Club 80-90 Forums

I've been looking at camper interiors and the way they are designed. Weighing up the better known conversions from Westfalia, Reimo, Devon, Danbury, CI and Autohomes I still hadn't arrived at anything near the functionality I needed.

In order to get 7 seats and a viable full width bed with cooker and fridge proved to be difficult. Having to remove seats, put things inside the awning or even manage without was beginning to grate. Having to take 2 vehicles and the cost of fuel to do so even more. Was it possible to transport 2 adults, 5 kids and 2 dogs in relative comfort and arrive with a usable camper all in one vehicle?

Looking at the T4/T5 I was envious of the extra space where the engine is in the T3. Using the space above the engine more effectively would be most important and the balance between travel and camping space usage needed redressing so that the times when it was used for travelling made it more of a practical offering day-to-day.

For our purposes we have found storage is often dead space. Many of the items used while camping are only required to be stored during travel to and from a site. Permanent cupboards robbed us of travel and sleeping space. With a small, lightweight tailer or external storage many of these items could be there only when required.

I now believe I have a design that might work. It's not like anything I have seen before and opens up the van for travel and sleeping allowing the best of comfort in either configuration. For those not needing to cook inside the van (we don't like to as it gets messy and condensates the van also) this interior will be a boon. Whether you opt for the 5 or 7/8 seater setup it gives a new perspective to T3 camping.

I'm drawing up the design properly at the moment and will be posting designs next week for you all to comment upon.

It's not this is it Paul?

http://www.swissroombox.com/swissRoomBox-home.html

Anna

No Andrew.

That looks clever but half-arsed.

I mean who eats at that height. Who wants to climb over the back seat to cook/go to the loo. Who goes to the loo right next to where they cook?

My idea is a little more traditional. The T3 was in many ways a step forward for Volkswagen, but in camping terms it lost a few ideas that made camping in a van relatively straightforward. My idea addresses this by using themes from older and newer vans.

I'm coming over this week and we can caht about it then. I'd value your input.

Andrews Uncle sent the link to us ages ago. It's like Ikea for a camper. Have you seen the price of it!

Anna

Watching with interest as I do not wish to lose my 8 seat config so am looking for ideas for a demountable layout. Full blown camper interiors don't do anything for me.

I'm watching with interest too as I have a seven seater, and have contemplated a bunk type ben across the top of the middle seat, and rear seat.

As someone who is going for a completely one-off sleeping system in a T25 (albeit a doka), i'm quite interested to see what you're doing here!

I am trying to come up with a lightweight flexible camper in my Caravelle. I shall be watching out for your updates.

Wow!

I'm a little overwhelmed by the response.

Let me fill you in on how I arrived where I am.

Firstly, I spent 9 years working in the automotive industry as a vehicle designer. I have worked for Fo.rd, Mercedes, Audi and Toyota over the years and on projects ranging from the Ford Ka right up to Mercedes Actros F1 Transporters and hospitality trucks. My experiences led me to believe that design is only limited by materials and personal briefs. Production vehicles are totally limited by accountants and narrow briefs.

Your own vehicle should reflect your needs and I worked on many custom and modular designs to help achieve that. Camper interiors are extremely personal but unfortunately many of us have to work around personal circumstances not considered by the designer or supplier.

This is why there are so many homebrew campers. Often with great ideas only limited by design skill, materials or budget.

The VW Camper is an amazing concept. To travel and effectively live in a small motorised box successfully is no mean feat and the designs over the years have tried to embrace this with varying success. Each design has merits and these are only able to be judged by the user and their personal requirements. However, there is a but. And it's a big BUT.

Camper interior designs have always been tailored towards internal storage being king. Comfort takes second place to cupboard space. Dead space actually gets created leaving seating ability wasted.

The T3 is no exception. Most of the well known conversions offered lots of cupboard space but little 'living' space. Unless you spend your rainy holiday in Wales in an awning a T3 is a pretty tight space and that is never more apparent when you have 5 children on the holiday with you. The T3 came effectively in 4 main variants; pickup, van, people carrier and camper. Pickup aside the other 3 are the same thing. They just vary in their ability to transport people and their equipment.

Vans carry mainly equipment. People carriers carry people (shocking eh?). Campers carry both. The problem is that most camper designers have only ever considered a family as 2 adults and 3 children. Some don't even get past a 2+2 arrangement.

Why would a family needing 7-9 seats (as in the Caravelle) be able to manage camping with a vehicle that only has 4/5?

What I (and many others I would guess) need is something more like the Caravelle, with a hint of camper capability. This is only possible with clever packaging. A lightweight, limited storage interior with attention paid to intelligent use of space is my proposal. My design is very much a concept at the moment and will need design refinement before I put it out in any form. But it does have some clever ideas from other vans that haven't been used in a while or indeed in a van of this type.

I'm not looking to sell the interiors myself but may put the design out to another company I know with a view to offering an alternative solution to others like myself - with a larger family and different needs to those that are happy with a traditional camper.

Peter-T wrote:As someone who is going for a completely one-off sleeping system in a T25 (albeit a doka), i'm quite interested to see what you're doing here!

FYI - VW did a T25 Doka for military use where the rear bench folded out to become a bed. This was for vehicles equipped as radio listening posts. I have only seen one photo but I will try and look it out.

Are you needing to sleep 1 or more people?

Does your design include a bunk bed type arrangement.? One that sleeps quite near to the roof, leaving the seating underneath? I have been pondering on making something like this myself.

poshbuggers wrote:

Peter-T wrote:As someone who is going for a completely one-off sleeping system in a T25 (albeit a doka), i'm quite interested to see what you're doing here!

FYI - VW did a T25 Doka for military use where the rear bench folded out to become a bed. This was for vehicles equipped as radio listening posts. I have only seen one photo but I will try and look it out.

Are you needing to sleep 1 or more people?

I'm going to be utilising the storage cupboard under the flat bed, and having the rear bench fold down to floor level to create a double. It'll be a "2 berth". I need no more than that.

we've been thinking along the same lines too. we currently have a westy california, but with only 2 of us, and only doing overnight/ weekends, we feel the same, lots of wasted storage space, so we are looking at multivans, with clip out buddy seats, so that we can build a one off cooking unit with fridge/sink, and a poptop to give us the best all round camper for us, full width bed and flexible in/out cooking/seating. just have to sell the westy first(if you know anybody thats looking for one ,
have already found the multivan . watching with interest

Baldy, I'm after a westy interior. What are you getting shot of?

Mmmmmmm this sound very interesting and I will be in line of waiting to see your ideas as I have 2 vans that I am in mid decisions on how to do their interior, with six in my family I too need to create lots of space for sleeping /camping in but also travel safely in too. Very intrigued as to what your plans are and will be watching this post veeeery closely