More storage

As any fellow campervan'ers will know, it's all about the storage - especially us small-van'ers. They say every inch counts when it comes to hiding/storing all those little bits and bobs you seem to acquire over the years and then carry around with you.

One area of the van I felt could be improved upon is the sliding door; two large cavities that have been panelled over with no frills by Volkswagen on all but the top of the range Caravelles and Californias. Scouring the internet for good used door panels from these models and you're quickly well in to three figures - and with no guarantee of secondhand quality (and a few dubious sources) and I'm left looking elsewhere...

Here's the sliding door from inside as it has been since carpeting the van back in March 2009:

Fairly plain and boring, not living up to it's full potential, just adding to a sea of grey carpet.

Then a couple of weeks ago whilst browsing the T5 forum, I found a few other owners that had bought a new product from Kiravans that fits the brief. It's still in a pre-production test phase at the moment but this replacement panel complete with three storage compartments is going some way to maximise every useable space in the van:

It looks a little 'plain' at the moment, still in factory grey, but once trimmed along with the front door cards and refitted with blind clips to hide those standard clips it should feel much more at home. The top pocket is ideal for things like a few bungee cords or tent pegs, the middle pocket would take a few folded newspapers or magazines, the lower pocket is ideal for a full size umbrella which neatly clips in at either end.

Great service from Kiravans too; emails promptly answered, ordered Thursday afternoon and it was delivered at 9am Friday morning. Fitting takes around 10 minutes - a little longer depending on what you may have fitted to your door already.