My Calivelle - A Caravelle Executive/California Ocean hybrid

[66tim99]

sun screens

Ok my bad. What's the black netting on the inside of the sun screens?

 

[Perfectos]

Ok my bad. What's the black netting on the inside of the sun screens?

The black net is the sun factory fitted screens in a Velle.

they are black perforated versions of the Cali retractable blind (you can see through them, they limit the amount of light coming into the van to help keep it cooler and more private )

the OP had fitted additional material cover to the see through blinds to make them black out (optional cover specific to the Velle)

if you get a coherent Answer from @Catbus this weekend he’s doing something wrong

 

[Catbus]

The black net is the sun factory fitted screens in a Velle.

they are black perforated versions of the Cali retractable blind (you can see through them, they limit the amount of light coming into the van to help keep it cooler and more private )

the OP had fitted additional material cover to the see through blinds to make them black out (optional cover specific to the Velle)

if you get a coherent Answer from @Catbus this weekend he’s doing something wrong

The black net is the sun factory fitted screens in a Velle.

they are black perforated versions of the Cali retractable blind (you can see through them, they limit the amount of light coming into the van to help keep it cooler and more private )

the OP had fitted additional material cover to the see through blinds to make them black out (optional cover specific to the Velle)

if you get a coherent Answer from @Catbus this weekend he’s doing something wrong

Well it’s day 5 at Glastonbury, it’s mid Saturday morning and I’m still in one piece.
Only regrets is not having a leisure battery yet and finishing of the 12v install.
My Dometic CFX is great keeping things cool, but I do need to run it off the engine for 30 mins each morning bring it back down to temp (plus I’m running out of pre-charged battery packs to keep two phones & watches charged)

To answer a couple of questions:

1) no battery fitted yet (mainly due to having to purchase and fit a new bathroom and the battery I want is the seatbase one from Roamer is a small fortune, so it’s on temporary hold until the bathroom sorted)
As I already have a Victron DC-DC ready to fit I may just buy a cheap battery to gone on with

Roamer 230SEATBASE4 - 12V 230Ah Seatbase LiFePO4 Lithium Battery

The Roamer 230SEATBASE4 is a low profile 12V 230Ah LiFePO4 battery for install under a campervan seat. Includes 300A continuous discharge, active balancing, Bluetooth and plug and play integration with Victron. Free delivery, Roamercare, 10 year warranty and 5 star support from the UKs leading...

roamerbatteries.com

2) the good night kits seem to be specific to Caravelle/Shuttle or California. (I’ve only ever seen them for SWB rear windows but I guess they make make them for LWB as well)
The rear would clip on the rear Caravelle plastics but now they hang lose due to now having California plastics in the rear.
It still props up fine but often falls out if I open the tailgate

 

[Ch1pbutty]

Well it’s day 5 at Glastonbury, it’s mid Saturday morning and I’m still in one piece.
Only regrets is not having a leisure battery yet and finishing of the 12v install.
My Dometic CFX is great keeping things cool, but I do need to run it off the engine for 30 mins each morning bring it back down to temp (plus I’m running out of pre-charged battery packs to keep two phones & watches charged)

To answer a couple of questions:

1) no battery fitted yet (mainly due to having to purchase and fit a new bathroom and the battery I want is the seatbase one from Roamer is a small fortune, so it’s on temporary hold until the bathroom sorted)
As I already have a Victron DC-DC ready to fit I may just buy a cheap battery to gone on with

Roamer 230SEATBASE4 - 12V 230Ah Seatbase LiFePO4 Lithium Battery

The Roamer 230SEATBASE4 is a low profile 12V 230Ah LiFePO4 battery for install under a campervan seat. Includes 300A continuous discharge, active balancing, Bluetooth and plug and play integration with Victron. Free delivery, Roamercare, 10 year warranty and 5 star support from the UKs leading...

roamerbatteries.com

2) the good night kits seem to be specific to Caravelle/Shuttle or California. (I’ve only ever seen them for SWB rear windows but I guess they make make them for LWB as well)
The rear would clip on the rear Caravelle plastics but now they hang lose due to now having California plastics in the rear.
It still props up fine but often falls out if I open the tailgate

View attachment 95095

Couple of solar panels on the roof & standard leisure battery will give you sufficient for fridge & charging.

 

[Perfectos]

Well it’s day 5 at Glastonbury

Have you got your “Survivor “ Tee ready

enjoy the rest of the Fest

 

[da_murphster]

Couple of solar panels on the roof & standard leisure battery will give you sufficient for fridge & charging.

Just thinking the same, that battery looks mega but over £1k!!

A 110ah and decent Solar is surely sufficient unless you are microwaving?

Even then I’d be tempted by a jackery backup plus standard battery.

 

[Caravelle helen]

Hi Everyone,

Ive been a member on here for a while but only just got around to making a first post.
After hiring a California Ocean a few years back, the one thing I knew when I would eventually purchase my own camper was that I didn’t want a full kitchen conversion and I still wanted the flexibility of having a good amount of seats, with the ability still to remove everything and to turn it into a van if ever I needed to.

Having found it wasn’t possible to buy a California Beach with the spec I wanted, the next best thing was to create something bespoke to my own requirements but still wantEd to make sure it still looked like as if it was a completely factory model.
Having found a Caravelle 4motion Executive with as many options I could find, I set about turning it to my own perfect spec, hence ending up with a Calivelle - a Caravelle / California hybrid of both models.

All credit goes to Richard and his team at Kernow Transporters Ltd for being mad enough to do the work required and offer a full California electric roof conversions, making it all fit and work like it came the factory that way (no holes cut for a fibreglass pop top in the roof, this was the full roof skin un-bounded and the alloy roof for the California transplanted back on. All the California plastics were used and modified to fit the Caravelle interior, still retaining all the rear air conditioning).
It’s still a work in progress (currently now halfway fitting it out with 240v EHU) but I hope you like it so far.

cheers

Gary B.

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Hi. Being a curious fellow Caravelle owner, can you tell me why you bother with that rack thingy (under your mattress) in your boot space? Aren't the flattened out 2 rows of rear seats long enough or is there another reason? (We've not tried sleeping in ours yet)

 

[Perfectos]

Hi. Being a curious fellow Caravelle owner, can you tell me why you bother with that rack thingy (under your mattress) in your boot space? Aren't the flattened out 2 rows of rear seats long enough or is there another reason? (We've not tried sleeping in ours yet)

The “rack” is a multiflex board, it extends the sleeping area of the seat, when made into a bed, the seats are not big enough to form a full size bed without the multiflex board.

 

[Catbus]

@Caravelle helen either you leave both of rows of seats in and you can fold all the seats flat to form the base of a king size bed that is 190cm in length.
(The down side is you have hardly any room for anything else you taking camping - your left with probably about the boot space of a large estate) - fine if there’s two of you, but not for a family

Or the other option is to remove the middle row when camping and use a multiflex instead (basically forms a hard parcel shelf which holds a fair amount of weight)
this extends the rear row seats to make a king size bed to 185cm length size but leaves pretty much half the volume of the van empty when not folded flat. (Probably 4 times the volume of a large family eastate car)
My Galli Air TC awing is huge, have a large dog crate and two kids so I would struggle to fit that in if I didn’t remove the middle row and use a multiflex

*It may even been possible to have both rows folded plus the multiflex (part extended), but there will definitely be no leg room behind the front row to stand up or much room for any luggage as it will fill a SWB all the way from the boot to the back for the front seats~ I guess a option for those over 7ft tall

 

[Catbus]

I made a thing…
the middle row swivel seats weigh a ton and you really need two people to them lift out, so I made a trolley that I can use to slide the two seats out by myself without putting my back out.
while not in use it also doubles up as the trolley for my awning and all the the other camping items (ladder/ rainbow screens etc) so I can just wheel it out and slide it all into the back of the van all without lifting

 

[Catbus]

@Caravelle helen either you leave both of rows of seats in and you can fold all the seats flat to form the base of a king size bed that is 190cm in length.
(The down side is you have hardly any room for anything else you taking camping - your left with probably about the boot space of a large estate) - fine if there’s two of you, but not for a family

Or the other option is to remove the middle row when camping and use a multiflex instead (basically forms a hard parcel shelf which holds a fair amount of weight)
this extends the rear row seats to make a king size bed to 185cm length size but leaves pretty much half the volume of the van empty when not folded flat. (Probably 4 times the volume of a large family eastate car)
My Galli Air TC awing is huge, have a large dog crate and two kids so I would struggle to fit that in if I didn’t remove the middle row and use a multiflex

*It may even been possible to have both rows folded plus the multiflex (part extended), but there will definitely be no leg room behind the front row to stand up or much room for any luggage as it will fill a SWB all the way from the boot to the back for the front seats~ I guess a option for those over 7ft tall

A Multiflex is also very use if you need to get a full 2.4m sheet of plaster board home. With both rows of seats folded flat and the multiflex it allows the sheet to be fully supported so it doesn’t crack on the trip back home from B&Q

 

[clarinetbcn]

@Caravelle helen

*It may even been possible to have both rows folded plus the multiflex (part extended), but there will definitely be no leg room behind the front row to stand up or much room for any luggage as it will fill a SWB all the way from the boot to the back for the front seats~ I guess a option for those over 7ft tall

If you fold the third row bench forward into table position instead of flattening it out into bed position, and then do the same with both the second row chairs and back them up to the folded bench, you can make a full sized bed using the multiflex board and you will still have plenty of room behind the front row to move around, change etc. I put the comfort mattress on top of that configuration. Hat tip @Amarillo

 

[Catbus]

The trolley thing works.

Wheeled it out the garage with the awning bag & other camping items on it and slid all that into the rear with the multiflex temporarily folded in it’s up position. Then with the trolley now empty could I removed the middle seating row without the usual fuss and could wheel it all back in the garage into the same spot.

Only thought it would fit the seats when I made it, but the table just fits on it as well

 

[Catbus]

These make a “Beach“ sticker which looks like the original, (not sure it has the foil edge) they do custom to order stickers for £5 extra,
obvs they have the Original font, so they should be able to make up a sticker if your choosing to replicate the original VW Beach / Ocean / Coast text

Sunset Graphical Stripe Side Sticker for Volkswagen, Campers and motorhomes

3-colour Sunset Graphical Stripe Sticker Decal for Volkswagen T4, T5, T6 campers and vans created by designers for your lovely VeeDub!

www.beatnikdecals.com

New stickers arrived today, gone for custom text in a light grey/silver colour to contrast the indium grey (as couldn’t find anyone doing chrome foil edge black ones online)

the van is long overdue a wash & clean so I’ll get them applied when I get a chance and see if I like them

 

[Perfectos]

New stickers arrived today, gone for custom text in a light grey/silver colour to contrast the indium grey (as couldn’t find anyone doing chrome foil edge black ones online)

the van is long overdue a wash & clean so I’ll get them applied when I get a chance and see if I like them

can we have some Photos please :
before / after & of the sticker before application ?

 

[Mr T]

can we have some Photos please :
before / after & of the sticker before application ?

Got mine from beatnik decals, think they look good. No foil surround but I think it works well nonetheless.

 

[calibusje]

I made a thing…
the middle row swivel seats weigh a ton and you really need two people to them lift out, so I made a trolley that I can use to slide the two seats out by myself without putting my back out.
while not in use it also doubles up as the trolley for my awning and all the the other camping items (ladder/ rainbow screens etc) so I can just wheel it out and slide it all into the back of the van all without lifting

View attachment 95986

Oh my God, now I have an eye opener with this; Although I am 1m92, solidly built and strong enough (but I wouldn't harm a fly), I find such an extra chair heavy and unhandy to carry. As soon as I have the materials and the time, I'll build something like that. Thank you so much for sharing this. Nice campervan by the way

 

[Catbus]

can we have some Photos please :
before / after & of the sticker before application ?

I went for the longer wording of “shoreline” in the end.
I foldered the sticker back to test out “shore” to it kept the same length as “beach”, “ocean” and “coast” but the more I looked at it the more I kept seeing other 5 letter words ending in “ore” like “snore” and “whore”

 

[capt kirk]

I went for the longer wording of “shoreline” in the end.
I foldered the sticker back to test out “shore” to it kept the same length as “beach”, “ocean” and “coast” but the more I looked at it the more I kept seeing other 5 letter words ending in “ore” like “snore” and “whore”

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That looks the dogs doodahs……Nice

 

[da_murphster]

Have you done anything about the potential table in the door yet?

 

[da_murphster]

I'm going to do the same as you - just awaiting a well specced 204bhp Caravelle, ideally 4motion.

There is a 150bhp caravelle with all the bells and whistles (diff lock, hill descent etc) but I'm going to hold out for a 204 I think.

 

[Catbus]

Have you done anything about the potential table in the door yet?

Not yet, @Perfectos kindly set me a link to a anthracite & sliver one on eBay which was a very close colour match to the Executive trim but I have many other things which will take a priority on my funds first as they are pretty pricey even second hand.
If one comes up cheap enough I may go for it, but I will still need to get the centre decor panel on the door card re-trimmed as the Caravelles are a kind of faux leather look and if I can’t get a perfect match then I won’t end up doing it.

 

[Catbus]

I'm going to do the same as you - just awaiting a well specced 204bhp Caravelle, ideally 4motion.

There is a 150bhp caravelle with all the bells and whistles (diff lock, hill descent etc) but I'm going to hold out for a 204 I think.

if you're in no rush hold out for the right one, some things can be retro fitted easily (hill decent, dynaudio, 2nd battery, aux heater) but others really need to be factory fitted due to either very high cost to retro fit (led lights) or are very complex as it requires huge changes (4 motion, diff lock, 204 engine)

 

[Tarquers]

Great work. It’s the options that VW U.K. should be offering to beach customers. Unfortunately unless you want a LHD one, you have to do what you are doing.

 

[Dr-Snickers]

Indeed I do, although not applied yet.
Mainly due to when I purchased the van it had been completely debabaged by the previous owner, so my first job was to restore all the badging back.
At the moment it feels a little wrong to remove a badge I had not long applied and I’m still liking it that really confuses people when the see the cali roof and then notice the caravelle badge or when the see it’s caravelle but then notice the California roof.

i was originally thinking on getting a custom model name vinyl made for the rear sides in the same font as Ocean/Beach logo. I thought I had it nailed down with “Coast” keeping it related to the Sea, then dam VW came out with their own California Coast model and I’ve been completely stumped for a new name since. The closest I can think of is Gulf or Shore, but still not 100% convinced on either.
If anyone else can recommend a similar name to Ocean/Beach/Coast I’d love to hear them.

Wave?

Loving your conversion btw!