Hi, my name is Rob, I live in North Yorkshire. A few years ago I had a couple of open heart surgeries that my hospital managed to botch (twice), as a result, last year I received a compensation claim payout. I desided that I would like to do something meaninful with it, something like convert a van into a campervan. To cut a long story short, I bought what I thought would be a good one, a big one... so I looked around for a while but couldn't decide on a particular make or model, I did however know that I wanted a fixed bed and a shower etc etc so I was looking for a XLWB with a high roof. I found one last September on Ebay, it was a fair trek but that was the one, see pic...
It used to be a refrigerated medication delivery van but not refrigerated in the normal way, noooo, this one was much worse, the fridge bit was bolted to the inside of the roof via brackets, there was a 4 inch pipe that went through a hole in the floor and under tha van to the engine compartment with all the electrics and the hoses that were then attached to the vans own aircon system, this was a nightmare to get out. the walls, floor and ceiling were all covered by grp that was stuck onto the panels with something resembling Sikaflex on steroids, it too me almost a month to get all the panels out and another few days to remove the aircon upgrade fridge unit etc... see pics
it started like this
then went to this
then this
and this
It goes on but I won't bore you all with endless pics. Eventually, I got it out.
The floor was an absolute nightmare, I ended up getting a multitool out and cutting the gro into 6 inch squares and sliding a paint scraper under each one and yanking, took a lot to get out, left an absolute mess on the floor too..
The guy selling the van turned out to have a disposal contract with Alliance Healthcare to sell their vans within his area, he told me that the van was an L4 high roof van, when I stood in the inside of the day I bought it, my head almost touched the roof, he explained this away by telling me that the roof was lowered internally by 4 inches to accomodate the lots of insulation and the floor was actually a false one that would just unbolt giving me another 4 inches (notice the raised panel with the black vents in it. Well, I fell for it, knowing absolutely nothing about vans I took him at his word. It turned out that the roof was not lowered and had no insulation in it and the "raised floor" was actually manufactured that way. so, I now have an L4H2 van to convert.
I thought that I would just be able to watch Youtube vids as I went along for each stage so I ordered all the bits that I thought I would need.
One problem I have is that I can't put the traditional stud work on the floor and ceiling because then I would be banging my head on the roof, I only have a couple of inches to play with before insulating and framing atc, I am only 5'9" so I do not want to make it even lower, this is my main problem.
My secondary problem is that I would like this van to have a fixed doulble bed above the garage and a a couple of other options to make it a four birth whilst also having a resonablt kitchen area and a full shower. If anyone could point me in the right direction to parhaps getting some idea's I would be very grateful.
Anyways, I've rambled on for too long, just wanted to say hello and got carried away, apologies.
Cheers
Rob