Safari- Westfalia (type), Camper conversions?

[Sailing_Faith]

Hello all,

Just picked up a nice 97 Safari today. I have been 'truck camping' in conjunction with section hiking the AT for some time in my F-250.. looking for something a little more comfortable. I wanted a VW Westfalia camper for some time, but frankly they are expensive and not great on the highway... so I found the astro/safari and plan to make my own.

The mileage, reliability, space, and highway manners already have the VW beat... now I just have to make it into something more comfortable to sleep in. For anyone not familure with the VW Westfalia, this is what I am talking about;





I am already pretty much good to go with the rear seats removed... as a Sailor / Hiker I have a dry place to sleep so life is good!

Wondering what others have done to make their Astros/Safari's into campers... any pictures of interior layouts would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Jhouserjr]

I have an 84 Westfalia like the one in your pictures and I want to do just what you are talking about doing.
I don't yet have a Safari/Astro. If you can give me measurements from inside the Safari,
I can get component measurements from my westy and do a computer model of a Westyrized Safari.
That way we can build it in the computer before we build it in the real world and I get the benefit of your experience.

Good Luck,
John

[Jasen]

Here's my concept camper conversion

[Big_kid]

It's been discussed a time or two"
search.php?keywords=westy

search.php?keywords=westfalia

Welcome aboard!

[Sailing_Faith]

....I don't yet have a Safari/Astro. If you can give me measurements from inside the Safari,
I can get component measurements from my westy and do a computer model of a Westyrized Safari....

Thanks John,

I have all the seats out, and the seat belt mounts removed. I am going to grind the bolts out of the floor tomorrow.

The length of the 'workable' space is almost exactly 8' long... and the width between the wheel wells is ~ 50.5"

I am thinking that the port side (drivers) will get a long cabinet with a water tank, sink, butane stove and stowage space. The remainder of the space will have a short (10" high?) sleeping platform with storage under it...

Will provide better numbers as I get rid of the plastic covers tomorrow... thanks for the help, and thanks for the links I will take some time to surf the site some more before I move forward.

[Christoph]

The issue is that the Vanagon interior is 16" longer from the front seatbacks to the rear doors than the Astro is. Significance being, in the Astro the fridge is unable to open when the bed is deployed in the basic "Westy" interior configuration. There is not much room at all inbetween the bed and front seats when it is deployed.

Jason, excellent job on your CG floorplan. I do think that you may have over estimated the available size for the footprint. How long is your bed design?

Where would you guys mount the house battery(s)? Inside or underneath? I'd imagine it needs to be vented if inside, yes?

One issue we have is that our camping tends to be activity based, meaning we have large RubberMaid bins of "gear" for the different activities. This gear will not really fit into cabinets...and and I do not want to do the Chinese Fire Drill of moving bins in and out and all around when setting up the bed...hence, no cabinets in my van yet. Hmm