Spike
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When our car was hit head-on by a waggon about 18 mths ago we decided to replace out written-off Ford Focus Estate with a van. We have always taken camping holidays but there are times when the weather is really bad so our idea was to have something to sleep in.
Fords are fairly ubiquitous and so I thought of a Transit. Senior Management had only two stipulations - it mustn’t be white and it must have a passenger air-bag (although an air-bag wouldn’t have benefited her at all because that side of the car didn’t exist after the crash).
We soon discovered that very few vans have passenger air-bags fitted as standard and they are almost impossible to fit retrospectively. The only “vans” which do have them fitted are mini-buses but most of these would be too big for our use - as we would only be having one vehicle.
And then we noticed adverts for Tourneos -an 8 (or 9) seater people-carrier with fuel consumption that was affordable and a footprint that was not too much bigger than a large estate car. We were lucky to find one that was 6 months old (8,000 miles) for about half the usual £30,000 price tag. It has a 2.2 litre 140ps engine with a 6 speed box, rear parking sensors, heated front screen (and seats!), a rear step, air-conditioning for front and rear passengers and some other goodies.
Step 1 was to fit a Webasto heater between the driver and passenger seats and a 13-amp socket behind the driver’s seat (the hook-up is under the vehicle so that we didn’t have to alter the bodywork).
The original floor is carpeted over MDF and there are 8 places where the wood has been removed to allow the plates which hold the seats to be bolted to the chassis. I first covered the whole of the floor area with sticky-backed plastic sheet (normally used for protecting carpets) to provide some barrier to condensation and then made a new floor from 6 mm plywood to give an even surface.
The wheel arches intrude into the cargo space so I needed to think of a way to raise a bed above them. This was achieved by using 80 litre plastic storage boxes which are about 1 inch higher than the wheel-arches and have upper dimensions of 2 ft by 15 inches. So 3 rows of 3 boxes allowed a bed base of 6 ft by 4ft 10ins (with some room between the boxes to store items like folding chairs and table). The bed base is made of 12 mm ply cut into 3 hinged sections so that it folds up to 2 ft by 4 ft 10 inches by 3 inches. Its weight has been reduced by about 30% by cutting out 72 x 3 inch diameter holes. The mattress was made from 3 pieces of foam each with the same dimensions as the sections of the bed base. So the base and upholstered mattress sections can be re-configured to make a sofa using 3 of the storage boxes, stacked on top of the lower row, as the backrest.
To keep the boxes together they were encircled (top and bottom) with cargo-straps and restrained from joining us in the front of the vehicle by adapting some seat-belts and utilizing the existing seat belt stays on each wheel arch.
Tourneos have windows all the way round and ours are quite heavily tinted in the rear (while magically allowing the same amount of light in) but for privacy (and to get some sleep after dawn!) we’ve made 8 inserts which stick to the windows using rubber suckers. The inserts were cut, to the shape of each window, from 40 mm thick plasticised aluminium loft insulation. When not in use, these inserts are stored in a tie-able “envelope” made from the same material used to upholster the mattress sections.
The last thing was to buy a seat-swivel plate so that the passenger seat can be turned round. (This would also be possible for the driver’s seat but would mean releasing the hand-brake while it was being swivelled. We find we don’t need both seats to be turned as we can sit either side of the table with only the passenger seat turning).
The system was tried out over a week-end in Derbyshire before embarking on a 2 week trip round Wales. With a few tweaks we felt confident enough to go for a 2 month trip to France, Spain and Portugal where we were happy with the result.
Refinements since have been to paint the outward-looking side of the window inserts matt-black so that it can be used as a “stealth-van”. I’ve also replaced 4 of the plastic storage containers with purpose made plywood boxes on castors. This has meant that we can remove the detachable rear-seat easily when we want to convert to camper mode as it allows the anchor plates to be left in place ( the castors raise the boxes above them). This has also affected the restraining system which now works by 2 ropes anchored to the seat base-plates so that the cargo straps can be dispensed with. All this has been done to allow easy access to the front row of (wooden) boxes – which are now hinged half-way up the front so that items needed while on the move can be got at. We also replaced the auxiliary battery with a “caravan” type so that the Webasto will fire up after 3 days of being stationary.
We used accredited fitters for any modifications to the van (heater, hook-up socket and seat swivel) and the total cost is under £2,000. If you were to do without these items the cost would be under £500.
If anyone is interested I can give them more details and could take some piccies
Fords are fairly ubiquitous and so I thought of a Transit. Senior Management had only two stipulations - it mustn’t be white and it must have a passenger air-bag (although an air-bag wouldn’t have benefited her at all because that side of the car didn’t exist after the crash).
We soon discovered that very few vans have passenger air-bags fitted as standard and they are almost impossible to fit retrospectively. The only “vans” which do have them fitted are mini-buses but most of these would be too big for our use - as we would only be having one vehicle.
And then we noticed adverts for Tourneos -an 8 (or 9) seater people-carrier with fuel consumption that was affordable and a footprint that was not too much bigger than a large estate car. We were lucky to find one that was 6 months old (8,000 miles) for about half the usual £30,000 price tag. It has a 2.2 litre 140ps engine with a 6 speed box, rear parking sensors, heated front screen (and seats!), a rear step, air-conditioning for front and rear passengers and some other goodies.
Step 1 was to fit a Webasto heater between the driver and passenger seats and a 13-amp socket behind the driver’s seat (the hook-up is under the vehicle so that we didn’t have to alter the bodywork).
The original floor is carpeted over MDF and there are 8 places where the wood has been removed to allow the plates which hold the seats to be bolted to the chassis. I first covered the whole of the floor area with sticky-backed plastic sheet (normally used for protecting carpets) to provide some barrier to condensation and then made a new floor from 6 mm plywood to give an even surface.
The wheel arches intrude into the cargo space so I needed to think of a way to raise a bed above them. This was achieved by using 80 litre plastic storage boxes which are about 1 inch higher than the wheel-arches and have upper dimensions of 2 ft by 15 inches. So 3 rows of 3 boxes allowed a bed base of 6 ft by 4ft 10ins (with some room between the boxes to store items like folding chairs and table). The bed base is made of 12 mm ply cut into 3 hinged sections so that it folds up to 2 ft by 4 ft 10 inches by 3 inches. Its weight has been reduced by about 30% by cutting out 72 x 3 inch diameter holes. The mattress was made from 3 pieces of foam each with the same dimensions as the sections of the bed base. So the base and upholstered mattress sections can be re-configured to make a sofa using 3 of the storage boxes, stacked on top of the lower row, as the backrest.
To keep the boxes together they were encircled (top and bottom) with cargo-straps and restrained from joining us in the front of the vehicle by adapting some seat-belts and utilizing the existing seat belt stays on each wheel arch.
Tourneos have windows all the way round and ours are quite heavily tinted in the rear (while magically allowing the same amount of light in) but for privacy (and to get some sleep after dawn!) we’ve made 8 inserts which stick to the windows using rubber suckers. The inserts were cut, to the shape of each window, from 40 mm thick plasticised aluminium loft insulation. When not in use, these inserts are stored in a tie-able “envelope” made from the same material used to upholster the mattress sections.
The last thing was to buy a seat-swivel plate so that the passenger seat can be turned round. (This would also be possible for the driver’s seat but would mean releasing the hand-brake while it was being swivelled. We find we don’t need both seats to be turned as we can sit either side of the table with only the passenger seat turning).
The system was tried out over a week-end in Derbyshire before embarking on a 2 week trip round Wales. With a few tweaks we felt confident enough to go for a 2 month trip to France, Spain and Portugal where we were happy with the result.
Refinements since have been to paint the outward-looking side of the window inserts matt-black so that it can be used as a “stealth-van”. I’ve also replaced 4 of the plastic storage containers with purpose made plywood boxes on castors. This has meant that we can remove the detachable rear-seat easily when we want to convert to camper mode as it allows the anchor plates to be left in place ( the castors raise the boxes above them). This has also affected the restraining system which now works by 2 ropes anchored to the seat base-plates so that the cargo straps can be dispensed with. All this has been done to allow easy access to the front row of (wooden) boxes – which are now hinged half-way up the front so that items needed while on the move can be got at. We also replaced the auxiliary battery with a “caravan” type so that the Webasto will fire up after 3 days of being stationary.
We used accredited fitters for any modifications to the van (heater, hook-up socket and seat swivel) and the total cost is under £2,000. If you were to do without these items the cost would be under £500.
If anyone is interested I can give them more details and could take some piccies
