Buying next month, budget is the same either way, and the two candidates are an empty panel van and a crew van with a second row of seats and factory windows down one side. Use is long weekends plus two or three longer trips a year, sometimes with a friend along who would need a seat. I keep going back and forth on whether the windows are a gift or a permanent insulation problem.
I regretted the panel van for exactly one reason, which is that I built windows into it later and it cost me 700 and a very tense afternoon with a jigsaw. If you already know you want daylight, buying it with factory glass that is sealed properly and does not affect the bodywork warranty is the cheaper path by a distance.
The insulation argument is overstated and the stealth one is not. In a supermarket car park at 11pm a panel van is furniture and a windowed van with curtains is a van somebody is sleeping in. Whether that matters depends entirely on where you park, and if you are mostly on campsites and quiet lanes it does not matter at all.
Wall space is the argument nobody makes and it is the one that got me. Every window is a run of cupboards you cannot have, and in a small van the storage is what makes it liveable rather than a tent with a roof. I would take one window and no more.
Check the seats and belts question properly before you assume the crew van solves it, because a rear bench that came from the factory is a very different thing from one you add later, and there are rules about anchorages and about how the vehicle is classified and insured. Also ask your insurer what a conversion does to your policy in your country, since some want a specialist policy the moment there is a bed in it. Not advice, just the two phone calls I wish I had made before buying.
Worth also asking what happens to the policy while it is a half finished building site, because some will not cover a partially converted van at all.
That is exactly the kind of thing I would have found out afterwards. Adding both calls to the list.
@tension_dial · 7mo ago · 3 replies
I have owned both. The crew van is far nicer to live in, daylight changes everything and you stop feeling like you are in a box, and you get legal seats for the friend which the panel van cannot give you without serious work. The panel van is better in winter, better for not being noticed overnight, and gives you wall space for cupboards that the windows take away. For your use, weekends with an occasional passenger, I would take the crew van and accept the heating bill.
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@hotswap_hana · 7mo ago
With thermal covers on the windows at night it is close to the panel van. Without them you notice immediately, and glass at 2C will pull heat out all night. The covers are the whole answer and they cost a weekend to make.
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@crimp_not_solder · 7mo ago
How bad is the heating bill in practice? That is the number I cannot picture.
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