Welcome to The Campervan Channel, the YouTube channel for all things VW camper. Now a couple
of years ago, I bought this. An unassuming Volkswagen Transporter panel van. But my goodness
look at him now. His conversion into a great little Volkswagen camper van is complete.
Now if you are thinking of doing something similar, this series of videos us packed with
advice and information on the whole process. Hopefully to help you save time, hassle and
money. As I found out, even if you are not doing the hands on work yourself, you still
have to make a shed load of choices and decisions to make sure you end up with the camper van
of your dreams. So these videos are a mix of what i have learned going through the process
and some professional advice from the converters who did such a great job on my van. For this
first video, we are going to start at the beginning, how to get your hands on the right
van to convert. The first choice is probably the only obvious one in the entire process,
it has got to be a VW. We Mainly use the VW brand only because of its heritage with campers
and also the amount of value it retains as well. So most people can buy a camper, have
it for a few years, if they look after it they get quite a lot of the sum back again,
so it is not just haemorraging money like a big motorhome or going on holiday every
year. Mechanically, another good thing about the VW is we never need to do any repairs
or anything because they never go wrong. That is our experience anyway. In terms of which
Transporter you have converted, in terms of its mode, is it mostly T5s and T6s these days.
To be fair we are now onto T6s, T6.1s, pretty much they are the same van, they have just
been tweaked and modernised a bit. So what is the real difference between the T5, the
T5.1, the T6 and the T6.1. The body shell is the same, however, they just have facelift
dashboards, facelift bumpers, more modern tech on them like driver assist, parking sensors.
The newer they get the more stuff they have on them basically. So the space they offer
in terms of campervan conversion is pretty much the same. Exactly the same yes. When
I started looking for an actual donor vehicle I found the easiest way was to use an online
classified ad service like Autotrader. They have got sections for vans. You just fill
in the details of what you are looking for like age, colour, mileage, type of engine
and gearbox. I specifically wanted an automatic which is a bit rare so it is really useful
to have a filter like that. The results come through instantly and you can even sort them
in order. Like lowest price to highest. And even by how far they are away from your home.
The results are a mix of vans sold by dealers and private individuals. Personally I would
try to buy on from an actual VW dealer. They go up to - probably at the most - about five
years old. Only because then you are buying an exact VW product from a manufactures and
you know exactly what you are getting before you convert it. I find privately, or from
another garage that is not a VW dealer, quite often they are more expensive than main dealers
because you find that a man in the street has put wheels on it, he has added this to
it and will expect more money. Whereas you will get just a van from VW. Otherwise I would
possibly go to one of the big lease companies that are possibly a little bit older (vans)
like Van Monster, something like that, where you will get a guaranteed van that has been
serviced, you can use Autotrader, but I would always try and use a reputable company, I
would always try and find a van that is physically a van and has not been traded up by anyone
to start off with and then you will get a lot better value for money. Now that is all
very well but one you start searching, you will notice that Volkswagen Transporters come
in all kinds of different body types. There is the simple panel van, a windowless box
with side windows and usually rear barn doors. Then there is the Combi - a kind of combination
between a panel van and a people carrier. With a Combi imagine the cargo area of the
van has been split in two . The back end is still a van but the front section now has
a row of seats and centre windows have been added. You will also come across Transporter
models that are meant to carry just passengers. Mini buses, maybe a Caravelle people carrier.
Generally these have more seats, more windows and are much plusher in side. Any one of these
could be converted into a camper van. But which one is best. If you buy a panel van,
it is just an empty van that is ready for conversion. So it is probably the easiest
van to convert I would have said. Then you have you Kombi van which has got seats in,
and windows and a tailgate, which a log of people convert as well. But then you have
to take all the seats out and find somewhere to get rid of those before you start converting.
And then you get Shuttles and Caravelles, they are more like a kind of mini bus, again
they got an awful lot of stuff that you have to take out before convert it. I know a lot
of converters who will not actually convert them because it is too much hassle to take
it all out. And all of the extra you are paying for all that stuff in the back of a Caravelle
for instance you\'92re going to lose it. You are going to lose it anyway. Sometimes you
could sell it which then would come off the price of your conversion, however quite often
it will end up costing you more in the long run. So a panel van would be your recommednation.
That would be my recommendation yes. I decided to search for a panel van. And then realised
there was another decision to make. The long and the short of it is the long and the short
of it. Volkswagen Transporters come in two wheelbases. This is the short wheelbase, the
most common one. But there is also a long wheelbase which is 40cm longer. With the long
wheelbase it is as though VW have taken an extra 40cm of vehicle and slotted it in between
the rear edge of the sliding door and the edge of the wheel arch. Now 40cm does not
seem very much. But inside, that translates into an awful lot more volume of useable space.
Useful camping space. Surely that has got to to be the choice for a camper van. I always
used to say long. However, now I say short. Only because they are more useable around
town. Little Cornwall villages and in the Lake District. And you can park one easily
in a Morrisons Car Park. However, a long wheelbase is just a little bit longer and a little bit
more awkward in traffic. But do not get me wrong, I did used to drive a long wheelbase
one myself of years and I have just adapted to, well, I think a short is probably a little
bit nicer. Now there is one thing about vans that you do not have to worry about when you
are buying a car and that is there beefiness rating. A row of Transporters for sale could
all look exactly the same. But they may well have been built to carry different weights.
Maximum allowable mass is the total weight of th van and the stuff and people you put
in side it, that it has been built to carry safely. As I said, they all look the same,
but the ones with the higher rating have got things like beefier brakes and suspension.
You might see a badge on the back that tells you the weight rating. A T28 has a Maximum
Allowable Mass of 2.8 tonnes. A T3 - three tonnes. A T32 - 3.2 tonnes. But is any of
this a deal breaker when it comes to camper vans. You are fine converting a T28 or a T30
or a T32, however all it means is that when you and your partner or whoever are loading
your van up, you will know that legally you are allowed to have that weight in it - as
well, it gives you the capacity. It does not add a great deal converting it. There is much
more detail on the whole process in this excellent little book by yours truly - you can take
a look at it on Amazon using the link in the description below. There is a more obvious
option to weight up when you are searching and that is rooves. Most short or long wheelbase
Transporters come with standard height roof like this one - it goes up to there - converters
will cut a dirty great big hole in it and insert a pop top. We will come on pop tops
in much more detail in later videos in the series, so make sure you subscribe to the
channel and click that bell icon, then you will hear when the rest of the camper conversion
videos come along. But you can buy a van that already has a higher roof. A fibre glass extension
that is used to increase cargo space when it is a van. But can become an extra bedroom
in the hands of a converter. It is all personal preference, however, if you get a high roof
you are restricted going on to ferrys and you have to book a certain space, going into
car parks, a lot of them have barriers. Our vans go under a 2m barrier and I think that
is important. It just means you can go in more places. There is one thing to bear in
mind. Folks who do go with a solid high top say they make for much better insulation than
the soft canvas sides of a pop top. As always, and everything to do with VW campers, every
choice should be guided by how you eventually intend to use your camper van. And that includes
a decision on what is happening at the back end. Do you go with barn doors like I did
or the more popular tailgate. Everybody seems to want a tailgate. However, you cannot get
stuff out of the boot when you are in a tight car parking space. People say with a tailgate,
that you can stand under it when it is raining. But whether you actually do or not - i have
no idea - you could just be inside your camper. Total personal preference. Engines. It is
all a bit of a mystery what happens in there to me to be honest, but the main thing to
remember about Volkswagen Transporter engines is that over the years, there has been huge
range of different sizes an power outputs. Now a low power may be absolutely fine on
a delivery van doing door to door deliveries around a city, but what about a camper when
it is packed full of all that camping equipment, luggage, and of course the family. Do you
need a certain power to be able to carry the weight of a camper and its conversion. Not
really to be fair. We normally, personally, on our own vans - which that is there - only
go for about 110 BHP and before that it was 102 Brake - because it is a camper. You are
just going to be bumbling around. Youi don\'92t need a massive engine and it costs you a lot
more. Why. My van has 140 horses under the bonnet, which, with the automatic, I think
is absolutely right. But with a modern Transporter, you can go up to about 180 HP. There is one
choice that you might not even be aware of when you start lookig for a van and that is
its trim level. A Startline package is the most basic with plastic bumpers for example.
Trendline is the middle ground with a bit more equipment. Mine is a Highline. And when
you reach this level of spec you get colour coded bumpers and mirrors, rear parking sensors,
heated windscreen and mirrors, air con, lights that turn when you corner. All sorts of car-like
extras. Does it really matter from a camper van point of view which of those trim levels
you get. It doest not matter at all. however, if you can get a Highline it comes with loads
of spec that, if you fit it afterwards, would cost you way more than what it would have
done if you had just bought a Highline in the first place. And they are just a nicer
van. Preseumably, you go for the best condition that you can get, but if you are buying privately
for instance and your van has been a builders van or whatever, presumably there are things
you have to look out for. What would you say you have to be careful about in terms of condition.
Internally, it does not matter. It can be as battered as it wants to be. Once it is
converted you just renew it all anyway. Does the van drive well. Does it have full service
history. And that is about it. And is it tidy on the outside. So if there are things like
it has had heavy objects in it and there are few dents in it, what happens then. Unless
it was really bad\'85 but to be honest with you, we have converted builder\'92s vans that
have looked terrible in the back and then you convert them and someone opens the back
door and it is like.. they are like, wow, how did you manage to do that. But it is not
difficult. ONe more thing - if you are buying a used Transporter, it has obvioiusly been
a commercial vehicle - a workhorse - so its mileage may well be much higher than a car
of the same age. The question is, would a high miler Transporter still make a good campervan.
If you have got enough money, then buy a van with low mileage because it will be in better
condition. However, we constantly convert vans still hat have done 80-90,000 miles and
they literally drive like a brand new car. And you have to take into account that becasue
you are going to use it as a camper, the average mileage will drop and in, say, three years
time it will be more like average mileage. And those vans are designed to do half a million
miles. So to be honest with you, it does not really matter as long as you are quite happy
with the van. Hopefully, that is all going to help you find the right van for conversion.
The next job is to find a conveter you can trust, and start making all those choices
about what is going to go inside you camper van. Do not forget that great book, the Beginner\'92s
Guide to owning your first VW Camper - it is all in the link below, but for now, thanks
for watching.