How Much Is The New VW Electric Campervan?

You’ve probably heard the buzz (pun intended) about the new VW Electric Campervan. It’s called the VW ID Buzz (pronounced I.D. Bus), and the marketing is being pushed hard.

So, what is the buzz around the VW ID Buzz all about? And more importantly, how much is a pristine VW Electric Campervan going to cost me on the forecourt?

No one was actually sure that VW was going to offer the ID Buzz as a Campervan, until an eagle eyed reporter spotted this comment in an official VW Press release relating to Electric Vehicles:

Buried deep inside a European press release, camouflaged under the headline, “Electrification of more European plants,” was this little snippet: “Another vehicle derivative, the ID. California, has likewise been approved for the (Hanover, Germany) site.” Source: Autoweek.com

The UK RRP if the new VW Electric Campervan is being advertised at just over £55,000, which to be fair is more than reasonable for a Campervan of this size and spec’, and for an electric vehicle, but what are we getting for our money, and is it worth the investment?

In the next few short paragraphs I’ll share with you what I have been able to unearth so far in my research on the VW ID Buzz.

Contents

• 1 How Far Can The New VW Electric Campervan Go On A Single Charge?
• 2 How Long Does The VW Electric Campervan Battery Take To Fully Recharge?
• 3 How Much Does It Cost To Recharge The New VW Electric Campervan’s Battery?
• 4 What Happens If You Run Out Of Power In The New VW Electric Campervan?
• 5 What Facilities Does The New VW Campervan Have?
• 6 How Many People Does the VW Electric Campervan Sleep?
• 7 Is The New VW Electric Campervan Worth Buying?

How Far Can The New VW Electric Campervan Go On A Single Charge?

At the time of writing this, there aren’t any VW Electric Campervans zipping around out roads. At least I haven’t seen one yet, although I am actually dying to see one. So, there aren’t any real life figures on hand for me to share.

The manufacturers, VW are giving out a figure of 250 miles for a single charge of it’s 77 kW battery. 250 miles is an acceptable figure, but it a lot less than most Campervans that run on traditional fuels can go on a single tank of fuel.

However, as we are dealing with new the new technology of Electric Vehicles here, I suppose we have to cut the manufacturers some slack.

Even though the new Electric Campervan isn’t being sold yet, there is literature stating that there is a larger 111 kW Battery upgrade to the existing 77 kW battery that will soon be available. This upgrade will extend the VW ID Buzz’ range from a single battery charge to even further, estimates are for around 340 miles on a full charge, which is a lot more comforting. Read more...

 

Where Can You Store Your Motorhome?

Sooner or later you are going to have to face the question of whether to store your Motorhome or not. When we buy our Motorhomes, we believe we are going to use them every weekend and holiday, but that generally turns out not to be the case.

So what should you do with your large, expensive and much loved Motorhome when it’s not in use? Hopefully reading through the next few short paragraphs will help you to decide on the best option.

Contents

• 1 Should You Store Your Motorhome If It’s Not Being Used?
• 2 Should You Store Your Motorhome At Home?
• 3 Can You Store Your Motorhome In The Street?
• 4 Can You Store Your Motorhome On Farmland?
• 5 Are Motorhome Covers Worth The Money?
• 6 Is It Better To Store Your Motorhome Indoors?
• 7 Should I Use A Specialist Motorhome Storage Facility?
• 8 Does Storing Your Motorhome Affect Your Insurance?
• 9 Is There A Motorhome Storage Checklist?

Should You Store Your Motorhome If It’s Not Being Used?

This is the first and a very important question that you should be asking yourself once you realise that your Motorhome is spending too much time in limbo.

The answer, of course will mainly depend on your own personal circumstances. Where you live, when you plan to use it next, if you have a large driveway or plot of land, if you have other vehicles and how many you have, or even “Can you afford to pay for storage”?

The list of circumstances and considerations is almost endless, but looking after your Motorhome and preventing it from damage, corrosion, theft or worse should be at the forefront of your mind when you make your decision.

Most people come to the sensible decision to store their Motorhomes when they aren’t in use. The next question that has to be answered is of course. Where do you store your Motorhome? Read more...

 

How Much Does It Cost To Build A Campervan Conversion At Home?

If you are planning to carry out your own Campervan conversion at home, you are going to need a rough idea of what the costs involved are going to come to before you start your project.

If you think about it, the cost of carrying out a DIY Campervan conversion will lie somewhere between an extremely low financial outlay, and up to, whatever you are prepared to spend and more. We are going to consider how much it should cost to build a Campervan somewhere close to the average of those two figures.

In this post we are going to look at how much you will realistically have to spend to build a Campervan from a class B van that is suitable to be used for a week long vacation at the very least. So no Day Vans or Surf Busses are going to be considered.

Let’s also be clear here? This is not a follow through of a build that I have done. This post is the findings from a collection of research that I have carried out after studying the details of numerous home Campervan conversions.

I an a registered Engineer with the Engineering Council here in the UK, as well as a qualified Vehicle mechanic and Electrician. I believe that I have been able to unearth a lot of helpful and valuable information. It is contained in the following paragraphs. I hope you enjoy reading through it and find it useful too.

Contents

• 1 What Are The Main Savings From A Home Campervan Conversion?
• 2 How Much Does A Donor Van For A Campervan Conversion Cost?
• 3 What Amenities Does A Home Campervan Conversion Need?
• 4 What Tools Will I Need To Carry Out A Campervan Conversion?
• 5 What Level Of Practical And Mechanical Skills Do I Need?
• 6 How Long Should A Home Campervan Conversion Take?
• 7 Where Is The Best Place To Carry Out A Campervan Conversion?
• 8 Should I Fit Solar Panels To My Campervan Conversion?
• 9 Do I Need To Register A Home Campervan Conversion?
• 10 How Does the Cost Of A Professional Campervan Conversion Compare With A Home Conversion?

What Are The Main Savings From A Home Campervan Conversion?

Without a shadow of a doubt, the largest savings when carrying out a home Campervan conversion are going to be Labour Costs. If you are doing even the majority of the work yourself, you won’t have to pay someone else to do it. It’s like money in the bank, or it can be, if you do it right the first time.

Even if you are reasonably skilled at physically working with hand and power tools, it is more than likely that you are going to come across things during your Campervan conversion that you simply don’t have the skills or expertise to do yourself. When this time comes, it is time to call in a professional.

You are going to have to accept that some specialist or complex things simply aren’t worth taking the risk on doing a bad job of, if you don’t already have the skills to do it to a good standard. Leaking windows or pop top roofs, faulty solar panels or the smell of gas when cooking come to mind!

That being said, there is very little that you can’t find a YouTube Tutorial on nowadays, so all might not be lost. You could always experiment with a few small bench sized models of what you are trying to achieve to hone your skills before taking the leap of trying it on your donor van. Read more...

 

What Is A Campsite Electrical Hookup?

Contents

• 1 Campsite Electrical Hookup Explained
  • 1.1 Why Do People Use Campsite Electrical Hookup?
  • 1.2 How Many Amps Does A Campervan Hookup Provide?
  • 1.3 How Do I Connect My Campervan To The Campsite Electrical Hookup Outlet?
  • 1.4 How Do I Safely Disconnect My Campervan From the Campsite Electrical Hookup System?
  • 1.5 What Is An RCD?
  • 1.6 What Is A Campervan Inverter?
  • 1.7 How Do Campervan Leisure Batteries Work?
  • 1.8 Will The Campsite Electrical Hookup Charge My Leisure Batteries?
  • 1.9 How Much Power Does My Campervan Draw?
  • 1.10 What Is Reverse Polarity and Do I Need To Worry About It?
  • 1.11 What Do I Do If I Trip The Campsite Electrical Hookup?
  • 1.12 Campsite Electrical Hookup – Summary

Campsite Electrical Hookup Explained

Most Campsites and Aires in the UK and Europe offer Campsite Electrical Hookup. If you book into pretty much any modern Campsite, your pitch will undoubtedly have a power outlet box containing circuit breakers with a Socket that has a Blue, spring loaded dust cap on it.

This box is a Campsite Electrical Hookup Outlet.

Why Do People Use Campsite Electrical Hookup?

People use Campsite Electrical Hookups for a number of reasons, such as:

Read more...

 

Where Is The Cheapest Place To Rent A Campervan?

Contents

• 1 How Can I Rent A Campervan On A Budget?
  • 1.1 Is It Cost Effective To Rent A Campervan From A Dealership?
  • 1.2 Is It Cost Effective To Rent A Campervan From An Online Agency?
  • 1.3 Is It Cost Effective To Rent A Campervan From A Family or an Individual?
  • 1.4 What Is The Cheapest Way To Arrange Insurance For Campervan Rental?
  • 1.5 How Much Security Deposit Should You Expect To Pay When You Rent A Campervan?
  • 1.6 Is There A Cheaper Option Than Renting A Campervan?
  • 1.7 Where Is The Cheapest Place To Rent A Campervan? – Summary

How Can I Rent A Campervan On A Budget?

The number of people wanting to rent a Campervan has increased exponentially in the last 2 years. This is mostly due to the rise of Covid 19.

Due to the pandemic, the popularity of holidaying in our own countries, rather than taking a packed aircraft for a trip abroad, has skyrocketed. However, staying on crowded Campsites or in busy Hotels have also lost their appeal, probably due to the high numbers of strangers visiting them and increasing the chances of us contracting the disease.

Holidaying in a Campervan has suddenly became a lot more appealing, but not everyone can afford the high price of buying a Campervan outright.

Renting Campervans for the short duration of our holidays has become an affordable way around the costly obstacle of Campervan ownership. But where can you rent a Campervan? Actually there are several options available to those wishing to rent a Campervan for the duration o their vacation. Let’s have a look at them?

Is It Cost Effective To Rent A Campervan From A Dealership?

No, renting a Campervan from a Main Dealership is probably going to be the most expensive option of all. Read more...

 

What Is A Class B Campervan?

A Class B Campervan is quite simply a Campervan built, either as a DIY Project, by the Manufacturer or by a registered Coachbuilder on the chassis of a small passenger carrying or work van.

Class B Campervans are only one of the 3 classifications of Campervan, there are also Class A and Class C Campervans. We’ll discuss what they are, and more importantly what licences you will need to drive them later in this post. Firstly, let’s have a look at what you can expect to find in a Class B Campervan

Contents

• 1 What Amenities Does A Class B Campervan Have?
• 2 How Many People Does A Class B Campervan Sleep?
• 3 Are Class B Campervans Fuel Efficient?
• 4 What Is A Class A Campervan?
• 5 What Is A Class C Campervan?
• 6 Why Choose A Class B Campervan over Classes A And C?
• 7 What Licences Do I Need To Drive A Campervan?
• 8 What Are The Most Common Models Of Class B Campervan?
• 9 What Is A Class B Campervan? – Summary

What Amenities Does A Class B Campervan Have?

By it’s very definition a Class B Campervan is a Van Derived Campervan, so as you can imagine, space is going to be limited.

However, by using a bit of creativity, Campervan Designers have managed to ensure that owners of smaller vehicles, such as Class B Campervans, don’t go without many of the luxuries you would expect to find in a larger RV or Motorhome.

The following is a list of things that you are probably going to find in a Class B Campervan:

• Somewhere to Sleep, most likely fold away
• A Table to eat at, again probably fold away
• A seating/living area
• Swivel front seats to make extra living space
• A Cooker
• A Sink
• A Toilet of sorts, probably a Thetford Cassette type
• A Fridge or Cooler
• Curtains and thermal window screens
• A limited amount of storage space
• Possibly a Pop Top for extra headroom and sleeping quarters
• Some form of heating
• Separate water and waste systems
• A Power System with Mains Hook Up and Leisure Batteries
• Possibly, but not always Solar Panels

This is a fairly comprehensive list, which I believe covers most set-ups, but be aware that some of the amenities will be in certain models and not in others. Read more...

System Guide – How Do Campervan Solar Panels Work?

This quick but comprehensive guide contains the answers to all the relevant questions we could find on Campervan Solar Panels.

If you are wondering what type of Campervan solar panels to fit and how much power you are going to need, you have come to the right place, so read on.

Contents

• 1 Are Campervan Solar Panels Essential?
• 2 Why Have Campervan Solar Panels Fitted At All?
• 3 Campervan Solar Panels – The Solar Charging System Explained
• 4 How Do Campervan Solar Panels Capture The Sun’s Light And Turn It Into Electricity?
• 5 Are There Different Types Of Campervan Solar Panels?
• 6 Are Campervan Solar Panels Expensive?
• 7 How Do I Work Out How Many Campervan Solar Panels I Will Need?
• 8 What Are The Parts Of A Campervan Solar System?
• 9 Why Does A Solar System Need A Charge Controller?
• 10 What Are The Best Type Of Leisure Batteries For A Campervan?
• 11 Do I Have To Maintain My Campervan Solar Panels?
• 12 How Do Campervan Solar Panels Work? – Summary

Are Campervan Solar Panels Essential?

Campervan solar panels are not essential. Before the invention of solar panels, the owners of Campervans got on just fine without them, and you could too.

However, the fact that Campervan solar panels are not a necessity shouldn’t put you off having them.

If you use a Campervan without solar panels fitted you will regularly have to ensure hat your leisure batteries are constantly topped up. The only way for you to do that, is by running the engine.

With the current cost of fuel, as well as the focus on the environment, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s not an ideal situation. What if someone was to come up with a way to keep those batteries topped up for free, allowing you to stay off grid for longer, without having to pollute the environment? Now wouldn’t that be desirable?

Why Have Campervan Solar Panels Fitted At All?

There are numerous benefits of having a Campervan solar system on your vehicle, they include, but are not limited to:

• Campervan solar panels will keep all your batteries constantly topped up with power for free
• Campervan solar panels require very little maintenance
• Charging the batteries with Solar Energy does not pollute the air with Hydrocarbons
• Campervan solar panels will allow you to live off the grid for longer, actually much longer
• Using solar power is becoming more affordable, saving you lots of money, especially with the current ridiculous price of fuel
• Most of the solar system is outside of the vehicle, up on the roof, so it saves precious space
• Campervan solar panels are now far more rugged and durable than they used to be. They won’t crack and fail with minor bumps and scratches like they used to
• Modern solar panels work in cloudy weather too, ideal for the UK
• The price of solar components is falling, at the same time their efficiency is climbing

I’m sure there are many other advantages of having Campervan solar panels, but I’m sure the list above is already enough to pique your interest.

Read More...

Where Do You Sleep In A VW Campervan?

I always thought that where you sleep in a VW Campervan was common knowledge, but apparently it isn’t. So if you are one of the people who doesn’t know, or isn’t fully clear on it, read on, this post is for you.

Contents

• 1 How Many People Can Travel In A VW Campervan?
• 2 How Many People Can You Sleep In A VW Campervan?
• 3 When You Sleep In A VW Campervan, Where Do The Beds Come From?
• 4 What Is A Campervan Pop Top?
• 5 Do All VW Campervans Have Pop Tops?
• 6 How Does The VW Campervan Rock And Roll Bed Work?
• 7 Can You Get A Good Night’s Sleep In A VW Campervan?
• 8 Is A Mattress Topper Suitable For A VW Campervan?
• 9 Could We Sleep In The Awning And Leave The Seats Up In The Campervan?
• 10 Where Do You Sleep In A VW Campervan? – Summary

How Many People Can Travel In A VW Campervan?

I started writing this post in relation to the more modern T6 VW Campervan, but as I was doing my research, I found that very little has changed over the years from the early days of the T1 to the recent T6.

So what I am writing here applies to pretty much every model of VW Campervan.

The number of people who can travel in a VW Campervan is limited only by the number of seats with seatbelts that it has.

Almost all versions of VW Campervans have 4 seats with seatbelts as standard. 2 in the front and 2 in the back. So, 4 people can travel in a VW Campervan.

Unless of course your VW Campervan has been fitted with an extra seat, such as in the image above. If that is the case, 5 People can travel in your VW Campervan, but the standard setup is 4. Read More...