Wayfarer Vans minimalist conversion kit

[haven]

https://wayfarervans.com/

Wayfarer Vans offers a basic conversion kit for the Ram Promaster City Tradesman, a compact two passenger front wheel drive van based on the Fiat Doblo. The kit consists of floor and wall panels that attach to the van interior using existing mounting points, three boxes that provide storage and a sleeping platform, seat cushions that double as a mattress, and a fold-down table. The kit can be installed in an afternoon with simple tools. Price for the full kit is about $5000. Components can be ordered individually.

The Wayfarer web site acknowledges that theirs is only one approach to providing a home on wheels. They talk about buying a used vehicle like the VW Westfalia van, or designing your own conversion. Included are links to online forums. This approach is unusual -- imagine Sportsmobile providing links to the Earthcruiser web site!.

Basecamper Vans in Salt Lake City rents the Promaster City with Wayfarer Van conversion if you want to try out the vehicle before you buy. http://www.basecampervans.com/

 

[haven]

Right now somebody is thinking, "$5000? I can make a kit like this with a band saw, $75 worth of plywood and a handful of wood screws" That's not entirely correct, but there will always be cheaper ways to make a camper conversion. How about a tossing a couple of pieces of corrugated cardboard for a floor, a lawn chair, a Walmart ice chest, a Coleman stove and a sleeping bag into the back of the the van?

The point is, when it comes to creating a home on wheels, people have different needs for comfort, convenience and cost. I think Wayfarer offers an interesting solution. I wonder if they plan to offer kits for larger vans.

In Europe, van conversions for the Fiat Doblo are popular. Here's a 2 minute video that shows examples of more ambitious projects, including raised and pop-up roofs, full kitchens, and high quality materials.
https://youtu.be/BT4jUttuHLg

 

[Bikersmurf]

I did think $5K... but if that's what I needed, it could be worth it to be able to convert a van in "25 minutes". How much is your time worth? If it saved me 200 hours work and got me out a year or two sooner, why not.

Too bad they don't make the kit I need. Anyone got detailed plans or a link for making a "Murphy Bed / Desk / Bookshelf" to fit a double bed on the passenger side of an Ambulance box? I'd pay a convenience fee if I could just order a good quality kit and install it in an afternoon and be finished... especially if it was plug and play and had all the trim and pieces I can't source locally.

Heck, I'm two years in, and still just wrapping up the mechanical... so far, it has just been a mattress on the floor or a desk strapped to the wall.

 

[Eazy]

Seems like a pretty neat kit, but it doesn't seem like there would be a lot of sleeping room.

 

[Herbie]

I like it. I'm with Bikersmurf - my time has value, so this kit isn't radically out of price.

Sure, DIY projects are fun and worthwhile, and you can save money by burning your own time, but I've got literally more than a thousand hours (over six years) into my conversion and I've hit the wall multiple times where I was ready to quit and have wished that I'd just paid to have it done so I could spend my weekends out using the van instead of working on it. I basically did skilled labor for the same wage as somebody picking coffee in Guatemala.

 

[tgreening]

I guess I'm the naysayer. I liked the magnetic panel system, feeling it to be an innovative approach (as long as it performs), and as long as that price included the grey as well as the funky colored bits. To me there's more dollar value here than any other part of the kit.

But IMO it fell off fast from there. Being a kit is nice, but almost $2k for a few rectangular plywood boxes? What is essentially a board with a few brackets for $250? And the floor? I'll grant the boxes considering the foam toppers and especially the covers. Sewing is a time consuming art beyond most men, but those boxes are basic man, unless there's some hidden jewels in there I'm not seeing.

I know the whole " I could do that for 10 bucks mentality", but really, 75% of that would take some time on Amazon buying the brackets and cargo track, a trip to Home Depot, and maybe a couple weekends at most.


Alright, Ive taken some pain killers and put my flame suit on, just try to leave my pretty face intact.

 

[simple]

I like the concept but am not totally on board with the design. Looks like a good a alternative for people that don't have the means or desire to build anything. I hope the company makes a strong go of it and creates systems for all the vans while steadily improving their designs.

 

[carleton]

Turns out they are in Colorado Springs, and I ran into that rig in the King Soopers parking lot.
Me (Chevy Express owner, former Westy Owner) and another woman (current Westy owner) both flocked to this thing in the parking lot to check it out. It's cool, and I always like meeting folks who are making stuff like this happen.

I think it's advantages are in it's simplicity and modularity. It'd be easy to remove boxes and use it as a work van, reconfigure it, etc. I agree, $5000 is a lot, it probably suffers from low volume of expected sales. I'd barely call it a "Camper van" since there is so much more (and more $) that would need to be done: electrical, heat, cooking, etc.

Really, this is for the folks who want the "#vanlife" quickly, and with minimal effort. Which, here in Colorado, with beat down westys on CL for 10-15k, this starts to look like a decent option.

 

[Eazy]

Really, this is for the folks who want the "#vanlife" quickly, and with minimal effort. Which, here in Colorado, with beat down westys on CL for 10-15k, this starts to look like a decent option.

You nailed it right there.

The whole PNW is full of people with a lot of money, a lot of dreams, and absolutely no mechanical aptitude. They want the style/functionality of the westy, but can't replace a head gasket, set valve gaps, or adjust points.

I think places like this forum forget that there's a certain bias within these communities. This probably seems crazy to most of the members of this forum because we've self selected a group full of like minded people. For the most part, we're all pretty handy with a wrench and/or a nail gun and can sort things out on our own. Outside of this forum though, we are the minority. A kit like this enables someone to take a van with a warranty and make it function to a certain extent like a tent on wheels with little to no labor or intense assembly.

 

[Keyne]

One other point to note. From their website you dont have to buy the full kit, and can buy each major piece separately (Floor, Boxes with cushions, and wall coverings). If you wanted just buy the wall coverings for $1600 and do the rest yourself. Maybe the whole kit without the boxes and then you could do the bed and boxes as you want. I wish you could choose the boxes you wanted individually... I might only want the kitchen and bed box and put a fridge at the front instead of the 3rd box but at that point its basically the full kit anyway.

 

[Munchmeister]

Just discovered the wayfarer kits. Time is a big factor for me. And I like that you can buy just the insulating panels. I'd probably design my own set of boxes as I might want room for toys, but the Promaster City also has fairly decent payload capacity, to accommodate my heavy e-bike & hitch rack. Likey. And I'm in Colorado! Road trip!

 

[klp42]

Looks pretty cool! I think there are people willing to pay for the convenience.

Personally, the sight of 746692002 magnets would make me insane.

 

[Munchmeister]

Personally, the sight of 746692002 magnets would make me insane.

Well you're gonna have trouble with your compass in there. But they're probable those neodymium magnets which can be very tiny and get the job done. One thing I like about the magnetic approach is that you could just pull off a panel if you were running some wiring, say, for lighting or battery stuff.