Pontyslapper
Chatty Member
What really amuses me is the massive use of tongue and groove wood in pretty much all of these vanlifer builds - then they grizzle like billyo about the van weight, fuel consumption etc.
Most VW/normal sized conversions are ply lined and carpet covered. This is lightweight, sound proofing and pretty forgiving if you twit yourself on it. I know, I forever clonk me bonce on ours!
I'd hazard that they are all going for that certain look that they think is wholesome and eco. Dragging that amount of wood around ain't eco.
I know a van converter locally who does serious volumes of vans - one of the biggest in the UK - if someone comes if with the vanlifer t&g wants, he rapidly turns them off as he says its a pain to fit around all the van contours, looks tit if you need to replace any, nightmare if something goes tits behind it as you always have a mare ripping it out.
He at a guess puts out about 80-90% of his conversions in 4 way carpet. The majority of the rest can get dazzled by his array of sparkly plastic based cladding, then the odd few still want the t&g look. He's often proved right with t&g, and they come back months later when something went kaput and needed swapping out while they were off away with a need for a speedy repair so the wood was just ripped out to get the job done. The big issue then being the want for the new wood to match the old - easy enough with paint or varnish you'd think but, van + windows = fading, so the whole lot needs flatting back and redoing or they put up with 'an odd bit' where the repair was
Most VW/normal sized conversions are ply lined and carpet covered. This is lightweight, sound proofing and pretty forgiving if you twit yourself on it. I know, I forever clonk me bonce on ours!
I'd hazard that they are all going for that certain look that they think is wholesome and eco. Dragging that amount of wood around ain't eco.
I know a van converter locally who does serious volumes of vans - one of the biggest in the UK - if someone comes if with the vanlifer t&g wants, he rapidly turns them off as he says its a pain to fit around all the van contours, looks tit if you need to replace any, nightmare if something goes tits behind it as you always have a mare ripping it out.
He at a guess puts out about 80-90% of his conversions in 4 way carpet. The majority of the rest can get dazzled by his array of sparkly plastic based cladding, then the odd few still want the t&g look. He's often proved right with t&g, and they come back months later when something went kaput and needed swapping out while they were off away with a need for a speedy repair so the wood was just ripped out to get the job done. The big issue then being the want for the new wood to match the old - easy enough with paint or varnish you'd think but, van + windows = fading, so the whole lot needs flatting back and redoing or they put up with 'an odd bit' where the repair was
so I’ll give them credit for that ( still not a fan though before anyone accuses me of being so ) His driving is 
