For many years my wife and I have considered buying a camper van but to date had resisted the temptation. However, this year we gave in, wanting to have an exciting new adventure while we were still fit and able enough to make the most of it.

Investing your hard-earned savings in your first camper van is both an exhilarating and daunting prospect. There are so many choices to be made and questions to be answered that just keep coming.

Based on our experience as ‘newbies’ to this process, I share some advice that I hope will help others in the same position.

Thank heavens for YouTube

Faced with a multitude of questions about the specification of the van we should buy we binge-watched videos, night after night, to gain as much knowledge as we could.

It was undoubtedly a time consuming but extremely valuable process.

Be realistic about what you need rather than what you would like

The YouTube videos and talking to camper van owning friends & neighbours helped us refine our choices – to pare down a long list of desirable features into something more realistic (and affordable).

In the end we decided to put our money into the practical things that would make using the van on a regular basis a pleasurable experience for us e.g. an upgraded lithium battery, inverter and solar panel (to make going ‘off grid’ more feasible), an induction hob that can be used both inside & outside the van, a RIB bed (which we found more comfortable than the Rock N Roll alternative).

Do your research about your camper van converter

And once we’d resolved all that, who should we buy it from? There was lots of choice.

We did our online research looking at reviews from customers but supplemented that with a visit to a camper van trade show which enabled us to talk to some of the conversion companies and see their products.

Several weeks after we began the process we contacted a company we had seen at the show (8 Ball Camper Conversions) and arranged to go and see them. After all our research and deliberations this turned out to be the easy bit – we had a chat with Colin, he showed us his two demo vans and one of them turned out to be a van we’d been very tempted by at the show. It was love at first and second sight and the decision to purchase was very quick.

So, why did we go for 8 Ball?: –

• They had a van we liked (obviously important!);
• The quality of the conversion – the workmanship was obvious and impressive;
• The attention to detail. Colin even made a plywood replica of my laptop to make sure it fitted inside the safe prior to installing it (see photo);
• We could see the van conversions being done and could walk around and talk to the staff;
• Their 20+ years of experience of converting vans showed in the workmanship and their knowledge;
• They are camper van users so could advise from firsthand experience;
• A 2 year warranty gives peace of mind;
• An amazing after sales service. As camper van ‘newbies’ we have regularly phoned them for advice, which has been given generously. And on one occasion Mike did a three hour round trip to our house to carry out a small repair to an internal light.

All of the above have helped considerably with our induction into van life!

Article author:
Steve Gosling