Shitröen Berlingo // Mini-Van Camper Build Saga

Shitröen Berlingo // Mini-Van Camper Build Saga

So this is where it starts…. A long winter of building the van up into the EPIC adventure mobile that’ll take us around the countryside during the Spring, Summer and Autumn. And what a spectacular little jammy it is… I even don#t entirely hate the colour… Or the horrid yellow and green tweed seats… What, on Gods green earth, were they thinking with that colour combination…

 

Anyways… The build is a slightly complicated one, which is partly the reason it has taken until Season Two of the series to get it started. The original Idea was to build the Van up as soon as I got it, but that didn’t happen… Luckily so as well. This way, we got to use it a bit, and figure out exactly what we needed… And this is the list of criteria for the build (and hence why it was complicated).

  1. We needed to retain 3 seats.
  2. I wanted to be able to travel with my bike inside the car (so I could pre-load it for quick trips).
  3. We needed adaquate storage for camping gear, bike gear and Schlonks inflatable sex-sheep.
  4. We needed place for the solar set-up, and electronics charging station.
  5. We needed to be able to squeeze three bikes in/on.
  6. It still needed to fit into my underground parking garage.
  7. It needed to be a stealth camper.

So… As you can see… It kinda needed to be everything to everyone… Which made things heaps complicated to design. Many a morning was spent sitting in the van with a coffee and a tape measure… But I think we got it all worked out. And here are the pictures from stage on of the build… But first, The videos…

 

 

And now the pictures…

The first stages of getting the layout right. All based around our little fridge.

 

Working out the little shelf for the dry food goods…

 

Getting an idea of the spacing for the compartments and pre-cutting some of the boards.

 

Installation into the car starts with some jigging to get the plan to fit.

 

22 cubic feet of space back there… but it runs out fast.

 

A bit more cutting and nudging to get everything in the right places…

 

A bit of room for “longer” items…

 

Dry food goods in close proximity to the fridge.

 

Framing in the compartment for bits we don’t need too often.

 

Just sort of 1m down that gully to the back of the van…

 

AND the bike still fits in there.

 

Making sure the tail-gate can support a load…

 

So far… Working onks with hand tools. #oldschool

 

Cutting in the hand-hold to make getting the lids open easier.

 

Getting some of the gaps filled for a sleaker looking finish.

 

Storage room that’s accessed though the sliding door.

 

Space for the fridge and food.

 

Once the solar is in, I can drill out the ventilation holes for the fridge and run the wiring.

 

The back end is looking much cleaner…

 

That’s the berlingo baby!!

And that’s that for the first stage of the build… Comingtogether really nicely I would say… Hope that continues!

 

Peace out hommies!!

Phil

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