Nissan NV200 camper?

[zelatore]

I'm not a regular in the van forums as I'm a Land Rover guy, but I just made a deal to buy a new(ish) work van, a Nissan NV200.

The catch is, it's been converted to a mini-camper with what looks like some pretty nice custom cabinetry and a mattress. Of course, I'll be removing all that stuff since I need a cargo van, but I'm wondering if anybody here is running an NV (or maybe a Transit Connect?) and would have an interest in it?

I haven't actually seen the thing in person yet but will be flying up to Portland, OR to pick it up Saturday morning then driving it back down I5 to Sacramento Sunday. If anybody happened to be along the route and had an interest....well, I wouldn't need a lot for it. Heck, I'd trade for a cargo partition and shelves if you had them.

I haven't posted this in the for-sale section (yet) as I won't actually have the van until this weekend. This is more of a gauging interest sort of post. I haven't seen much of these little Nissans on the Portal, but they've only been on the market for a year so that may be why. I actually prefer the way they drive to the '10-'13 Transit Connects and it should get slightly better mileage as well.

Here's the dealer's page that shows some of the cabinetry in the back of the van that I'll be getting rid of. It looks like fairly nice stuff and I'd hate to just chuck it and don't have a lot of extra room to store it in the garage for an extended time.
http://www.beavertonhonda.com/Used-2013-Nissan-NV200-S-BeavertonOR/vd/19865192

 

[Herbie]

Hey, I like that!

Don't need the cabinetry myself, but I like the arrangement, similar to a teardrop in that your feet go into the bottom of the cabinetry when you sleep. That's a great solution for having a rear pantry that doesn't interfere with seat/bed height in a short layout. I could have toyed with that idea a lot if I'd seen it when I was re-doing my interior.

 

[Paddlevan]

Dealer pulled the AD

CAn youplease place pics for futre reference.. Maybe a gravel road street camper??

 

[Flagster]

I would be very interested in seeing the pictures/possible purchasing...they are gone from the website
Thanks
Matt

 

[zelatore]

Sorry for not getting back to this sooner; I've been busy with work (and re-fitting the van, and building a bumper for the LR3, and now at O.E....) and haven't been on the forum as much as I'd have liked recently so I missed this.

I do have some pictures of it from when I picked it up. I'll try to upload them to photobucket or the like and share them later.

The camper parts are all gone. It was hard to do, but I had to cut it all out. It wasn't really feasible to removed the cabinetry in-tact as it was built in place. It was tough to tear out somebody else's hard work when it was all perfectly good stuff. Even harder when I found his signature on it with a 'happy camping' message dated only 6 months prior. But in the end I bought the van to use for my business and the cabinets just didn't fit my needs.

Generically speaking, the NV200 would make a decent gravel road mini-camper. It's a load floor is a little longer than the Transit Connect 2010-2013 (it's only real competitor) and gets slightly better mileage. I do think the TC is better looking, but that's personal taste. I really don't like the CVT off the line as it's the mushiest of slush-boxes, but once it's rolling it's not too bad. I've been able to do about 25.5 mpg mixed driving, but I did have to slow down my highway cruise from 80 to 75. It seems to have the aero of a brick and higher speeds really tax it. On slow (60 mph) rural, flat, sea-level two-lane I can average 26-27 mpg.

It would have about zero off-road capacity with it's tiny little 185/65-15 tires and minimal ground clearance, but it would be OK on tame gravel roads. There's lots of room in the wheel wells so I'm sure you could fit a larger tire but you would of course loose the mileage.

 

[zelatore]

Some photos. It was fairly basic maple ply construction, with a group 31 Lifeline AGM battery powered through a Blue Seas ACR to a small fuse block for a bunch of 12v outlets and a couple LED overhead lights in the back. I kept the battery, ACR, and fuse block (though I did add an appropriate battery tray) and use it to power a 1000w true sine wave inverter to keep my cordless tools charged or run small corded tools.

The bed was basically a futon-style mattress that could be folded back on itself and stuffed under the cabinets (where your feet would go) to give you usable flat floor space between the two side cargo doors. As Herbie mentioned above, it was similar to a teardrop in layout.

With the cabinets closed up:



And the cabinets open:


And the rear with the cabinets closed:


And here's what it looks like now. Well, actually it's a little more crowded now as I didn't have all my tools/gear in it yet when I took these photos:




The new layout isn't very exciting, but it's fully secure (the main reason I went from a truck to a van) and much more fitting for a work van.