Hilarious video of our 2014 road trip to 22 states and 15 national parks...
Ram ProMaster RV Camper Van Conversion - Expenses
This is the original conversion we did. If you are looking for the index page of this project, click here. If you want to see the new build, click here.Building out your own camper van costs money... but it costs a whole let less than if you paid someone else to do it. And further still, it is way cheaper than buying a Class B Motorhome from a major manufacturer such as Winnebago or RoadTrek. While a manufactured RV may be fancier, ours will be exactly what we want, using the exact materials we want, with the exact design we want. And we won't pay for things we don't want or need! Plus it has a wheelchair lift, which isn't really feasible to put into a factory Class B van.
This page shows how much we spent converting our Ram ProMaster 2500 cargo van into a wheelchair accessible camper. The expenses here are in chronological order and are "out the door" prices including all taxes, fees, delivery charges, etc. For details about each item, see the appropriate build page.
We estimate the total cost of the conversion to be approximately $6,000.00, not counting the wheelchair lift. Add that to the initial cost of the van and we have a custom campervan built just the way we need and want it for under $36,000.00 total. Not bad when you consider a new Winnebago Travato costs between $80,000 and $100,000! We view that as a savings of at least $44,000.00!
| 2014 Ram ProMaster 2500 Van | 29,897.54 | |
| Miscellaneous Items | 300.00 +- | |
| Seat Belt Extenders | 24.98 | |
| Dash Cam Mount | 7.99 | |
| Insulation | 318.38 | |
| Window Tinting | 300.00 | |
| Flooring Materials | 216.93 | |
| Interior Materials | 449.77 | |
| MaxxFan Model 7000K | 259.98 | |
| 2 GC2 Batteries (+ core charges) | 223.49 | |
| 14000 BTU Air Conditioner | 422.00 | |
| Electrical Components | 414.30 | |
| Wheelchair Lift | 1850.00 | |
| Mattresses | 173.00 | |
| Propane & Accessories | 186.00 | |
| Kitchen Hardware | 106.00 | |
| Microwave Oven | 50.19 | |
| Drawer and Cabinet Hardware | 61.55 |
Since this was our first attempt to at converting a cargo van to a camper, we made some mistakes along the way and spent more than what we really should have. We wasted some materials, had to buy different materials, measured twice, cut once and still messed it up... and other things like that. As a guess, I would say we wasted about $500 over the course of the conversion. Hopefully, these pages will keep you from making the same mistakes we did.
You know, we never realized how expensive the materials to do this would be. Things like $8 for a hinge! The refrigerator and A/C are the biggest expenses by far, but all the hardware and material you need to finish the job add up to that much, if not more. If you are about to embark on a conversion yourself, just know it will be more expensive than you estimated. Even so, it is all worth it.
This page is updated as expenses are incurred.