1983 VW LT: Project StealthHausVan

[Colonelk]

Hello all

Been a while, been lurking with no real job or money for sometime, but some of you may remember me spending out on this here van. It was the reason for the roadtrip myself and Hardcore took many moons ago now

retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=111675

Havent really got any new pics, but I have had LOADS of time for the plan to ferment in my head, and I have recently gotten employed as a recovery driver.... which means money in and I can start kitting out "Hugh" (G/f named again. Full name "Hugh Lorry". Except its a van. Haha!)



Here he is on the way back from Wales.

Inspired by Yoendyzyzyzyzy's AMAZING housetruck, I thought Id give it a whirl. The van (cheapest luton on ebay yo! and its not an LDV! Result!) set me back the equivalent of a deposit on a flat. I'm hoping to count the total cost in the number of months rent it will take me to claw back my spendings haha

Now don't be getting any grand ideas on this one..... the ethos is going to be radically different from the aforementioned amazing housetruck. The name of the game here is Stealth. I don't want people to know I'm living in the thing unless they are pretty canny. This means no side windows. No obvious rear door. No wood burner chuffing out smoke. Its got to look like a tired old luton.

To counter this, I want the inside to be cozy, warm, nicely finished and light and airy. With no windows ;D I have thought this through honest!

After some headscratching, the rough spec will include.....

-75mm of celotex all round
-lots of double glazed roof lights. (depending on weight)
-diesel cab / water heater depending on what I can score on a budget
-toilet / shower facilities.
-wooden rear wall with stable type door, hidden by the roller shutter when in full stealth mode.
-cab hop through.
-solar power man enough to power the electric fridge (I'm gas-paranoid.... only gas item with be the cooker!)
-homebrew heat recovery system.
-lots of cool bits. hopefully!

Ill post some pics up soon of my general inspiration for the interior, and plans for you guys to point out all the holes in ;D but now I have moneys I can move forward! FINALLY

One question for you all..... Cab on an LT..... classed as monocoque or seperate chassis? (all depends on whether I'm using the rear window aperture for the hop through, or whether I can cut a bigger one in )

Its going to be an adventure, which Ill either love or hate. But if I spend right it wont cost me any more than the equivalent rent in a horrible flat

[spekkie]

nice idea ! ;D

[cobblers]

I like this plan! But, where are you going to park it? The places where people don't mind an old Luton van parked up all the time aren't necessarily the places you want to be living. That said, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered something similar with my dads LDV ( ) Luton that he never uses.

I wouldn't worry about the hole for the walkthrough, just cut away. I fit popup roofs on T5s, and we send photos to the DVLA of every converted van, with literally the entire roof cut out bar a 5 inch ledge round the outside (to get them changed over to camper on the V5) and we've never had a problem, and neither has a bloke I know who does 2 or 3 a week. Yes, we are modifying the monocoque but the DVLA only seem to care about it when it's cars (And even then, I've never seen any evidence of them actually noticing or caring, unless someone absolutely takes the mickey!)

[Brian Damaged]

Jan 5, 2012 18:52:01 GMT cobblers said:

I wouldn't worry about the hole for the walkthrough, just cut away. I fit popup roofs on T5s, and we send photos to the DVLA of every converted van, with literally the entire roof cut out bar a 5 inch ledge round the outside (to get them changed over to camper on the V5) and we've never had a problem, and neither has a bloke I know who does 2 or 3 a week. Yes, we are modifying the monocoque but the DVLA only seem to care about it when it's cars (And even then, I've never seen any evidence of them actually noticing or caring, unless someone absolutely takes the mickey!)

Here's the Gung-Ho Big Red Bus which has a hatch through to the main living area from the back of the cab.

We've never had a legal problem with it (or indeed the 811 Cargo which preceeded it and had the same cab-hatch arrangement). Indeed plans are afoot to rebuild this one onto a much newer 7.5t chassis next year, and we'll be keeping the same setup.

Loving the idea, will be watching to see how it progresses.

[rodney]

its a chassis cab so should be ok with a hole in the cab , the td engine in these pulls so much more better than non td ,

these have very strong chassis too , i had a lt40 as a recovery truck , worked it hard and it done everything i asked of it ,.

[Colonelk]

Thanks guys, guess I can get brave with the grinder then haha :-)

Cobblers.... already scoped quite a few places local to my g/f's place that look good. Loads of lutons parked on the street round here in not terrible areas. Most are parked in 'dead' bits of street (ie not in front of someones house) and there are lots of spaces like that available. Plus a long stretch near a local green that has nothing but lutons parked every day and night. :-) just keep a mental tab of places as you walk round your area, that's what I have done :-) failing that, landlord at my barn seems receptive to parking it there :-) hope I deliver something good looking. I want it to feel relatively special on the inside (phnar)

First port of call is getting a new MOT on it, and getting it weighed empty so I can get an idea of where I'm heading with it weight wise. :-) this one is a 2.0 low compression petrol engine. Its terrible.... can JUST slug along empty. If I like living in the old girl ill treat her to a diesel swap :-)

[jinky]

Good luck with your conversion. I will be bookmarking this one. I love these old vans. Hoping to get a few things done to my LT28 camper when I can spare the time from my Herald.

[mt2man]

Cant wait to see progress on this! I was thinking of doing something similiar and looks the prefect base vehicle!

Good luck

[VIP]

Pretty sure the LT isn't a seperate chassis, you can't just unbolt the cab, the rear rails run through into the cab monocoque.

At least the LT35 horse box that was near A:52 was...

[mortcars]

love this idea!! summit ive also considered as could park at work easily enough. cant see you having an issue in worthing parking wise, there are plenty enough places if you move it on a weekly basis. keep the updates coming and are you gonna do some proper plans.

also whats the weight of it?

[93fxdl]

for loads of info on conversions try sbmcc.co.uk/forum/
drove an lt for work many moons ago, did almost 200,000 miles in 3 years in it
the only misshaps were the wire for the brakelights broke and the steering box developed a notchy feel after 100,000 miles and the halfshafts started to wear on the splines into the diff
ttfn glenn

[lewist123]

Hey mate. Nice to see a thread up.

looking forward to seeing this progress. What have you decided regarding the potential condensation problems on the outer skin?

[dodgerover]

Just use a vapour barrier under the internal wood cladding before the insulation.

[lewist123]

^Nope, that in itself won't totally mitigate any risk of interstitial condensation.

A lot of it depends on the internal climate in the 'house' and how intensive the heating will be. It may be that the risk of condensation is really very small, and might be able to dry back out in the summer. Perhaps it is not good enough, and a small ventillation path is required between the outer skin and the insulation so that moisture vapour will be transported away before it can condense of the outer skin.

I do agree that whatever happens, a vapour control layer is required.

[Colonelk]

I will try and answer all the questions, but my job doesnt give me much time during the week! Lewis..... Still planning on adding ventilation between the celotex and aluminium skin :-) will be a 3/4" gap between the too IIRC. Ventilation barrier had already planned :-)

Empty weight I want to confirm, but according to the haynes joke book, the 2.0 chassis cab is 1200 KGs so I'm hoping with the body itll be about 2 tonnes, giving me a ton of house and half a tonne of personal gubbins. Thats my rough head maths, which may be totally wrong! So I'm not counting my chickens before its on the weighbridge. Hope to get some layout plans drawn up on my next off period

[luckygti]

Very cool idea, looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

[rhubarb]

Jan 7, 2012 14:37:49 GMT 93fxdl said:

for loads of info on conversions try sbmcc.co.uk/forum/
drove an lt for work many moons ago, did almost 200,000 miles in 3 years in it
the only misshaps were the wire for the brakelights broke and the steering box developed a notchy feel after 100,000 miles and the halfshafts started to wear on the splines into the diff
ttfn glenn

Just logged in to SBMCC forum, I haven't been on there for nearly a year..Can't view anything..Have to pay £15 a year to be a member now

[thedonkey]

did this ever get started?

[Colonelk]

Gathering acorns at the moment chappy (as the great BC says).

Been delayed due to a) someone stealing all our keys and b) having to move barn sooner than expected and c) more unexpected bills.

Rest assured when work happens Ill post it up I was hoping to launch straight into it, but as with everything life has gotten in the way a bit!

[bstardchild]

Feb 15, 2012 16:06:20 GMT Colonelk said:

Gathering acorns at the moment chappy (as the great BC says).

Ha ha ha ha - But at least you know what I mean ;D