We Do Upgrades and Service Too
We Do Upgrades and Service Too
We love our vans, and we love yours too
Right now we've got a Ford E-series van in the shop whose electrical system caught fire. (Don't worry, it wasn't one of ours.) The owner brought it to us to repair.
The short story is that the electrical system caught fire. The long story is that we've had a devil of a time figuring out what's what. The detective work is done now, and we're rebuilding the system so the owner can get back on the road.
Most of what we do is a lot smaller than that: lithium battery and solar upgrades, electrical troubleshooting and repair, and additions like fans, windows, and awnings. We keep the work in that range on purpose, and there's more on why further down.
Whether we built your van or another shop did, we love working on vans. A lot of the vans that come through our shop in Sebastopol weren't built here. Some came from other conversion companies. Some were built by the owner over a couple of summers in the driveway. A few were bought used, and the current owner may not know who did the original work.
Most of that work falls into a few areas: battery and solar upgrades, electrical troubleshooting and repair, and smaller additions like adding charging outlets. We keep it there on purpose, and there's more on why further down.
We've been converting vans since 1994, and the service side of the shop has grown alongside the builds. More people are holding on to the van they have and making it work better instead of starting over. This post covers what we take on, what we find when a van comes in, and what we don't do.
The First Thing We Do Is an Inspection
When a van comes in from another builder, we don't know its history. There's no build sheet, no wiring diagram, no parts list. So before we quote the upgrade you called about, we spend time figuring out what's already there.
How much looking it takes depends on the job. For smaller work, Mark or Joseph can usually check it over as part of putting together a quote, and there's no charge for that. For bigger jobs, we'll sometimes start with a couple of hours of inspection, which are billed, and then write up a more formal estimate based on what we found.
This surprises people sometimes. You called about adding solar, and we're asking about your battery bank, your fuse block, and what gauge wire runs to the inverter. New equipment gets tied into old equipment, and if the old equipment has a problem, the new work inherits it.
Upgrades We Do Most
A lot of the calls we get aren't about anything broken. The van works fine. The owner has been living with it for a while and knows what they'd change.
Solar. Adding panels to a van that doesn't have any, or adding to an array that turned out to be too small for how the van gets used. Solar is one of the upgrades where that first inspection matters most, since the panels are only as useful as the batteries and wiring they feed.
Batteries. Batteries age, and a bank that got through a long weekend when the van was new may not make it through one night now. Some owners are replacing a worn-out bank, and some want more capacity than they started with.
Lithium upgrades are one of the most common jobs we do. Prices have come down over the last few years, and there are a lot more options than there used to be. Compared with lead-acid, lithium batteries weigh about half as much, last longer, and charge faster.
They are one of the upgrades that make a big difference to our customers.
Outlets and device charging. Phones, laptops, cameras, and headlamps all need charging, and most vans don't have outlets where people actually want them. Adding USB or 110V outlets by the bed or the table is typically a small job that makes a van a lot easier to live in.
Fans. Installing a roof fan, or replacing one that's stopped working.
Windows. We do a lot of window work, both replacing windows and adding new ones.
Awnings. Installing a new awning or replacing an old one.
What Needs Fixing Most Often
Electrical. This is the system that needs the most attention, especially on self-built vans. Undersized wire (we've even seen speaker wire), an inverter that doesn't match the battery bank, parts chosen for price over function. None of it is unusual, and most of it can be fixed with targeted repairs. We'll tell you what we found and what we'd recommend before any work starts.
Heating. People who bought a van in summer often find out in November that it has no heat, or that the heater it has isn't enough. We install and service Propex units in propane-equipped vans, and Espar and Webasto heaters (gas and diesel) in the rest, and do annual maintenance on them.
Water. Pumps wear out, and a replacement is usually a straightforward job.
Pop-top seals. On pop-tops other shops built, we can replace the sealing gasket and do general maintenance. Parts like hinges usually aren't available for other brands, so bigger pop-top repairs are generally outside what we can take on.
What We Don't Do
We generally don't end up doing a lot of big changes to existing builds, like new cabinetry, a reworked layout, or adding a shower to a van that wasn't built for one. That kind of work usually costs more than people expect, often enough that it stops making sense next to what the van is worth. We'd rather say that up front than have you find out from an estimate.
We work on camper vans and occasionally a small trailer, but not the larger motorhomes or trailers. We also don't do suspension work, body work (dents, rust repair), or engine, brake, and drivetrain work. Specialists do those jobs better and for less money, and we'd rather you get the best work at the best price than pay us for something another shop does better. If your van needs something we don't handle, Joseph will tell you on the first call.
If You Built It Yourself
Bringing a van you built to a shop can feel a little like handing in homework. Most self-built vans we see have solid cabinetry and a layout the owner thought hard about. What tends to need help is the stuff that's hard to learn from a video, which is mostly electrical. We wrote more about where DIY builds hold up and where they don't in Is a Professional Van Conversion Worth It, or Should You Build Your Own? If you're weighing what to add more than what to fix, Camper Van Upgrades Worth Doing covers the requests we hear most.
Reach Out
Need a battery or solar upgrade, or something electrical sorted out?
Give us a ring and tell us the year, the platform, and what's going on.
Call Joseph at 888-332-9602 or send us a message here and he’ll get back to you.
Stay in the loop
Our newsletter is where we share what we're learning, thinking about, and building at the shop. Platform insights, practical advice, and the kind of detail that tends to matter more over time.
No hype. No spam. Just useful perspective from people who do this every day.
Subscribe to the GTRV newsletter
If you're still in research mode, these are good next steps:
Camper Van Upgrades Worth Doing
Is a Professional Van Conversion Worth It, or Should You Build Your Own?
