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jonboylaw

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I currently have the original Devon Moonraker interior fitted to my '71 and after 7 years of use, I am getting a little tired of setting up the bed and the storage space etc. I'm going down the rout of getting a bespoke interior made up, with Rusty Lee R&R bed etc so I am looking for experiences/ideas/tips and learnings from others that have been down this route.

I don't want a built in fridge, rather use a cooler box with 12v, same for cooker, use a camping stove or hide-away. looking for plenty of storage for equipment, utensils, tools, clothes etc..

I'll also be selling the current interior, with original chiller, sink, cooler, buddy seat, bench, tables x 2, legs (all of them), wardrobe, top-box and rear shelf unit etc, what is the going rate for this ?
 
I guess the key is - your needs.
Is it just you? Or a partner? or children? Those are probably the key drivers for sleeping/dining.
Do you normally depend on an awning, or is being self contained within the van important?

From your initial brief, it would seem a basic full width rock and roll bed (with storage underneath) and a couple of buddy seat units opposing it (also with under storage) would be right, with a side mounted flip up table? Add in a deep overhead rear locker?
 
I have a 72 dormobile and ripped everything out. It was rotten. Fitted Rusty Lee full width bed which is brilliant, easy to fit bomb proof design. Fitted a small unit off eBay from a company in Liverpool doing camper interiors really pleased with it. I fitted that behind the drivers seat. Then added a smeg cooker to it. no sink no fridge. Suits us we don’t spend weeks away and buy everything fresh as we need it. We did spend a week in France a few years ago and the simplicity of the fit meant no issues at night when we got our heads down.
 
We do most of the cooking outside the van, have cab bunk for the little one and me and the Mrs are ok with current bed that is around 1m20 wide. R&R seems to be a must as I and fed-up of having to pull everything out and literally "Make the bed" each night, plus there is never enough storage for clothes and "stuff". Generally we are max around 1 week away at a time and usually in the highlands, so opportunities for wild camping.
What do folks do with their spare tyres when using the R&R ? has anyone ever used a space saver ?
 
I keep my spare wheel in the rear well 90% if the time. I take it out for stays of longer than a couple of nights and put in the awning or on the roof rack. I have an infill cushion for this.
I think it depends on your ‘build’ ;)
 
We have a Westy set up, so a three-quarters R&R bed, and a double sleeping bag, so it doesn't take long to make the bed up. I remove the spare wheel and put it under the bus or in the driver's foot well for the night. We also have an infill cushion for this. If we are cooking inside because of poor weather, it's usually something easy and not too messy.

I do sometimes wonder whether the spare wheel is absolutely necessary, as I also carry a can of tyreweld, and the punctures I've had in the past (none with the bus) have all been slow punctures. However for what effort it takes, it's probably better to have it than not!
 
I used to have a Vanworx interior with fold down cooker and a sink unit by the sliding door, but we hardly ever used the sink and it blocks off so much space too.
Last year I had All Things Timber do me a unit and footstool/buddy seat to go with a full width bed. It has a cooker and fridge as we do cook both in and out. I also removed the passenger bulkhead and made the seat a swivel...it is now so much bigger in feel and practicality and we love it!
There's not as much storage as before, but we've just got more inventive and take less stuff...we really did lug so much crap about it was unreal.
But like Clem says...it really depends on your needs, wants and what's practical for you and your family.
Once my daughter stops coming with us I can get rid of the roof bed and have even more headroom!!
Cheers
Al
 
Same ish here, I ran fir about four plus years with no spare at all because I’d had Kevlar put in the wheels at a show. Worked well (I think) as no punctures, but supposedly you can swap it from your tyres into your new tyres and that was a big seller for me. Come the day of swapping tyres and getting new ones fitted, well you’d have thought I was asking them to eat their own children by putting that ‘stuff’ in their brand new tyres, it’ll invalidate the warranty, it’ll explode, we’ll be cooked by trading standards etc etc etc, someone had put a right scary old bull shirt story up their ass for sure. :lol:
So now I’m back to carrying a spare, but I only do that if I’m away from home, on the local stuff I leave it in the garage and keep my fingers crossed, but it wouldn’t be a biggy to get home and bring my spare out. I’ve gone to now keeping a new hydraulic bottle jack in the van instead of the trolley dolly jack, for a three ton from China it was less than a tenner delivered and it fits nicely in the back of the wheel with a pair of dirty gloves and some tools.
When I’m off on adventure / safari etc I put the spare just inside the slider behind the passenger seat bulkhead and I have a ‘floating unit’ with two drawers in that had a former life next to my bed at home :lol: this unit stays in the van with all my knives and forks and plates and cups etc, and a frying pan and spare gas cartridges etc etc etc. This unit also sits on top of the spare when we’re off on adventure :mrgreen: On site, sometimes the unit stays in and sometimes I take it out and plonk it in the gazebo where most of the cooking happens, this unit is also mainly the stand for my portable gas cooker/s as I have two and the plasticky type boxes they store in are frequently rearranged as windshields to lessen the heat dissipation. Most nights I’ll plonk my unit back in the van with cooker and kettle ready to rock in the morning :mrgreen: Coffee is nectar in the morning ;)
Rusty Lee full width goes without saying but I don’t think I’m on my own here in saying to stay away from vinyls for coverings as they’re great for keeping clean but not very forgiving for sleeping or even travelling on. Instead of an overhead head banger for storage in the back over the bed, I’ve utilised an elasticised cargo net with snap hooks in the corners and I leave that up most of the time, when I’m off anywhere it’s usually full of Wotsits and crisps and mini cheddars and I call that my crisp safe. It’s much nicer to bang your head in the middle of the night on some Wotsits :lol: Behind the drivers seat is an old sea chest that has been converted into a huge coolbox that’ll hold approximately six dozen Stellas and two one pints of milk and a little food. Above this is a cupboard in the making above the window line :mrgreen: But this is about to be scrapped, it seemed a great idea at first, two nine inch triaxials fixed in made to measure stands holding up a shelf soon to became a cupboard when the doors are fitted :roll: Well it’s destined for mk11 version sooner than later, mainly because every time I go to get a bottle of Stella, I bang my head HARD :shock: :shock: :shock: And the more Stella I drink, the harder I bang my head :lol: The two other things that might be a useful thing is an underbed type plastic box with a clipped on secure lid that I can store most of my camping oddthings in, like bbq tools, roll of kitchen towel etc etc. This lives in the back of the van when travelling, but goes under the van or on the roof rack when on site and straight out into the garage when I get home and this is where the extra cooker lives, and next to this is a four seater fold up table with four integrated stools, very much like the blue plastic ones from Tesco for about twenty quid, had one of those for over five years, smashed it up a bit when I fell against it after toooooo many Stellas :shock: Now I have an ally one :p No leisure battery yet, no heating yet, they’re still on the go do list even though I have the Propex brand new in the garage where it’s been resting since it arrived brand new possibly ten ? years ago ? :oops: Lives right by the fire extinguisher system, arrived around the same time too, :mrgreen: nice boxes as I recall :mrgreen:

Ozziedog,,,,,,hope there’s a pearl in there that you could use :mrgreen:
 
We used THE CAMPER SHAK who will make you a bespoke ultralight interior for you to fit yourself (we did and saved money). They can also do the upholstery, door cards etc. Most impressed with the service and choice of finishes. They went out of their way to make sure we were happy with the end result. Based in Burscough, Lancashire and they are on Facebook.

Camper Shak Link
 
I have a 71 danbury that came with the original interior, allowing any number of permuations for seating and bedding down, a natty fold away cooker and even a bottle rack, but precious little storage and which also required piecing together various bits of wood and cushions, not good at the end of an evening, so after several years of perservering I swapped it for a newly built interior from SJS camper interiors, which I fitted and wired up myself, with 3/4 R&R bed, fridge, smeg top with 2 gas rings and sink - although the latter is not plumbed in but is good for storage - and loads of cupboard space, before and after pics below, i kept the original 'headbanger' unit though


 

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