Full review

Words and photos: Geneve Brand

The Love Campers Mandalay

A trend we’ve noticed in recent times is a higher demand for smaller campervans – or micro-campers, as they are often called – as more and more people use their campers as their only vehicle.

A trend also picked up on by Volkswagen, which launched its VW Caddy California last year. These car-like campervans are not only ideal for solo campers but are actually well-suited to couples, too.

Brighton-based campervan converter, Love Campers, builds on a range of base vehicles but the majority of its orders are for VW Caddy-based conversions.

It builds on both the Caddy (short-wheelbase) and Caddy Maxi (long-wheelbase) and offers three layouts.

The Chamonix is a two-seater, two-berth model with a side kitchen opposite a side sofa, while the Zanzibar is a five-seater camper, having a three-seater travel bench in the rear.

Featured here is the Mandalay, which is a four-seater, four-berth model, having bed spaces in both the pop-top and downstairs.

The interior

Whilst the travel bench does feature two seatbelts, there are no headrests and it’s not crash-tested, so it's not recommended for travel, for safety reasons. However, the Mandalay featured here is a customer's vehicle, ordered by a couple who pointed out that they were not going to use the travel bench for transporting passengers, so this wasn’t important.

Instead, the travel bench here provides comfortable seating when parked up and, come night-time, converts to a bed measuring 1.10m wide by 1.80m long at the longest section (1.52m at the shortest).

Space is, of course, at a real premium in a campervan of this size, and we were impressed by the clever and thoughtful design features incorporated here, making the most of the space available.

All cabinetry is built in-house by hand, and the result is a beautiful, cosy log cabin effect.

The kitchen

In the kitchen, there’s a compact stainless-steel Can unit featuring a tap and sink, and a swing-out single-burner gas hob.The hob is powered by a Campingaz 907 cylinder, which is housed in a safety locker in the kitchen unit.

As the Caddy features double sliding doors, the kitchen also features a pull-out workspace on the back of the unit, so the cooker and sink can be used from outside, too.

Under the rear seat, there is a pull-drawer fridge with two sections in it.

The facilities

For the loo, a neat little seat by the door behind the passenger seat houses a Porta Potti. This is removable, so you have the choice of keeping it in the camper, or putting it out in a toilet tent, perhaps, once on site. The combination of this box seat and the travel bench provides comfortable seating for a couple, and a table gives somewhere for mealtimes or an evening game of cards.

The tabletop attaches to a swing-out bracket by the door, so the table can be used both inside and out. Lighting is good, courtesy of a number of LED spotlights, and storage space is good, too, with several cupboards.

The verdict

The couple who ordered this campervan are absolutely thrilled to bits with it, explaining that they use it as their car as well as their camper, and have been all over the place in it.

They make use of the pop-top bed by taking a bed each rather than squeezing into the downstairs one. Whilst they admit the pink and purple colour choice isn’t for everyone, Love Campers offers a wide range of alternatives for you to choose from.

Love Campers lowdown

Love Campers is a Sussex-based business, started by entrepreneurial husband and wife team, Darren and Clara, who specialise in hand-built artisan campervans.

The company mainly builds VW Caddy Maxi conversions, as well as Mitsubishi Delica 4x4-based campervans, and a number of one-off quirky conversions on older vans.

It usually has a selection of stock for sale on its website, available from the factory premises just outside Brighton.

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