Buying a new camper....

[Annik]

Fully agree, we also had an Autosleeper for a few years and I would say as far as conversions go they aupnthere with the best.

 

[Ian Robinson]

We did lots of research before buying our 2014 California SE. There were newly converted 2014 vans available for £10k less than our California which initially seemed very attractive. Lower powered engines, lack of a/c etc often explained some of the difference in price but we also noticed that many conversions were on T28 vans (2.8 tonne gross weight) rather than the cali T30 (3.0 tonnes). Doing the maths with 2 adults 2 growing kids, camping gear, 4 mountain bikes we could be borderline overloading a T28. One conversion we saw on a popular auction website was based on a T26 (2.6 tonne gross weight) - with a camper conversion you could be overweight just by carrying 4 adults - so do check the gross weight meets your needs before parting with your hard earned cash on a conversion.
Many conversions also just have hard boards for a roof bed with a few mm of foam on top tether than the slatted comfy cali roof bed. Some roof beds also have load limits that make them suited to 2 kids rather than 2 adults.
One very nice looking conversion also had loads of storage under the rear bench seat only for me to find out that when I sat on it my head touched the ceiling - I'm not particularly tall - so always have a good look around a potential purchase and think how it will work for you day to day