my camper van transit base vehicle – not transporter

Blimey – that’s a lot of work you’ve done there!
How much weight have you added putting all those units in?

Im not doing it myself, my woodworking isn’t that good,

weight is not an issue, its a dual wheel 17 seater minibus, so must be good to carry 1,5 ton or so

Four 8×4 sheets of lighweight laminated ply is about 70kg, so not that much 🙂 Certainly considerably lighter than the seats that came out in the first place…

I’d get it weighed…

Your van will be considerably heavier than a panel van…its got twin wheels, RWD, glazing all round, XLWB and also I think most minibuses like this have a raised floor with a latticework of steel for all the seats. Alot of the Transits this size are 4600kg payload as if you take adults, you need the payload.

The payload on my Iveco drops by 200kg or so if you get the model with twin wheels.

Looking good though 🙂 My conversion is 50% so need to get some pics sorted

Should have a plate on it with the MGW. You’ll definitely want to check, depending on your license you might not actually be allowed to drive it…

[edit: Brief Google says MGW for one of those is ~4,100kg. Which is over 3,500kg. If you’ve got a post-1997 driving license you may have an issue. You could downplate it but then you’d have payload problems.]

I can drive it my licence, so no probs

and yes, the seats we removed weighed quite a lot

and seventeen people must be approx. 1200-1300?

Looks like a lovely conversion. Can I ask which Thule clamps you’re going to use to hold the bikes please, as I’m after something for my van.

It’s an odd quirk of big minibuses that they often aren’t actually capable of carrying the weight of all the passengers 🙂 The payload for a twin-axle Transit minibus is apparently about 1,400kg, which is 82kg per passenger (including luggage). Wouldn’t be great for a rugby team 🙂

Obviously you’ve taken a load of seats out, probably saving 15kg or more per seat.

I still need to weigh mine…

[edit: Insurance/breakdown cover are likely to be slightly more awkward with a camper over 3.5t, but still doable – just less choice/more expensive]

We tried all ways of securing four bikes in the garage of our camper. Clamp, straps and even part of a tow bar bike rack. Saw quite a few people at Enduro events who were using bike shrouds.
Tried in vain for six months to find some that covered the full bike except the saddle and handlebars.
Dropped on the Specialized demo van in Grizedale and they were using exactly what we needed. With a bit of help from the guys at Bikescene and Specialized UK we ended up with the phone number of the company that made them called RB Sails.
Don’t have to worry about bikes rubbing or moving about any more and only takes a couple of minutes to load or unload the bikes

Tracey, any pics?

Tracey, any pics?

Of the covers…I’m also interested in seeing the solution.

Before and after on our Alps trip, sorry for poor quality. Abigale also uses them when she has the bikes in the back of the Tourneo Connect

Of the covers…

Spoilsport! 😉

Those covers look great…I guess they are not available to buy ‘off the shelf’? Our bikes will be stored under the fixed bed in our camper, upright with wheels off, and they look like they’d work with the wheel off.

Today the TV and sound bar were fitted, foam for cushions is in place, off to upholsterer tomorrow

i ordered 2 of these, different lengths

https://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/thule-holder-arm-for-tow-bar-carrier-for-europower-915/aid:713124?channable=e8467.NzEzMTI0&gclid=CIGJk4GLttICFYgy0wodbDUGDQ

We just rang the guy, had a chat, he sent me the spec he had used for Specialized UK. Confirmed everything by email, needed four and had them delivered in the week. They are very well made.

http://www.rbsails.com/contact-us/

If you ring him he should remember making them for us

Go on then

Pila

Finale

We have tried the Thule ones like these that clamp the top tubes, have three of them but they didn’t stop the bikes rubbing against each other.

Also have a Thule tidy hanging from the garage door for shoes, gloves, goggles and anything else that will fit in

How much were those Tracey? He isn’t going to be open at this time so I can’t call and ask, but they look very good.

Sorry for thread hijack, the conversion is also looking very good!

surely its the length of the clamps and relative distance of the bike to stop them rubbing, if they were rubbing then they were too close despite the clamps?

The clamps are designed to keep the bikes apart at the top on a bike rack, which they do. What we don’t have in the camper is the wheel holders that keep the bottom of the bikes steady as they would when on the bike rack. So with all the movement of the van whilst travelling allows them to come together at the bottom so the forks and rear ends eventually rub. Even tried fastening the wheels to the lashing mounts but that didn’t work. Even bought a four bike rack to use the base to keep the bottom of the bikes apart but it took up too much room
Also tried the interlocking carpet tiles from Halfords, four locked together per bike, but they kept coming apart during the journey.

my mate sent some more pics, LED’s are wired up and switched on – seats are covered

Wow that looks great….

Amazing conversion. Is it impolite to ask what the original budget was, and whether you have stayed within it?

I really must try and avoid threads about vans. And puppies. Bikes I’m ok with.

ha – ill let you know when I get the final bill next week !

its better fitted out than my house, think I might go live in it on the driveway

Can’t have too many camper van threads! Lovely job.