Boat builder moves into campervan conversions

There’s a new name in the campervan community called Edge. This business, based in Leicestershire, started life as a designer and builder of boats (for canals and rivers).

The company, owned by Russ and Clare Hubble, tackled a massive range of projects involving traditional narrowboats, wide beam boats, inspection launches and Dutch-style barges, but moved into campervans after looking at holidays with their young daughter.

That’s when the idea of Edge Campervans was born, but it took three years to release the dream and bring the company to life.

Clare and Russ are perfectionists: “Everything, visible or not, should be as perfect as humanly possible," they said. "It's equally true of campervans and boats, that what goes on beneath the lining panels is as, if not more important than the finished surfaces that we see.”

Although the company chooses the components very carefully, boasting of factory training in installation of such items where possible, it’s the fact that all the furniture units are built in house. The main feature of the design is the curved cabinet sections; these are laminated by hand and everything is full ABS edge-banded in the company’s 2,500 square-foot workshop near Market Harborough.

The aim of all this is for what Edge calls a coherent product, which Clare and Russ explain: “If the design and execution is right, then the whole vehicle looks like it has come out of one factory.”

The company currently has one model called Linear, which offers the traditional side kitchen layout. The demonstrator features a Skyline elevating roof with bed, RIB rear seat/bed, custom designed leather, single piece ply floor with a very boat-style Karndean planked finish, Webasto fridge, Planar Autoterm heater, Smev hob/sink and more, with a price of £49,995. This is on a 2018 VW T6 Highline Euro 6 with 900 miles on the clock.