Camper Conversion Critique: One Year On
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Being just over a year since we started converting our Peugeot Expert Tepee WAV into Erica-the-Campervan, Mick and I sat down to chat about what we would consider doing differently.
Hi Gayle and Mick. I watched this series of your Expert conversion before I found my own Expert. Now I’ve just watched them all again. Thank you so much for taking the time to post all these videos showing the process inc pros and cons. I really appreciate having a better insight now that I am about to embark on my conversion. I especially like the change of passenger seat - but as you say they are like hen’s teeth to find! Anyway thanks again.
I’ve only just found your channel but I’ve loved going back and watching your van build videos. I thought you both did a cracking job on it. Looks brilliant. I’ll have to going back and watch other videos you have. But well done on the van build.👏
Hiya Gayle and Mike. I finished my conversion with the same van. Used a lot of your ideas. Almost the same issues as you but they aree very liveable. it's a great van. Thanks for your videos and information! Carl.
Glade your happy with your conversion, mine is also an Ex WAV but the type without the lower floor so just has a short slope to the rear, this version doesn’t have issues with ground clearance and has the standard fuel tank and exhaust unlike lowered floor version
I bought my tepee and thought quite hard then decided not to build a bed ,I fit in the drop down space lol. The garage that i bought it from whipped the ramp off for me before i picked it up. I replaced the double front seat with a single so i could get into the back easy. After hearing about your light problems with your curtains i spent 3 weeks hand sewing thermal covers with magnets for the side windows and a heavy duty velcro one for the back window. The lightweight curtain between the cab and the back is held on with magnets on a metal strip bent to the curve of the roof .I've a single chair behind the drivers door so i fitted my two batteries/solar etc underneath there, with the blackout covers on that little light comes in very useful lol. i used a B&Q wall cabinet to fit both sides for storage /water etc with the toilet at the back on the left hand side and drawers facing at the back on the right. My fold out bed chair stores in front of the single fixed chair and my 12v cool box sits on the seat. My cooking is done on a portable camp stove/ bio light back up stove. I also have a water filter placed near the side door. I've put the windshields on and found them excellent for air flow at night. My total cost came in under 500 pounds ,that's including the semi flex solar panel .Thanks for the great advice you put into all your videos and for this round up of a years usage. Happy van camping.
Thank you both for sharing your journey with us. I found you because I am just buying a Peugeot partner but it is a bit older older than yours but I need to remove the mobility stuff at the back and was very interested to see what you had done in your conversion to although mine will probably be a lot more basic 😀
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Great job nice finish, just one little question where do you keep your spare wheel for the van?
Thank you!
Our spare wheel is currently sitting in our back garden ... which isn't particularly useful should we get a flat when out and about! The conclusion we've reached is that there's nowhere we can possibly put a spare (can't go underneath because of the lowered floor; can't go inside because it would take up too much room), so we've got one of those 'fill it with sticky sludge, pump it up' emergency tyre repair kits and some breakdown cover.
Hi just found you. I am looking at a teepee tomorrow. What's your experience with the mechanics of the van. Has it been reliable ? Fuel hungry ? I too am looking at the WAV version any regrets about choosing that over the standard van ?? Cheers.
Hi, I follow your channel as I am converting. Peugeot Expert and find your channel very informative, keep it up. When you changed the passenger seat you said you had an error code for the pretensioning of the seat beat. I have just had the same error code when I removed the passenger seat to change to a captain chair. I recall you solved it by buying a connector from China , please can you give me a hyperlink to follow. Regards David
Sorry - I'm probably far too late answering this to be of any use to you. We actually solved the fault error by installing the middle seat belt reel, off the old double seat, under the new single seat. I did then order a device from China, but by the time it arrived I decided that the effort required to remove the seat belt reel from under the seat (would have needed to take the seat back out to get at it) was more trouble than it was worth, so we are still driving around with an extra seat belt under the seat.
The device I ordered (but have never used, so can't confirm whether it would have done the job) was listed on Ebay with the snappy description: "Car SRS Airbag Emulator Simulator Resistor Bypass Kit Fault Finding Diagnostic"
Sorry, I forgot to mention cause of my age I found tge ramp to be a godsend during this build. I was warned I would regret removing it and shoukd have placed the toilet at tge side of the sliding door, I retained the double passenger seat so that was possibke. I plan to change my pull out bed for a hinged flip over instead of a pull out and tge back rest that would be built in wold act as the kegs when it's flipped over.
Even at my age I found the ramp to be extremely useful during the early parts of the conversion - much easier than stepping up and down the whole time. So useful was it, that we only took it out at the point that, in its folded state, it was in the way of stuff we needed to build inside.
I'm surprised how did not speak about the kitchen burner unit. You are very budget conscious yet you have that very expensive and very large cook top, would you buy that again.
One other point is with the floor being lowered there is no spare wheel. I followed your build from the start and with only a few exceptions I liked your design but I live and travel the west coast of the Highlands and very often there's no phone signal, I opted to use one half of tge kitchen unit to house a temp spare wheel and stored jack and tools under the floor at tge back. I opted for a one burner movable gas stove and decided to run all my electrics from a 500 solar generator. It starts and runs the diesel heater without any problems. I'm only a weekend warrior so my needs are basic.i hinged a pice of ply onto the fixed slats go form a lift up backrest plus the part is hinged separate from the main lift up of tge bed and I use the small seat pull out for relaxing to look out tge door. Other than that your build inspired me to do this conversion albeit on a much reduced budget than yours. Many thanks and safe travels. Cheers
The stove/sink came into the single statement that we're happy with everything else about the kitchen - which is to say that we have no complaints about it, and yes, we would buy it again. We could have used a much cheaper solution (indeed, we have a two-burner campingaz stove in the shed), but having been able to budget for the extravagance of the Dometic unit, I'm happy to have done so.
I completely understand your position with the spare wheel. Ideally it's something I would prefer not to travel without, but it's a compromise we decided we needed to make here.
Sounds like you've done yourself a nice conversion and glad something I said was of use to you :-). I wish you continued happy travels.
90 degree seat back is impossible. 20 degree is optimal.
Im looking at getting a Peugeot tepee with wheel chair ramp to convert I was wondering if it's more expensive to insurance than a non ramp version ?
I've not had a quote for a non-WAV version (or at least the one I did had other complications that would have affected the quotation!), but I suspect that the wheelchair mod does make it more expensive to insure.