded that there is no point in buying something less (ok, cheaper!) only to be constantly comparing it to what we wish we had bought.

A couple of weeks later we arranged to visit Richard at the Three Bridge facility in Milton Keynes to have a tour and to discuss options in more detail. We had a detailed demonstration of YOUR new conversion (nice job - thanks!) which you were due to collect imminently, and Richard was able to give us some useful guidance on choosing and sourcing the best vehicle to convert. There were 6 jobs under way whilst we were there, mostly brand new or pre-registered vans (including a brand new T6.1 which had been resprayed to customer’s specifications before it had even been on the road!), but also an older T6 which someone had managed to source for themselves. Richard provided information on a range of Transporters available through one of his suppliers at competitive prices, giving a reasonable choice of engine outputs, colours etc, together with a detailed Three Bridge price list of the conversion choices we could make to meet our own specific requirements - which are pretty much identical to yours! He talked about their booking and delivery programme, deposit and stage payment timetable for when we felt we were ready to book a slot. As the next available slot was June with a six week build programme and we wanted to make use of it this summer (pre-lockdown!), we took the plunge there and then.

Armed with lots more specification and colour choice information to think about, budgets to discuss (and more fundamentally a base van to find!), we said our goodbyes and headed off to find something to eat quickly before heading back to Bristol. We’d only just pulled into the car park at McD’s (were not proud!) when Richard called. ‘I’ve just had a call from the supplier - they’ve got a LWB 204ps DSG in Indium Grey (the colour we preferred) with all the toys including LED lights, available at a good discount if you can buy before the end of March’. Some quick research online showed that it was indeed a very good buy, so the deal was done and I now own a delivery miles T6 LWB which is sitting somewhere in a compound in Surrey until Three Bridge are ready to start. We’ve been brought forward (in theory) to May as someone ahead of us has postponed their build for the time being, but that was before lockdown, so we’ve probably gone back by 4-6 weeks. Once restrictions are lifted we’ll need another trip to TB to finalise all our colour choices, leather etc, and no doubt add a couple of extras to the list. As we’ve gone for pretty much the top end of the list including lithium (no gas - I do conventional bbq with the aid of a Weber chimney), heating (including hot water and shower), the only extra items are likely to be external body mods. I think I’ll probably go for the 30mm lowering (unless someone recommends 50mm - avoiding coilovers due to warranty issues as the van is new), 20 inch wheels (it’s a T30 so fewer load rating issues than a T32), rear spoiler, front splitter and side bars. Have I missed anything??

So there we have it! Well, we don’t yet - but when this nightmare ends we will, hopefully! Like I said ( a lot further up the page - 3 weeks or more of lockdown gives a lot of time to write!), a very similar journey to your own, but I’m convinced we’ve made the right choice with Three Bridge. I must point out here that I’m completely independent of them, even though my name on here is ThreeBridgeT6 and this sounds like an advert for them. When creating my profile I chose something I would remember but I realise it might look like I’m connected to them, which I’m not apart from the fact that I’m soon going to be paying them a lot of money for the conversion. On the subject of money, they’re certainly not the cheapest, but the quality of their cabinetry and finishing and their attention to detail, plus the friendly manner in which they have dealt with us has convinced us that they are the right firm for us. I must say that my initial reaction of ‘how much?!’ to the £32k asking price of my mate’s 9 year old Cali looks a bit lame now, given I’ve paid slightly more than that (including the VAT) for just the bloody van, and now I’m going to spend both of £45k to convert it! Still, if these past few weeks have taught me anything, its to never take anything in life for granted, and to live it whilst you can. It’s awful having lost my brother, and it’s made me want to get out there (that would be nice!!) and spend more time with loved ones and make the memories. There’s no point being the richest bloke in the graveyard!!

man this story just made me sad

 

[ThreeBridgeT6]

man this story just made me sad

Hi @LiamW. It feels like a long time ago now - lockdown makes the time drag but at least we're still around so I'm certainly not complaining. My brother was one of the first to succumb and there have well over 100,000 more since. Remember when '20,000 deaths would be a good outcome'? We've of course had our van for a while - we finally got our hands on it in mid-July last year and took it straight up to the Lakes (when you could do that sort of thing!), but have only slept in it for two nights as we had something booked up there. Now that the sun's finally returned I can't wait to give it some proper outings, including up to Llanystumdwy in North Wales so I can scatter his ashes with those of our parents.

Live life in the here and now, and make the memories every opportunity you can - or to put it another way, live each day as if it's your last... because one day you'll be right! I've got one of my closest friends in hospital and it looks likely that I'll never see him again because of current restrictions. I've got some great memories of things that we've done, mostly centred around travel, red wine, golf, red wine, fast cars, more red wine, playing bridge, far too much red wine - you get the picture - but had plans for so much more. Perhaps we overdid the wine......

Make the memories! Stay safe!