It doesn't actually make any difference what vehicle you have for camping, it's all about your personal perception of that vehicle. My niece (She's a high powered banker in London, but let's not hold that against her) always flys first class and stays in 5* hotels. You could put her in one of the biggest, best equipped motorhomes and she'd think it was "quaint and dinky" but she'd be amazed that people actually spend more than one night camping in it. Me, on the other hand, came to VW 's from years of stuffing a tiny tent into one pannier of my bicycle with everything else I took in the other one or in a rucksack. This means that when I got my bay it was the height of luxury and 100% more comfortable and 100% drier and 1000% more convenient (and you don't sweat as much going up hills). We also use our van for two or three extended trips each year as well as going away most Friday and Saturday nights for the rest of the year so we've got a nice system going which means sleeping in our van is almost as easy as sleeping upstairs in our house. We went to a music festival last weekend and camped with two caravans, three motorhomes and three tents and all of the owners came over to us to chat about our van, no one went to chat about the caravans or motorhomes.
@rickyrooo1 you like me have a full width double upstairs, why don't you get some memory foam and one of you sleep up top? It's really comfy up there in my double top ?
Sleep the other way around again with your feet towards the tailgate. No more crawling in and feelings of claustrophobia and sort the self destructing bed and flyaway pillows with some well placed and easily sewn on velcro. Our bed gets made up, a new webbing/velcro strap wraps around and holds all the cushions together and the pillows velcro to the sheet. I fling the pillow onto the wife when I croffle out in the night for a tinkle in the porta-potti. DUMPING IN THE POTTI IS FORBIDDEN.
Its perfectly feasible to convert a bay to a rock and roll version of a Viking. That said If you've a nice original bus then why bother. All this taly of T4s and T5s and how they stack up against a Bay. T25 is by far and away the best choice and if your used to a bay then they are a dream to drive. Also if you get a water cooled one a Scoobie is an easy engine option, power steering should you need it is available and the heaters work. The rear shelf is 4 inches lower, the interior although slightly shorter than a bay is wider, so even with the traditional down one side units they seem a lot bigger a bed! One great thing about a T25 is you wouldn't feel like you had to keep it standard. Also..... they are cheap! (by comparison) and are at least a bit "classicy" (new word). Also some conversions utilise the cab seats as the bed and don't have it in the back. don't know which conversion that is. High tops look ok on them so they are nice and toasty inside as no nasty canvas to lose all the heat.
I don't get the love of T3s. They don't look as nice as a bay and they don't drive as nice as something modern. A bit of a nothing van imho. I admit I have seen a few that do look really nice.
i have slept upstairs once, the same problem of pillows falling off as your feet have to go to the shallow end, also we store our clothes and stuff up top when camping, plus as i said my knees are fooooked and clambering up top is not good and i want to actually sleep next to my mrs.
i have thought about some sort of "headboard" affair to keep the pillows on but velcro does sound like a plan - if not that then some sort of webbing/elastic.
i'm really past *******ing in a bottle dave i'm looking for a little more refinement..... we have a porta potti for wee's only