What's the damage? (to the purse like)

I made a note of the cost of the conversion and have chucked in a couple of links from where the materials came from:

• 9mm Plywood 3 x 117cm x 58.3cm (Arnold Laver) £25.44
• 2x piano hinges (Shaws Ironmongers Sheffield) £10.80
• 4 x Samla Ikea under bed boxes (Ikea) £26
• 2" Reflex Foam 175cm x 117cm (Foam Shop) £53
• 2 x Decathlon camping sleeping mat (Decathlon) £33.98
• Radiator reflective foil (B&Q) £13.98
• 20mm Round button suction cups (Amazon) £2.67
• Andes Bayo Driveaway Awning (Andes) £109.95

Total cost of conversion £275.82


I think I saved myself about £1700 there... how did you get on?

Small van for camping

Not sure at what point I decided I wanted a van to go camping with...but started looking at Vauxhall Combos - cheap and cheerful. Kept dithering too about whether I should get a worker van with no seats or with seats. However, t'other-halfs desire for a french brand brought me back round to looking at Berlingos - didn't have a choice, Pope Mobile it was to be!!

So sat down and had a sketch, having looked at some other random small van conversions on the interweb, I knew it had to be something that packed down well into the boot ( like a Amdro or a Ququq ) but a fraction of the cost.

I had to consider the seats, how they folded down - Berthas back seats folded twice but I wanted to use the height at the first fold to form the platform that would be slept on.

• Moving front seats as forward as possible would allow 175cm of platform with the back door shut
• The narrowest part would be 117cm wide (area where the back seats clip into upright position)
• Height of the back seats folded would be about 36cm high
• Needed something 36cm high to prop up the rest of platform
• Platform needed to be folded into 3 to transport it in the boot when driving