Robert Foster
Member
I've had my Sprinter Westfalia for five years, during which time I have taken trips ranging in length from one to six weeks. The original interior of the Sprinter Westfalia is a huge design success, having full accommodations for two adults and two children, but I am not a family of four. As a soloist, my needs are very different from the intended target market, so from the start the Westfalia's interior did not meet several of my needs or wants.
The Westfalia version of the Sprinter has an extra tall hardtop that creates space for a foldout upper berth. With a large operable skylight right above your head and an awning window to each side, the upper berth is quality space for sleeping that can't in my opinion be called camping. The proportions and quality of the interior space, contained within such a small vehicle is what appealed to me about the Westfalia. The ten years prior to purchasing the Westfalia, I traveled by dual sport motorcycle, which had me sleeping on the ground. The most spartan trip was a four week coast to coast along an extended version of the TAT riding a Husky TE450. TransAmerica Trail I'm now completely spoiled by the Westfalia's luxurious accommodations and there's probably no going back to weeks of sleeping on the ground. The Westfalia has permanently replaced the camping gear stuffed in my motorcycle panniers and a mountain bike and folding kayak have replaced the motorcycle as my conveyances of choice for wandering around.
As I enter semi retirement, with increasingly longer and farther trips on the horizon, the differences between my unique needs and the Westfalia's intended target market are only increasing, making this a good time to reevaluate my vehicle choice. One of the biggest shortcomings of the Westfalia's design for me is the absence of storage, most notably dedicated mountain bike and kayak storage. A few years ago I removed the bench seat/second berth from the central living area and have been stowing my mountain bike and folding kayak right in the middle of the van. This works, but is increasingly less than desirable the longer my trips have become and/or the more inclement the weather is. For me, hanging high end mountain bikes off of the rear of the van isn't desirable long term, especially considering some of my bucket list dream destinations. A rear storage area within the vehicle is a big want for me.
Over the last couple of years, I'd been considered other vehicle options and sketching out what I wanted spatially-nothing that I could find was readily available at a reasonable price point in North America. I like small spaces and small vehicles, and kept coming back to a vehicle the size of a class B van. The Sprinter Westfalia, which is on a 140 inch wheel base, has enough square footage for me, but the space in the Westfalia is not configured well for my purposes. While considering other van options, it was difficult to spatially overcome giving up the luxurious upper berth because the extra space in the tall hardtop opened up the entire first floor for day time living and MTB storage. The other mental obstacle that I had difficulty getting by was that the appealing space I already had was paid for, and was sitting on the well regarded, sorted out and extensively DIY supported T1N chassis and engine. It repeatedly made the most sense to adapt what I already had. In fact, I had already been simplifying and adapting the Westfalia since the day I purchased it, so continuing down that path with a total refitting of my own Sprinter Westfalia seemed the logical decision, which is what I've begun and why I am starting this thread.
I've just about finished the demo. It's tall in there at just shy of 7'-10". The box I am standing on represents what will be my new finished floor height, giving me a "basement" with a height of about 14" clear for storage and housing/running utilities.
My former accommodations were quite a bit smaller than the Westfalia...it's difficult to fit a refrigerator and bathroom on the back of a 450 dual sport.
More to come...
The Westfalia version of the Sprinter has an extra tall hardtop that creates space for a foldout upper berth. With a large operable skylight right above your head and an awning window to each side, the upper berth is quality space for sleeping that can't in my opinion be called camping. The proportions and quality of the interior space, contained within such a small vehicle is what appealed to me about the Westfalia. The ten years prior to purchasing the Westfalia, I traveled by dual sport motorcycle, which had me sleeping on the ground. The most spartan trip was a four week coast to coast along an extended version of the TAT riding a Husky TE450. TransAmerica Trail I'm now completely spoiled by the Westfalia's luxurious accommodations and there's probably no going back to weeks of sleeping on the ground. The Westfalia has permanently replaced the camping gear stuffed in my motorcycle panniers and a mountain bike and folding kayak have replaced the motorcycle as my conveyances of choice for wandering around.
As I enter semi retirement, with increasingly longer and farther trips on the horizon, the differences between my unique needs and the Westfalia's intended target market are only increasing, making this a good time to reevaluate my vehicle choice. One of the biggest shortcomings of the Westfalia's design for me is the absence of storage, most notably dedicated mountain bike and kayak storage. A few years ago I removed the bench seat/second berth from the central living area and have been stowing my mountain bike and folding kayak right in the middle of the van. This works, but is increasingly less than desirable the longer my trips have become and/or the more inclement the weather is. For me, hanging high end mountain bikes off of the rear of the van isn't desirable long term, especially considering some of my bucket list dream destinations. A rear storage area within the vehicle is a big want for me.
Over the last couple of years, I'd been considered other vehicle options and sketching out what I wanted spatially-nothing that I could find was readily available at a reasonable price point in North America. I like small spaces and small vehicles, and kept coming back to a vehicle the size of a class B van. The Sprinter Westfalia, which is on a 140 inch wheel base, has enough square footage for me, but the space in the Westfalia is not configured well for my purposes. While considering other van options, it was difficult to spatially overcome giving up the luxurious upper berth because the extra space in the tall hardtop opened up the entire first floor for day time living and MTB storage. The other mental obstacle that I had difficulty getting by was that the appealing space I already had was paid for, and was sitting on the well regarded, sorted out and extensively DIY supported T1N chassis and engine. It repeatedly made the most sense to adapt what I already had. In fact, I had already been simplifying and adapting the Westfalia since the day I purchased it, so continuing down that path with a total refitting of my own Sprinter Westfalia seemed the logical decision, which is what I've begun and why I am starting this thread.
I've just about finished the demo. It's tall in there at just shy of 7'-10". The box I am standing on represents what will be my new finished floor height, giving me a "basement" with a height of about 14" clear for storage and housing/running utilities.
My former accommodations were quite a bit smaller than the Westfalia...it's difficult to fit a refrigerator and bathroom on the back of a 450 dual sport.
More to come...
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