grahamfitter
Expedition Leader
Another thing that's worth mentioning about the Westfalia type van is that all the kitchen stuff is permanently mounted inside. (I don't know if the Sportsmobile is like this.) The problem is we've never wanted to cook anything smelly inside, so we've carried a second stove and a gas grill and cooked outside. We only cooked inside if the weather was particularly nasty. Most of the time the inside stove was only used for making tea at regular intervals.
At one point we had an E-350 12 passenger van with all but one of the bench seats removed and a couple of plastic dressers with a 2 burner stove on top of one of them. All the camper stuff was cheap and light and easily removable. There was plenty of space inside to hang out and I built a sleeping platform at the back with lots of storage space underneath but not quite enough head room above. Gas mileage and 2WD aside it was probably the most useful van we've had. Good for camping incognito too. If I was going to get another full-size van I'd get a 4WD conversion and do a minimal interior myself. The plastic dressers cracked after a while so I'd probably work a little harder on the camping bits. I'd also try to combine the sleeping/hangout space while retaining proper seats with belts at the back.
Cheers,
Graham
At one point we had an E-350 12 passenger van with all but one of the bench seats removed and a couple of plastic dressers with a 2 burner stove on top of one of them. All the camper stuff was cheap and light and easily removable. There was plenty of space inside to hang out and I built a sleeping platform at the back with lots of storage space underneath but not quite enough head room above. Gas mileage and 2WD aside it was probably the most useful van we've had. Good for camping incognito too. If I was going to get another full-size van I'd get a 4WD conversion and do a minimal interior myself. The plastic dressers cracked after a while so I'd probably work a little harder on the camping bits. I'd also try to combine the sleeping/hangout space while retaining proper seats with belts at the back.
Cheers,
Graham