Hello :)

Skid

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Hi all,

Thought I'd join up, as I've been browsing (stalking..!) the forum for a while now and have picked up a fair bit of information along the way.

I've started a self-build conversion, after having been thinking about it for a couple of years - we were out in France when the pandemic hit, so when we returned we decided to go for it, assuming we'd be in lockdown over the summer... to allow us to build our van - as an upgrade from our tent based camping trips we have been doing as a family....

... obviously, everyone else had the same idea - and the vans that I'd been tracking on a spreadsheet to get a rough idea of market pricing went up on average of around 22% in my 'field of view'.

We eventually saw a 3 year old Peugeot Boxer panel van come up (after discounting a traditional motorhome & vm campervan due to cost (made worse by pandemic!) & not being able to find something that ticked all of our boxes) about an hour away from us, so I called up and put a deposit down. We went to see it, and took it out for a test drive.. bearing in mind I had never driven a van before, and this being an XLWB with us obviously taking a wrong turn and ending up down some tight country lanes it was an interesting test drive. Pretty stressful, after pulling over trying to find out where we were with hardly any phone signal, letting a huge queue of cars pass us, and then pulling out having left the handbrake on wondering a) why the van was beeping like mad at me, b) how we were going to make it back with now 0 miles in the van!! and c) why I was putting myself through this with my wife going screaming at me too. Funny now, but that was a rather stressful introduction into our "journey" so far. Anyway, we bought the van - just before delivery it had a head gasket failure, turning out that the engine needed to be replaced(thankfully, under warranty... as we'd already paid for the van at this point in time! Happy it happened whilst the dealer still had the van to be honest!). We waited months for a new engine to be shipped from where they're manufactured - whilst keeping an eye out for other vans, and then just as we had given up hope on both ideas the van was delivered just before xmas last year.

So since then, with the "help" of my two children we've been slowly converting it - a fun project, and we're keen to be able to camp in our personalised van once it's ready. Still loads to do, but now I'm up to the point where we're looking at getting some batteries and buying the appliances for inside it.

I'm sure I'll have lots to ask about & whilst I know that this isn't a 'self build' forum, I've seen a couple of people doing builds - and as mentioned I've already picked up a lot of information from the forum over the past few months. We've just sold our large air tent now, so there's no going back - we'll need to finish before we (hopefully) are able to goto the couple of trips we've got booked in later this year!
 
Good Afternoon Skid & Gang,
Welcome along to The Wild side of life, Brilliant into (Thank you 👍).
Well if you’ve been lurking for a while then nows the time to get stuck into posting on the boards so see you down there 😊👍
 
Hi Skid and welcome to the forum. I’m a self builder too, the benefit being you get exactly what YOU want. Be warned, budgets can grow! The level of finish you’re after will make a huge difference to cost.... Good luck and enjoy the experience.

RD
 
Well done on picking up a decent van. I bought a 2016 H2L3 last year and got a a mate who was furloughed to do my conversion who has done a brilliant bespoke job. Only bit he doesnt do is the electrics so always looking for someone who is skilful on this bit
 

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