The van

• Volkswagen Transporter T28 Highline TDI
• 2021 – Registered 01 September 2021
• 5 speed manual – 110PS 2.0TDI
• Fortana Red Metalic
• Tailgate
• Single sliding door
• Air conditioning
• Electric windows
• Heated windscreen
• Electric heated and folding mirrors
• Multifunction steering wheel
• Adaptive cruise control
• Breaking assistance
• Parking assistance
• Hill start assist
• Bluetooth audio infotainment centre with App Connect (allows connection to phone to use satnav, music streaming apps, etc.)
• Rear speakers coded to audio equipment

The conversion

• Rear mounted sliding pod with demountable table. Fitted with 2 ring gas hob and Alpicool fridge freezer
• Thermal and sound insulated
• Carpet lined
• Swivel bench
• Captain’s driver seat with two armrests
• Autoterm 2kw diesel heater with programable controller
• 180w MiPV solar panel with hidden terminals
• 128ah high quality AGM leisure battery
• 30amp Victron bluetooth battery to battery charger
• Victron bluetooth SmartSolar MPPT regulator
• Rotory battery charging selector switch (allows vehicle or leisure battery solar charging)
• 12 outlet accessory fuse box
• Rear tinted glass with 2 opening windows
• Black out curtains fitted to all windows, including cab area
• Full-width RIB seat / bed on floor slider allowing multiple locking positions along the full length of rear area
• Halo roof with remote controlled RGBW LED lighting
• 6 touch operated and dimmable overhead LED lights
• Multiple high speed (3.0) USB charging points that include QC outlets with dedicated heavy duty wiring
• 12v cigarette (x2) and bayonet (x2) power outlets mounted either side at rear on dedicated heavy duty circuit to allow the use of SUP pumps, tyre inflators, fridges, etc.
• Adjustable Thule low profile roof rack
• Fiamma F45s wind out awning
• Cab window wind-deflectors
• ABT style rear tailgate spoiler that will allow a tailgate bike carrier to fitted
• Tubular side bars
• 18″ VW type approved five spoke alloy wheels (uses VW wheel bolts and no spigot rings or other adaptations)

Being in the camper van trade for 20+ years, Vanscape has seen thousands of converted vans and met camper van owners of all sorts. We have found that there are plenty of people that just want a camper van for going camping in and they don’t want to use the van for anything else. But camper vans are a big investment and not everybody wants to own a van they don’t use all the time, or they might not have the space at home for a van that sits there most of the year, or maybe they want to go camping in the summer but use their van for different things other times of the year:

• Carrying work equipment
• Taking the dogs out
• An everyday people carrier with plenty of space
• Getting surf boards and the kids to the beach
• Attending cycling events nationwide
• Helping their kids move all their things to Uni

…or any number of other things that a camper van with fixed furniture wouldn’t lend itself to very well.

A Kombi van is a good option for people that want to use their van for other things than just camping, however a Kombi has its limitations too and lacks some of the more useful creature comforts you find in a camper. Kombi beds and small camping pods are okay for a night ‘roughing it’, but for a proper “camper” experience you need a real bed, built in electrics, cooking facilities etc.

This is where our van comes into play and bridges the gap between a Kombi and a camper van.

Starting with the bed: we have fitted a premium quality 150cm wide RIB Altair seat trimmed in the same T6.1 Bricks upholstery as the front seats.

Not only that, but this seat is mounted on full-length floor slide rails which allow the seat to be easily mounted in any position from all the way forward behind the cab seats (like a Kombi) to all the way back further than a standard rock and roll bed position.

The benefits of this are that your passengers can travel as if in a car (not all the way in the back of the van like other vans with a RIB seat). This gives you an enormous boot space capable of fitting bikes, tools, camping kit, surf boards, very large dogs – just about anything the average person might want to put in their van!

Then when the seat is slid to the back, you have a very large space in front of the sliding door. This is great if you need to change out of your wetsuit or other sporting kit, or you can use it as a communal area with the front passenger double bench seat swivelled around and a dining table in the middle – it’s a very useful space!

The RIB Altair seat provides 3 forward facing travelling seats with individual seat belts making the van capable of carrying 6 people including the driver. The seats meet the strictest safety regulations so you can be assured your passengers are travelling safely, unlike many Rock and Roll beds we’ve seen being used to carry passengers!

The sliding RIB seat also has storage space underneath that is capable of housing large storage boxes so you can put all your camping gear, or whatever you want, under the seat and out of the way.

Under the driver’s seat is a 128ah Rolls AGM leisure battery. This is charged via a Bluetooth enabled Victron charging system comprising of a Victron Orion 30a DC-DC 12v charger, and also a Victron SmartSolar solar charger.

The solar panel is a premium quality MiPV 180w fully flexible panel with hidden terminals to provide a completely flat panel with no visible connectors to damage when you put things on the fitted roof rack.

Inside the back doors on both sides are a 12v cigarette type power outlet and Hella bayonet type, so four in total. These sockets are wired using heavy duty cable and supplied via their own fused circuit. The point of this is so that you can plug the fridge in that’s fitted in the pod, and still use a SUP or airbed pump, or a portable electric shower, or whatever, from either side at the back. All of these things draw a big current and often blow fuses and melt wiring in conversions not specifically equipped to deal with the heavy draw.

Further to these power outlets, there are 3 high power USB sockets that also provide connection for Type C fast charging. These are on a dedicated fused wiring circuit so they provide optimum performance.
One is mounted below the side window behind the driver’s seat, the other two are mounted one either side centrally in the back so that passengers on the back seats have a socket each side.

There are also factory fitted Type C (QC) and 12v cigarette type sockets in the front of the van.

We have fitted a 180w fully flexible MiPV solar panel to this van.

The solar panel is flush mounted with no solar cables visible to get damaged on the roof.

MiPV solar panels are an amazing premium solar panel product! They are far more robust than your average panel and the technology means that they are far more efficient too.

The van has 6 overhead flush mounted and dimmable LED spotlights that operate by touch.

The van is also fitted with a two-tone halo roof that provides remote control RGBW LED lighting around the entire rear ceiling area. This lighting not only looks visually stunning, it is also very practical. The LED lights can be set to red, green, blue, or white. You can dim the lighting to provide beautiful ambient lighting that is very pleasant to relax in bed with at night, to read with, or to help the kids sleep on long journeys that go on past dark (or you can shut the fitted blackout curtains in daylight and still make it very cosy).

If you like to show off, these lights can be set to flash in time with the music you’re playing, or to fade from colour to colour, or to flash, or many other modes. This is all done via remote control and would look great at a show or campsite where you’re having a lot of fun.

There is an LED light fitted inside the back door that illuminates when the tailgate is opened, and the side loading door also has a step light installed. The front cab has factory fitted lighting in the footwells.

The van is fully sound proofed using premium quality Dodo DeadN matting. This is applied to all the side panels, inside the doors, over the wheel arches, and over the entire ceiling. This helps make the van a much nicer vehicle to drive than a van without sound insulation.

Over the sound insulation is recycled plastic thermal insulation. This provides insulation that helps prevent warmth escaping and also heat from entering. Additionally, it provides a bit more sound insulation.

The rear of the van is professionally carpet lined using premium quality graphite coloured carpet and temperature resistant adhesive. The panels have all been carpeted individually to allow for removal and access to behind them so that any additional wiring to fit new accessories can easily be made in the future.

The van is fitted with tinted glass all round – this creates a nice light interior space with excellent visibility for the rear passengers to take in the views as you go about your travels.

The two windows behind the cab seats are both openers. This allows the rear passengers (or dogs) to have fresh air when travelling, but also serves as useful ventilation when camping as it can get stuffy inside a camper van on a warm night. The two opening windows have a couple of positions where they can be locked in place.

Covering all the rear windows are fitted double layer blackout curtains. These curtains allow you to quickly and easily put the rear of the van into near complete darkness for privacy and for sleeping.

The cab windows are blackout using a matching set off magnetic blackout curtains that only take a few seconds to fit.

Being a Highline, this van is fitted from the factory with a touchscreen infotainment system that is equipped with App Connect and Telephone connectivity. You can connect an Apple or Android mobile phone and use your Apps, including satnav, Audiobooks, Music, etc.

The audio system is also Bluetooth enabled so that you can connect other Bluetooth devices, like MP3 players etc., if you wanted to.

The Halo roof has additional speakers fitted for the rear passengers which are fully controlled (balance and fader) by the audio system because it has been properly coded to allow this.

The van equipped with a 2kw Autoterm diesel heater which is mounted underneath the van in the same configuration as VW fit them to the California.

The van also has an upgraded programable digital controller allowing timers to be set and much more control over the heater output.

With 2 ring Dometic gas hob & Alpicool compressor fridge / freezer.

Because we believe cooking inside the van is not ever a great idea due to the introduction of moisture, grease, and cooking smells, we have equipped this van with a rear mounted sliding pod.

The pod has a built in 2 ring Dometic gas hob, a 40 litre 12 volt compressor fridge / freezer, and storage space under the hob.

The pod fits neatly under the rear section of the RIB seat – simply operate the slider locking mechanism to slide the pod out from under the RIB seat and away from the inside of the van to access the fridge or the cooker.

The locking sliders allow the pod to used even if the van is on a slope – it will lock in the open and closed positions.