My STEALTH campervan progress so far

scotsy

Guest
I had a scabby old shape Sprinter 2.9td Mwb High top in the colours of white and rust bought to transport my trail bike to various 'startingpoints' which i decided to make into a very basic STEALTH camper, i am hoping to be able to get away with kipping over in places that a more obvious 'camper van' wouldn't get away with. It's still work in progress but i'm almost there.

Firstly i rubbed down and primered the scabby bits then hand painted it with Rustoleum paint in a rather fetching stealth GREY colour which looks better from a distance than close up :raofl:


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Seeing as there is only me and the dog to think about and it will be mostly short 1 or 2 day stays i decided a fridge would take up too much room and i will be able to manage with just a coolbox (if required at all) in summer maybe?. Another reason to forego the fridge was my hope to manage on 12v power only!!!

I ply lined the whole van with hidden insulation and 12v wiring and fitted a Fiamma opening roof vent and 'privacy tint' side windows and stuck carpet to all of the interior surfaces (its a dark carpet but i got it for FREE). I bought an 80watt solar panel and regulator to top up my 2 x 120ah leisure batteries and also a split charger relay and i'm hoping that will be enough (even in winter) to watch a bit of tv in the evenings on my Avtex television and run the labcraft lights (i still think the LED ones are too expensive). I'm planning on charging my laptop from the cig socket when driving.

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Due to me being short i decided on a double bed fitted across the back end of the van (its only 5'8" wide) with plenty of storage space below but only 1 x permanant seat with sliding/removeable table at the front facing the sliding door (so i can see out of the windows) .

The middle part of the van is fitted on the RHS with a unit i made to house a smev sink/drainer/hob/grill top with a gas bottle underneath alongside 2 x water containers (fresh and waste) i've got the pump and wastes sorted but am going to buy a single tap soon to fit over the sink/drainer.



The LHS middle section has limited space due to the sliding door so thats where i've positioned my toilet unit. Being a 'lone camper' and short of space i couldn't see the point in having a fixed WC cubicle so i just designed and built a 'stealth' melamine unit to house my electric flush cassette toilet. I have a spare set of single seat cushions which fit on top making another single seat for occasional use if neccesary. I carpeted the ends and fitted carry handles so i can move it around and even store it under the bed when not in use and also to faciltate the emptying of the cassette (the LHS carpet lifts up to slide out the cassette)

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Above the toilet is my 10" Avtex on one of those folding arms so i can position it facing either the seat or the bed. I have 2 x larger screen tv's but decided on the Avtex due to its quite low power consumption @ 18w.

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Under the front seat i have just fitted a 24v Webasto diesel night heater which i got going fine yesterday, (using 2 x 12v batteries in series at the moment till i get my hands on a 12v step-up to 24v gizmo) it supplied plenty of heat (rated at 2kw) once the fuel lines were bled properly and during plenty of on/off testing it behaved perfectly but alas on trying it this morning i am back to the point where i re-read the instructions and determined that when it said " do not tee off the vehicles fuel supply or return lines" they knew better than me LOL. So I'm now going to re-jig the fitment to include a small independant fuel tank to supply JUST the night heater (like i was going to do in the first place before tee-ing in to the vehicle lines seemed very feasible and easier)

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Until i get this heater working as it should i won't be 'wilding' in it just yet but hoping to get it sorted this week and planning my first stay for somewhere remote but scenic :wacko:

Ian
 
on a positive note though if you have a dedicated fuel tank, can you not save a few quid over time and run on red diesel ?

Channa
 
stealth camper

hi scotsy

nice looking job you done there, i wish i was as good , mine works but lacks the finish that you got, still it do's the job as they say.

anyway the thing is if your happy with what you've got thats all that matters, i'm happy with mine so i'm not worried about what others may think .

enjoy your wilding.

tranivanman
 
Why Stealth?

I know I'm going to get a few members' hackles up with this post but a healthy discussion is all I want to provoke here.....why stealth camp at all?
If it is for fear of some of the idiots who also frequent parking places, have you not considered that just by the way some of them behave, that they are more fearful of you. I know for a lone female this can be difficult but just by getting out of your van and walking around....maybe even having a friendly chat to your boy racers next door.... surprisingly can have a diffusing effect on a tense situation.
Do you think that appearing as a parked, unoccupied van is going to deter someone from attempting anything from trying the door handles to nicking your wheels?
If it is for fear of being on the wrong side of the law....what is there to fear? The law will not lock you up, confiscate your vehicle or fine you on the spot. At worst they will send you a piece of paper telling you you have contravened a Traffic Regulation Order, which exists for roadside parking and in council car parks and is clearly displayed. Most overnight parking signs are a deterrent only and have no legal back-up.
I am happy to park anywhere where there are " No Overnight Parking" signs. I will go to bed with my curtains open (with the lights out this enables me to get a better view of what may be going on outside if the need arises). I don't put my step out, only put out the waste water container when the waste water runs and stop for a maximum of two nights....although I've stopped for longer at really quiet places.
I have no experience of wild camping in Europe but I have read that they have a much more relaxed attitude there. Fear seems to be endemic among all levels of society in the UK..... surely such a great humoured bunch as we have at Wildcamping can go about our nomadic lifestyles with a laugh, a joke, a smile and even two fingers for all those who like to instill it in us.

Am looking forward to all comments to the contrary:pc:....I must have missed the obvious....all piss-taking cheerfully absorbed.... perhaps I'll even be proved wrong!:egg:

Nice work Scotsy by the way!
 
The stealth aspect is two fold, i love motorbikes and have both varieties, my road bike is a 2008 Honda hornet, i also have a road legal CRF250x for trail riding (TRF member) and i also have another 'dirtbike' which is also road legal but a b@lls out CRF450r motocross bike. I also have a set of Talon/Excel supermoto wheels that fit on either of the dirtbikes for 'scutching' on tarmac :p

My van is insured as a race support vehicle that covers transportation of motorcycles and i don't want anyone knowing whats in the back when i'm travelling hence no back windows, full bulkhead and privacy tint on the new side windows. I will not be applying for 'campervan status. On the rare occasion i need to get the bike inside the bed dismantles with only 2 x screws. I have NEVER had any stickers referring to motorcycles/motorsport on any of the vans i've owned over the years

When i was painting it one of the neighbours shouted "don't go out in the fog" in reference to its invisibilty against many backgrounds :king:

Just over a couple of years ago my sadly now departed wife and i bought our 1st motorhome and enjoyed quite a few wildcamping trips in our Hymer including a week in the Scottish Highlands totally off the beaten track but the 'A' class was a bit big (and expensive) to get to some of the spots i was eyeing up. Even some of the lanes i have used on my bikes would have been too dodgy to take the Hymer down. I'm not saying you couldn't get down the lanes, just that we would have been in a pickle if we had met another vehicle. The battered old sprinter is another prospect altogether, its already got damage along the LHS (don't all panel vans?) but i've got 2 1/2 litres of GREY left and a variety of brushes and i wouldn't worry about the occasional scratch or dent like i would have done with the Hymer.

The van has 205,000 miles on the clock and runs gradely, i took it as back up to 8 bikes in September who were doing a european trip and it ran like a champ, 80mph where possible and still giving 29mpg on average, i even took it up Stelvio pass although that was BEFORE i put the side windows in and those harpins were a bit dodgy !!!

Here's the van at a picnic area at Trafoi waiting for the Stelvio to be cleared of snow

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and me heading there

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the 8 bikers were waiting for me and when i finally reached the top they flaming snowballed the van, the b@st@rds nearly made me crash on the only straight bit of road i'd seen for the last 20kms LOL

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View from the top

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Incidentally i borrowed an FZ1 for one of the days and also had a days pillion an a Tiger 1050 so i wasn't stuck completely in the van ALL of the time :banana:

Back a bit scotsy....a bit more....a bit more...

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Thanks for the comments

Ian
 
I wouldnt call it basic at all, you have everything there you need to go camping. I only go out for a few days at a time and a 12v coolbox does fine, I put a couple of those plastic blocks in the freezer the day before I leave then leave them in the bottom of the cool box, the coolbox runs from 12v when I'm driving and the milk, butter, etc lasts 2/3 days just fine. The toilet you have constructed is an excellent idea (I might pinch it).
 
Nice work Scotsy!

The problem for me with the Sprinters is that they are narrow vans as you say, but if you fit in a transverse bed then that's a big advantage! Otherwise they are very good vehicles and that one looks A1. I would give it a spin even without a heater. Get under two or three duvets and you'll be fine even if it is below zero outside.

To Rubbertramp; why stealth camp? I think it gives more chance of a quiet night when parking up in residential areas. I've never been disturbed or reported by a NIMBY in either a motorcaravan or a stealth camper. But I do like to park a lot in urban areas and I have read a few reports of NIMBYs getting their knickers in a twist over occupied motorhomes in their street. Not that it would bother me too much, I'd tell them it was the queen's highway and to STFU. But I'd prefer to avoid the situation if possible.

If I am careful with lights and blackout, nobody will know either way with my van. I also camp a lot on my own drive and don't particularly want to draw attention to the fact. Strictly it is an open plan area with some covenant about boats, caravans, and camping vehicles. But the way I am set up, it is just a parked blacked out van which moves every day so noone really has any evidence either way.
 
I agree....(about stealth).....I finally got my van about 2 weeks ago...some of you saw it at Stonehenge....it is useful to be
able to slip into a hotel car park overnight....I have one favourite hotel in the midlands where they are now used to seeing
the van parked up overnight....and used to seeing me in the hotel eating and drinking....so I've never been challenged about
it.....I'm keeping that location to myself as I'll be there again this week lol.....but here is my stealth van (called Viktor naturally).

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Nice job Scotsy....I haven't the patience to try and build my own.....health to drive!
p.s. I'm told by the manufacturer my van will be featuring in the 'Camping and Caravan Mart' magazine sometime over the next few months.
Apparently a reporter visited the manufacturer just before I got it and is doing an article for the manufacturer about it.
 
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I like your conversion, Scotsy. It’s my style of stealth camping but on a larger and more comfortable scale.

Within the next few weeks, I’m planning to start an ‘adaptation’ of a Peugeot Expert but seem to hit never-ending problems with insurers. They will happily accept either a full conversion (tho’ this is not practical for my needs and they won’t insure me as either self-employed or unemployed without owning a second vehicle) or an unmodified commercial vehicle but anything between the two is a none-starter: once I start mentioning side windows, leisure batteries and/or split chargers, they refuse to quote although a few will accept a diesel heater without any quibble even though this requires the leisure battery they’ve already refused!

How did you get around these issues? I’m assuming your van is on a commercial vehicle policy and not insured as a motorhome?
Did insurers accept your leisure batteries, split charger, heater and side windows? If so, which company did you use?

I’m also interested in your heater installation: this is the model I’ve been looking at although purchase/fit quotes are exceeding £2k which sounds excessive.
 
Under the front seat i have just fitted a 24v Webasto diesel night heater which i got going fine yesterday, (using 2 x 12v batteries in series at the moment till i get my hands on a 12v step-up to 24v gizmo) it supplied plenty of heat (rated at 2kw) once the fuel lines were bled properly and during plenty of on/off testing it behaved perfectly but alas on trying it this morning i am back to the point where i re-read the instructions and determined that when it said " do not tee off the vehicles fuel supply or return lines" they knew better than me LOL. So I'm now going to re-jig the fitment to include a small independant fuel tank to supply JUST the night heater (like i was going to do in the first place before tee-ing in to the vehicle lines seemed very feasible and easier)

as you have teed into fuel line already could you not feed it to smaller tank to supply heater that way you end up with one filler or just use jerry can of fuel to supply heater.only a thought
 
I should also add re stealth camping that I don't use (or try not to use) locations such as superstore car parks, retail parks, town centre car parks, or industrial parks. Those are all boy racer or gang gathering territory. The best locations are leafy residential streets hidden among normal night parking. A small panel van stealth camper gives a greater range of these residential locations that you can use with less chance of annoying locals. In a retail park your enemy is the boy racer or gang layabout. In a residential street your enemy is the NIMBY, hence the stealth camper is primarily designed to combat that threat, although it can be used in many other situations too.
 
I wondered why you have Norris Cole as your avatar: now you've posted those photos I don't need to ask:)
 
Aire_on_a_shoestring said:
I wondered why you have Norris Cole as your avatar: now you've posted those photos I don't need to ask:)
Click to expand...

All my biker mates started calling me Norris when we got the Hymer a couple of years ago, just my luck that it was at the same time that Coronation Street was running the storyline about Norris's girlfriend Mary winning one in a competition. At one point i was going to order 'Norris' and 'Mary' sunblinds but the wife would have none of it :mad2:

Of course it has nothing at all to do with me being a grumpy old b@st@rd and looking like him :confused:

Ian
 
stealth

why can't we all do what we want to do, so long as we don't harm anyone or any thing? Can't understand AUTHORITY! Love Life! From the old hippy!
:)
 
Hi, nice conversion Scotsy.

Below is a picture of mine with my permanent driver / handyman Fred.

Dezi

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