I want to you introduce you to my new self build project. A 2015 Renault Master that I will be converting into a rustic campervan over the course of the next few months!
It took a long time to decide to actually sell my old Vauxhall Movano campervan. It had been with me for 4 years, and my late father helped me build it. However, it was time to move on and build a larger van to take my mountain bike and gear. Hence the upgrade to this Renault Master van.
Renault Master Self Build Camper Van Introduction
Video Transcript
Welcome back to Vanlife TV from my new van!
I think you will agree that I have one hell of a lot of work to be getting on with now! It’s started to dawn on me what I’ve actually done, because I remember my old van at this stage. Then I realized how much work I actually put in!
As you can see I started to strip the ply lining off of this wall to see what I’ve got to work with. It’s a very, very similar construction to my old van actually. I can use this this beam here to make the bed at that sort of height.
This van gives me about an extra meter of load space, so I’m going to have a slightly larger bed I can get my bike out from underneath lengthways. That’ll be the first thing to go in I think, and then I’ll figure out all of the rest of the van once the bed is in place.
Keeping the rustic interior theme of your old van?
Now, people have been commenting saying “am I going to keep it a rustic type interior?” Yes I am, because if I was to build something too clinical and clean then I wouldn’t be able to relax in it.
I want that sort of like log cabin feel, somewhere where I can relax. So it will be rustic colours, very similar to my old van, but the actual layout will be slightly different. I think the bed will be going in the back across the van like in my old van.
The whole bulkhead is only bolted in, so that’s got to come out to allow me access into the cab. Speaking of the cab let’s show you that now.
Here we are in the cab and you can see it’s a vast improvement over the old cab. Everything’s been updated.
I suppose you want to know some of the specs of this van:
Renault master 2.3 DCI
- 125 brake horsepower model
- “Business” Edition
- 70,000 miles on the clock
It comes with a few bells and whistles that my old van didn’t have. So I’ve got:
- Electric mirrors and electric windows
- Hill assist control for when doing hill starts
- Traction control – flick a switch and the the ABS system kicks in and helps me through muddy fields for example or lanes or anything well I need a little bit of extra traction
- Bluetooth stereo with auxilary in and USB and I’ve also got a spare USB port tucked in the back of the dash as well for charging my phone
It’s just much more car-like to drive, there’s loads of power with it and very quiet as well. That’s one of the things I noticed over my old van, was that this one was pretty quiet to drive.
Keeping the bench seat this time?
Now as you can see I’m sat on the bench seat here. If you remember in my old van I took this seat out and replaced it with a single so that I can have a walk through through the centre.
I’m not that sure I’m gonna do that this time. Even though I used the walk through daily, it does limit the design layouts in the back of the van.
If I wanted to put a full width kitchen across the back just behind the bulkhead, I can’t do it if I’ve got a walk through. That’s what’s making me think that I might keep this this double seat in the front here.
This section of the seat actually folds down. My initial thinking – and this is only an idea at this stage – is to construct a bulkhead with a window. A window large enough that I can crawl through in an emergency and get into the driver’s seat and obviously utilize the fact that this seat actually folds down.
I’ve got a long way to go but that’s an initial thought that I’m thinking. It will free up some design ideas for the back of the van as well.
So what have you got to work with?
This is the space that I’ve got to work with. My first job is to take all the ply lining off the walls, take the plywood off of the floor and clean everything up.
I can then start getting ready for the insulation stage, and that’s what I’m going to start doing no. I’ll cover that in another video next week.
My plan is to put out weekly video of everything I’ve done in the previous week. I’m going to go back to weekly videos like I did with my last build and do very similar thing.
Every Sunday evening there’ll be a new video around about 7pm in the evening – UK time – on the Vanlife TV YouTube channel.
So thank you for watching if you’ve got any questions or comments put them in the comment section below.
I’ll see you again in another video real soon, until then take it easy!