We used to own a rather large motorhome, When we moved to our new home, it was the one thing that had to be sacrificed due to the enormous ongoing costs, but it is something that I have missed so much over the last four years.
I love to be out and about touring, but with my aching bones this is easier said than done and tenting has not proven to be an option with cold floors, hard surfaces, getting to the ground and back up, and rain…..nightmarish! Something else had to done.
Being a constant thinker, it struck me a few months ago that when we had bought our Mercedes van for my wheelchair, I had mentioned to hubby that one day we should convert it into a camper van – after all we already owned it and the outlay could be minimal if we did the work ourselves. Life happened and it wasn’t until more than a year later (and summer arriving) that I remembered my idea and began to seriously consider that this was the best and cheapest way for us to go camping but without completely roughing it. Hubby was oddly reluctant at first, but with lots of planning on SketchUp he slowly warmed to the idea,

Our aim was to not make any permanent changes to the van, but rather to create units that would fit into the van when we wanted to go camping and be easily removed on our return. This is what I came up with….

Not the best drawing, but it gave us the dimensions and a good idea of how it would all fit together. The design was based on small wooden boxes – just like those we made for our wine racks in the cellar (but without the Illy tins for the bottles!); if you want to see these you can find a blog post about it here)
Each wooden box was sized so that it would fit an inner box or crate from Ikea – the DRÖNA, or similar. These would form the base of the bed and hold all the camping gear. In addition I wanted a free-standing kitchen which could stay inside the van or be removed and stored in the tent during longer camping trips. The HINDÖ outdoor cabinet was just what I wanted and fit into the space behind the passenger seat, and would hold all of the kitchen paraphernalia.
Then came the bed. It needed to be long enough for my 6’2″ hubby to lie full length and be comfortable for me to sit or lie down when I needed to rest. Moving the boxes around allowed us to reconfigure the layout and insert a slatted mattress base which we already had at home. Top this off with two mattresses which we had for guests (sorry guests, we will replace them), and you have a bed….one side 200cm long and my side 160cm long – each just the right length for hubby and I.
Lastly, curtains and cushions for the interior would be custom-made by myself; so hubby and I measured up the windows and made templates to get the shapes right.
The wheelchair would be transported on our newly purchased Base-Rak from Bak-Rak so that it didn’t take up any space inside the van.. a bit nerve-racking having my chair on the back of the van rather than on the inside, but I am sure I will be happier when we have done it once or twice!
All that was left to do was buy the supplies….
2 sheets of 18mm plywood, the inner boxes and the kitchen cupboard. I already had the material for the curtains and the upholstery for the cushions.
We had a plan and now we needed to get stuck in because we only had 2 weeks until our planned test trip.
In the next episode we will show you what we built and hopefully a few holiday pictures….if it all goes well!
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