A T6.1 campervan that’s strong on storage space
IFyou aspire to own a campervan to drive every day, then the chances are that you’ll be thinking about a VW. The Transporter has been underpinning numerous campervans it its various guises for decades. With rumours rife about Volkswagen’s plans for the hotly anticipated T7 (a joint project with Ford), it’s still the T6.1 that is on sale currently and is being converted.
But what a choice you have; conversions of the T6.1 range from VW’s own California lineup to one-offs and bespoke builds. This Cambridge Campervans’ conversion is firmly in the middle ground, with the company converting around 180 vans per year. In our annual Campervan Awards, this firm was Highly Commended in the Converter of the Year category based solely on customer votes, but what did our experts make of its Adventure conversion?
Well, it has the traditional side kitchen layout, with a rear bench seat that makes into a bed. It’s the ubiquitous RIB unit, here in the 112cm-wide version – as always, it’s rather too high for comfort, but it does have Isofix. It will seat two rear passengers for travel and is fixed in place. As a bed, it measures 1.84m in length; note that the 47-litre fridge can still be accessed for your morning cuppa, even if your other half is still snoozing.
There’s storage below the seat, accessed through two doors in the habitation area and one rather small hatch in the boot. One of those doors is taller, to allow a toilet to be stashed there and then slid out when needed, although the locker adjacent to this in the side kitchen could also be used for a loo, if you have other kit in mind for this space. What’s useful is that the door sizes can be tailored to individual needs.
The smart wood worktop is mostly filled by the two-burner hob and sink combination. The split glass lid does allow you to use one side or the other for prep and there is some space at the end, too, handily located adjacent to the bench seat. There’s also a wireless charging pad in the corner here, for your phone. Just above this, you’ll find a mains socket and twin USB ports, as well as the digital control panel for the lights and levels (water and battery), along with switches for the Webasto heater – this is powered by diesel, meaning gas is only needed for the cooking appliances – the hob and a separate grill, which robs you of quite a lot of storage.
The fridge is at the forward end of the kitchen unit, with
