It seems like a different take on the Harley/BMW rider saga 
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If you hire a Zip van in London and you pass someone else in a Zip van it seems to be compulsory to wave at them 
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Well this might be progressing rapidly.
Going from not having a van and giving up for summer.
To having one, appointment booked with converters for a chat… And now they’ve had a cancellation.
So might end up leaving the van after the consultation.
Could be very poor very quickly.
Any top tips, regrets you’ve had?
Think our biggest question is what pop top. Not least tye clearance at work is minimal.
Not going for the standard conversion. So layout much simpler.
Might get priced out of a few things and also just have the wiring done for diesel Heater at this time.
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we have a SCA one on ours. I don’t know what the relative merits of each one are, but simply, it does the job.
definitely a diesel heater. we have a Webasto in our camper and have had Webasto and Eberspacher on previous motorhomes, sure you can get cheap Chinese ones but I’d always go with a good brand.
and if the budget allows - Lithium hab battery and solar panel to charge
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There doesn’t seem loads of variance.
Profile is one, and we are definitely erring on a slim fit.
The second is fitting, one place has done away with the straps for a key locking mechanism. Which appeals to me.
Not fussed about the hi top or bo fold beds on offer. Don’t need the extra height.
Pay attention to how the soft sides fold down. Some of them are a bit of a nightmare and have a tendency to fold ‘out’ instead of ‘in’.
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we use a bungee strap between both sides before pulling the top down - this automatically pulls the sides in as the lid closes
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Think that’s becoming a standard on many we have looked at.
They do have a choice, so hoping one of suitable. Don’t really want to be going to multiple conversion places.
Mines got a side elevating top so full standing height the length of the van. I’m not sure anyone does them anymore but with the scissor hinges on the modern front elevating ones you probably get enough height anyway.
Most now come with a one piece bed board but mine has 4 separate boards that can be slid around or stacked during the day (or left at home if we don’t need them). They make useful extra storage upstairs during the day for things like bedding which a one piece board doesn’t really do.
I have a free standing solar panel as I didn’t want to add any height to the roof, I can currently get on most car parks. Again, I leave it at home if going for EHU but handy to keep batteries topped up if not.
Everything is a trade off so no real right or wrong answers, just work out what is best for your needs.
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I saw in one of the mags recently a place in Shropshire that do their own poptops with a bungee built into the fabric all the way round the middle for that purpose.
yeh - we’ve got the one piece bed board. the head space when the front is up is fine for standing up and as we have a rock and roll bed at the rear you don’t need the headspace back there - the bed is on runners so we can move it back and fore which makes it useable for load carrying.
our 140w solar panel is a flat one which is “stuck” straight onto the top and hardly adds to the roof height - maybe 1cm max.
overall we’re about 2.2m high so a bit too tight for some car parks but OK for others
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yeh ours has built in elastic so it does pull in automatically but we find adding a bungee strap between the side grab handles just ensures it folds in better
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Don’t think need loads of height at the back. Say we’ve gone away from the standard conversion and it’ll be a bit like…
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I’m under 2m but the one at the swimming pool is 1.95m (or something weird) and I can get under it with a fag paper to spare so daren’t even blow the tyres up too hard 
The first time I went after they installed the new barrier (old one damaged by gypsies breaking in) I picked up a lad from the Tri club and drove under at snail’s pace with him hanging out the sliding door.
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You will probably be standing up nearer the back than me or FB with our “conventional” RnR layouts but as I said, the modern poptops raise up something like 18 inches at the back due to the hinges so I’m sure there’ll be enough.
You’ve also got the option of scenic canvas with some rooves that unzips at the front to give you the full open air experience.
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looks good but wouldn’t suit us as we also want the camper as a 2nd vehicle/load carrier so having the sliding RnR bed helps there
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Yeah whilst part of that appeals, a bit like the fresh air of a convertible car…I don’t like to be seen. So I think we’ll stick with standard.
But again… deffo something we really need to see in the flesh.
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our canvas fully unzips at the front and also unzips to an integrated mesh panel on one side so we can get plenty of the fresh stuff if needed
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That reminds me, I don’t think I’ve opened mine for months with all this wet weather (we didn’t use it when we went away in December to keep it warmer)
Next time there’s a nice day I better pop it open to check there’s nothing dodgy going on under there.
would be wise I reckon
we treated ours with Grangers before winter to try to ensure it’s more rain resistant when it pisses down - problem is we’ve not had many opportunities to use it!