Realistic cost of Vivaro van conversion?

Wife & I are looking to downsize the house, get shot of the mortgage, work part time, and get a van converted for occasional overnights & day van type use.

We are trying to get a ball park figure, as we’re having to budget for buying the next house, moving costs etc. We’d got a figure of £20k in our heads, but it looks like this is going to take a significant hit to get the house we are after. (Probably looking at a total of £12-15k absolute tops for van and conversion.

Just wondered how much it’s realistically going to cost to get something like a decent 3 to 4 year old LWB Vivaro, then convert it to have a bike garage, double bed, cooker, sink, heater, lighting etc. Neither of us are bothered about really flash interior, but we’re both in our 50’s, so no longer into completely slumming it:). We’d only be using it to overnight for up to 2 or 3 consecutive nights max., and would probably use camp sites if travelling to Italy, Spain etc.

If anyone can advise, that’d be much appreciated.

Cheers.

Are you doing all the work yourself or subbing it out? I paid £10k to convert my T5 around 5 years ago, doing all the work myself, but that included nearly 4 grand on the Reimo elevating roof.

It was/is pretty top spec though and the electrics and diesel heating were a good chunk of the budget, the appliances soon add up and do you want a crash tested seat? a RIB Altair is best part of £2k.

You will obviously be able to do it for £12k but will be looking at an older, higher mileage van and I doubt you’d get all of your requirements in the conversion.
Why a Vivaro as opposed to going up slightly to a Movano or Fiat Ducato ? I can see issues fitting a garage in as well as all the other stuff unless you went larger on the van front
E-mail some of the many conversion specialists and see what they say,

See VxON below for vivaro camper forum for ideas.

http://www.vauxhallownersnetwork.co.uk/index.php?forums/vivaro-movano-camper-van-day-van-conversions-including-renault-nissan-derivatives.200/

Also T5forum for info.

A whole mixture of budgets and step by step conversions.
If you don’t need seats in the rear a side pull out bench seat/bed gives more space and will take full bikes etc.

EDIT: Scrap that, sorry. Was just a day van thingy.

Cheers for the info. We’d thought about a Vivaro LWB as it’d fit into our workshop garage. (Limited clearance for taller van). I’m OK doing some of the joinery side of fitting out myself, but the electrics for small fridge, diesel heater and gas hob…maybe get the fitted by a specialist.

We won’t be carrying passengers in the back, so no need for ‘proper’ seat.

Have seen Hannah Barnes’ van conversion where she’d had a bike garage and bench seat/pull out bed running lengthways – not sure on cost though.

Why not just buy a Camper van, already done?

Watching 🙂

Mine (insulated/boarded/carpeted) cost me about £400 in materials and a few weeks of evenings to fit.
But then I just have a plywood organiser/bike stand affair and a hammock that can be removed to leave me with an actual van…

Do you definitely need a bike garage. That will massively eat into your space. We just locked our bikes to the rack with a decent chain and got a cover. Our bikes were older ( actually “classic” 1991 Kona Explosif) so maybe less obviously attractive to thieves. But bobody nicked them even though we lived in the van for 7 months. We did stop on camp sites usually cheaper municipal sites, but equally left the van and bikes alone for hours when surfing.

Also if diesel heaters v expensive then alternative to have one that runs of gas and also poss electric (esp useful if using campsite with hook-up). Again we were warm enough with just electric heater on low even in winter in mountains in northern Spain. The van was well insulated though.

Finally have you considered whether to have a toilet or not? We only used ours for night time pee, and very strict no number 2 rule, but useful rather than walking across campsite in middle of night, and I do note you are over 50.

But our van was a factory built 2 person motorhome, on a ducato, so bigger than a vivaro lwb. Cost us c£20000 and sold for £13000 6 years later.

I would also have a read up about older vivavro/ Trafic injector issues before you buy as you don’t want a base vehicle that may have issues, although I think all commercial vehicles have some issues. I had an old lwb Trafic and it was OK, but always felt a bit on the edge of something expensive.

Would you need a pop-top bed to make it work if having a bike garage?

Not cheap of course, so I’d maybe consider if you could live with a bigger van instead.

I know I wouldn’t want a vehicle clogging up my garage anyway, it’d only be getting in the way of my bikes.

Do you want to do the conversion as a project? If not may be worth having a look on motorhome autotrader. Looks like you can get a conversion for a lot less than your budget. I saw a part finished transit conversion for three grand if you wanted to do some work. Obviously they may not be kosher or could be wrecked base vehicles, but you could get that anyway I suppose.

Bowglie – Hannah’s conversion is superb looking, agreed, but the way I saw it looked like the bed ran across the van and that was how they had enough room to have the bike section as well? Might be wrong though. If that’s the case, I couldn’t sleep in a bed that’s across ways as I need to stretch the legs.

We are partially through converting a 2015 T5, when I say ‘we are’ I mean the various companies that are doing each bit. It might cost more than you think if you don’t do it yourself

Our van is SWB and don’t want a tow ball or bike rack so everything we do has to have in mind we will be transporting bikes inside the van & a dog etc, also we didn’t want a California as we use this as a 2nd vehicle so wanted the ability to clip everything out including bed/seats so could use as a van if needed without damaging the interior.

We were also defo going down the pop top roof route but have decided to give it 6mts to see if ok without as think they look wack (unless you get a hi-lo roof fitted) + cost a lot of dosh

Costs so far
Captains seats with swivels and rear seat bed on rails (caravelle system) – 3.5k fitted

Adding Windows, insulation, sound deadaning, lighting, Sargent power system, single 110 leisure battery, Webasto diesal heater etc etc (all the stuff to convert from a panel van to something more like a day van) – £6k

Cooking, shower, storage pod that fastens to rails and slides out of back of van – £2.6k

Then obvs there the other bits like awnings, mattress toppers, seat covers etc etc that add up.

we have a short wheel base peugeot boxer.
We go away a lot, we are teachers so spend basically every holiday in, easily the whole 6 weeks in the summer. Most weekends we are away surfing / riding.
Its designed for bikes and surfboards to all go inside.
The boot will hold 3 bikes or 2 fat bikes, or 5 surfboards.
If we have bikes and boards, the boards go ontop of the boot. The boot is only half height so still get light from rear windows / is 6 ft wide so doubles as a spare bed for a friend.

Corner sofa which pulls out to form a a double (width way sleeping, boxer is 6 fit wide, vivaro is too narrow in my opinion for this option)
Cooking pod behind drivers seat.

Conversion costs – cooking pod with smev hob and sink £500
Eberspacher heating, fitted – £1000 (its amazing! Money well spent)
2 rear windows and side window – £600

All other work done ourselves –
Roof light – £45
Insulation, carpet, ply lining, and glue (you need posh high temp trim fix glue which is expensive) will work out around £500
Leisure battery, split charge relay and LED lighting £150
Wood for bed etc…£100 ish
Foam for cushions and material, £150
Curtains I think for cab and all windows around £150
I’m sure there are other small costs, oxnop is clearly taking a very different approach with very different budget to me!

You could spend less than us, it depends how you want to do. You dont have to go SMEV, we didnt for our van before this. We coped without a sink for a long time but it is nice.

Proper carpet is worth it though, and proper glue is essential.

We converted the van 4 years ago, everything still great, will buy a new van in about 2 years, will buy the same again and do the same again.
We have a porta potti, useful for really remote wild camping, not used much in UK, used a lot in Spain.

Have a shortage of photos, but here are a couple to give you an idea.
We still fit in a normal parking space, I can stand up inside but i’m only 5″8.

If your in the South West then you are welcome to come and see the van etc….

I did mine for just about the higher end of your budget, here’s the thread:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/traficvivaro-swb-as-a-camper-will-i-regret-it

I should say that I got mine done for me- I’m handy but not that handy- I wanted this to be presentable as well as practical.

Don’t bother with a bike garage- get an SWB like mine and a Fiamma on the back. For bonus points, add in an awning (I’m about to sort one out.)

I’m loving mine.

That looks the business. Well thought out and executed.

Two good websites,

Deep Red
SMBCC

You do realise a Vivaro is the little one don’t you? No room for a bike garage and a double bed. I’ve got a T5 and have the same problem. Can’t do a full conversion and keep the bikes on the inside so we’ve tried a few layouts and shuffle things around. When the Mrs. gets a car I’m going shopping for a Crafter or Sprinter. Then doing the garage with double bed on top layout. Not bothering with a shower cubicle.

1.Do not underestimate how complicated and arduous it is to do a full conversion yourself.
2.Do not underestimate how expensive it is to have it professionally converted.

There is a lot of work involved. They’re great fun though, I’ll never be without a van now.

EDIT:

Don’t bother with a bike garage- get an SWB like mine and a Fiamma on the back

I know someone who had his alloy rack cut off and vanished with 3 bikes chained onto it. My bikes are staying out of sight.

I know someone who had his alloy rack cut off and vanished with 3 bikes chained onto it. My bikes are staying out of sight.

I put an alarm on mine. Simples.

For what it is worth, here is my Vito with bike garage and double bed, I can’t imagine there is much difference in room between this and a Vivaro. Personally I wouldn’t leave five grands worth of bikes on a rack if I was leaving it out of sight, having nothing to hint on the outside that the van is a camper is a big plus too when you are spending the night somewhere it could be frowned upon IMO.

Very much the cheap end of the spectrum at about £40 worth of wood and a £12 cooker but it does the job!

Load of photos here:

http://bit.ly/vitocamper

Thanks for all the replies – we’ve got quite a lot to think about! The Vivaros we’ve been looking at are the LWB; if we can find one, it’s an ‘L2H2’ (hi roof LWB) version that’s preferred. We think we’d just about get a bike garage in with narrow double pull out bed running lengthways.

Reasons for the bike garage are that my bike is a bit high end, and we’ve previously been targeted by professional bike thieves, who followed us home from a trail head. The cops (who were keen bikers) recommended keeping any half decent bikes inside the vehicle hidden away from prying eyes.

We’re definately open to ideas on alternative vans, and the Pug Boxer look interesting. Wouldn’t mind getting something where the height isn’t going to be an issue on ferries/channel tunnel. One of the reasons we’d defaulted to Vivaro has been the choice of second hand ones.

I don’t have any pictures of mine but I’ve experimented with layout using ply wood as above to find out what works. Currently have a half bulkhead near the back doors which gives us an enormous ‘boot’. Enough to fit a DH bike and two trail bikes with the front wheels off plus tent and misc. camping gear. Then an L shape seating area with lids and storage underneath. It doesn’t look like much but it can swallow a tonne of gear out of sight and in a pinch we can sleep on the benches. We’re usually in the tent but if we get caught out it’s not the end of the world. When I’m away on my own it’s more than enough for my needs.

I have a LWB Transporter. It’s about 12 inches longer in the back which equates to a metric bumload when you’re squeezing things in. You’re buying a van to carry stuff so I don’t understand why people buy miniature ones.

Can’t wait to get stuck into a proper project though. I’ve been looking at ambulances and horse boxes and everything.