Come and talk to me about camper vans - and tell me whether I'm barking

[Takver]

OK, so we have been looking at camper vans on and off for a while. Would like a VW T4 (reliability, size is good etc). The problem is that (a) there are an awful lot more 2 berth than 4 berth vans out there, and (b) pop top / high tops both have their downsides. We used (many years ago) to have a T 2.5 that was just a regular van with a bed in it, and it was easy to drive / live with etc.

Realistically, the van is likely to be used a lot for days out at the beach (we live by the sea), overnight camping at the beach or after parties etc, some long weekends and really not that much if ever for longer trips away.

So, I'm wondering about the possibility of getting a 2 berth non-high top van, and improvising a bed for dd across the front seats (DH very good at such stuff - he put in the rock&roll bed plus cupboards in our previous van). Does this sound totally mad? DD is 9, so old enough to sleep in her own tent (and/or share tent with a friend) if she wants to at small field type campsites. Friends' 14 y/o sleeps across the front seats of their Merc van (but it is wider). But then they share the double bed in the back with their 2 other kids so have lower expectations I think than I do for amount of sleep to be gained

The other possibility of course is to look for a non-converted van & put in some kind of conversion to our spec - at which point we can start thinking of semi-high tops which might be absolutely perfect in terms of a wee bit of extra headroom.

(Budget is probably up to about £12K max, which doesn't go that far with a non-ancient VW & DH is very determined not to have another van where we have to travel permanently with full toolkit at the ready!)

When we were kids we had a K reg VW camper van (the old old K - TWL 936K). Mum and dad had the double bed, I slept diagonally across the bit of floor space (was about 8-9) and my sister slept across the front seats with some sort of block in the middle (she was 4-5). We loved it.

Only had to stop when I got too long (was 5' 11" by 12) and we then bought one with the roof that went up and we slept up there. Until I got to about 14 and fell out on top of dad one night.. Then they buoght us a two-man tent.

Very happy memories and we used to do it for two weeks at a atime. So if you're just going for the odd weekend or night away I'd say go for it. It'll be an adventure for her.

Good luck.

You could get a nicely converted t25 for that amount of money. I've just sold a 4berth one with a new passat engine fitted for 5.5k. Yes some other bits on it might have been old but if you get one with a new engine then it's a very good start.

Crunchies, I'm thinking it should be ok. While dd may get tall, the probability is that she'll stay below 5'3" so a lot shorter than my friend's teen!

Viva - I agree, but I think DH has just been burned too much in the past with our various old & knackered vehicles and won't consider anything much over 10-12 years old tops - fair play to him, he generally ends up doing most of the maintenance (and unfortunately for my campaign we've had a series of annoying on-and-off electrical problems on our current little work van which the garage couldn't track down and he spent hours sorting).

Doh! I've just been doing some more searching and there is even a 'proper' solution to this one. I reckon by the time dd is 5' tall chances are she'll be scrounging use of the van herself rather than wanting to come camping with mum & dad

OK, so I just need to find the van & keep up the sales pitch to DH that this is a sensible idea . . .

You can buy those cab bunks much cheaper than that, I've seen them for sale from the bloke who runs the t4 forum, brickworks forum I think?

Excellent . . . Just need the van to put it in now :)