The costs

When building your own camper the costs are for most people one of the most important considerations to start such a project, apart from the challenge and the feeling of proud that it will be YOUR camper with a very personal touch. In the present market campers are very expensive and when you are quite handy, you will be able to convert a van into a campervan for a reasonable price. The price is mainly determined by what you think is important for you and how much work you want to outsource. During the process of building I kept track of how much I spent for the seperate parts and I put these figures in the subhead ‘materials’ of ‘feasibility’ .

 

The amount of money you want to spend building your camper depends on how you want to use it. For me the most important thing was to be independent and self-sufficient, independent of camping’s and being able to travel during all seasons. It means that the demands for electricity, heating and insolation are quite high, but if you are only traveling during summer and staying on camping’s then the demands are much lower. Also separate chairs and turning tables are expensive, but if you have enough room you don’t really need them. You can make simple curtains and ventilate using folding windows which are also equipped with blinding materials. Also the table and the awning can be made much cheaper, so in fact instead of spending €1250, you can do it for less than half, much more simple. Instead some people think it is more important to spend more money on the van itself. I spend only €7500, at that time 7 years old and 225.000 km. A few years old and less than 100.000 km, it will cost you at least €15.000, probable more. So I spend something between €20K and €25K, using the van and all the mentioned materials. It gives you an idea.