Really admiring the quality of your work, its going to look very nice. I'm following your progress out of interest as I drive a 109 that I converted into a camper. Its an ongoing conversion now in its 8th year. Mine sleeps 2 and this is always myself and my son, who keeps getting bigger and has necessitated 3 re-designs! Last year we did 21 nights away, all in the UK. If I may share some hard won advice about the camper part:
Do a few trips early on to see how things work and get the layout right. We found a lot of ideas were unworkable or too much faff. Our early trips would take 1 1/2 hours from park up to ready for bed, we've got that down to about 30 mins but its taken a lot of work and we are on our 4th bed set up. I have a pile of failed ideas.
Be honest about the trips you will actually make. We do 3-4 night trips in England. Even our wildest trips seem to end up in sight of a convenience store. We were setting off loaded for a trip across the Sahara and bringing home 99% of what we had taken. I have no idea why I thought we needed so much water, we now set off with 4 ltrs (water is heavy) and fill up as we go, worst case a big bottle of water for £1. The weight saving probably pays for it in fuel economy.
We took way to much food, we now have enough UHT milk and some pan-o-cholat ready for one breakfast and some tins for an emergency. We belong to Britstops and stay in pub car-parks and fields when we can. One of the pleasures is eating in the pubs so we almost never cook. A way to make morning coffee is (for me) essential and we carry enough to do that quickly but the camp stove is hardly ever used. After 7 years we got a fridge, but that was because of the heatwave and we wanted ice cream and cold drinks. Its de-mountabel and will stay in the house until the weather is hot. Fridges use power and take a lot of space. The cooking kit is also de-mountable and only goes in if we think we will cook.
Space is a premium. Someone once described my Land Rover camper as "Tetris camping" as everything has to be in exactly the right place. When everyone's out, get in it and practice getting dressed and undressed, washing and using the loo. I did and got a rude awakening, so many of my ideas were useless. Don't be temped to put anything inside anything else. Packing things inside the kettle seemed cleverly space saving until I needed a coffee early morning and it all got stuck inside.
We use rucksacks as storage, hang them up when driving and then take them with us when we are walking. A big box has turned out to be very handy, its where everything with no home goes and if its dry we put it outside until bed time.
Beds - arrgh, our biggest nightmare and really important. You've got to be able to get your bed set up, clothes changed and into bed in the rain and be dry. I used to have the bedding in a roof top box over the cab, until I had to climb up in a storm in the dark. Now we set off with the bedding on the beds and squashed down. Being able to stand to dress and wash really helps so think about how you can do that and stay dry.
Rubbish is another pain. We are buying as we go and most everything is in plastic packaging so we soon fill up with rubbish. We hang a plastic bag up and put it in the bin at a filling station. For the same reason we have now changed our toilet for one designed to be easily emptied into a public toilet. We carry one chemical dose and buy a 2 ltr bottle to fill. In a heat wave you may need to do this after 3 days.
The diesel heater is your friend. You can keep warm and most importantly get dry. So get the biggest leisure battery, split charge and solar that you can. We are on our 3 rd leisure battery and solar set up. Carry a portable CO alarm.
Don't let me create problems, we have had huge fun and will be hitting the road again soon. During lock-down I think our trips kept us sane and we could spend a day on the beach when all the toilets and changing rooms were locked. Waking up to a view like this (£10 to park overnight) is priceless.
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all about trial and error in the end you get to what suits you and is the most convenient.
