Winter? But wont it be cold and dark? Yes it will, but by the time Spring comes along you’ll want to have a head start, and by summer you’ll want to be using your campervan, not building it.
I’ve converted several vans, over winter and early spring, and believe me, you will do yourself a favour by starting early in the year.
One of the biggest gotchas in converting a campervan is – it takes longer than you think. Sometimes much longer. Getting a head start is a great idea.
Why start so early in the year?
When spring time comes, with the lighter and warmer evenings you’ll want to be getting stuck into the important parts of the conversion, like furniture. But, before you get there, there is a lot to consider, and this often takes time, sometimes several months. Getting this done over winter will give you that prime spring time to focus on the important stuff.
Here’s a rough plan
January – Buy your van
Buy your van. It’s a good time of year to do it, as everyone is in shock after Christmas and you’ll beat any other van buyers as you’re so early in the year.
Service the van. Get everything sorted mechanically, and bodywork wise to ensure you vehicle is a good base. If you are doing the bodywork yourself it might be tricky at this time of year as its cold, so you may need to defer this util spring.
February – Layout and outside things
Plan your layout. Use mockups to ensure it’s going to work for you. Changes are possible later, but it’s good to get this right now.
It’s a good idea to start on the outside of your van and work your way in. So get your solar panels on the roof, and the wiring passed through. Get your water tanks fitted on the underside, and filler fitted. Get your hookup socket installed. Fit your windows and fans.
March – Electrics, plumbing
It’s a idea to plan where your wiring and plumbing will go, and plan ahead for it. Bury conduit and pipes, or attaching them behind where panels will go makes a big difference.
Do as much electrical work, wiring and plumbing as you can.
April – Furniture
Now comes the fun part. Start building your furniture. Hopefully you’ve done some of the hard work already.
May – Paneling
Now that you’ve got everything else done, fill in the gaps with your panelling, on the ceiling and walls. Suddenly the conversion starts to come together!
June – Camping!… and alterations
Your (nearly) finished! So get our there and start camping. Hopefully you’ve done some earlier camping as well, but enjoy this good weather and your new conversion.
You are going to find little things you want to change, so address them now.
On reflection
You can see that by starting in January you got a massive head start. If you started in April you probably wouldn’t be finished until the end of the summer.