My LDV Convoy camper of the last 11-years has just had its day.
The issue for me with lots of older coachbuilts.... is that none of them ever seemed to incorporate any useful external storage. So if you do any outdoors activity - it means tramping dirty wet gear & stowing it inside the living space. I mean - you'd not buy a car without a boot area, right... so why build a campervan without one?
The layout of many campers is actually poor - so you need to check out more than one.
The compromise between vehicle size & height versus maneuverability & parking and internal living space is the thing.
IME perhaps the best compromise is a lwb or xlwb hi-top (the latter more so if you go for a fixed rear bed layout). Anything else is so small that it's a chore & cramped for anything more than the odd single night away, & the low roof will get old & fast.
A sofa-bed behind the drivers seat (with the passenger seat able to swivel) means very good use of space as the centre becomes a sociable usable space in sofa-mode, and also retains access to the aft-galley & toilet with the bed made-up (this was the core of my lwb Convoy layout, with a rear bulkhead to segregate the rear-door accessed services area (gas, battery, night heater water) & internal secure storage for 2 mtb's or lots of gear.
With an xlwb I'd go for a fixed rear raised bed with a garage/storage/services area beneath, but otherwise similar layout to my old van.
I've looked at lots of vans with different layouts.... but never found one that works as well with less intrusive compromises.
The issue for me with lots of older coachbuilts.... is that none of them ever seemed to incorporate any useful external storage. So if you do any outdoors activity - it means tramping dirty wet gear & stowing it inside the living space. I mean - you'd not buy a car without a boot area, right... so why build a campervan without one?
The layout of many campers is actually poor - so you need to check out more than one.
The compromise between vehicle size & height versus maneuverability & parking and internal living space is the thing.
IME perhaps the best compromise is a lwb or xlwb hi-top (the latter more so if you go for a fixed rear bed layout). Anything else is so small that it's a chore & cramped for anything more than the odd single night away, & the low roof will get old & fast.
A sofa-bed behind the drivers seat (with the passenger seat able to swivel) means very good use of space as the centre becomes a sociable usable space in sofa-mode, and also retains access to the aft-galley & toilet with the bed made-up (this was the core of my lwb Convoy layout, with a rear bulkhead to segregate the rear-door accessed services area (gas, battery, night heater water) & internal secure storage for 2 mtb's or lots of gear.
With an xlwb I'd go for a fixed rear raised bed with a garage/storage/services area beneath, but otherwise similar layout to my old van.
I've looked at lots of vans with different layouts.... but never found one that works as well with less intrusive compromises.