About Us

The wife and I started Tuxford Campers approx 7 years ago, prior to this time we had run a ECU tuning and engine building company. A company where we actually delved inside the inner workings of an engine and its ecu, between us we edited many parts of the ecu enabling us to get the most out of what was available. Beofre this we ran a car security/audio/parking sensor company (one which received a recomendation to a customer from Quentin wilson no less in one of his paper articles). And before the self employed life, I myself had been everything from a transport manager,to a car parts supplier, quality control assistant manager and the important one here, a custom bed builder in a pine factory. Here i learnt many woodworking skills and alot of what to do and more importnatly what not to do. I was the last in line on some of the 15k +bed builds, so it was I that had to make sure everything was correct and fit.

Now thie self employed life was all in an attempt to gain the knowledge and finances we required to enter the world of campervan building/ creation. You need a keen eye for detail and a large wallet to fund the time and machinery to build a real campervan with a end result your proud of.

Now where I'd like to think we differ is in quite a few places really. Ultimately ,we do everything in house- now thats atrue in house. What I mean by that is , between the wife and I all the following and more are done by ourselves,

Upholstery

Paintwork:for spoilers/bodykits etc

Gas and electrical work

Plumbing

CAD Design

assembly

window and roof fitting

All engine and suspension upgrades/servicing

Lining/insulation/sound deadning

Website

Accounts

Sales

Advertisements

The list goes on.....

Now because we do everything ourselves, this means the people you will speak to are the people who build your vans, not a receptionist, sales person who has no clue what goes into a van and is trying to hit targets? It is our own work and reputation that is on the line everytime someone visits us, if a customer thinks what we have done is to a poor std, then we would have to sit there and look silly with a feel of dissapointment ...

We on a regular basis when finding base vans to convert are left dissapointed, and no more so than in the world of VW transporters. Sadly , to many companies including VW themselves are guilty of overcharging for what are often abused or unloved vans :(. So it takes us a lot longer than most to find a van, as simply put, we dont settle for anything and neither should you! At the level of money these vehicles are, you should never feel like you ahve settled! Sure there will be times when your finances may not allow youre true dream vehicle, but that does not mean you should be left with something that is a dissapointment. Even down to our cheaper end 10 year old traffics, we still ensure they leave loking immaculate with a kitchen to be poud of :)

One thing that frustrates us on a regular daily basis is when companies say theyre the best and their quality is second to none? Now claims like this , open them up to all sorts of nit picking, if you look hard enough no van builder would truely be happy with every part of their build, there are times when cost doesnt allow you to build a vehicle the way youd like, but....

Hinges should be fitted level: only this morning a customer had mentioned their dissapointment when they went to view another companies vehicle before viewing one of ours at the fact that the hinges were all over the place, if they cannot gte this part right-you hvae little hope of anything else you cant see being right..
Gaps...what gaps? there should be no gaps, if there are, they couldnt be bothered to scribe their units (thats if theyve even built the units themselves) gaps are a right bug bare for us, we'd sooner start from scratch than send something out with poor fitment. Our attention to this has only grown over the years!
Fitment: We actually saw a large company with a transit custom, whom have decided to screw the front poptop spoiler down (screws visible) but more importantly, have a close up of a fiamma awning with a screw missing!! This is horrendous and this vehicle is for sale at £40k.... There are times when hidden fixings dont cut it ,so yes- you may need to have fixings visible, but.. this is the only time this should be ok. Who wants a £40k campervan with screws in their van spoiler, especially where they have screwed so tightly they have concaved the fibreglass of the spoiler :(
P-Trim: Now, p trim is the little trim that seems to be getting used more and more these days to hide poor scribing of furniture and to help overcome panel gaps. Its primary use was instead of silicone for a neat almost fluid tight seal and thats where it should be used. We were once guilty of using p trim incorrectly, until we simply realised, it just didnt look great and let our overall finish down. NOT acceptable, so back to drawing board, lots of time and oney spent on creating better jigs etc- No more p trim for anything other than seals where needed :)
Lighting: Something all customers should be aware of, sounds obvious really. So many including the big motorhome manufacturers out there, still to this day - insist on fitting one setting lighting..ie: they fit a bright light above your bed which is one brightness, now when you first look at the vehicle, youll be viewing with rose tinted glasses - BUT, give it time living with that..... it will quickly become annoying that you cannot just dull it down a little. We always fit remote controlled dimmable lighting throughout our vans now unless customers state otherwise. This means You, the customer can decide just how bright or dim the lighting is, now what We the installers/designers decide.
Electricals: Why do so many companies still think old fashioned black metal faced power units are ok in £20k plus motorhomes, they can at times spend time making their vehicles look fancy, but then go and ruin it all by using something that belongs back in the old days :( . We only use the digital panels from sargent, all the main electricals are hidden out of sight with all rcds etc built into a nice unit (as used by the likes of swift etc), with only a modern looking control panel. Sockets? another bug we dislike, why do so many insist on using household sockets in campervans?? other than theyre way cheaper, there is no reason, theyre bigger, uglier and are Not designed for the campervan environment. Why cut costs on something like this, for the few pounds theyd save, the look often seems misplaced especially in a modern campervan.

Now we could go on and on but i feel that gets very boring very quickly. Hopefully after reading this or watching one of our Youtube videos, you will get an idea of just how obsessed with little details we are. It makes me hard to live with sometimes im sure the wife will agree, but ... we want to build some of the best vans out there.

Over that past year, we moved into the CNC era, this has now enabled us to machine in a far quicker and more efficient manner, but more importantly, has allowed us to be more creative on a regular basis. This has allowed us to add things like our curved fridge door cupboard, or the cam lock system which allows units to be assembled in minutes rather than the traditional days method. We will add more information on our CNC Campervan furniture design and builds in a different page as and when time allows.

Who are we?

Why the wife and I chose to start building campervans??