In January 2020 we finally did what we had been talking about for months and traded in the ‘dog car’ for a van. This van will become a self-build camper which is also suitable for use for Mr.Wombat’s new business. This page will document our progress from LWB Transit Custom to Wombat Adventure Wagon.
The blank canvas:
Follow the latest progress below:
Campervan conversion: fitting a kitchen area (and toilet) in a Ford Transit Custom.
It has taken me a very long time to get around to finishing off the story of our van conversion. We’ve been too busy using it! There seems to have been a lot of interest in the topic recently, with van conversion page views increasing and sustaining, so I thought it was about time to…
Campervan conversion – building a bed / sofa for a Ford Transit Custom
For us, the bed was a key element that would determine whether or not the campervan conversion was a success. If we didn’t like sleeping in the van, then we wouldn’t use it as much as we planned. The factory fit campervan ‘rock’n’roll beds just look really small and uncomfortable, so we knew this wasn’t…
Campervan conversion – fitting cladding and lighting in a Ford Transit Custom
Finally, after what seemed like forever, enough of the functional build was done to start making the project look more like a camper than a builder’s van. We decided on painted wooden cladding for the majority of the internal cosmetic finish, with grey 3 way stretch carpet for awkward areas (including doors). We started with…
Campervan conversion – fitting leisure electrics to a Ford Transit custom
Electrickery is very much not my area of expertise, so as well as my vague descriptions for the systems we decided to install in our van conversion project, I have also asked Mr. Wombat to draw out a circuit diagram. This is included at the end. When we scoped out how we would use the…
Campervan conversion – fitting a floor in a Ford Transit Custom
We have chosen to convert an H1 (low roof) van to ensure we have access to all the places we might want to go in it – from carparks to small country lanes etc . This means that there is not a lot of height to play with inside the van and we want to…
Campervan conversion – Fitting rooflights in a Ford Transit Custom
The next instalment in the tale of the van conversion involved cutting more holes. After the nerve-wracking experience of making that first cut in a perfectly sound panel in order to fit the window, we were a bit more confident this time. There was still a lot of measuring and cardboard template making involved though!…
Camper conversion – insulating a Ford Transit Custom
If you watch 5 different You Tube videos on how to insulate a panel van, you will probably see 5 different ways of doing it, and plenty of opinion on why any other way of doing it is flawed. We decided to do what made sense to us, and have settled on a combination of…
Fitting a reversing camera to a Ford Transit Custom
Before we start insulating the van, we wanted to fit a reversing camera to help us navigate narrow lanes and tight parking spots without incident. Having looked at various options, we decided on a camera mounted in the high level brake light at the top of the rear door, together with a display which mounts…
We cut a big hole in the van!
We finally made a start on converting our Ford Transit Custom into a camper van. The first step was quite a brave one – fitting an opening privacy glass window in the sliding door. This is not something we had any experience of, but there are plenty of YouTube videos showing how others have done…
Finding Enough 