Looking for tips on how to convert a van into a camper? Looking for a way to chase your dreams on the road and explore the natural vibes? Want to feel the peace in the morning breeze and the charm of falling? All these desires can come true through a campervan visit.
The camper van lifestyle is a complete mystery inside itself, you enjoy the scenery and tour and at the same time, you have to face some challenges. All this is a part of life when someone is struggling to chase something admiring.
Read the article below you can check all the instructions you need to follow to make your dreams a reality. Let’s convert a van into a campervan together.
How To Convert A Van Into A Camper?
Mapping And Planning
Want to convert a simple van to an adorable camper? All the adorable things need time and proper strategy to make for, as making the spare holes and then regretting it is somehow useless. It’s better to draw a map for all the necessities you need during the journey.
First, think of the place you want to visit and think out the basic things you need during your whole journey and draw a map to fit all of them in the van.
Solar panels, skylights and batteries must have a proper room and all the electrical things must be placed protected. Not thinking about these things could make you undo your hard work if you forget anything.
Selecting A Vehicle
After planning the whole layout the first step of converting a van into a campervan is to select the best vehicle in which all the layout could be set. For this purpose, you must select very seriously because it’s the one you will be spending hours on.
Working on the driving friendly vans whom you have experience to drive off are more suitable than buying a new one with no driving idea. So you must take care of the fact that the vehicle you are selecting is most friendly to you. Check out the recommended vehicle websites as well you can consult the camper teams for more tips.
Vehicle Inspection
Following the tips on how to convert the van into a campervan you must inspect the vehicle you choose thoroughly. Check out the vehicle’s mechanical system i.e., gears, batteries, horns etc. to avoid tension during the journey. Check out the tires to avoid bursting and follow the precautionary measures while driving.
Inspect the vehicle whether your layout is set in the van body and whether the equipment has enough room you had decided before.
Installing Window And Skylights
Enjoying the scenery, during the journey lying on your bed is the dream for the hikers. Wondering how it is possible? Yes, it is possible to see the scenery through the window of the van. It’s also an escape from a cage into natural scenery to seek out the wonders you will never wanna miss.
Placing a window of suitable size and at a suitable place in a camper is an important task in designing a campervan. You may set the window in front of the bedroom to enjoy the scenes or a suitable place according to your equipment layout.
Inserting the skylight and window starts with making a hole into your van, so be careful about the work you are going to do and think about a hundred times before starting as it will avoid the wrong attempts.
Also, plan for the solar panel room as well as inlets that may be water or gas inlets, the primary need for surviving life to enjoy the journey.
After Window installation do not drive the vehicle at least for 24 hours to allow the adhesives to install firmly.
Insulation Of Vehicle
Wandering about what weather conditions you will be facing in your journey? Worried about the extreme conditions? Van insulation can be a solution to your problem. Van insulations are as necessary as the water you need during your journey as you do not have an exact idea what the weather conditions you are going to face during your journey.
Try to use insulation material that provides a hot environment in winter and a cool one in summer. Use the recommended eurothane mixture for insulation which can be easily used to fill the large cavities and the smaller ones will be filled with polyester wool. After insulation attach the vapour sheet to avoid condensation.
Along with the pleasant environment insulation also provides reduced noise from an outside source as well as also avoids the negative effects of heat.
Electrical Pieces of Equipment
Working on every basic need? Have you thought about how you will recharge your device batteries? HAven’t you thought yet? Electrical pieces are also necessary to recharge the batteries as well for other facilities but the electrical installation is quite hard and risky if you have no experience before.
Firstly decide which type of batteries you are going to opt for i.e. lithium batteries or any other as well as the size of battery you require for your journey. Battery recharger mode is also necessary whether you will go for a solar source or an electrical one while driving. Deciding all these factors somehow figured out the electrical mess.
After finalising the specifics you can start installation. All the components have to be connected carefully to the positive and negative terminals of the battery and must be fused using cables of proper thickness. Caring during installation can avoid later sparks and short breaks.
But if you think you can’t tackle the electrical stuff you can buy the Nomadic Energy system, an electrical setup designed specifically for the campervan having various source sizes.
Vehicle Cladding
After electrical installation, now you can move towards cladding. It can be defined as adding the decorative part to your vehicle. Cladding can convert your van full of metal equipment or wires into a dream place you want to live. For this purpose, you can use the ply sheets or the carpets for the ground.
For more creativity, you can paint the sheets or use the painted sheets. After sheet fixing you can creatively make the inner body more charming, like hanging out the toy stars glittering at night. You can also place teddy bears or your admiring stuffed toys there.
Rubix cube at the bedside or some books for a bookworm. You can also place your sketchbook or painting canvas if you are an artist as the journey will have the wonders you wanna catch. A camera with the best pixel result can also be used.
Preparing Bed And Kitchen Stuff
The next step in the theme of How to convert a van into a campervan is the preparation of the bed and kitchen area. For this again you have to measure the available room you have and the room occupied by every equipment. You can use tape on the ground to define the specific boundaries and decide which thing you will be placed on.
You can have a sofa sitting with a little bed over it as well you can also decide about shower cubicles and many more.
Besides all this, the stuff you will be carrying all depends on the journey you will have, like whether you will have to camp or go for bike rides or wanna experience boating. Therefore the stuff will be taken accordingly.
Water and Gas Connection
Have you make arrangements for cooking meal? During the journey you can fill your belly with the natural scenes, you have to prepare meals for which water and gas both are necessary. For water connections you may have a water tank aside with a tap and sink. About gas, you can have a moveable stove or burner with a gas cylinder which is placed with sealed rods.
How Hitting The Road in a Campervan is Beneficial?
The Campervan journey might be a dream journey to many and might be a routine to few. Like every experience, it also has some benefits for you hidden in the whole experience, some lessons you learn during travel as well as some scenes you capture which stay in our heart as well as mind.
Planning And Management
Are you famous for having a rushy personality, or do people judge you as the most scattered person with no management skills? Don’t be sad, you can learn from your journey. The campervan journey is all about planning whether it’s about preparing your campervan or the journey challenges you will be facing.
You can’t have the exact figures of what time you will be doing or where you will be. The plan has just the rough estimations and most events happened unplanned with a lot of surprise.
A journey makes you adapt to the environment as well as work according to the needs of the hour.
Natural Bond
During the campervan journey, you are attracted towards nature far away from the materialistic world just full of negativity sometimes. Thus in the chaos of life you find hope and positivity in nature and you start to live moments by heart, enjoy sunrises and sunsets with your loved ones and make your bond with nature a little better.
Minimal And Creativity
The most important benefit of the journey is that it makes you live minimally, to use the little resources you have rather than creating great palaces just for a single man to live off. Moreover, journey makes you creative in the way to solve problems using the resources you own. It makes you the problem solver and situation handler at the same time.
Final Words
The Campervan journey is the most cherished journey you could have in the aspects of enjoying nature and spending quality time with your loved ones. At the same time, this journey is also a source of many lessons one can have to live a happy life.
You can convert a van into a campervan and décor it like your home. You will be spending many hours. Just read the complete article and prepare your van to have this amazing experience.