Half camper as my only vehicle

Peixesapo

Hi All,

After reading and reading I came to the conclusion that I am absolutely lost and I need a bit of advice.

My Monday to Friday job involves driving a vehicle that is not mine, therefore I barely use my own car during the week. I still own a car because I am into outdoor activities and I spend most of my weekends fishing, hiking and so on.

We have been thinking that a van could fit our lifestyle better. Just a bigger van to load fishing gear, bikes...and it would be lovely to spend the odd night in it. For the time being, I don't want the full requirements for a camper van as a kitchen, windows or running water. My idea was to install insulation,one bed and a bit of storage just to test if this van thing is a good idea at all.

Now the question. Can you drive a commercial van, taxed as private with a bed in the back? Will this go through the cvrt? If I do lining and insulation would that be considered a conversion that has not been approved by an engineer? And if so, what are the consequences?

Being my only vehicle, I assume I could not register it as a camper, but do I need to? Or is this only to get advantage of the cheaper tax and insurance?

I was thinking something such as a transporter if i find a cheap one, a Vauxhall Vivaro...something like that.

I don't believe you will have any difficulty with the authorities regarding your van usage. If its technically safe, ie meets the requirements of the CVRT test then you are good to go. The only thing inside they check are the seat belts and the controls on the dash.

However I think you will find it extremely difficult to find and insurance company who will allow you to use a commercial vehicle as a private vehicle. People say it is possible to do so - but none of the mainstream insurance companies offer this as an option in the normal offerings. So if it is possible then you will need to go through a specialist broker and there you are in the field of witchcraft and pure luck. I also note that when people say they have done it they are never forthcoming with their broker contact.

You also run into the problem that you will have to register your van as a private vehicle and start paying tax as such - which could be cripplingly expensive.

Shoog

spaceHopper

My camper is insured with dolmen and they do allow sole vehicle as camper but they don't like it, its about 700 euros. They get a lot of chances trying to get cheap insurance.

If you want to have a proper camper your only vehicle, weigh it up carefully, you could end up losing any no claims bonus you've accrued.

I'd pick a van draft a very careful email asking Dolmen about it. Say you drive a work van monday to friday and have car just for weekends which is a bit wasteful, last year you did x miles/km... You like the out doors and want something bigger than car for transporting bikes fishing and camping gear.. or to camp in. Would that be willing to accept you on a van such as the attached sample photo.

Another thing you can look at is something like a caddy people carrier and a camping pod for Errigler campers or make your own. It's a street legal car that you can camp out of.

oinkely

FWIW - I have a commercial vehicle insured and taxed privately. To complicate matters it's a crewcab van which makes insurance even more difficult. I have one option for insurance at the moment, none of the others will insure the van. This makes the renewal every year a bit stressful as I know I can't shop around and really just have to pay whatever they quote. Tax is private so is based on the old cc system which makes it about 700 a year for my 2 litre renault trafic.

The CVRT guys don't give a hoot as to what is in the back of it. They check the seatbelts etc, nothing in the load area.

Previously i had a VW transporter standard panel van with a bed/bench built in the back. That was definitely easier to insure than the crew cab, and again the CVRT only checked the mechanicals etc.

To be fair, the crewcab is the most practical vehicle i've ever had - room for the family, bikes, windsurfing kit, camping gear etc. Not too bad to drive either, though I'm not overly fussy about that sort of thing. Performance is not what I'm looking for - more reliability and practicality. It's just a pain to insure and the tax is not the most fun either!!