The Totem we love – the motorhome low consumption within the reach of all

The tour of Europe will be achieved through a MPVs (Peugeot Partner) that we have set up many friends, through many hours of reflection and DIY and amazing ideas! It is equipped with solar panels to allow us to be self-sufficient in energy and to share with you throughout our journey, answer your questions, post our videos and stuff!

It puts you soon pictures online (details of construction etc) but already here are some:

 

On this page we will detail the steps to make its own campervan and thus free themselves from the constraint of the booking of camping or accommodation for a trip.

For starters, here’s a little secret: when we started in the move of the Partner, it had almost never fiddled and we knew nothing in car development. But now it rather well emerged so now you can play as you’ll see you learn quickly when it is motivated!

Here are therefore 5 tips:
 

1 / find a gem

 
The first thing to do is to find the right vehicle. It did not take too much cumbersome vehicle and the MPVs seemed the best option. Furthermore we wanted a vehicle that consumes little. With about 6 litres for 100 km a Peugeot Partner seemed perfectly suited. Finally needed us something fairly discreet, which is also perfect with a MPVs because eventually many people have this style of vehicle.

But why a Peugeot Partner? Because the length of this car is pretty reasonable but allows us to sleep in. But also because the height of the vehicle allows to pass under the bar of 2 m in parking, tolls for motorways,… Finally, this model of car is fairly boilerplate without knowing truly one sleeps in.

The choice of your vehicle will also greatly depend on opportunities that you will find. Namely that Peugeot Gartner is exactly the same vehicle as the Citroën Berlingot and the only thing that changes is the little logo front and l ‘ rear of the vehicle. Then there are other vehicles ludospaces as well as the Renault Kangoo or Fiat Doblo or other brands.

Peugeot Partner was chosen because it fell on a good opportunity with a not too old vehicle (8 years) and with few KM (140 000 km (only)). We had also good returns of people who have this type of vehicle.
 

2 / reflect on development

 
Before you start to tinker, it must spend hours thinking about the best possible development. For this the best is:

• Look at what is done elsewhere on web sites of individuals (or here) or professional (or here)
• Look at what friends have already done (Thanks much to them elsewhere: Tony, Tim and Clarisse, François, Dimitri, Xavier, Jean-nono and others)
• To adapt everything that you find you want to do you

 

3 / the measures of your vehicle

 
Then it is necessary to take measures (to the nearest millimetre Yes Yes :)) or retrieve them on the internet. Incidentally, if you have a berlingo or partner, we offer you our steps below.

He must also choose the right compromise for the height of your box! Too high not otherwise you will have the impression of being stuck under the roof. Not too low otherwise you won’t have enough room to carry all your material.

4 / will equip you to DIY warehouse or Conforama chatting with vendors

First try to avoid maximum stores specialized in management of vehicles or stores of campers except for very special parts that you can not find elsewhere (even that with the internet now can almost all find for not too expensive). Indeed, it will take a bit more time about build yourself, but you will earn a lot of money.

Go take a look at the DIY warehouse or other DIY stores as they are very good advice! Moreover, we surely could be hired as a salesman in these stores so we knew them well (there was even a check with the vendors). Indeed, it will take quite a lot of things to create your camper in full of different radii.

Do not hesitate to talk about your project to the vendors they are often very glad to help you with this type of exotic project

Often need to return several times in order to have all the necessary material.
 

5 / Finally you can cut your first bar or the first screw

 
It’s like with legos except that you do not have a box ready. Once you have gathered all the material you need, (the most difficult may be) simply assemble everything.

• Steel bar
  • Cut to the correct size
  • Clean with acetone for good the degresser
  • Paint to prevent rust (very important because they will be in a humid environment in your vehicle)
  • Screw the door handles (one at each end of the two bars in width) to allow keeps him by the straps on the belt loops

• Four straps to hold the steel on the belt loops bar

• The plywood Box
  • Put two coats of varnish to protect the plywood
  • Draw on the Board below the position of other boards
  • Assembly of boards with small brackets and screws (the longest part)
  • Screwing in Rails for drawers (attention done to the millimetre otherwise the drawer opens not well)

• The slatted base coupe and modular

• The mattress (not too thick to not be glued to the roof

• Accessories
  • The shower spray (lots of pressure + does not consume lots of water)
  • The stove and kitchen utensils
  • Cans of water – take about three cans of 20L – drinking + shower + dishes

• Cases for everything is tidy under the bed

• The flaps
  • We bought a roll insulation air bubble of 6 mm thick. Very easy to cut, it insulates as much as insulation 7 layers of tissue and is much (much) easier to use
  • Small suction cups to stick to the (ordered on Amazon) window with scratch

• Electricity
  • We have developed a battery discharge slowly to allow us to have electricity everywhere where we
  • A solar panel to recharge the battery if we stay several days in the same place
  • A separator coupling connected to the battery engine can recharge the annex battery once the vehicle’s battery is fully charged when we will roll

We will get you a small list of everything we needed to create this camper as well as detailed steps and measures to be taken to facilitate the work if you want to do the same.

Now we weekend and holidays without problems in magnificent frames and reservation!