I’ve done a lot of race team truck and trailer conversions. You’ll struggle to get an old bread van to look like anything other than an old bread van. The only respectable motor homes on a budget I’ve ever seen have used the old mobile libraries as a base vehicle.
If you want the max volume then go for an old 7.5t bread van, as that’s the best bet but, I would devote all financial resources to the bit of it you’re going to live in rather than trying to prettify it cosmetically because you just won’t get the return on the investment.
There was a guy on here who converted an old bensons for beds DAF into a motorhome, he had a link to his blog in his signature, Ian something or other
So 6 years on I’ve just found this thread after researching a new box and sizes to fit a 7.5 t truck.
Wow what a journey. In June 2018:
So I ended up buying a Daf LF45 130bhp with a 24ft box. It’s restricted to 52mph so though it’s a very low powered truck, it’s absolutely fine.
It was an old Argos truck but due to the box being Ply (very heavy) though a demountable. I assume their fleet managers realised as fuel prices started to go crazy that upgrading their fleet to 12t + units was much more cost effective. So it had 190k full service history and was 2002 Euro 3 and the cab and mechanicals were immaculate and still are to this day.
It’s amazing how ideas you plan for fall away and become unimportant. Dont do many miles so the chip oil conversion wasn’t done. Did build it open plan except for the wetroom and shed store. Did spray foam but a winter later ended up also adding 30mm insulation board. Ended up with 1k solar system and 600amp hour battery bank. All for £1000 and all still working great though I am always hooked up to mains as well as water connection so I never had to build a water tank system.
The truck was £3.5k and I probably spent £2k doing the build. The truck had already been partially converted by someone who owned it for 5 years and only used it a few weekends a year. They’d done a professional respray of Oxford Blue so the exterior was great but I did rip out all the insides.
It didn’t end up looking like a hippy conversation and with 2 massive 1msq domed skylights and no side windows, it’s pretty stealth. But not as stealth as a white one would have been.
Inside I have used my old £5k modular leather sofawith some redesign of the original base units, a brand new double propane calor cooker, standard fridge freezer cos camper fridges are crap and crazy expensive. Built in microwave. Hand built by myself kitchen work tops and sunken round sink. A friend gave me £3ks worth of window shutter blinds that were wrongly measured, so I reengineered them to become kitchen cab doors. A beautiful green enamel log burner with a beautiful double skinned flu pipe.all bought for a song from someone who had it heating their river boat house. Basically you can stick your £30k plus old ford transit motorhome rubbish as mine is superior in every way. Oh and I made my own Murphy bed out of scaffolding and it rocks a super king memory foam hybrid thing that I got for free on Gumtree it had barely been used and was £1700 when I googled it. Right place at the right time. It just proves that if you have skills, time and are adaptable, you can make something really quite special.
Anyway it’s still amazing but the old ply box is starting to show it’s age. So I ve been looking into a new box. Can buy another 24ft plain white modern material built unit for £600!!! There are simply 1000s of boxes for sale So I’m seriously considering buying one and swapping. However that’s never a simple thing with me. I’ve seen that you can get 8m boxes (mine is 7) that extra 1m is very appealing. And considering this all started as I was costing up doing a Raptor paint job. I think it’s cost effective to just buy a white box and then simply respray the cab. (Yes I am handy, can weld can spray can do electrics can graft) .
Can’t find one that’s demountable but I think I’ll be able to simply weld the new box in place. Anyway hi to anyone reading this thread that I totally forgot about. It wasn’t until I read a few lines that I realised this was my own thread😂
And to those of you who got ripped off buying old battered race trucks or a old coach (brrrgggghhhh all that glass) hahahaha
When I detach my fire chimney, you literally can’t tell that my truck is a plush camper.