Hi all,

My names Alex.

I have already made use of your collective knowledge, so I would like to start with a general “Thank You”.
A quick bit of background is that my partner and I spent a couple of years living/travelling in a lwb transit, then the pandemic hit and we had to get foundations. We were left with a travel bug so we bought an Alphard about 10 months ago with the aim of converting it into a day van (original idea, I know!).

As well as wanting to convert it I want to look after it. I'm not the most mechanical of people, but I try my best.

Not sure if I'm allowed to leave on a question but, if I may: is there anything I need to know?

All knowledge is good, be it mechanical, conversional (Definitely a word) or even to do with this forum (I've never been part of a forum before).

Thank you again.

Alex

It's rather hard to know where to start as there are many topics to cover, entirely dependent on what you are trying to achieve. Obviously there is the base vehicle itself with a wide range of customization's available but then there are camping-related topics such as pop-tops/ raised roof, rock and roll beds vs caravan style inserts, awnings both side and rear, drive-away or not, cooking/ washing arrangements, electric vs gas, tow-bar for bike carrier (towing itself is quite a debate), electric hook-ups, side or rear 'furniture', leisure batteries and I'm sure other areas.

A lot also depends on budget - but mainly it's your own requirements and imagination.

I have converted ours to have a fixed raised bed in the 'boot' under which we store stuff and, once the middle seats are turned, sleep on top. Its not the prettiest by a long way but it was cheap and practical.

Good luck.

On 7/27/2026 at 7:43 AM, Gamith said:

It's rather hard to know where to start as there are many topics to cover, entirely dependent on what you are trying to achieve. Obviously there is the base vehicle itself with a wide range of customization's available but then there are camping-related topics such as pop-tops/ raised roof, rock and roll beds vs caravan style inserts, awnings both side and rear, drive-away or not, cooking/ washing arrangements, electric vs gas, tow-bar for bike carrier (towing itself is quite a debate), electric hook-ups, side or rear 'furniture', leisure batteries and I'm sure other areas.

A lot also depends on budget - but mainly it's your own requirements and imagination.

I have converted ours to have a fixed raised bed in the 'boot' under which we store stuff and, once the middle seats are turned, sleep on top. Its not the prettiest by a long way but it was cheap and practical.

Good luck.

Do you have a pic of the bed arrangement please? I'm thinking of bed setups without permanent conversions.

Thanks!

Well I sort of have some pictures but I don't tend to bother when setting up.

With the series 10 you can turn the middle seats around.

I have created an elevated floor for the 'boot', having taken out the rear-most seats and I have some rubber/ foam mattresses that I can put on top.

I have some wedges that fit the middle seats to prop up the wooden sections to make them mostly level:

On top of the rubber mats we have inflatable mattresses and duvets on top.

Under the elevated floor we can keep things of course:

So usually I am driving a 5-seater but when camping it's just the two of us. I have since bought a tail-gate tent, foldable beds and chairs so we can sleep outside the van if we want as my wife finds it awkward to climb on top of the platform/ mat/ mattress/ duvet combo.

We could probably cut down on the layers but it's certainly comfortable.