How to build a motorhome?

Less than two months ago, we announced a competition whose aim was to show the world the best campers made by our readers.

We are creating it together with the organizers of the Caravans Salon fair, which will take place from September 24 to 26, 2021 in Poznań.

There, in a special zone, owners of selected vehicles will be able to present them to fair participants. Therefore, a very interesting event is being prepared for the upcoming edition of the fair.

Detailed information about the competition itself and entries can be found here: Did you build a camper yourself? – we are waiting for you .

We are also creating a series of posts on our Facebook fan page that will introduce readers to the competition vehicles and their creators. We invite you to like our Facebook profile to stay up to date with all the news.

Today we start a series in which we will present these campers to you. We will present the profiles of their owners, who will certainly reveal the secret and show how the design process and construction of their vehicles took place.

In this article, we will introduce you to Kasia and Rafał's car from Warsaw, which was created as part of their Vandalvan project.

Interview with Kasia and Rafał - the creators of Vandalvan

Judging by your report, the road to completing the construction of your mobile home was long, but filled with learning, rich experiences and satisfaction. Could you please describe the time spent on the project and the total costs incurred?

Yes, it was quite a long road because the van was built after our full-time job hours, and we started the reconstruction immediately after the birth of our son, so we also had to find our way in the new situation. We built Vandalvan in stages, when we went on our first vacation we did not have, for example, second-row seats or upper cabinets . In this way, the entire work took almost a year. However, to give you an idea, the first construction takes about 400 man-hours (i.e. with strong commitment, on average about 2-3 months of work).

The satisfaction with the construction is really great. Kasia and I both work with computers - the effects of such activities are often visible only after months, if they are visible at all. Here, you install a window in one day and you immediately get the satisfaction that your project is moving forward and you did it yourself.

There are also moments of frustration, especially at the installation stage, when the effects are not visible so quickly or when you have to repeat some part of the work because the elements do not fit together. On our website, we provide a detailed cost estimate of such a project to facilitate planning. Our construction cost approximately PLN 30,000, considering that we did most of the work ourselves. For the materials alone, if we want to have a solar installation and equipment similar to that of a camper , we need to budget between PLN 15,000 and PLN 40,000.

In your opinion, what are the main advantages of making your own construction compared to buying a ready-made camper?

You can reduce costs this way. We also paid close attention to aesthetics, which gives a feeling of a cozy interior of the apartment - something we could not find on the market of typical camper trailers.

What was the biggest challenge for you in the process of building the vehicle and did you have moments of doubt?

Social media and the fact that you will announce the implementation of your project to the world provide great mobilization and effectively help you get rid of doubts. It also helps to set deadlines, e.g. planning a holiday with your family in a camper, by which time you need to complete the construction so as not to spend it in the workshop. Furniture carpentry was definitely a challenge, in which I had no experience, but it turned out that everything could be done.

As we know, when we start something for the first time, we often pay the so-called "frice". What mistakes would you avoid if you were to build a car again?

We would make a shorter camper and that's what we're currently making. We also changed the sleeping position by adding an additional bed extension element - our bed is 182 cm across, which, despite the height not exceeding this dimension, turned out to be not very comfortable. Currently, thanks to the additional overlay, we have a very large bed measuring 182 cm x 190 cm.

The pandemic has shown that a camper must necessarily be suitable for year-round use. What should you pay attention to if you want to build a camper yourself that is fully resistant to winter conditions?

We have no experience in winter camping ourselves. However, it is definitely worth remembering about good insulation and efficient heating of the space and hot water.

From the perspective of time and observation, whether and what aspects of construction should be better entrusted to professionals?

There are elements that should be entrusted to professionals, i.e. the installation of the second row seats. The rest can be done on your own with a bit of manual skills and patience.

Comments (especially from Internet users) often state that it is not worth investing in dedicated, often more expensive, camper equipment and that you can always find substitutes. Is this approach correct? What compromises can and should we not make?

Our search for substitutes was often motivated by the homely aesthetics we cared about.

Nevertheless, in our opinion, it is worth investing in dedicated solutions for:

- a refrigerator , preferably a compressor one, which is safe to use and energy efficient

- specially designed gray and clean water tanks that will help you save valuable space

- a decent electrical installation - based on a gel battery, properly isolated from the starting battery and a branded MPPT charging regulator for the solar installation

- parking heating guaranteeing service in Poland

What are your future business plans related to caravanning?

As I mentioned, we are building a second van. It will be the result of our experience and the experience of our guests who rented the first Vandalvan from us last season. There were a total of 12 families, often with children - their opinion was worth its weight in gold to us. We want to design and build a car that is aesthetically beautiful, and at the same time compact and well-thought-out in terms of functionality. If someone likes it, we will be happy to repeat such a structure to order.

Vandalvan in a nutshell

Base: Citroen Jumper L3H2 3.0 HDI 180 HP

Day/night functionality: The interior has been designed for comfortable travel and accommodation for two adults with two children. The comfortable bed in the sleeping area has dimensions of 130x182 cm (with an extra bed, enlarged to 190x182cm). A second bed for children with dimensions of 110×150 cm can be obtained in the passenger compartment by turning the driver's seat and lowering the table.

Equipment:

– two-burner gas stove – 35l refrigerator – 70l clean water tank – 90l gray water tank – toilet – outdoor shower – hot water boiler – parking heater – 230V sockets (independent power supply from photovoltaic panels) – camping chairs and table – rack for 2 bicycles

Furniture - Rafał's comments:

When building furniture, you need to remember about the need to optimize the weight of the car , not only due to the permissible weight of 3.5 tons, but also due to the fuel consumption, which will be proportionally lower. Therefore, it is worth using light plywood or exotic wood boards. In addition to its low weight, such wood also has very good properties in contact with water/humidity.

In our building, we decided to use ceiba plywood (also known as kapok wood or downy wood). We were specifically looking for plywood with as many layers as possible so that the edges we left unfinished looked attractive.

The front panels of the development are additionally laminated in white. We decided to do this both for aesthetic reasons and for the high durability of the coating.

The entire furniture structure was made of 18 mm thick plywood, we used 12 mm plywood on the floor, and 5 mm plywood to finish the internal walls of the van. We bought all sheets in the 1220 by 2440 mm format.

For the countertops, we used natural oak from a 20 mm thick and 600 mm wide glued board. The ceiling was covered with spruce paneling with bleached stain.

Cost of construction: approx. PLN 30,000