campervan conversion

ray3758

Hi. Does anyone know the most up to date rules and regulation's for convertion of a van to camper as this area is so vague and seems to be hit and miss.
Are there still height and weight restriction's
Is there a rule on number of rings on a gas hob
Does it require a table and seats

Any help will be much appreciated. thanks, Ray

lennymc

i think 1.8 metres is only stipulated by some insurance companies. Must have a table, sleeping quarters, sink and cooking facilities afaik (although Im sure someone else can clarify). I know the requirements are listed on the revenue site.

aujopimur

Go to you local CVRT centre, one that has an engineer that signs off on conversions, have a chat with him as he'll be the one that knows best.

ray3758

Thanks for all your help, it does seem the power's that be make it up as they plod along

crabbypaddy

ray3758 wrote: »

Thanks for all your help, it does seem the power's that be make it up as they plod along

If they made it easy the tax dodgers would put an end to the camper tax for all of us. I've seen ****e like a nissan serena registered in the past it was no more a camper than the average taxi.

ray3758

True however, a black and white list of requirements needed to qualify for camper status is'nt asking too much, not sure how that would make it easy for tax dodgers

Clicky

crabbypaddy

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Clicky

Thats a black and white list of requirements with a bunch of 'shoulds' thrown in that are not supported by legistation or regulation, if you follow them all you'll have no problem. If you choose not to follow the shoulds how far you get is variable.

One of the shoulds translates as "Splitters don't qualify"
The other is advocating the sensibility of being able to stand up inside.

crabbypaddy

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

The other is advocating the sensibility of being able to stand up inside.

If there wasn't a reduced tax rate for campers they wouldn't care how big it was or what shape it was or anything of the sort.

I've seen hundreds of very happy french, belgian and dutch people in very clever berlingo/partner/caddy campers, wouldn't be my cup of tea but you couldn't say they weren't legitimate campers being used for legitimate purposes.

You could also advocate the sensibility of fitting under height barriers, fitting in an average garage, reduced fuel consumption, not pissing off your neighbours, sightseers, beach goers, road users with your large high roof van blocking the road/light/view. A low roof camper would make a lot of sense to a lot of people.

My main beef though is its sporadic and haphazard 'enforcement' without any legal or regulatory basis. And whats a person of 'average' height and how do you define 'move around' and why have some converters been able to continue to register tin tops while another has been told he needs to have a pop top and it needs to hinge at the back not at the front and while joe public is being simultaneously told the height restriction is back.

If only they'd just stick the tax on the fuel and let us get on with driving whatever the hell we want. How is it fair that a taxi driver can do 55k a year for €95 and your granny in a 1 liter yaris driving 500 miles a year is paying €199 or me in my old 3l toyota dayvan doing 5.5k a year was paying €1494. End of rant.

We're already more expensive for fuel than countries paying their motor tax at the pump.

crabbypaddy

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

We're already more expensive for fuel than countries paying their motor tax at the pump.

Renua looked at it last year it would add 3c to petrol and 4c to diesel your road tax would cover a lot of liters at that rate and we were cheaper than 11 of the 21 countries on this list in may https://www.drive-alive.co.uk/fuel_prices_europe.html

Makes more sense than engine size and painting petrol and diesel with the same brush.

Roneyc

Hi Ray,

I think revenue have a list on their website, but that's really only half the story - insurers also want to see a sink and two permanently fitted hobs, as well as standing room (an internal height of 1.8m+ - I think there may be an insurer that doesn't require this but the company I'm with, Stuarts, do.).

It also must have seating, but this can be converted from the sleeping area (i.e. rock'n'roll beds in most smaller vans like VWs) and a table.

The SQI who inspected my van earlier in the summer also told me that at least one window in the back, and curtains on these windows have also been added as requirements by revenue.

It actually isn't as daunting it first seems! I'd recommend reading through the list on Revenue's website, and also looking at the BlueTDI blog for a list of requirements!