Converted transporters

[GrumpyGranddad]

One great thing about most conversions is that you can have hot water. Why oh why don’t VW offer this on a California?

 

[Bobby D]

One great thing about most conversions is that you can have hot water. Why oh why don’t VW offer this on a California?

Yes they should do this, Westfalia offer it on the Nugget

 

[Wildcamper]

Yes they should do this, Westfalia offer it on the Nugget

We have a fully plumbed in cassett toilet and hot water in our LWB conversion. Fully insulated high top so great for comfortable long winter nights. Would not swap it for a California.

 

[westfalia]

One great thing about most conversions is that you can have hot water. Why oh why don’t VW offer this on a California?

You can warm the water up on the gas hob, what more do you want?
Nice, simple, timeless.

Probably bad timing to ask Vw to provide hot water in a Cali.
We're faced with a winter of cold showers in our homes

 

[2into1]

I'm loving all the brand new Cali owners criticising conversions because of problems getting camping side problems fixed.... Let's hope they pop back after a few interactions with vw main dealers.....with their emptied wallets, and grubby marks all over their damaged and poorly refitted trim.

 

[Bobby D]

We have a fully plumbed in cassett toilet and hot water in our LWB conversion. Fully insulated high top so great for comfortable long winter nights. Would not swap it for a California.

I have that too in my LWB California, the toilet room with a door makes a big difference to camping, especially with 3 women on board!

Just having that privacy and being able to make a cuppa whilst standing and everyone still in bed is also a great addition of the California LWB.

 

[ArunAlec]

I have that too in my LWB California, the toilet room with a door makes a big difference to camping, especially with 3 women on board!

Just having that privacy and being able to make a cuppa whilst standing and everyone still in bed is also a great addition of the California LWB.

That extra foot makes a big difference! Really surprised VW don’t make a LWB Ocean.

 

[Corradobrit]

That extra foot makes a big difference! Really surprised VW don’t make a LWB Ocean.

VW can't keep up with the SWB orders let alone adding a new spec variant.

 

[The Tall Luthier]

There is no perfect solution to which camper is best, there is only a perfect solution for you.

We have so much more in common than that which differentiates us.

Enjoy the great outdoors folks.

 

[Paul G - 2022 Ocean]

Here’s our experience. First owned a 2008 T5 converted camper as our first toe in the water for camper life. It was 10 years old when we bought it for £17k. No idea who did the standard side kitchen conversion but it seemed reasonable quality with proper gas bottle sealed and vented cupboard etc. Any issues and improvements/modifications I did myself using easily available parts found online. Had it remapped from 102 to 142bhp but found the improvement in torque up the hills was better than “more speed”. It was my other halves daily driver too. Didn’t break down once and very reliable, apart from battery dying during the first lockdown due to lack of use. Sold it 3 years later (in 2021) for £22k! Ok the mad used market prices helped that and we did spend about £3k on it during that time on MOT’s, servicing, changing the wheels and tyres, re-map, new fridge, fitted reverse camera, and other improvement to meet our requirements.
But our dream was to always have a new Cali that we could keep for 15-20 years and take us into our retirement and still have a vehicle with good residual value when we get too old to enjoy it. So we used the profit we made on the conversion to put towards a deposit on a new Cali and joined the waiting list for 12 months, which allowed us to save more towards it too!
We are now 4 weeks into our Cali life and took it on our first 4 night camping trip to Cornwall over the bank holiday weekend.
Here are my thoughts on how they compare.

Driveability and comfort - Cali wins hands down, especially for rear passengers with the air con in the back and glass all round giving a much airier feel and less travel sickness. But the cockpit features of the Cali are superb. We did order the Media Pro option though.

Interior space - Cali wins again mainly due to the sliding rear seat and twin swivel chairs (T5 had swivel double passenger seat). I didn’t find any problems swivelling either seat on the Cali. The secret is to not sit in it whilst swivelling and turn the backrest as upright as you can first. Yes the kitchen gets in the way of the passenger seat legroom but you can slide it back towards the dashboard, or sit in it with it half rotated pointing at 45 degrees from the longitudinal plane.

Storage space - as much as the Cali looks like it has less storage such as no storage above the kitchen, no usable shelves above the kitchen or at front of elevating roof, we did find that for travelling with all the camping gear and 2 adults, 1 twelve year old and three small dogs it was actually less cramped and that was with the sliding bench at the rearmost position. However, when set up for camping, we found the conversion to be more practical for handy shelves etc. I know you can buy accessory shelving for the Cali but then you got to store them and remember to dismantle them each time you want to use the Cali for touring, which would be a pita. Having said that, in the conversion we used the slide out table a lot, but didn’t use it once in the Cali this weekend so maybe we managed ok. We do need better organisation in the cupboards under the sink so will look at storage boxes made to measure that can easily be pulled out to get stuff (don’t want the stick on drawers as I imagine the 3m sticky fixers will eventually fail). I will say though that the Cali sliding doors do feel like they could break easily.

Sleeping - lower bed felt wider in the Cali than the conversion. We didn’t sleep up top but I imagine that is much more comfortable than the bed board in the conversion. We did order the comfort mattress but still found it a bit hard so are considering buying a S2S SIM. In the conversion we used to use a mattress topper and vango double sleeping bag but we want to get away with just using a duvet and mattress covers.

Overall comfort - Cali wins hands down again. Both in terms of seating/sleeping, but also for insulation etc. didn’t need to use the night heater at all. In the conversion, even in summer months, we would need to put a fan heater on in the evenings (conversion didn’t have a diesel heater so could only do this with EHU).

Kitchen layout - for us the Cali worked better mainly due to the top loading fridge which is accessible all the time even with the bed set up. Our conversation bed interfered with the fridge so you had to forward plan what you might want out of the fridge for the evening before setting the bed up. I know some conversations allow access to the fridge with bed set up but ours didn’t.

PowerPoints - the Cali lacks USB/12v power points in the rear, accessible when bed is set up. I know there’s a 12v socket beneath the bed extension and also in the C-pillar, but both are impossible to reach when bed is set out. In fact the one in the c-pillar is hard to reach in any situation unless the rear seat is slid all the way back. In the conversion, I simply modified and added extra USB sockets where I needed them. I wouldn’t want to modify the Cali in that way. The solution for the Cali is to have 3m usb power leads for all your devices.

Sliding door on drivers side - I did think this may be an issue, especially for offloading passengers from the rear in U.K. streets and roads. But as people have said, passengers can always squeeze through between the front seats and exit from the front passenger door. And as someone said it’s less of a faff to walk around the other side of the van, and to be honest the driver can hop out first like they normally do, and then open the sliding door and Marshall the passengers out when it’s safe to do so, like a banksman. The other issue I thought may arise is if campsites have their hardstanding areas set out to erect any awning on the passenger side, which would just mean you may not have the Cali facing the best view, if that is important for you to use the pano roof etc. it turned out our campsite at the weekend suited a sliding door on the drivers side but we have stayed on sites that would have meant facing the van looking into the bushes, unless the site allowed you to park on the grass next to the hardstanding.

Sorry for the long post. If you’ve reached this far, thanks for reading but like a few people have said, it’s horses for courses, and for a lot of different reasons, whether that be practicality, personal preference, or budget.

I did consider buying a brand new conversion that would have had a few extras like solar panels (presumably only one leisure battery though), and grill/oven (we manage with the hob and/or Cadac outside, or we just eat out somewhere), nicer wheels, more colour options, etc. but my reason for choosing the Cali was residual value and the support network such as this forum.

Which would I choose again? The Cali (if I could still afford one that is). As people have said here, you know what you’re getting. With a conversion, besides the uncertainty of the converter in some cases, previous owners have also probably tinkered about with the conversion (like I did) and changed the original specification. But that’s just my preference at the moment after 4 weeks experience in the Cali. Ask me again in 3 years time !

 

[Webbah_in_Switzerland]

One great thing about most conversions is that you can have hot water. Why oh why don’t VW offer this on a California?

It is possible to retrofit hot water in the Cali, but this is a unit from Hess in Switzerland:

 

[Norfolk Jim]

Paul - what an excellent write up. I'm in virtually the same situation as you; very, very similar. We delved into campervans in early late 2014 and I searched for ages for something decent unmollested; there was some real tat out. I eventually found one Jan 2015 a 2007 T5 Leisuredrive conversion that had only been a hire van for 6 months prior to convertion for previous owner and I paid him £19750; more than I'd ever paid for a vehicle!!. It had done 32k and was spotless. It's now done 77k and never broken down; it has cost me very little and all I have done is add the alloys, a towbar for cycle rack, mud flaps and recently a new Pioneer head unit. We have single passenger seat which spins (allowing access to rear from front) and like you has an electric fan heater underneath. 3 way dometic fridge, usual twin hob and sink but we do have a gas oven/grill - Leisuredrive offer the option of microwave instead now. An excellent incredibly comfortable bed they make themselves and a side hinged roof - allows full height the length of the van. We do have an upper bed which has memory foam matress but never used it; infact we take it out to give more space and reduce weight. Loads of storage. I had it remapped from 84 hp to 105 which to me has been fine (think my sons would like 200hp though). It has been all over Europe and meticulously looked after by my local garage - all I've replaced is a rear spring, exhaust and a front bush. It's superb on fuel and will get me from Norwich to Durness and further still without refuel. We've loved it to bits and it's off the Outer Hebrides in 2 weeks but as prices settle I'm on the hunt for a Cali. The only negative points some would see is it has no A/C or elctric mirrors but less to go wrong. I'm looking at 2015 or thereabouts and if I can find one with full climate and Xenon headlamps I'll be happy. I've had 'Colin' valued 3 times at £22k and anyone who buys it will have no worries...................................

This is Colin clean and ready for the off...

 

[andyinluton]

PowerPoints - the Cali lacks USB/12v power points in the rear, accessible when bed is set up. I know there’s a 12v socket beneath the bed extension and also in the C-pillar, but both are impossible to reach when bed is set out. In fact the one in the c-pillar is hard to reach in any situation unless the rear seat is slid all the way back. In the conversion, I simply modified and added extra USB sockets where I needed them. I wouldn’t want to modify the Cali in that way. The solution for the Cali is to have 3m usb power leads for all your devices.

Haven’t you found the other two usb sockets on the end of the kitchen?

 

[jonr71]

I guess at some point we have all been through this process. I was very close to buying from Ecowagon - their conversions just look great and have excellent Cali like features such as sliding rear bench and 2 captains seats. There were a couple of reasons for my why the Cali Ocean won the race:
VW Financing - able to get a PCP rather than having to get a 10 year loan.
Long and extendable warranty on the whole vehicle
VW Assist
High spec base van

So for me, while the Cali has an excellent factory fit, it was not the critical factor for me. It was getting a one stop shop for both an excellent vehicle which I could spec from the factory and all the main dealer benefits when buying a car.

 

[The Broomwagon]

Here’s our experience. First owned a 2008 T5 converted camper as our first toe in the water for camper life. It was 10 years old when we bought it for £17k. No idea who did the standard side kitchen conversion but it seemed reasonable quality with proper gas bottle sealed and vented cupboard etc. Any issues and improvements/modifications I did myself using easily available parts found online. Had it remapped from 102 to 142bhp but found the improvement in torque up the hills was better than “more speed”. It was my other halves daily driver too. Didn’t break down once and very reliable, apart from battery dying during the first lockdown due to lack of use. Sold it 3 years later (in 2021) for £22k! Ok the mad used market prices helped that and we did spend about £3k on it during that time on MOT’s, servicing, changing the wheels and tyres, re-map, new fridge, fitted reverse camera, and other improvement to meet our requirements.
But our dream was to always have a new Cali that we could keep for 15-20 years and take us into our retirement and still have a vehicle with good residual value when we get too old to enjoy it. So we used the profit we made on the conversion to put towards a deposit on a new Cali and joined the waiting list for 12 months, which allowed us to save more towards it too!
We are now 4 weeks into our Cali life and took it on our first 4 night camping trip to Cornwall over the bank holiday weekend.
Here are my thoughts on how they compare.

Driveability and comfort - Cali wins hands down, especially for rear passengers with the air con in the back and glass all round giving a much airier feel and less travel sickness. But the cockpit features of the Cali are superb. We did order the Media Pro option though.

Interior space - Cali wins again mainly due to the sliding rear seat and twin swivel chairs (T5 had swivel double passenger seat). I didn’t find any problems swivelling either seat on the Cali. The secret is to not sit in it whilst swivelling and turn the backrest as upright as you can first. Yes the kitchen gets in the way of the passenger seat legroom but you can slide it back towards the dashboard, or sit in it with it half rotated pointing at 45 degrees from the longitudinal plane.

Storage space - as much as the Cali looks like it has less storage such as no storage above the kitchen, no usable shelves above the kitchen or at front of elevating roof, we did find that for travelling with all the camping gear and 2 adults, 1 twelve year old and three small dogs it was actually less cramped and that was with the sliding bench at the rearmost position. However, when set up for camping, we found the conversion to be more practical for handy shelves etc. I know you can buy accessory shelving for the Cali but then you got to store them and remember to dismantle them each time you want to use the Cali for touring, which would be a pita. Having said that, in the conversion we used the slide out table a lot, but didn’t use it once in the Cali this weekend so maybe we managed ok. We do need better organisation in the cupboards under the sink so will look at storage boxes made to measure that can easily be pulled out to get stuff (don’t want the stick on drawers as I imagine the 3m sticky fixers will eventually fail). I will say though that the Cali sliding doors do feel like they could break easily.

Sleeping - lower bed felt wider in the Cali than the conversion. We didn’t sleep up top but I imagine that is much more comfortable than the bed board in the conversion. We did order the comfort mattress but still found it a bit hard so are considering buying a S2S SIM. In the conversion we used to use a mattress topper and vango double sleeping bag but we want to get away with just using a duvet and mattress covers.

Overall comfort - Cali wins hands down again. Both in terms of seating/sleeping, but also for insulation etc. didn’t need to use the night heater at all. In the conversion, even in summer months, we would need to put a fan heater on in the evenings (conversion didn’t have a diesel heater so could only do this with EHU).

Kitchen layout - for us the Cali worked better mainly due to the top loading fridge which is accessible all the time even with the bed set up. Our conversation bed interfered with the fridge so you had to forward plan what you might want out of the fridge for the evening before setting the bed up. I know some conversations allow access to the fridge with bed set up but ours didn’t.

PowerPoints - the Cali lacks USB/12v power points in the rear, accessible when bed is set up. I know there’s a 12v socket beneath the bed extension and also in the C-pillar, but both are impossible to reach when bed is set out. In fact the one in the c-pillar is hard to reach in any situation unless the rear seat is slid all the way back. In the conversion, I simply modified and added extra USB sockets where I needed them. I wouldn’t want to modify the Cali in that way. The solution for the Cali is to have 3m usb power leads for all your devices.

Sliding door on drivers side - I did think this may be an issue, especially for offloading passengers from the rear in U.K. streets and roads. But as people have said, passengers can always squeeze through between the front seats and exit from the front passenger door. And as someone said it’s less of a faff to walk around the other side of the van, and to be honest the driver can hop out first like they normally do, and then open the sliding door and Marshall the passengers out when it’s safe to do so, like a banksman. The other issue I thought may arise is if campsites have their hardstanding areas set out to erect any awning on the passenger side, which would just mean you may not have the Cali facing the best view, if that is important for you to use the pano roof etc. it turned out our campsite at the weekend suited a sliding door on the drivers side but we have stayed on sites that would have meant facing the van looking into the bushes, unless the site allowed you to park on the grass next to the hardstanding.

Sorry for the long post. If you’ve reached this far, thanks for reading but like a few people have said, it’s horses for courses, and for a lot of different reasons, whether that be practicality, personal preference, or budget.

I did consider buying a brand new conversion that would have had a few extras like solar panels (presumably only one leisure battery though), and grill/oven (we manage with the hob and/or Cadac outside, or we just eat out somewhere), nicer wheels, more colour options, etc. but my reason for choosing the Cali was residual value and the support network such as this forum.

Which would I choose again? The Cali (if I could still afford one that is). As people have said here, you know what you’re getting. With a conversion, besides the uncertainty of the converter in some cases, previous owners have also probably tinkered about with the conversion (like I did) and changed the original specification. But that’s just my preference at the moment after 4 weeks experience in the Cali. Ask me again in 3 years time !

Great stuff. You have a very similar journey to us except we haven't picked the new Cali up yet!

 

[Bobby D]

It is possible to retrofit hot water in the Cali, but this is a unit from Hess in Switzerland:

Looks very much like an Elgena Boiler to me KB3 i would imagine, it's what Westfalia fit to the Nuggets. I fitted one to my old Bodans Camper and it was brilliant. 3L Hot, but mixed produces plenty for a campervan.

 

[Paul G - 2022 Ocean]

Haven’t you found the other two usb sockets on the end of the kitchen?

Yes. That’s what the 3m leads are plugged into so they reach the end of the bed

 

[reggie59]

Everyone is raving about the cali quality and i do not get it. I hired one for a week (t6.1 ocean) and found the interior dull and of terrible quality. Lots of drab grey plastic looking flimsy. Even empty, the kitchen cabinet rattled like unbelievable. I banned the children to use the blinds as they feel they would break at first use. To me, at 75k vw is taking the wee wee.

Other issue, we found the rear bench umcomfortable on long journey as no side support.

Looking at conversion now . Not cheaper for sure even more expensive but at least, it feels special.

 

[Webbah_in_Switzerland]

Looks very much like an Elgena Boiler to me KB3 i would imagine, it's what Westfalia fit to the Nuggets. I fitted one to my old Bodans Camper and it was brilliant. 3L Hot, but mixed produces plenty for a campervan.

I live 10 min from Hess and can ask them


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[danvan]

Looks very much like an Elgena Boiler to me KB3 i would imagine, it's what Westfalia fit to the Nuggets. I fitted one to my old Bodans Camper and it was brilliant. 3L Hot, but mixed produces plenty for a campervan.

We have that boiler in our Nugget and don't use it. It could be that after several years with cold water only in the Cali that we've got used to it, but I'm struggling to find a use for hot water. Washing up off grid, possibly. Washing your face in winter when you have no access to washing facilities, also a maybe. Other than that, I'd prefer the leg space bag (it's fitted where my feet would go in the downstairs bed).

 

[Paul G - 2022 Ocean]

Great stuff. You have a very similar journey to us except we haven't picked the new Cali up yet!

It’s worth the wait. We ordered 31st July last year and picked up 3rd August. Came through quicker than we expected in the end as we were initially told it would be an additional 3 months wait if we wanted the Lane Assist option. We said we did and were prepared to wait, it then got a confirmed build week and came through. Hope yours comes through soon. I got the feeling that they were getting a few cancelled orders that then freed up the parts supply issues for other customers.

 

[Paul G - 2022 Ocean]

Everyone is raving about the cali quality and i do not get it. I hired one for a week (t6.1 ocean) and found the interior dull and of terrible quality. Lots of drab grey plastic looking flimsy. Even empty, the kitchen cabinet rattled like unbelievable. I banned the children to use the blinds as they feel they would break at first use. To me, at 75k vw is taking the wee wee.

Other issue, we found the rear bench umcomfortable on long journey as no side support.

Looking at conversion now . Not cheaper for sure even more expensive but at least, it feels special.

I totally get that and I’m even nervous of the mrs using the blinds as she’s a bit of a Jeremy clarkson in that if it won’t move you just need more force, rather than find out what’s jamming things! Lol. But I guess the test of time will tell how robust the Cali fittings are. We also had a kitchen rattle and the mrs cited that. Turned out it was the pan stand on the hob wasn’t seated properly (needed a bit of force apparently ). Yes a conversion also gives more choice over colours of interior but my mrs prefers grey that you can accessorise up and change the colour scheme when she gets bored of it! I do like some of the vivid colour schemes on some conversions but worry that they would date or make it harder to resell if it’s not to everyone’s taste. I also get what you mean about the rear seat but in my opinion it’s not as uncomfortable as some of the “sportier” looking bench seats. When we were looking to buy our conversion we rejected the plain looking reach bench seats in favour of a sportier looking RnR bed but on longer journeys it wasn’t great, but that could have also been the claustrophobic feeling as we only had windows up to the C-pillar. Each to their own though.