Just stumbled across a collection of videos on Youtube showcasing the upcoming California XXL based on the VW Crafter. They are all late August so assuming it is not widely known about.

Now, I shudder to think of the price, and its a preview/prototype at the moment but looks like it is coming to market. But, there are some clever ideas tucked in there to make best use of the space so the video might appeal to others/haters!

Not quite convinced about the glass roof (bit of a greenhouse and where does the solar go) and the rear ‘lean-to’ extension (why not just increase the length a tad?) but otherwise, looks quite innovative.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=092QsJUivyU[/video]

Seen this yesterday. Looks nice but I can’t see the point of it to be honest. You can already buy a motorhome for the price of a normal California so why would you choose this new XXL/Crafter version over another motorhome? It’s not like its much more practical as a daily driver or anything.

Agree but I reckon there’s a few innovative ideas that makes it interesting. I spent a long time trying to work out how to extend a toilet cupboard into a room in my van, so its nice to see them proving its possible.

I’ve always said 6 metres is the ideal max length for a van, and I suppose they have achieved this as the 6.24m length includes the 24cm rear extension.

Its the same layout as my van but the rear bed is lenghways so suits people over 5’11”

how much for a 99 and a Fab ?

In other news, I saw a Valentino Rossi “46” transit today – I bet those are ded cheap !

jeeze its got a forehead like ted danson . ugly stick.

toilets cool yes but its pretty big for something that doesnt even have a perminant bed !

but ugly !

Yeh, I couldn’t work out why the bed is ‘semi-permanent’ with that cutout…what is there? Its not the fridge as that’s on the end of the unit…and it doesn’t look like its meant to create two single beds as one side is much too narrow. Quite a bit of thought gone into the cushions so presumably there is something tucked away there that wasn’t shown in the video?

Edit – I think its just so the worktop can fold down onto the mattress and you can stand in front of it.

Just watched another clip and it looks like the big forehead means they can get two full length double beds into a 6.24m long van, plus space for the bog, and space for the ladder to the front bed. And…you can still use the 4 seats and table, and access to the kitchen and the toilet, and exit door with both beds made up. I’d guess there are no panel vans on the market that can do this?

And still no room for the bikes inside…..

Correct…self-builds are still the best 😉

I’ve got a crafter. It’s shit. I should’ve heeded my own advice and bought a sprinter

reminds me of the James Cook Sprinters. awkward looking vans.

as mentioned above, no room for bike/sports gear storeage. met one guy in Wales with a Ducato/Similar with his bikes, climbing gear, chairs and a table plus a motorbike in the garage at the back. very clever use of space…. permanent bed above the garage and he still had a living space up front and was very stealthy.

osted 45 minutes ago # Report-Post
jonah tonto – Member
I’ve got a crafter. It’s shit. I should’ve heeded my own advice and bought a sprinter

it’s the same van/chassis 😕

Nope, I’m not seeing any benefit to that…the size is great (for 2 people as per the video) but it doesn’t look the most sensible use of the space.

Most likely going to cost a serious amount of cash, but I thought ‘we’ were moving away from diesel? That thing surely can’t be petrol due to the low mpg it is likely to have…

I’m oot as it does nothing for me.

Our ’79 VW LT camper had a full width bed across the rear wide enough to sleep crossways, and I’m 6’2″, with bike storage beneath accessed from the rear barn doors. There look to be some nice touches on that new one and maybe the side doors wouldn’t fall off onto your foot if you opened it too quick, nor the bottom of the drivers door be sliced neatly off when I used a jetwash on it. Still, I loved that van.

Meh..(and fugly).

Some nice ideas. I like the windows in the roof (but no solar?) and the pull out washroom. It would be like living inside an apple product. If I had the cash I’d probably look at one and then end up going somewhere like mclaren.

Llama makes a good point.

It’s a camper so stuff will be made light and fragile – they always are to get under weight limits……can you imagine the cost of some of those pop out bits to be replaced

And as a test for postimage after my other camper thread becoming a disaster…

Bike garages and perminant beds go together so well….my it skills suck though…attempt 2

I shuddered at all those custom made non-standard slidey clicky bits…

Looks like it may be just what I need. (Apart from The price) The current Calif is way too small.

Looks like it may be just what I need. (Apart from The price) The current Calif is way too small.

Looks like it may be just what I need. (Apart from The price) The current Calif is way too small.

Oops

Looks a bit too nice for my taste, it’s like if Volvo made a Kitchen and then crammed it into the boot of a Van, but it is lovely.

It’s going to be staggeringly expensive though isn’t it? The top of the range Cali is £55k so £70k for a top spec XXL?

£70k buys an awful lot of very nice holidays – I mean I’m sure it’s magnificent as far as campers go, but it’s still a camper which means it can’t really compete in comfort levels with the average Premier Inn and you don’t need to go walking around in the dark when you need a pee at 3am.

£70k is not at all expensive for a camper van. In fact it’s about normal 😯

it can’t really compete in comfort levels with the average Premier Inn and you don’t need to go walking around in the dark when you need a pee at 3am.

Well it has a toilet, as does any reasonable sized camper and every caravan since about 1985. Caravans are now also available with fixed double beds with pocket sprung mattresses and the like. Significantly nicer than a Premier inn.

And all of these things are usually situated out in the countryside and not in the commercial districts of reasonable sized towns 🙂

molgrips – Member
£70k is not at all expensive for a camper van. In fact it’s about normal

Really?!

I’ll never understand it – a lot of the guys we share an office with love campers and caravans, but it’ll never make sense to me. I have to assume the actual act of doing it is part of the appeal.

I’ve stayed in a couple of massive static caravans in Eurocamp and stuff, but nothing is ever big enough, the furniture is always foam covered chipboard, the floor creeks, it’s either very cold or very hot.

The only thing they’ve said to me to try to quantify it is “the freedom to go where you want, when you want”.

fixed double beds with pocket sprung mattresses and the like. Significantly nicer than a Premier inn.

That’s a bold claim 😉

Premier Inn Bed

I like mine as it’s my space.

It’s not someone else’s space in renting. There fore I always get a decent night’s sleep as it’s a familiar space.

I do alot of travel for work. I find being familiar with where I’m sleeping to be a godsend for my sleeping patterns.

One untold advantage is I rocked up at a mates house for a BBQ the other week in another town a very touristy town with tourist prices. I rolled up and parked in the carpark out back. Enjoyed my self at the BBQ had a few beers and a few burgers. No worries about walking to the overpriced hotel or sleeping on mateys floor. Just walked to my van and jumped in – as did 3 others at the party.

When not at party’s all three of us (who wierdly didnt know each there before) use our vans for sleeping at trail heads before rides with early starts in far away places mostly.

I’ll never understand it – a lot of the guys we share an office with love campers and caravans, but it’ll never make sense to me

To be fair, you are not the target market.

One person’s comfortable hotel room is another person’s idea of having a holiday in a plush office building, isolated from the outside and being fussed/waited on by staff.

The only hotel room I’ve really liked was actually a ground floor ‘studio apartment’ with a balcony on the shore of the Ionian Sea, but we certainly paid for the privilege (and the food/room itself was average, it was the outside space/view that was the attraction)

I like hotels for work, but there’s no way I’d want to holiday in one. They are all in cities and towns, for a start. And country hotels have always been very hit and miss for me, and seem geared at people who want to spent tons of money on food and drink and pretend to be posh. Unless you are spending huge money.

I can make my own bacon sarnie using posh ingredients for a few quid in minutes in the caravan instead of paying £15 and ending up a bit disappointed which is what usually seems to happen in hotels.

Agree but I reckon there’s a few innovative ideas that makes it interesting. I spent a long time trying to work out how to extend a toilet cupboard into a room in my van, so its nice to see them proving its possible.

That’s hardly innovative – I had an ’86 Winnebago Le Sharo (coachbuilt on a Renault Trafic) with a slidey out toilet / shower room.

I’ve not spotted anything on that that’s particularly innovative. As someone’s pointed out above, even the weirdly shaped bolt-on top is similar to ones that already exist.

It’s nice, but if the van’s £55K I can see this thing being more than £15K over that easily.

if they sold it as an empty shell I might be moderately interested

I really struggle to see the point in something like that. It’s too big to be a daily driver but seems very short on space considering the likely price. My C-class motorhome wasn’t much over £40K new and has masses more space (including two fixed double beds and a garage big enough for a motorbike or up to half a dozen bicycles) despite being not much more that a metre longer.

I can make my own bacon sarnie using posh ingredients for a few quid in minutes in the caravan instead of paying £15 and ending up a bit disappointed which is what usually seems to happen in hotels.

another big motivator for me. seeing how much a couple of shitty buns and a crappy coffee were at some trail centers* ….. and realising that with kids in tow that gets pricy fast.

*note i still support trail center cafes that support trail centers but those out sourced to the lowest bidder and with dire food ill just have my coffee black and from the moka pot 😀

I’m sure there is a target audience in Germany for that camper but I think there are companies who make better conversions. I’m sure all that moving parts about to get to other parts would annoy me fairly quickly. We had to sell our coach built camper for various reasons this year and we had our first holiday using the Eurocamp style route. We have four kids so hotels are a horrible experience. Found it all went well but what we missed was not having to plan anything with the camper. We could just set off and see where we ended up. Plus if you don’t like a place you can quickly move on to the next which was not the case this holiday but we were fairly lucky in that we chose well. Talking about the prices of campers we were winter camping in Austria a few years ago and someone rocked up in one of these Now if you spend this much on a camper to sit in a field you need your head examining. A cool mill euros. 😯

@Roter Stern

I think the market for those sorts of campers will want “McLaren” or “Honda LCR” written on the side of them.

looks fairly normal to the trucks seen in canadian campsites rotor stern.

not a rare vehicle in canada.has a number of pop outs sections and awnings

Some one turned up at the GNAR Enduro last year in one of them.

Will be up at the PMBA Enduro this weekend, got my bacon and black pudding ready. Will be cooking on one of these again.

Mates dad has one of those Merc Actros campers. Recently up for sale at £800k, it has an Audi A1 in a little garage underneath. Mega money but a cool bit of kit.

I can’t see the point in a Crafter XXL thing though, it’s a bit like the California. We had one for a weekend when we did a 24hr race and to be quite honest, it was rubbish. Too small, bit flimsy and we were all worried about either breaking it or ruining it with mucky gear.

Either go proper camper, build your own on a van conversion so you have it how you want it, or don’t bother.

http://www.deeside-motorhomes.co.uk/our-motorhomes/

we hired their 6 berth beast for strathpuffer 1 year. Exactly what flange said about ending up shit scared about getting it muddy , feeling like you were going to pull it apart anythimg you opened anyuthing or moved anything and it didnt seem particularly well put together – by god could it rattle and squeek and it was a daunting thing to drive – no one else would even take a go. One that got me was the amount of load over and behind the rear axle meant it had a tendancy to lock up the back wheels if you had to brake suddenly when **** pulled out infront of you ….which seems to happen alot in obvious campers ive observed.

worst of all – that extra width although highly noticable with 6 folk banging about inside it on night 1 it made it a fooking nightmare on scottish single track roads(getting to the event). noticably harder to drive down them than a van based option (which we had the year before and ive since bought based on these two hires)

I think if I was going for a mega big camper like the size of the above merc I would go for either one the American school bus or new Zealand bus style DIY conversations. Stiff massive and alkward to drive around the UK (ok in many parts of Europe though) but a lot cooler and you can kit it out to suit.

^same opinion as trail rat.

I am in a new van buying situation at the moment. I could get by with a caddy sized one for work but it would be too small for weekend and weeks away with family. A big lwb sprinter converted with a large garage would work but don’t want that big a daily driver. Can’t justify two vans!