Adding a popup roof on a Multivan/Caravelle, compared to a Beach?

[Bugsy]

am I missing something here. how much is a caravelle just buy a beach. if I wanted a caravelle can I buy a beach and weld the roof shut?

Ha ha, you could weld the roof shut, but then you'd need to fit some carpet and cut another hole in the passenger side for another sliding door! I know what you mean about buying a beach, the roof had already been done by the previous owner and obviously great quality compared to other pop ups, great price so i couldn't resist.

 

[flying banana]

who would spend 37 large and more on a caravelle and cut the roof off?I know you get better spec but the difference is vw build the beach from scratch in hanover. don't do it. doesn't make sense to me

 

[Bugsy]

who would spend 37 large and more on a caravelle and cut the roof off?I know you get better spec but the difference is vw build the beach from scratch in hanover. don't do it. doesn't make sense to me

I don't think VW's always make sense, that's part of the fun! I went to Busfest for the first time last year and cutting the roof off a Caravelle was nothing. One guy had bought a van and covered it in AstroTurf, not my sort of thing, but it made me smile.

 

[MattBW]

am I missing something here. how much is a caravelle just buy a beach. if I wanted a caravelle can I buy a beach and weld the roof shut?

Every year many more vans are converted than are ever sold by VW. A lot of VW campervans on the road today were caravelles or panel vans originally, my own T25 included.

I saw Jonny's (@SlidePods) previous Caravelle conversion and I would say that the upholstery and trim were generally of a higher quality than the beach (but that may have been his hard work as opposed to the original vehicle I dont know) which is definitely more utilitarian in comparison. I suspect that is why people would go that way. If you already had the caravelle it may be a good investment to upgrade it.

I believe there are indeed vents in the roof in a caravelle etc which make the fitting of a pop top more complex but I know Jonny had fitted one so it can be done and it looked factory to my eyes.

 

[BikerGran]

Having Motocrossing friends I've seen a lot of vans of many makes and sizes converted to campervans - even with the ones done by professional companies, some actually look as if they've been converted, and others look as if they might have been built that way.
When I was first thinking about getting a campervan my daughter (who has lived in hers) told me that to get a decent conversion it would cost as much as getting one ready-made, and that really good converters are hard to find.

 

[Kevthegas]

There you go slidepods, it was getting dark outside, so not the best photos I'm afraid. Has your Caravelle been done in a similar way?

View attachment 24901 View attachment 24902 View attachment 24903 View attachment 24904

I take it your Caravelle is the SE model? As the rear control panel only allows air recirculation and is quite small.
Our Caravelle was the Executive model which had the rear climate control, the rear roof control panel was nearly the width of the van, hence why no converters were really interested in the conversion.

 

[Bugsy]

I take it your Caravelle is the SE model? As the rear control panel only allows air recirculation and is quite small.
Our Caravelle was the Executive model which had the rear climate control, the rear roof control panel was nearly the width of the van, hence why no converters were really interested in the conversion.

Yes it's the SE, not thought about the problems associated with executive model.

 

[rowojtek]

Yes it's the SE, not thought about the problems associated with executive model.

I want to mount the bedrooms on the roof. I don't want Reimo or similar. I want your solution. I can buy the whole California roof - please answer, Was your roof cut off on the posts? Was he cut out?