A knockout Boxer

Camping is more enjoyable when you’ve built your motorhome yourself. Ben Grobbelaar from Reebok in the South Cape tells us how he converted his Peugeot Boxer into a house-on-wheels.

It was with great interest that I read about Chris Liebenberg’s conversion of his Peugeot Boxer in WegSleep #86, because I undertook the same project in 2014. In July that year I sold my Wilk caravan and Isuzu double cab bakkie and bought a 2008 Peugeot Boxer. The Boxer fits perfectly in the caravan garage and its dimensions inside were ideal for what I had planned. I immediately started drawing up designs for the layout. I cut out openings and windows, lined the entire cabin inside with underfelt for insulation, and lowered the rear wheel arches by 100 mm to get the right height for the benches and our bed. After that I lined the interior with 4 mm plywood. It was important for my wife Mara and I to make space for our bathroom, and although we use a free-standing cassette toilet, we can at least shower in the Boxer. We also made space for a large wardrobe (700 x 550 mm) with drawers and hanging space and small boxes for other clothes. The kitchen consists of a cupboard that partially stands in the sliding door’s gap. Here we have a 40 ℓ Waeco freezer, a microwave, and four drawers for groceries and other essentials. There is also a work surface (1 100 x 550 mm) with two drawers underneath, a single gas burner that pulls out, and our 45 ℓ fridge that works with both 12 V and 220 V. The fridge pulls out and runs on heavy-duty tracks. Next to the fridge there is a pullout vegetable drawer, and above the work surface is a small cupboard for our crockery and glasses. The benches in the back of the Boxer folds flat to make a bed, and when the weather is bad we eat here. You access the cupboards underneath the benches through the rear swing doors – here we store all the extra things like the ground cover, braai and electrical lead. The 50 ℓ water tank is located below one of the benches and its plug is also at the swing doors. I fitted an electrical geyser in the Boxer’s belly that provides 10 ℓ warm water for the bathroom and the kitchen. I also installed a reverse camera – something that makes life a lot easier. The entire conversion cost me R50 000, and we thoroughly enjoy our kitted-out Boxer. We’ve driven close to 24 000 km with it and we’ve visited the West Coast, Eastern Cape, Kruger National Park and the Drakensberg. Its engine is quiet and powerful and makes any road feel shorter. Its fuel consumption is about 10 ℓ/100 km when we drive at around 100 to 110 km/h.