Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i What Motorhome

IF you 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 line-up 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…

CONCEPT Multi-Car (CMC for short) has one of the most comprehensive ranges of compact pop-top campervans around, including not just the VWs for which it’s best known but also Ford Transit Customs and Renault Trafics. This Dune conversion (on the T6.1) could just be the most versatile of them all. The example shown here was based on a highly desirable spec of Transporter with the top 204PS TDI engine and DSG automatic gearbox. First registered in 2017 but with a new conversion, it was priced at £47,500. If you want an all-new Dune, prices start at £56,000 for the Smart Line version, which is built as standard on a 110PS T30 Transporter in Startline trim. Although that’s the entry-level van, it’s no longer as basic as you might fear; there’s…

THE Columbus is one of Westfalia’s most prestigious and long-established models. It sits above the (also Fiat-based) Amundsen but offers more choice than the Sven Hedin (based on MAN) or James Cook (on Mercedes). Here, there are four models and three lengths, from 5.41m to 6.36m. For 2024, however, the whole Columbus range has been relaunched, with a new interior design, new roof lockers and a new kitchen unit. Furniture is now finished in Warm Grey with top cupboards in white with walnut slats, while the floor takes on a yacht-style plank effect. We’ve always been fans of this model, which has to be one of the class leaders, even if it can get expensive if you tick too many options. At least the pricing has now been simplified, with…

THINK you’ve seen every possible permutation of VW Transporter with a side galley? Well, perhaps, you haven’t seen one with up to six travel seats (when using a double cab seat) and a full-sized cooker, like you’d find in many a coachbuilt motorhome. That’s what you get with CamperKing’s top-of-the-range Portofino. Based exclusively on the long-wheelbase VW, the Portofino you see here was loaded up with spec, so the £52,500 starting price was but a distant memory. You’d need to find a cool £76k to see one like this duo-tone red and white ’van with £2,400-worth of polished 20in alloy wheels on your drive. Part of that price rise is for the desirable 150PS engine and DSG twin-clutch transmission, but there are other costly extras here, too. The roll-out awning…

CUSTOM Camper Solutions has over a decade of experience in building campervans, mostly on the VW Transporter but also using the similarly sized Ford Transit Custom. But, like a number of companies competing in this overcrowded sector, it has also now moved into larger panel vans with the bigger Volkswagen, the Crafter (or its sister, the MAN TGE). It has chosen the shortest (six-metre) version of this class-leading van for its new Trax Edition, which we spotted making its show debut at our Norfolk Motorhome & Campervan Show last summer. Company boss, Dan Cooper, has a vested interest in getting this one right, not only for sales but because he built the first of the breed to use with his wife and daughter. The family angle is the reason for…

ADRIA has long been at the forefront of the fixed bed campervan scene, so it’s more of a surprise that it’s taken the company a while to offer an alternative to the Fiat Ducato than the fact that a MAN-based line-up is now available. Two versions of the Twin Max have been launched for 2024, the single bed SLB and this SGX version, which differs only in its bedroom arrangement. Of course, as ever, you sleep at the stern, but the SGX offers key advantages over rivals, not only in bed size but also the way the mattress lifts out of the way to create an enormous garage. So, this lengthways bed measures a whopping 1.96m by 1.78m but more impressive still is that it rises at the touch of…

Included in an ALL-ACCESS digital subscription: ✓ Access our digital vault whenever you like, including the latest issue of MMM added every four weeks.✓ Over 150 issues of motorhome know-how including essential guides for easy journeys and peace of mind travelling.✓ Includes Buying Your Perfect Motorhome and The Essential Guide to Motorhomes & Campervans.✓ All issues are fully-searchable so you can easily find what you are looking for. Just £29.99 a year – SAVING OVER £60! Subscribe now motorhome.ma/exdigi22…

IF you live in south Wales, you’re probably aware of Day’s Motor Group, a large retail outlet with franchises for Fiat, Ford and Peugeot cars as well as the new Ineos Grenadier off-roader. Then, it covers the commercial vehicle market with the same brands, plus Iveco. And it has outlets at Cardiff, Haverfordwest, Neath and Swansea. It already runs a motorhome hire business from Swansea, too, and now its own campervans (for retail rather than rental) are being added to the portfolio. Unsurprisingly, with a Ford dealership already in the mix, Day’s Custom Conversions’ first, err, conversions are based on the Transit Custom. It is converting new (pre-registered) or used panel vans in short or long-wheelbase form, with or without a pop-top roof. However, it is also introducing VW Transporter…

AFTER a couple of years of dabbling in pop-top campervans alongside its selection of motorhome franchises, Newark-based SMC is taking this sector more seriously with its own GlobeCamper brand. For these vehicles it has enlisted Bespoke NI, a company based in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, which has Type Approval and National Caravan Council (NCC) approval for its conversions. Clearly, then, these VWs have a head start over many of those in the market that lack such reassuring credentials – especially as it’s backed by a three-year warranty. Basis for the standard GlobeCamper, priced competitively at just under £60k, is the short-wheelbase Transporter T6.1 in Startline spec but with the addition of the Business Pack, which adds an anti-theft alarm system, remote central locking, air-conditioning, a glovebox door and rear parking…