A nissan van to camper

[Obison]

Evening!
I have about finished my conversion of a Nissan NV400 L1 S1 into our camper and thought I would throw it in here.

We had a self converted vivaro last year and used it just about every weekend, loved it but it was just a little too small for us to do more than a couple of days, so I went van hunting. . .

I still needed a short van due to limited parking at home, but could do with a bit more head height, I can just about stand up inside this and not have restrictions in carparks etc.

So I started with this, a reasonable miles 2015 swb van with 2 previous owners, very good bodywork and a fair interior.

[Obison]

[Obison]

[Obison]

So, first job was to remove the ply panels and floor and give it a cleanup inside, then started with sound deadening tiles, insulation and a new floor, I used rockwool battens and 7mm self adhesive foam for insulation and foil bubble for the floor under the new ply.

I only used the foam on the ceiling as I wanted to carpet over the ribs etc without losing any headroom, it's a compromise but seems to work well, all ribs were stuffed with rockwool and openings taped over.
The got on with the building, wiring etc.

[Obison]

So then it was wiring and plumbing, went for a pair of 130ah batteries, a 30 amp B2B charger from the vans smart alternator, still need to fit the solar panel when it gets a bit warmer.
It's a fairly simple setup, a basic electric hookup behind the bumper powers a couple of double sockets and usb's, with 12v strip lights, usb's, and a 300w inverter for the 240v tv.



Once it all worked it was tidied up and clipped / put in trunking.

[Obison]

The actual furniture / bed stuff was fairly straightforward, I wanted a permanent bed just to save the hassle of putting it away in the day just to get it back out at night, so I mounted the frame on aluminium rails at mid height, so that the top of the mattress would be level with the vans mid panel brace, once carpeted this would give us a bed at 6ft3" long and 4ft6" wide.
All other kit like water tank, batteries and storage can be fitted under the bed, and the chest fridge can be used as a step up onto the bed.

[Red9zero]

Good thread ! I've been watching lots of van build stuff on YouTube - Liam the Terrible, Urban Vanlife, Love Sundays especially. I really fancy building one myself sometime.

[Obison]

Finished all the carpet lining, and got the mattress made to measure, fitted some led strip lights.






I'll put more up in a few.

[normalbloke]

Are you extremely short?

[Obison]

normalbloke said:

Are you extremely short?

5'11, why do you ask old chap?

[Obison]

The van was just about finished about a month ago, so we've had a few nights out to test the water and find what we still need.

It works well, I've put a portaloo inside a buddy seat and fitted a pull around curtain round it for night time leaks.

The kitchen unit is 900mm high so same as a house kitchen, it houses the gas bottle for the twin hob, and has a small grey water tank for the sink.
We have hot and cold water at the tap, courtesy of a 32ltr cold water tank and a 10ltr bobil vans 12 and 240v water heater tank.

This will get plumbed into an outdoor shower too when I get time.
And just waiting on a twin seat swivel I'm having made so that I can fit an appropriate table between the buddy seat and fronts.

[Obison]

The reason I chose this particular van was I really like the looks of it, the front reminds me of a transformer, and it's short, stubby and boxy.
The tinted side windows and black trim go well with the clean white bodywork, but the steel wheels were very narrow, tucked under and just looked poo, so. .

Bit of research and alloys aren't really available during to the huge 89.1mm spigot, I found that porsche cayenne have the same 130 pcd, but the centre bore is something like 73mm.

I got a set of cheap turbo alloys and the machine shop guys at work relieved the centres on the cnc, just 13mm deep which leaves loads of material, they are bbs so good strong wheels, so I wasn't worried about strength.
7
They are on!
[url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/hpasq4UY[/url]



I love how it looks now, its very different.

[Scrump]

Looks good and you made a tidy job of the conversion.
Is the van in the Renault Master and Vauxhall Movano family? Front looks a lot better than them.

[Obison]

It is indeed, the renault platform with nissans own front end, good tough vans.

[C3ntaur2084]

Great thread, watching with interest

[Obison]

Hmm, not much interest in the van then!
I just thought it was an interesting change from the vw.

[Ilovejapcrap]

Great van.

Got any pics of floor going down ?

[RSVR101]

Looks great. Very tidy conversion. Have you considered some taller off-road tyres? Might Fill the arches better and be handy if you park up on grass.

How about some graphics?

[RSVR101]

And I think the previous are you short comment may have been a question of can you stand up in the van? It’s not a high top is it?

[Obison]

Ilovejapcrap said:

Great van.

Got any pics of floor going down ?

Unfortunately not, I get too into the work and forget to take pics, but I just removed the old floor, cleaned the bare floor then glued foil backed bubble insulation down with the 7mm foam on top, then screwed new ply down, finished with self adhesive vinyl flooring.