Temporary build as campervan

After removing everything, I could start building.

The building would be done in 2 stages
– First: A very basis setup in order to reregister the van as a campervan.
– Once that has been done, restripping everything and start the final conversion.

In order to re-register the van as a campervan, you have to match certain requirements provided by the RDW (The Dutch version of the DMV/DVLA). The requirements are not that hard, but you must comply to those.

https://www.rdw.nl/particulier/voertuigen/kampeerauto/inrichtingseisen-aan-een-kampeerwagen/inrichtingseisen (In Dutch)

• There must be seats and a table. A removable table is also allowed
• There must be a bed. It’s allowed to convert seats into a bed
• There must be some kind of cooking facility
• There must be storage.
• All these items must be fixed to the bodywork

Once you comply to those requirements, you can apply for an inspection. If they agree, the registration will be changed into a campervan.
The RDW will also weigh the van. The new acquired weight will be registered and will be used for taxing purposes (Road tax in the Netherlands is based on province (state), fuel type, body type and weight).

So it makes sense to keep the weight as low as (legally) possible 🙂

Another advantage of a fast, temporary install is the road tax. When having a van, with a weight of almost 2000kg, road tax is very expensive.
Once registered as campervan, you can apply for a much lower road tax (Kwarttarief in Dutch). With this, you ‘only’ pay a quarter (1/4) of the regular road tax. Still expensive, but a huge saving.
Since the campervan weight will be slightly more than the official empty van weight, it’s not a exact 75% discount, but pretty close if you build it smart 🙂

So in order to comply to the requirements, while maintaining a as low weight as possible, I started construction for the temporary setup.
I’ve made this from the cheapest (yet lightweight) plywood I could find. Using wood glue and a pneumatic stapler I could build fast, cheap and lightweight.
For the cooking facility, I used an old kitchen sink. As a stove, I’ve sourced the cheapest gas hob I could fine. With some glue and screws it also could be considered as ‘a fixed cooking facility’.

The table was also the cheap 9mm ply. Wobbly, hardly to be used as a table, but it did match their requirements. So with the temporary setup done, I went to the RDW, and surely, it was approved and I had the registration as campervan finished.

Now I needed to do some more paperwork. Being a registered campervan doesn’t mean you’ll get the tax discount: You have to manually apply for it.