Converting your ordinary van into a fully functional campervan can seem like a daunting task at first, however, at SJB Customs, we find that breaking it down into bitesize chunks can help make our campervan conversions an achievable task.
We build all conversions in our workshop in Clydebank, Glasgow, where our team of skilled craftsmen have years of experience. Read below to see the areas we like to focus on when converting your campervan.
We have converted VW campervans, Ford campervans, Mercedes campervans and many other brands.
Campervan Essentials: Beds
The centrepiece of your campervan furniture is the bed. After a long day of hiking, fishing, swimming or whatever exciting activity you choose to do on your campervan adventures, you will need a comfy place to rest your head. At SJB Customs, we supply and fit:
- Rock n Roll beds with a range of upholstery options. Our beds come with an M1 certificate proving their quality, safety and ease of use. These beds are extremely safe and have been vigorously pull tested.
- Our premium bed is the RIB112. Arguably the best campervan bed on the market – the RIB comes TUV approved and crash-tested. We have bespoke upholstery options and optional additional features such as Isofix child safety. The RIB also has great storage options and a reclining backrest for you to relax on at night.
We install all beds in-house at our workshop to ensure maximum comfort, versatility, and practicality.
Campervan Essentials: Running Water
Unless you’re a seasoned plumber, fitting a working running water system into a campervan is one of the more complex tasks on the list. At SJB Customs, we can fit a 36L underslung tank to our campervans and use a 12 Volt Shurflo pump to ensure the water flows effectively through taps located in the vehicle (that we also fit ourselves).
It is best practice not to drive with a full water tank and to winterise the tanks during the colder months to relieve any build-up of pressure.
Campervan Essentials: Refrigerator
The veteran campers among us have all had to compromise on food choices when choosing what to bring with us on our travels e.g. UTC milk over fresh milk or beef jerky over actual meat. A refrigerator changes the game and allows us to bring fresh food (and cold beer) for us to enjoy when we settle down for the day.
Within our full conversion, we fit a Dometic CRE50 fridge or similar. Powered off 12v, with a dual lock function and soft-touch control panel. These compact fridges have 45 litres worth of storage and the flexibility of a removeable freezer compartment which stores 4.4 litres.
Campervan Essentials: Facilities and Table
At SJB Customs, we accept that nothing can ever rival the classic campfire, however, when you need to heat quickly our internal cooking facilities help you do just that in a safe and efficient manner so you can save your campfire for the marshmallows and ghost stories! We offer a range of cooking appliances in our campervans such as:
- Dometic 9722/9222 combi units, which are fitted to all our worktops. This includes 2 gas burner hobs and a left-hand sink all in one unit, leaving you with plenty of space on either side for food prep
- We offer an optional 20L stainless steel Dometic GT211 Oven in some of our conversions. This low-maintenance, compact oven is perfect for cooking off the grid.
- If you value convenience, we can offer you a 700w 17L Russell Hobbs Scandi microwave for quick and easy meals on your campervan travels.
We also build and install our own user-friendly fold away tables in all conversions to ensure you have a nice area to consume food and chat with your fellow campers.
Electricity For Your Campervan
Unless you are a camping purist (or Bear Grylls), then you will likely be bringing your daily essentials on your campervan adventures, and you’ll need somewhere to charge them. This area can be one of the most expensive and dangerous areas when converting a campervan, and one where you might want to consider hiring the professionals.
In our conversions, we use the industry leading Hankook DC31 Deep Cycle Leisure Battery with 100Ah capacity and voltage of 12v. We will provide you with an external hook-up allowing you to fully charge your battery in around 18 hours. You can also charge the battery whilst driving or select our optional 175 solar panels with an installation kit.
Maximising Campervan Storage
Internal storage can be better at keeping your supplies secure and readily available and we would always recommend this over a roof rack.
Depending on the time of the year and length of your campervan trip, you may need to bring a multitude of supplies and amenities. When undergoing conversions, we integrate storage solutions seamlessly into the design to make the best use of all the space in your vehicle.
Our highly skilled engineers have listened to customer feedback over the years to optimise our storage solutions and allow for several compartments throughout the cabinet. This has allowed for ample storage for clothes, food and equipment.
Campervan Heating
Another extremely complex and possibly dangerous area of a van conversion is installing a heating system. This area is essential for our winter campers and at SJB Customs, we excel at providing the perfect campervans for winter trips.
This heater is efficient, reliable and quiet. It is perfect for compact spaces, reacts quickly to a change in temperature and has low energy consumption. Running straight off the diesel tank makes it easy to track fuel consumption. The control panel also has manual heater control and displays ambient temperature, fan speed and temperature adjustment.
Campervan Pop-top roofs
Pop-top roofs are the ultimate accessory for your campervan and can really make a good adventure a great adventure. We include pop top roofs in all our full conversions.
We use the Streamline high lifter System for our pop-top roofs which exclusively use UK sourced materials. Streamline are one of the longest established in the industry and have modified and improved their roofs over the years to create one of the best in the market.
