Room with a view
ONE big advantage of a van conversion, compared with a coachbuilt, is the size of the doors, as the former will inherit the large openings designed to take a pallet on board, where the latter usually has a person-sized opening, like in a caravan.
20/20 VISION
Picture the scene – spring has arrived, the sky is blue and you’ve parked up with a great view of a golden sandy beach, the sun glinting off the surf. Now, if you’ve got a coachbuilt motorhome, you’ll sit inside and wish that the sea breeze wasn’t so chilly. Or, alternatively, you’ll get out your chairs and put on your winter fleece, pretending – or trying to pretend – that it’s actually summer.
However, in your campervan, you have a third option – all the comfort of being inside your ’van, but with the doors wide open, so it almost feels as if you’re living al fresco.
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve gone for a rear lounge model and opened the barn doors at the back, or selected a front lounge layout and slid back the big sliding door – the effect is the same. Big views with big comfort.
BACK AT THE FRONT
Rear lounge layouts are currently the more common
type, usually based on the six-metre (longwheelbase) or 6.36m (extra-long) Fiat/Peugeot van, but there are different permutations to look out for – and occasional 5.41m (medium-wheelbase) models for those who want a more manoeuvrable vehicle (just a tad longer than a long-wheelbase Volkswagen Transporter).
A key decision is whether you want a pure twoberth (with no rear travel seats) or a layout that also has extra belted pews behind the cab (which sometimes make into an extra bed, too).
Then look at the size of the rear lounge and decide whether you’ll be happy to sleep across the ’van (so having to climb over your partner to get out
of bed), or whether you want to lie lengthways (with the possibility of single beds as an alternative to the usual double). Whichever sleeping arrangement you prefer, check bed sizes carefully for yourself – although the inside of a Fiat/Peugeot van is plenty wide enough for a transverse bed, the way some converters trim the interior walls loses valuable inches. Settee sizes vary, too, which could be critical if you want to put your toes on the seats for a daytime snooze without making up the bed.
PERFORMING A U-TURN
Think, too, about whether you want side settees (retaining access through the barn doors) or prefer
a U-shaped lounge (which usually offers useful extra storage reached through the back doors).
Or you may simply prefer to have the seating area up front. Now, you’ll almost certainly be looking for a side-facing sofa opposite that big sliding door for your views of the outside world.
Of course, an added benefit with a front lounge layout is that you have the cab seats (practically armchairs) as part of this arrangement, too, although they may well be at a slightly higher level than the seats in the rear, so watch out for dangling feet and the seats’ compatibility with the height of the table.
There isn’t as much choice in 2022-season ranges
with these front lounge designs, but both Murvi and IH offer excellent designs that have a longstanding following. Murvi’s Morello, in particular, is a multiple award winner.
Both IH and Murvi also offer alternatives to the high-top staple of a Fiat Ducato base. Yorkshirebased IH Motorhomes has nailed its colours to the Volkswagen mast and converts the superb-to-drive Crafter. Meanwhile, down in Devon, Murvi Motorcaravans builds on the Ford Transit in a choice of lengths and even with the option of fourwheel drive. And don’t forget Auto-Sleepers’ longrunning Symbol (on Peugeot Boxer), which will be more easily found on the used market.