¿WHY CHOOSING A HIGH

OR LOW TOP VAN?

Choosing a van that will come with you on your new adventures can be a complicated decision. There are many different models and each of them has its pros and cons. We’ve put together a couple of posts for those people who want to get started in the camper van world, to help them in the process of choosing their perfect van.

One of the main dilemmas when choosing a van is whether to buy a model with high or low top. There obviously isn’t a single perfect van for everyone, but we can all find the perfect van for us depending on our needs. That’s why we’ve asked some vanlifers why they chose their van model, more specifically, why they decided on a high top or low top van.

We believe that knowing the experience of those vanlifers may help you to clear the doubts you might have, we had them in that moment and we’d had liked to be able to chat with some vanlifers so they could explain their experiences to us, and help us to be surer when it came the moment to decide.

ALWAYS THE ROAD

For us, choosing a van as was all about space. We went for the longest Sprinter van made because knew with how much space Snoop takes up, and we wanted to be able to move around comfortably. We knew we wanted a high top van for that reason as well. One of our “must haves” was that we be able to stand up in our home. Another reason we wanted a high top was for the storage space. We have upper shelving and cupboards that run the entire length of the van and have so much available storage. It’s one of our favorite parts of our van!

INSTAGRAM: @alwaystheroad

WEB: http://www.alwaystheroad.com

FACEBOOK: Always the Road

LIGRONES EN RUTA

8 years ago David and I bought a California VWT4. When we were talking about buying a van, we both had this type of van in our thoughts, I suppose because it was the one that we knew. When I was a child, my parents had a VWT2 and since they sold it, I always knew I’d have a van and in my head there was no van other than that one. I knew absolutely nothing. The van we would buy also had to be a day to day vehicle, which could fit in parking lots and could be driven anywhere so it couldn’t be very big either. Then Roberto and Greta arrived, our little humans, and we were alright in the California because we used it during the weekends and holidays. Nevertheless, now that we are jumping into this new project of living in the van, things have changed. First of all, we had the need of separated sleeping and cooking spaces, so we started looking for a large van. Due to having a higher top we could have two beds inside as bunks without having to rise a tarpaulin top that gets wet if it rains and from where you lose a lot of heat when it’s cold and the heater is on like with the VWT4. This was our main reason. Simple. It’s not even being able to stand up, because in this case, David isn’t able to stand up in the Sprinter L2H2 either because he is 1.95 m, and we think that an H3 is too much because deep inside, we are more of a compact van that can takes us far than of campervans that look like RVs.

INSTAGRAM: @ligronesenruta

WEB: www.ligronesenruta.com

FACEBOOK: Ligrones en Ruta

YOUTUBE: Ligrones en Ruta

THE ELEPHANT VAN

We have been able to test in person the pros and cons that may have any of these two options when choosing a van. Our first van was a tin top VW. It was a van that we used as our day to day vehicle and as a camper. It was agile, fast, with a relatively low consume level, you didn’t have to pay any supplement at foreign tolls and didn’t resist any height prohibition in the many parkings that choose that option. At first sight it can seem perfect… but it wasn’t. Its limited height also implied some very considerable disadvantages; not being able to stand up inside your home is a huge disadvantage… cooking seated, not being able to stretch your back, all the reduced space in general… even sex could be a pain in the neck, yes yes, just how I say it. When you pretend to spend weeks in the van you need to meticulously think everything through. Kitchen lovers will quickly understand that cooking seated doesn’t tend to be everyone’s cup of tea. The rest of the disadvantages, you can find them in the low top, although if we are honest, a L2H2 as your day to day vehicle (we have a big van and a shared car) isn’t as horrible as we thought.

Answering which one we chose? The sex and the cooking will give you the answer!

INSTAGRAM: @the_elephant_van

WANDXR BUS

Nos encanta nuestra camper de techo sobre-elevado. Podemos estar de pie dentro de la furgo, cosa nada fácil cuando mides 1,88m. Nos proporciona un montón de espacio de almacenamiento, que no tendríamos en una de techo bajo o de techo elevable. Usamos ese espacio extra para guardar la ropa, el material de senderismo, erramientas eléctricas, la esterilla de ioga, snacks y el equipo fotográfico. Ayuda a que nuestra furgo se vea más limpia porque el desorden está escondido en los armarios. Aparte nos ofrece una salida fácil de acampar con disimulo en las ciudades. Es menos probable que se den cuenta de que estamos ahí, en comparación con una furgoneta de techo elevable y seguimos teniendo todo ese espacio extra. El techo sobre-elebado es genial y ofrece una experiencia más cercana a tener una casa que otras opciones. Definitivamente la recomendamos a cualquiera que quiera convertir su furgo a techo alto. Nos nos vemos a nosotros haciéndolo de ninguna otra forma.

INSTAGRAM: @wanderxbus

WEB: https://wandxr.co

FACEBOOK: Wandxr Bus

VIAJANDO NUESTRA VIDA

Somos Manel y Maeva del blog viajandonuestravida.com y hemos tenido la suerte de haber hecho viajes en furgos camper y en furgos GV. Tras haber probado ambos formatos hemos decidido comprarnos una GV que actualmente estamos camperizando nosotros.

Ha sido una decisión muy meditada y tras barajar diferentes opciones decidimos hacernos con una Fiat Ducato GV principalmente por la comodidad de poder estar de pie dentro de la furgoneta. Nos parecía más cómodo poder estar de pie cocinando, fregando los platos, para cambiarte de ropa etc.

Otro de los motivos para comprarnos una GV es el espacio para el almacenamiento. Aquí también creemos que juega un gran papel la comodidad, ya que posiblemente tengamos las cosas más a mano en este tipo de furgonetas.

Podríamos decir que al fin y al cabo la mayor ventaja que le encontramos a las GV es que son más espaciosas y te aportan, bajo nuestra opinión, facilidad a la hora de moverte en el interior de la furgo en el día a día.

INSTAGRAM: @viajandonuestravida

WEB: www.viajandonuestravida.com

FACEBOOK: @viajandonuestravida

YOUTUBE: Viajandonuestravida

FURGOSALVAJE

FordTourneo de batalla larga.

Es nuestra primera furgoneta, somos unos novatos que solo llevamos un año en el mundo camper y nos pareció perfecta cuando la encontramos. Queríamos una furgo pequeña pero dentro de las pequeñas la mas grande del mercado. No podía medir mas de 2 metros de altura ( mide 195 ) ya que nuestro mayor deseo era que entrara en el garaje de casa. Nos metemos en caminos muy complicados de la sierra y también queríamos poder pasar en los parking. Poder ir a centros de ciudad y poder aparcar fácilmente.

Esos fueron nuestros motivos para elegir el techo. Para ser nuestro único vehículo y nuestra primera furgo esta genial, evidentemente sabemos que en un futuro cambiaremos a otra furgo mas grande.

INSTAGRAM: @furgosalvaje

HEDWIG WIEBES

To be honest, we just bumped into Chewie when we found her, and she was fitted with a poptop roof so that was going to be it. It turned out we’re really happy with the tent, especially now that we have an insulation scarf to put around it for when it’s cold. It grants more space than a hightop or tintop and in the summer it’s nice and airy. 🙂

INSTAGRAM: @hedwigwiebes

WEB: www.liveslowdriveslower.com

ROCINANTE VAN

We are Gema and Chano. When we took the decision of buying a van we already knew it was to turn it into our home. We were leaving our flat fully convinced to jump into a life adventure and we knew for sure that we needed to be comfortable, for that it was a must to be able to stand up inside the van. We’ve been a year and a half in this adventure and we feel it was the right decision!! If we had to bend down all the time I don’t know if it would be such an easy experience… I even do choreographies inside the van!!!

INSTAGRAM: @rocinante_van

FINDING SIMOND

I bought a 1992 Dodge B350 with a hightop conversion called the “Travelhome”. A hightop was a must for me because not only was I moving into my van with a girlfriend and a dog, but I’m also 6’6″ and love to cook, so since I didn’t want to be hauling my kitchen outside 2 to 3 times a day everyday, I ended up here. Most of the advantages are fairly obvious, but less obviously, moving the bed into the top bunk nearly doubles the useable space in the van, and a high top gives us a great roof to lounge on. It also provided wind protection for my wifi antenna and solar panel, so I was able to get less expensive bigger residential quality stuff

The main downside was offroading. The weight and height made this rig difficult to drive on those BLM roads which became more and more important to me the longer I was vandwelling. If I was to start again from scratch, I’d opt for a pop top and 4×4 package over the big high hard top, but that’s mainly because I’m travelling solo now, and the extra space isn’t necessary.

INSTAGRAM: @findingsimon

TWITTER: @findingsimon

YOUTUBE: Finding Simon

FURGO BIDAIA

Our van is a low top one and it’s something we had clear since the beginning. We like being able to enter in the parking lots because we sometimes use the van as our main vehicle and also to sleep accompanied by others as we are a bit scaredy-cats hahaha. It is also true that we’d love to add a tent top so we’d have the chance to stand inside of the van, buut well, in time.

INSTAGRAM: @furgobiadaia

WEB: www.furgobidaia.com

FACEBOOK: @furgobiadaia

THE VANEFFECT

When we decided to get a van we knew that sooner or later we would be moving in for a long time. So our goal was to have a van as comfortable and spacious as possible without being extremely big. When we saw the measurements of the Peugeot Boxer L2H2, we knew that it was the van for us. We can be standing up inside, which is a must for us, we have a nice kitchen and enough storage space to store everything that we need to take to live in it.

We’ve never had any problem to move around with it, except for that one time that we got stuck on the entrance at Laia’s country house and almost had the huge wooden beam fall on our roof on the way in, but that was just a miscalculation on our part hehe.

INSTAGRAM: @thevaneffect

WEB: www.thevaneffect.com

FACEBOOK: The Vaneffect