How Much Does a Van Conversion Weigh? Part by Part – and Why 3 Tonnes Fill Up Faster Than You Think
Reading time: approx. 9 minutes
“Kerb weight vs. gross vehicle weight on a self-build” – that’s the title of a long-running thread in the German Ducato forum. Almost everyone who converts a panel van themselves ends up asking the question behind it: is the payload enough? On paper, things look good. According to the car catalogue of ADAC, Germany’s largest motoring club, a current Fiat Ducato L2H2 has a payload of 850, 1,150 or 1,350 kg, depending on the weight class. That sounds like plenty of headroom for a bed and a kitchen.
Reality looks different. According to ADAC Nordrhein, the club’s North Rhine regional branch (2018), more than half of all motorhomes on the road are overweight. When ADAC loaded three production panel-van campers with a family and their luggage, two had 85 and 110 kg of reserve left, and the third was 117 kg overloaded. These were factory-built vehicles whose weight is precisely known. With a DIY conversion, you usually only find out at the weighbridge.
So we calculated a typical build for two people, part by part: every item with a manufacturer’s or dealer’s figure, the furniture via board area times board weight. Once built light, once built heavy. The layout is the same in both cases.
The result up front: On a Ducato with a 3.0 t gross vehicle weight (GVW), the lightly built conversion has 146 kg of reserve left. The same layout, built heavy, is 89 kg overloaded – with perfectly normal travel luggage for two.
On a 3-tonner, the build method decides whether you’re driving legally. And you only know that if you work it out beforehand.
What the data sheet says – and what’s already included
| Ducato L2H2 (model from 11/2023) | GVW | Kerb weight (EU) | Payload per catalogue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ducato 30 | 3,000 kg | 2,150 kg | 850 kg |
| Ducato 33 | 3,300 kg | 2,150 kg | 1,150 kg |
| Ducato 35 | 3,500 kg | 2,150 kg | 1,350 kg |
Worth knowing when you read this: the kerb weight (EU, mass in running order) already includes the driver at 75 kg and a fuel tank filled to at least 90%. Everything else has to fit into the payload: the conversion, water, gas, the passenger, the luggage. Factory-fitted optional extras push the actual kerb weight up further. What counts is what’s in your vehicle registration document – and better still: take the van to a weighbridge once before you start the build.
So the payload isn’t a budget for the conversion, it’s a budget for everything together. The calculation shows how much of it the conversion itself swallows.
Part by part: the light build
Our example is a classic layout for two: a transverse rear bed (140 × 185 cm), a kitchen block by the sliding door (120 × 60 × 90 cm), two overhead cabinets, a tall cabinet (50 × 60 × 180 cm), a removable table and a separating toilet. The furniture is made of poplar plywood; the bed is a squared-timber frame with a disc-spring base. Add a 200 Ah lithium battery, two solar panels and a diesel heater.
Shell: 147 kg
| Component | Basis | kg |
|---|---|---|
| Insulation, Armaflex AF 19 mm | 23 m² × 1.53 kg/m² | 35.3 |
| Floor, poplar plywood 15 mm | 5.5 m² × 6.5 kg/m² | 35.8 |
| Vinyl flooring | 5.5 m² × 2.3 kg/m² | 12.6 |
| Wall and ceiling panelling, poplar 4 mm | 20 m² × 1.7 kg/m² | 34.0 |
| Substructure, spruce 20 × 40 mm | 40 m of batten | 14.4 |
| Side window 900 × 500 mm | Manufacturer’s figure | 8.4 |
| Roof vent, MaxxFan Deluxe | Dealer’s figure | 6.0 |
Insulation and panelling – things you won’t even see once the build is finished – already weigh almost 70 kg together.
Furniture: 133 kg
You calculate furniture like a cut list: each board’s area times its weight per square metre. 15 mm poplar plywood weighs 6.5 kg/m². The carcass and fronts of the kitchen block come to 3.72 m² together, which is 24.2 kg. Add the back panel, two drawers, worktop and runners:
| Component | Basis | kg |
|---|---|---|
| Bed: squared-timber frame, sprung base, 12 cm cold foam mattress | 9.3 + 5.7 + 12.4 | 27.4 |
| Kitchen block incl. worktop (birch multiplex 18 mm) and 2 pairs of full-extension runners | Cut list | 43.2 |
| Two overhead cabinets 80 × 35 × 35 cm, poplar 12 mm | Cut list | 12.2 |
| Tall cabinet 50 × 60 × 180 cm, poplar 15 mm | Cut list | 29.2 |
| Removable table (mount, top, mounting plate) | Manufacturer’s figures | 6.8 |
| Swivel base, passenger seat | Dealer’s figure | 14.0 |
Our articles Material weight in a van conversion and Building camper furniture: build methods compared show how strongly build method and material determine the weight of a single piece of furniture.
Systems: 93 kg
| Component | kg |
|---|---|
| Compressor fridge Dometic CRX 50 | 17.0 |
| Lithium battery 200 Ah (Victron) | 20.0 |
| Two solar panels 175 W (Victron) | 22.0 |
| DC-DC charger and inverter 1,200 W (Victron) | 9.2 |
| Diesel heater Autoterm Air 2D, installation kit | 6.4 |
| Fresh water tank 70 l (empty) and pump | 9.8 |
| Two-burner gas hob and sink | 5.0 |
| Separating toilet Trelino Evo S | 3.9 |
Exterior: 25 kg
The awning (Thule Omnistor 5200, 3.52 m) weighs 25.4 kg. We count the bike rack along with the bikes – more on that in a moment.
The conversion alone, dry: 400 kg. Cables, screws, adhesive and hinges are not included. In a real build, they come on top.
And then comes the trip
| Item | kg |
|---|---|
| Fresh water, 70 l | 70.0 |
| Gas bottle 11 kg (steel), full | 21.4 |
| Two e-bikes with rack | 60.0 |
| Passenger | 75.0 |
| Food and clothing | 50.0 |
| Other gear (camping furniture, tools, crockery) | 30.0 |
The figures for bikes and luggage come from a sample calculation for a couple by the German motorhome magazine promobil. A practical tip in passing: common rear racks such as the Thule Elite Van XT are rated for 35 kg in total and 19 kg per bike. The trekking e-bikes tested by the German consumer testing organisation Stiftung Warentest weighed 26.9 and 30.8 kg – that’s too much for such a rack. Check the load rating before you buy the rack.
Variant A, ready to travel: 2,854 kg.
The same layout, built heavier
There’s nothing exotic about variant B. Birch multiplex is the standard material in many build guides because it’s sturdy and looks good. A sleeping platform made from one solid board is quick to build. Many vans come with air conditioning and a tow bar from the factory. And if you want to be self-sufficient off-grid, you carry more water and a second gas bottle.
| Change compared with A | + kg |
|---|---|
| Kitchen, cabinets and drawers in birch multiplex instead of poplar | 39.4 |
| Sleeping platform of 18 mm multiplex instead of a disc-spring base | 25.9 |
| Floor in multiplex 15 mm instead of poplar 15 mm | 20.3 |
| Panelling 6 mm instead of 4 mm | 18.0 |
| Roof window and second side window | 16.8 |
| Factory air conditioning | 30.0 |
| Tow bar (fixed) | 21.0 |
| Second gas bottle, full | 21.4 |
| 112 l water tank instead of 70 l, full | 42.0 |
| Total | 234.8 |
Material choice alone costs 104 kg. Multiplex instead of poplar, a board bed instead of a sprung base, thicker panelling: the layout doesn’t change by a single centimetre, and yet you have over 100 kg more on board.
Variant B, ready to travel: 3,089 kg.
The result: how much reserve is left?
| Ducato L2H2 | GVW | Reserve, light (A) | Reserve, heavy (B) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ducato 30 | 3,000 kg | 146 kg | 89 kg overloaded |
| Ducato 33 | 3,300 kg | 446 kg | 211 kg |
| Ducato 35 | 3,500 kg | 646 kg | 411 kg |
On the Ducato 30, the build method decides between legal and overloaded. With light materials you’re left with just under 150 kg of headroom. With heavy materials you’re overweight with perfectly normal holiday luggage, without anything unusual on board.
On the Ducato 33, the heavy build still has a good 200 kg left. That sounds comfortable, but it goes quickly: the difference between a full 112 l tank and a 20 l travel fill alone is 92 kg. A second lithium battery weighs 20 kg. Then add the dog, crates of drinks, a roof box and tools for the road.
And the total weight is only half the story. Each axle has its own limit too – and on a front-wheel-drive panel van it is usually the front axle that runs out first, long before the gross vehicle weight is reached. How to calculate it, and where the heavy parts belong, is in Axle load in a camper van. What the centre of gravity means for handling is explained in Centre of gravity in a camper van.
Does the calculation match reality?
A sample calculation is only as good as its comparison with real vehicles. We checked ours against weighed DIY conversions:
| Vehicle | Weighed | Our calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Citroën Jumper L2H2 (Ducato twin), 3.3 t | Conversion +432 kg (2,080 → 2,512 kg) | Variant A dry: 400 kg |
| Ducato series L2H2 | Conversion “just under 500 kg” | Variant B dry: 518 kg |
| Ducato L2H2, 3.0 t, DIY conversion | 2,870 kg with full tank and one person | Variant B with full water, without passenger, bikes and luggage: approx. 2,875 kg |
Our figures fall within the range of real conversions, towards the lower end, because small parts are missing. So the calculation is optimistic rather than exaggerated. The Ducato in the last row has 130 kg left at 3.0 t – for the passenger, luggage and everything that wasn’t yet on board when it was weighed. Under the EU approach, the passenger alone already counts as 75 kg.
Why you need to know this before the first cut
Once the build is done, every correction gets expensive. A multiplex cabinet doesn’t get lighter because you weigh it afterwards; you have to rebuild it. Uprating to a higher GVW isn’t possible on every vehicle, and it costs money. And if you’re caught overloaded, the penalties can be steep depending on the country: what you risk in the UK and the USA is covered in our article Overloaded Camper Van Fines: UK & USA Rules Explained.
The good news: before the build, the same decision costs nothing. Whether you build the kitchen and cabinets from poplar or multiplex, whether the bed gets a solid board or a sprung base, whether the water tank holds 70 or 112 l – on paper, that’s a minute’s work. You just have to run the numbers.
This is exactly the calculation VanLogic does for you, for every single part. You give each piece of furniture a shape, dimensions, material and build method, and the app works out the weight itself, just like we did by hand above, only instantly and without a calculator. You see total weight, remaining payload, axle loads and centre of gravity live. With Tank Scenarios (Full vs. Empty) you can see what difference your water tank makes. And you can play variant A and B off against each other before you buy the first board.
How to plan this for your own build
- Choose your vehicle – VanLogic knows 44 vehicles with real dimensions, from the Ducato to the Sprinter. Check the kerb weight and GVW against your vehicle registration document.
- Draw your furniture – with dimensions, material and build method, for example “Closed Box” for the kitchen block or “Frame (open)” for the bed. The weight appears instantly.
- Add systems and tanks – fridge, battery, water tank and gas bottle are ready to use as components with their weights.
- Read off and compare your reserve – swap the material or the build method and watch how payload and axle loads shift.
You can try out all Pro features for free in Test Mode. You’ll find more on each build method in the detailed help, and our guide to planning your camper layout shows how layout, build method and weight work together right from the start.
Try it directly in your browser — free, no download
Not bought a van yet? Then your weight budget is decided even earlier. At an identical 3.5 t gross vehicle weight, the common panel vans differ by up to 155 kg in payload — and a ±5 % tolerance is permitted on the kerb weight in the brochure. Which variant carries how much is covered in Which base van for a camper conversion?.
Australia and New Zealand: your GVM sets the limit, not your licence
This article works with European vans rated at 3.0 to 3.5 t. In Australia and New Zealand the same calculation runs on GVM (gross vehicle mass) and tare – and the limit that counts is the GVM of your exact van, not the class of your licence.
- Australia: a standard car licence (class C) covers vehicles up to 4.5 t GVM (NSW Government). That’s what you may drive, not what your van may weigh: build, passengers, water, gas and luggage all have to fit within the GVM and axle ratings the manufacturer sets for your van.
- New Zealand: a full class 1 licence covers vehicles up to 6,000 kg gross laden weight (NZTA factsheet 11). If your van’s GVM is over 3,500 kg, it counts as a heavy vehicle and needs a Certificate of Fitness (CoF) instead of a Warrant of Fitness (WoF) (NZTA).
The method stays the same: weigh the empty van, add up the build part by part, and check the reserve before the first cut.
Conclusion
A DIY conversion in a Ducato L2H2 easily weighs 400 to 500 kg before water, gas, passenger and luggage are on board. On a 3.5-tonner, that’s usually not a problem. On a 3.3-tonner, things get tight with heavy materials and full equipment, and on a 3-tonner, the build method decides whether you’re on the road legally. In our example, the difference between the light and the heavy build was 235 kg, 104 kg of it from material choice alone.
Weight isn’t a matter of luck at the weighbridge; it’s a matter of planning. Work it out before you start sawing.
→ Plan your build for free now — vanlogic.app
Sources and assumptions
All sources accessed on 22 September 2026.
- Vehicle: ADAC car catalogue, Fiat Ducato panel van 30 L2H2, 33 L2H2, 35 L2H2; mass in running order and payload test: ADAC; more than half overweight: ADAC Nordrhein via Reisemobil International.
- Board weights (poplar 4/6/12/15 mm, birch multiplex 12/15/18 mm): plattenzuschnitt24.de. Insulation: Armaflex AF 19 mm, insulation area of a Ducato L2H2: isolierprofi.eu. Vinyl flooring: campermeyer.de. Spruce: Holz vom Fach.
- Furniture and fittings: Froli Star Mobil, cold foam density, full-extension runner 500 mm, Lagun table mount, table top, swivel base.
- Systems: Dometic CRX 50, Victron battery, solar, DC-DC charger, inverter; Autoterm Air 2D; side window, MaxxFan, Midi Heki; water tank 70 l, pump, hob, sink, separating toilet.
- Exterior and travel: Thule Omnistor 5200, rear rack load capacity, e-bike weight, Stiftung Warentest, gas bottle 11 kg, tow bar, air conditioning and travel luggage for a couple: promobil.
- Weighed conversions: franzek.com, vanarang.de, fiatforum.com.
- Australia and New Zealand (accessed 28 September 2026): NSW Government – licence classes, NZTA – factsheet 11, driver licence classes, NZTA – motorhomes, caravans, light trailers.
- Assumptions: Floor area 5.5 m² (load floor 3.12 × 1.87 m minus wheel arches), panelling area 20 m² (based on the insulation area), 40 m of substructure, mattress calculated from a density of 40 kg/m³ without cover, furniture dimensions as an example. Cables, screws, adhesive and hinges are not included.
About VanLogic: VanLogic is a planning app for camper van self-builders. Every piece of furniture gets a shape, dimensions, material and build method — the weight is calculated automatically, never estimated manually, and feeds live into payload, axle loads and centre of gravity. Available for iOS and Android — and testable directly in your browser.