This is Yogi, my 2015 Nissan NV200.
Let me show you how I turned him from an empty panel van into a custom,
cosy, comfortable tiny camper for two.
I began, as most van conversions do, with the insulation.
Having removed the door cards, I used a combination of silver foil bubblewrap insulation
and recycled plastic bottle loft insulation to insulate the van.
The silver foil was great for covering areas I would be carpeting over later
and the thicker loft insulation filled the cavities in the walls and the doors nicely.
I then covered these cavities over with the silver foil insulation before replacing the door cards.
I also used silver foil insulation under the plywood floor (more on that later),
on the upper wall panels in the back and under the headliner of the cab, as these
areas just had thin metal and picked up a lot of condensation when staying in the van overnight.
I should say at this point that I had stayed in the van overnight quite a few times before
converting it properly, so had a good idea of where condensation gathered, where I should
be insulating and how effective the silver foil insulation is in stopping condensation.
To insulate the roof beams I used some expanding spray foam insulation, which looks really easy
here, but got very messy when it started seeping out the many holes in the beams.
After that, I added more silver foil insulation to the ceiling
,another area that suffered from lots of condensation, and then I carpeted the beams.
Four plywood boards were cut to fit between the beams and I used very thin plywood and insulation
up here so as to maximise the headroom, as it's only a small van and anything thicker
would have meant I couldn't sit upright; defeating my purpose for having a camper van.
Later, I varnished the ceiling boards to protect them from dirt and condensation.
With the van fully insulated I could start carpeting.
Beginning at one end on the driver's side, I worked my way along, sticking the smoke grey
four-way stretch automotive carpet to the walls with Trimfix high temperature contact adhesive.
It was my first time carpeting a van and it was a lot of work,
but after about two days of carpeting I'd done both sides and was really happy with the result.
I could then carpet the rear edge by the back doors to complete the walls of the van.
Next up was carpeting the doors. I wanted to carpet them as I really liked the look
and wanted to make them as neat as possible,
so I chose to stick rubber u-channel around the perimeter of the doors with a silicone adhesive.
I was a bit apprehensive about whether the adhesive could hold the rubber firmly
to the doors, but I'm pleased to report that the rubber is still stuck solidly.
The rubber edge also helps divert rain water away from the carpet in wet weather.
With the rubber down, I carpeted all four doors with the same smoke grey
carpet I'd used on the walls, and I could then tuck the cut edges of
the carpet into the channel of the rubber for a really neat finish.
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Using some leftover carpet scraps and a bit of lockdown creativity,
I fashioned pockets into the door cards creating some very cheap but useful storage in the van.
The pockets were made by cutting a large rectangle piece of carpet,
sticking a bit of thin card in the middle for rigidity, and then folding the carpet over.
Excess flaps could then be tucked into the slits in the door cards,
and glued from the back so the mess will never be seen.
I made pockets of various shapes and sizes on
all six of the door cards and they've been very useful since.
The plywood van floor was a mess and needed covering.
I unscrewed it from the wood battens I stuck down before I properly began my conversion,
and removed it from the van, ripping a few holes in the foil bubblewrap insulation beneath,
but nothing that couldn't be patched up with some foil tape.
With the floor out, I trimmed it to a better fit as the carpet would be tucked underneath
the floor and spent ages sanding all the dirt grime and contact adhesive overspray off,
so I could get it back to the wood ready for covering.
After carpeting the rear edge of the van, which I now had access to, to neaten it up,
I began covering the plywood with a wood effect vinyl.
I had some trouble finding an adhesive that worked well, but in the end a standard contact adhesive
did the trick and the floor not only looks great, but is much more durable for use as a camper.
I added a rubber edge to the side nearest the door to smarten it up
and created some circular rubber edges to the load ring holes to protect them.
Sadly I didn't film my bed build, but what you need to know is it's
a three section pull-out bench/bed with a built-in drawer underneath.
When it's pulled out, the bed is king size and very comfortable.
The reason it's in three sections is because I keep a nine foot surfboard in
the van most of the time, which needs to fit in between the front seats,
and this was the easiest way I could think of.
The bed is attached by turnbuckles to the floor load rings which makes it very easily removable
,which was a function I was keen for all my van furniture to have.
The draw was also built off-camera,
but lives in the gap under the bed behind the front passenger seat.
It's a really useful space for housing day-to-day items, but gets messy quickly, so I created a
custom divider system so everything we use has its own space and is easy to access and store away.
For the cab divider curtain, I drilled two holes on either side of the van,
popped some rubber grommets in and, using an extendable curtain pole, hung my blackout curtain.
I sewed some magnets into both sides of the curtain so the edges could create
a light tight seal to the metal; it's a very simple curtain but has proved very effective.
My next bit of van furniture was a storage box to sit over the wheel arch.
Not only does it provide vital storage in the van
but it also gives extra support to the bed when it's pulled out.
The box doesn't have a back, as the wheel arch and van wall are in this area,
and has an upward opening lid which is attached with a long piano hinge.
I added a soft close mechanism so it doesn't slam and magnets
so the lid is held firmly shut when traveling.
Like the bed, it's attached to the van with turnbuckles tensioned onto the
van load rings from inside the box, so can easily be removed.
I had an empty void behind the driver's seat and thought it could be useful for storing some
smaller items, so took a bit of scrap wood from the wheel arch storage build ,cut it to size,
refined it a little, added some hinges and now I have a small but useful storage cupboard.
I bought a couple of large magnets to hold the drawer firmly closed when driving.
Now the piece of furniture which took the most effort
was definitely the wall mounted folding table and storage unit.
I started by building the front section,
then cutting the table out which I would reattach later.
I then made the sides so they would sit flush with the many contours of the van walls.
After that I could add a base,
numerous shelves for storage,
and then I attached the table unit into the vehicle using some built-in threads
in the van wall with five high tensile m6 bolts.
The table floats on the wall so that when you use the bed you can still
enjoy the full width of it as the bed goes under the table with ample room.
The table folds down on a piano hinge and is held up by two strong metal wires.
Whilst it might appear on first glance that these would get in the way,
they really don't and are very strong ,so you can always unclip one to free up more space.
The table locks into its closed position with a latch but also
two strong magnets to stop it banging when the van's moving.
The hole in the side of the unit is for my handy battery pack which charges all of my appliances,
including the ceiling lights, my phone, laptop and head torch.
I purposely bought a battery pack which has all the ports facing on one side
so I could build it into my table and I added a door at a later date to protect
the port from the elements, as it's quite near the sliding side door of the van.
To help reduce condensation at night and keep the sun out during the day,
I created a set of thermal window covers out of leftover silver foil bubble wrap insulation.
I stuck two layers of this together and then carpeted
one side with leftovers from the van walls.
To neaten them up, I glued on a fabric edge, which was a bit fiddly,
but I don't have a sewing machine so this was the best option .
To hold the covers to the windows I sourced some suction cups with little handles
that I could push through holes in the covers and they do a great job
of both blacking out the van at night and reducing condensation.
I've also added tons of accessories to the van.
My favourite is this nifty door pole which stops the back doors from slamming when it's windy.
It's a fairly simple construction but it does a great job by locking into the door latches.
It lives out of sight under the table unit when not in use.
I also installed some wind deflectors as I haven't added a fan to the van.
They help keep the rain and wind out when I've cracked the windows ajar for ventilation.
I mentioned that the van was cosy, and adding fairy lights really helped with that.
I got a 12 metre-long set of USB-powered fairy lights and strung them around the perimeter of the
van, and these neatly plug into my battery pack and I probably use more than my ceiling lights.
Finally, I added a ceiling net which is perfect for storing light objects,
especially things you need easy access to at night.
It attaches to two metal eyes screwed into some threads above the back of the front seats
and to two mounting points screwed into one of the roof beams.
So that's my van build, and if you've made it to this point you're probably wondering
'how much did all this cost?'
Well, I've done a whole cost breakdown video so do check that out on my channel.
Also, if you want to see more from my van build then I've got
individual detailed videos on everything I've put in my van.
There's a link to my entire van build in the description
or you can check them out on my channel.
Yogi's also on instagram.
Check out yogi.the.van to see all the adventures I get up to with my partner Emma in the van.
Finally, if you've enjoyed this video then please like it, leave a comment to say what you thought
and subscribe to my channel, thanks for watching!