£50K PROFESSIONALLY BUILT vs £10K DIY BUILT CAMPER VAN

this is a £48,000 professionally converted and manufactured camper van and this is my £12,000 self-con converted Builders van and in this video we're going to be taking a look at the differences between them to see how they compare 2 years ago I bought this 2014 fat ducato van from eBay for just £6,000 I'm a white van man now baby I then spent the next year and a half trying to convert it into a camber van and with the help of some good friends and a lot of failures later a bird's just shat on my cladding I've just painted what the I am losing the will literally with this van build I finally finished the van and have spent many months traveling around today I'm back up in Nottingham to come and check out these £48,000 Winesburg camper van to see what a factory made camper is actually like and to see if the extra 36,000 is actually worth it to start of the comparisons between these two campers we're going to kick things off off by talking about link so one of the biggest differences between this and my own is actually that this van is 60 cm longer than mine and that may not sound like a huge difference but honestly in a tiny little home on Wheels every inch and millimeter really makes a big difference so Mary my own van she is the shorter of the two vehicles at 5.4 M long the Fire Edition is 6 M long which gives you an additional 2T of space inside the width and height of both vehicles is exactly the same at 2 m wide and 2.5 M tall another big difference between the two vehicles is actually that the sliding doors are on completely opposite sides of the vehicle on Mary the sliding door is on the passenger side which means you've got to walk around the entire front of the vehicle to access the back area but on the fire the sliding door is actually on the same side as the driver which makes things a lot more convenient so I'm actually going to give this one a point to the fire so with these professionally con converted and manufactured Vehicles they're all pretty standardized especially on the outside you've got your cassette toilet which is used to pull out your toilet and give that a nice little clean you've got an electric hookup point of course to plug into a campsite and you've got an LPG refillable point the fire does have an awning and my van doesn't however I've personally never felt the need to actually have one cheers in the manufactured vehicle of course you've got this very Swanky step to help you get in and out of the vehicle if you're a like me and you forget to put it away before you drive it will actually automatically put itself back into place so we are now in the fire cber van itself which I've got to say is impressive what they've squeezed in here in such a small siiz vehicle however because they've crammed so much in here it's extremely cramped and there's not a lot of space to actually move around considering my own van is 60 cm shorter with which means less space inside it feels a lot more spacious however this does of course have a few more facilities inside in the front area of this vehicle we of course have two swivel chairs which are never easy to swivel into position it makes a hell of a difference having both the passenger and the driver seat on a swivel because more social space for people to come and join you in the vehicle more friends can come over depending on who you want my van sadly I could only put the passenger seat on a swivel because I didn't have the space or availability to actually put the driver's seat so for this one the Fire gets another point one big plus with the professionally converted Fire Edition cam van is that you can actually sit four people inside this vehicle legally which means you've got two seat belts obviously in the front the drivers's in the passenger seat but also two legal seats here to have some passengers that you can actually bring on a road trip with you one thing I've got to say that I really do not like about this vehicle is the this Arrangement here there is not a huge amount of space to do a lot of things here to be honest with you the table is absolutely tiny it's not comfortable at all you're sitting upright like a plank of wood I'm a big bloke 6'2 not a huge amount of space to maneuver around you can of course extend this and we've got a very small kind of fake marble looking dinner table which if I pull around here as the driver I could now eat my dinner although there's no way I could move cuz if I had a massive belly on me which might be another 30 years this is going to be a bit of a tight squeeze to get in and out of the whole dining area and actually as you can imagine sitting here with four people two here two there it's not going to be the most spacious pleasant experience so for the dining area setup and comparison I'm actually going to give a point to Mary because I just think my van's a little bit more spacious even though it also kind of isn't because on one of the benches you literally have to have the body of a child this squeze in there so the inside of this vehicle reminds me very much of the world's most boring Mot home which is a video I did a couple of videos ago because with any commercial vehicle like this that you can literally buy off the shelf they all look pretty damn identical inside this one is literally just some white and some brown and some pretty plain neutral colors which isn't a bad thing because a vehicle like this you don't have to spend almost a year to a year and a half converting it yourself you can of course go to a dealership and literally buy this pre-made pre-done pick it up and off you go on your travels so with the kitchen in this vehicle it's it's not huge it's about a meter and a half long but what I do like is the sliding door is actually on the kitchen side which means you can hand out your fitas you can hand out your ice creams you can hand out your chicken burgers and of course it helps with ventilation and all sorts of things and if you're parked up in a beautiful location crack the door open and cook with a view so with the actual kitchen appliances in here there's not a lot going on a very basic two hob gas burner and a sink and a tap pretty standard in most of these vehicles a 12volt fridge underneath and compared to my own van I'm super surprised by this because the vehicle cost 48 Grand and there's a what a £36,000 price difference is that the difference 48,000 minus 12,000 you've got no oven you've got a smaller sink you've got less storage space so I'm giving my van a plus for that one massive Pro and benefit to this van compared to Mary is what's inside here which is a toilet and a shower so instead of me having to pull out a portable toilet underneath the storage unit and then sit in a bag can actually in a nice luxury toilet oh what's that smell smells quite fresh I think I'm not used it yet have you there is a waft of something in here um chemicals so in here it's certainly very cramped and very small just about enough Headroom probably literally a centimeter and a half above me you've got your toilet you've got your shower which actually isn't a proper shower it just connects to the tap you pull it up like so you then attach it to the top here You' then pull your shower curtain round and then you do a rubber dub dub thanks for the grub get nice and clean come out Happy Days like I say I want to reiterate the point that this van isn't massive compared to a motor home which feels a lot more spacious they've crammed a lot in this shower toilet and everything else that you've seen where's that Bloody comeing from oh I've turned the tap on that's why the biggest similarity thank God between the two Vans is this both of them have fixed Beds which personally I far prefer compared to the non-fixed Beds which I've experienced many times in some of the recent videos because there's no faf there's no setup to actually getting yourself into bed and getting a good night's sleep this one is quite clearly lacking a few Vibes lacking a bit of Personality personal touches and just some overall character I've of course decorated my van and that's not to say you can't do it with this van but the overall bed area I think my one is a lot more desirable [Music] one thing surprisingly that my van definitely beats this van on is there is no entertainment system in here whatsoever no TV no projector so Mary's going to get a massive big point for that because I've spent many a night in that van camped out in the middle of the forest cooked up some good food watched the football or even set the projector up and chilled out and watched the movie of course I want to say a big thank you to the guys at Oak Tree motor homes for letting me come and borrow this £ 48,000 caman to do this comparison video if you're on the hunt yourself for a motor home for a camper van for a Roma home something a little bit different but also something very standard like this make sure you go and check them out I'll leave a link in the description they've done a bunch of work on my van in the past and they've actually been voted one of the most trusted UK dealerships in the entire country as you've seen throughout this entire video so far these vehicles are very different but also very similar and it completely depends on your personal taste and of course your finances the fact that my van took me over over a year and a half to actually build took a lot of effort faing around whereas this vehicle you can buy it straight off the shelf if you've got a bit of wedge in the bank and come and buy it so for me I think I'm always going to prefer the self builds the one that you can add your own personal touch to and you kind of build a bond with but that's not to say that a vehicle like this isn't good I'm now actually going to take out this weinburg camper van to see what it's actually like to use to drive to live in so tonight we're going to Camping it we're going to cooking it and then of course we're going to sleep in it to see what it's really like as a compar to my own self bu so driving wise there's obviously no difference at all between the two vehicles apart from this model here is from 2018 and my own vanand is 2014 so the steering wheel feels a little bit lighter it kind of feels a little bit more sensitive on the clutch and the brakes but driving wise they couldn't be any closer together I'll be honest the size difference between the two vehicles is only a couple of feet 60 cm it's not something that I'm noticing at all is a problem even though this van is a little bit longer it's getting a few eyes this Campa van I'm not sure why because it's nothing particularly fancy into the supermarket we go to try and find a spot to park this up that is not the supermarket oh dear that's the petrol station right have we got a reverse camera on this I assume so we have no we haven't I don't really know I don't think we do anyway I can't see out the back oh I have no idea how far I can go back how far can I go back there's no reverse camera yeah so we are now in the Winesburg ready to get the full-on commercial manufactured experience for the night never actually camped or stayed in a vehicle like this the heater is on so excuse that noise in the background I'm actually going to give Mary another point because what I've realized is my van's heater is far better so tonight on the menu we have got ourselves pulled chicken and black bean chili something I've never cooked before Ben found the recipe online but we thought why not we'll give it a [Music] go so we're kind of getting there the main ingredient now a tablespoon or a teaspoon of Chipotle paste which uh I've got a fork I'm just going to guesstimate as I always do would you guesstimate that's about a tablespoon I'm going to crack open the Cherry beer from Andy we've got a lighter Ben loves this little trick cuz somehow he's never seen it before cheers Big Ear Cherry Porter Grand Reserve amoretto infused beer I love amoretto I kind of like beer 6.5% my God 750 mil bottle not sure I can taste the Cherry can you taste the plum in yours I can taste something I don't know if it's plum is this in date while we wait for that to simmer I'll get this down and hopefully uh not be too pissed after an empty stomach on 6 and 1 half% of beer Bon atito everybody what did we just cook chicken pulled bean stew thing that that pulled Bean is that I said pulled Bean the chicken has been simmering for about 40 to 50 minutes surprisingly we did actually do it that long so uh the taste test it looks nice and succulent and juicy and absolutely roasting hot so bear with me a second that is absolutely roasting my God it's hard to tell you what it tastes like but I'll save that for the [Music] morning well good morning to uh what looks like another absolutely freezing cold day here in Nottingham Frost outside but a beautiful morning nonetheless it's about 7:30 now I've had the heater on it's been great I've got to say I've stayed nice and warm inside here dinner was actually bloody delicious I've got to say tasted so nice lots of flavors super easy to make considering it was just a few ingredients Chuck it in a pan put the chicken in the pan and let it simmer for 40 50 minutes definitely a recipe that you guys need to try out going to uh enjoy 10 minutes of lying in here with the heater on and looking out the back windows which is actually quite nice because this is something that I don't have on my own van is some sort of Windows to look out of in the mornings which is quite a nice little feature even though it's not the best view that I've ever had let me know down in the comments which vehicle you would prefer if money and time wasn't an option thanks for watching and I'll catch you in next week's video

Channel: Will's Whereabouts

Views: 240,056

Keywords: campervan, van, van conversion, beginner van conversion, van conversion for beginners, no experience van build, van build, step by step van build, step by step van conversion, vanlife, travel, van life diaries, campervanlife, camping, stealthcamping, vancamping, vanlifestyle, vanconversionuk, roadtrip, van build for dummies, home on wheels, project van life, van life movement, camper, fiat ducato, ducato van build, mwb van, off grid van, explore, campervan build, beginner, willswhereabouts

Id: j2l-kSfMkow

Length: 14min 17sec (857 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023