Volkswagen Crafter Campervan - Not Quite Grand California (ENG) - Test Drive and Review

[@Memyselfandvan]

Thanksx for your video, its certainly helped me with my custom conversion of our van (VW Crafter) You raised some valid issues with the use of restricted space.

[@DoriKei]

Hah. Amazing thing. Just this morning I ran through few camper dealers video reviews. Accidentally. What a coincidence. So, All of the good campers have their not so perfect solutions. Although a Ford Transit based French camper was pretty comfortable and as far as I can see they are using a standard toilet and gas supply units, but it might be too large for this standard Crafter. From the other side a proper camper is a piece of plastic, in the meantime the whole idea of this solution is to keep Crafters metal body. What would I do at first, as far as we cannot make it wider -- remove the roof and replace it with a higher plastic one. To move all these cupboards to the top, let the toilet door open without problems, make more space at the sleeping area, etc. Anyway this is an interesting experiment.

[@MarekDrives]

Yes, many campers are wider composite boxes put on the back of an empty chassis. I really like that roof-top bed idea in the regular California. Bear in mind 2.8 metres is already quite high, so making it even taller could be a problem driving under some lower tree branches.

[@rogerstarkey5390]

Was the French camper the Chausson 610 with the drop down bed? I liked that as well. Good use of space.

[@BobFlavinVideo]

That t-shirt is so cool! Shame VW Ireland don't do this yet, I shall have to make a call

[@rogerstarkey5390]

Toilet and bathroom transverse across the back, one each side, toilet cassette and water fill via rear doors. Hanging box above toilet (1 cubic metre) with a roof mounted slide across to shower, locked in either position for travel. Would use the space well, allowing for shower or toilet, not both at the same time, but more space when in use. Bed raised to full roof height hanging from "seatbelts", drops down on top of kitchen (not used together!) Similar to Chausson 610 Cupboards fixed under bed frame, raise with bed, would not restrict headroom when bed in down position. Extra height body to accommodate bed and give lounge headroom underneath. Check out the Westfalia Sven hedin with the window popout for the transverse bed.

[@MarekDrives]

I like the leg pop-out for taller people.

[@MrNordlandfahrer]

Nice T-shirt! I prefer camping with the tent and everything fits in the Alhambra 4drive. If so, I would buy the crafter naked and build my own facility.

[@makar126]

Hello Marek. Where were you camping? Beautiful coast!

[@MarekDrives]

www.pole-horyzont.pl

[@BillyNoMates1974]

Bed over the garage good. id remove the bathroom and toilet as most camping sites have those amenities. Id re-arrange that sitting area you spoke about into a proper lounge (then kids can come too that turns into a bed and finally id change storage cupboards and kitchen into a swing out type of kitchen where the sliding door is (a cover over the top would work. so basically speaking the inside would be L shaped. loads more space

[@MarekDrives]

Good thinking. This was my first WC-equipped camper, and it was a disappointment.

[@hennnnerz]

What is swing out type? No idea what you mean here, any pictures?

[@Gruegy]

There are better van conversions and agree with you Marek that they have over-specced the van. I also agree with other comments in that the Van itself is too narrow compared with the Fiat Ducato et al. Good review and thanks for uploading

[@MarekDrives]

I can't find current VW Crafter cargo area dimensions anywhere (perhaps for a good reason), but the old one seemed to be good 9 cm narrower inside, than the Ducato.

[@Gruegy]

Also the new Crafter narrows at the top (presumably for aerodynamics) where as the Ducato is more of square box shape that's more suitable for conversions.

[@kerynwoods6068]

This is a terrible review. Try to be more positive in future. Everyone has different needs, be neutral. This review (you) is actually annoying

[@MarekDrives]

You're new here. Watch a couple of my other reviews. This is me. Grumpy :)

[@RodricWeiland]

There seems to be two problems here. It looks like the guys in Poland that designed and built this particular camper van had no idea of how to set out a camper van properly. To start with, why they didn't just use one of the higher roof versions that are available in the Crafter range so that you can stand up comfortably inside the van baffles me. The limited (apparently) water storage capacity and the single solar panel on the otherwise vast but empty roof seem to also indicate this. Secondly, it seems that the reviewer has absolutely no idea how people that use campervans use them! The term "garage" is VERY commonly used in the camper community. It's not something that VW "made up" specifically for this van. Most ppl that are using a camper van do NOT shower every day unless connected to a regular water supply. Even one very disciplined, short shower can use 25L of water at full flow, more if you linger longer than a few minutes. It would have been more helpful to compare the water capacity of this particular conversion to the water capacity of other popular campervan conversions. Then his comments and criticism would have had more value. He had no idea how to use the solar system and seemed poorly informed as to what alternative options might be available for the toilet. The child's bed system is a very common solution that is used by a number of different campervan manufacturers, not just VW He seemed to have no idea of the value of being able to use the small table at the front as an office etc. The bugs in the van (because he forgot to close the insect screen) is NOT a design fault, it's a user fault. It's extremely common for campervans to have a narrow walk way as most ppl want to maximise the storage and cooking space. I think he should have looked at other VW Crafter campervan conversion reviews before he did this one so that he at least had a basic idea of what ppl looking at campervan reviews are looking for in a campervan. He may have then been able to give a more informative and helpful review. While there are several genuine concerns about the way that VW Poland has set out and optioned this particular camper this particular reviewers complete inexperience in the use of campervans does not invalidate the VW Crafter as a campervan. If you search on KZbin you will see many beautiful and practical campervan conversions using the VW Crafter as the base. They will likely be much more helpful to you than this particular review.

[@scoopermg8226]

VW offer amazing WFM 🤥