In the end we chose a SWB van - despite me saying countless times that I didn't understand why people wouldn't take the extra 1.5 foot of space if doing a camper. It's our first one so we wanted to ensure resale wouldn't be an issue and from what we could tell it was about 20:1 in favour of SWB vans so we went with SWB. Personally I think it is noticeably easier to drive (not a huge amount in it, but...) and it looks less like a bus if you're image conscious. We want to use ours as the only vehicle and sell our other car and that is certainly doable with the SWB. Ultimately it depends how much you're going to use it as a camper only I guess and also how long you go away for.

Power wise, ours is a 102 (loads more of them around) which can be remapped to a 140 as the engine is the same, however we decided not to as the gearbox is different and our donor van is ne enough to still be under warrantee. The 102 even with all the conversion done is plenty powerful enough for us, so I wouldn't bother with higher unless it's a small difference in price. 

We had cruise control retro fitted. Wouldn't be without it. Firms out there that will do it for ~£300 try http://vagnostics.co.uk/mobile-service.php (vagnostics) as they were very helpful and knew what they were doing. We had our converter do it and let's just say it didn't work first time. Note though, for £10 more you can get the computer stalk too. Not sure how much extra it would be to fit both at the same time, but I was annoyed when I found out that for such a small additional outlay we could have had the full works.

Parking sensors - we've had after market ones fitted. they are a blessing and a pain depending on what you're trying to do. I've not got experience of any retro fit unit that is anywhere near as good as a factory fit version, but equally I wouldn't die in a ditch over it for a good van.

Toe bar put on, it's great for the bike rack we have. We got a manual as there aren't really any DSGs out there (not that we could find or in a van we would want). Air con can't be retro fitted as far as I'm aware (or not without great cost). Thus we looked for and got a van with aircon. Very glad about that too as we'll be off to Europe and a nicely insulated van can be warm enough in the UK.

Blinds cost a fortune. Our van was a standard van with the comfort pack (arm rests for the driver, air con and a full bulkhead) We got privacy glass fitted to the rear two panels on both sides although on the wardrobe side it's a fake window. We also got privacy glass put in the tailgate window. It's fantastic. Easy to see out of, not easy to see in. We have curtains which are good enough on all the windows except the front where we stick up those silver thermal screens. Can't think of a better system without breaking the bank.

We've got a double cab seat which swivels and a static captain’s chair with armrests for the driver. IMHO this is without doubt the best option. You get loads of under seat storage and we can (and do) sit 4 people around our table. The seat comes into the living space or can be pushed back to the windscreen. It's awesome. IMHO the single captain’s chairs are a poor option for a camper if you have 4 people. The driver's seat is a pain to turn (as is the passenger, but not that bad) and they end up on an L-shaped edge of the units. Seriously don't understand why there isn't a different option on the California.

We got a static Rock and roll despite wanting a moving one like they have in the Cali. It's just way too expensive and I was warned you get a lot of rattle from them. We get a little from ours if nobody is sitting on it, but with a 15kg child on there you only get the squeaks/ rattles if you go over a proper bump. The Rib seats are great, but expensive. There is a lot of BS on the forums about seats and crash testing, etc. in the end we went with the one our converters made themselves.

We had the roof converted. I'm not sure there is a brand name associated with the roof itself, but it's great. I believe they are made or at least distributed from somewhere up in Newcastle, but I'm sorry I couldn't tell you where as my converter just sorted it all.

Parking heater - I'm not sorry we got one, but where it is placed means we lost quite a lot of under seat storage. We've got a propex gas one and it's great. Not used it enough to tell you if it gobbles up too much gas - it's fab to take the chill off and thus help you get out of your bed in the morning. My mate has his on regularly when he goes for a swim - gets back, wetsuit off and straight into warm van. Swears by it. I would talk to the convertor about where it could go though to minimise storage loss.

Ditched the idea of the microwave as we just don't stay in places with electrical hook up very often. We've got a 500w inverter in the van which is good for phones, etc. and comes off the leisure battery. We didn't go for a oven/ grill as they are crazy prices and we wouldn't do that much cooking that requires it in our van. I have another friend that was almost Jehovah’s witness like in her conviction that we needed a grill for bacon butties. I'm not that bothered, don't regret not having one put in, would take a George Forman grill if I was that desperate, but the idea of bacon fat absorbing into van lining is not attractive to me. A Cobb BBQ or a mini rectangular Webber seems like a better plan to us. Think a oven/ grill would have been £650. It's just a loss of storage space in my view.

We had our conversion done at Vdub passion. I have mixed feelings about it though. The conversion is superb. I have not seen a better looking conversion and was really impressed from that side of things. We did have a few unfinished bits when I went to pick it up though which was frustrating as they should have just said that it wasn't ready. I had more than a bit of a nightmare getting the remaining things fixed to the point where I had to threaten court action. I was preparing my submission when it all got sorted. Essentially the main problem was that we wanted a few things done that were off standard spec; i.e., retro fit on the cruise control and the parking heater. Both of which we would have been happy to have had done elsewhere. However Paul has a real difficulty in saying no to a customer (I wouldn’t mind, but it was an instant "yes, no problem sir" rather than any hesitation). Paul by his own admission is colossally disorganised and becomes very hard to reach. I could go on, but I won't. I would deal with Paul again as the product is superb and the price is very competitive, however I would wait until he has one of his own conversion for sale and then buy one of those - I'm sure he'd happily fit a roof conversion to a van without that and would have no problem in getting that done. I was sensible enough to get everything in writing, but that was a big enough nightmare in itself. 

Essentially if you're happy to roll with things and you hold back a significant portion of money until the work is complete then you'll get an awesome camper - ours is and we couldn't be much more delighted with it! However it can be unnecessarily painful and stressful experience to get there with him. Check out his pages and judge for yourself. Some of the colour schemes are not my taste, but you can set exactly what you want so assuming you can look past somebody else's taste I'm pretty sure these are, pound for pound, up there with the absolute best - many of the conversions I've seen elsewhere look like they are stuck in the 70's/80's. I reckon I could sell mine right now for ~£5k more than I paid for it.

Like I say, we couldn't be happier with our van, the boys love it too. Many a good family memory will be made in it for years to come. I hope this helps and good luck with yours.

C.