Is the Westfalia Sven Hedin the Perfect Campervan? Our Honest 6 Month Review 

We still love our California, but it’s because we drive a lot in Sweden and Norway as we are Danes. We do 13-14 km/l, can drive on small forest roads. We have the 150 hp 6 gear 4 motion. Sometimes we love a bigger campervan and other times not. We see ours as a tent on wheels, where we can park close to nature and enjoy nature sounds in the top tent. But if we were camping on big camping sites or in cities, we would get a campervan instead.

Great video. As you've always said, it's horses for courses! If we ever decided to go for a bigger van, I love the look of the Sven. Although, measuring 6'4'', I'm still not sure the pop-out side will let me comfortably sleep across the van. Just back from 3 weeks in Europe and driving our 4motion Cali over twisting Norwegian mountain roads just confirmed again how we love the driveability of the Cali. So much so, it's become my daily driver - if we had a Sven, we'd need another car too!!

Great review video guys. Glad you are enjoying your new Sven. It looks great. Agree about the winter camping. We have now dropped our MAN into Dirty Weekender Conversions for it's conversion, which we are looking to get back November time.

Glad you are enjoying the van 👍🏻 we made a similar move from a Cali to an Adria Twin & love it for all the same reasons as you love yours 🚐

Nice honest review of your new can life. We too have changed how we use our motorhome. No worries about being on a ehu type site or pub car park. Noticed the internal blinds. Nearly bought them ourselves for the Cali.

All sounds great and loving your content 👍🏼 We feel we have best of both .. tow a caravan with our converted T6.1 👌🏻

I get what you say about zero stress. We’ve just changed from a pop top to a panel van conversion. Recently returned from Shetland and didn’t worry once about the driving rain and gales. Lovely. Having on board facilities too is lovely. Pleased you’re enjoying the SH. Safe travels ❤❤

So glad you're enjoying your new van. We got our California Ocean last May (and loved watching all your videos). It's interesting hearing your comparison. A bigger van would obviously be more comfortable (unfortunately there would be nowhere for us to be able to park a bigger van living in the centre of a city) and I know my husband would love to be able to stand up all the time and enjoy a higher kitchen. But on the plus side, we live in Spain so never really have to worry about rain so we are able to get out and about lots and make the most of having a van. Thank you for your videos. We enjoying watching and learning.

Delighted to hear you’re happy with the Sven. Super review and very balanced. Mirrors a lot of my own experiences of larger PVC ownership and all of the upsides over the Cali. Just as a comparison - I’m running a 4.180 TGE 4x4 auto on the BoxDrive600XL and my longterm average (8.5k miles) is 25.5mpg so not too dissimilar. Have seen up to 33mpg on an economy run but as you say, high speed in Europe does dampen than a lot. Good luck with the coming six months. I love winter campervanning, pub stopovers and wilding.

Very interesting subject. We had a 6.1 too. And 6 months ago changed to a Adria sunliving 6 meter mini motorhome...we were also considering a van type. The Ducato manual is sooooo economical it is hard to believe..as good as our Cali ! Also we have a higher fixed bed with a garage for our bikes underneath. Hard for us also to find a downside...probably the only one is the looks are fairly plain. But not ugly! 😊

Love the Talis! I'm a dyed in the wool campervan guy, but I'd buy this. Being able to use the interior fixtures outside of the van means no doubling up on seating and cooking facilities. Only thing I would change would be to give the fridge the ability to be opened from either the left or the right. Really hope it goes into production.

Thanks for the overview. We’re glad you are enjoying the SH.

As we were packing away the outdoor kitchen, wardrobe and awning attached to our Cali at the Lake District in the torrential rain all I could think about was I can’t wait for the new van (Columbus 600d 2024 model as we needed 4 berth). This video definitely helps me feel better about the amount of money we’re going to part with for it and how much we’re going to lose on the Cali when we sell it. The no stress for me and the toilet on board/fixex bed is a dream!

Many thanks, the video we've been waiting for! Bought a Sven in a large part due to your brilliant videos, in fact we've probably got the next Sven in line to yours as our reg is only one digit different to yours! A few points, you may want to have your fuel economy investigated further as even during our 1000 mile run in we're averaging between 32mpg - 35mpg and certainly not driving slowly. We came from a Cali 204 Ocean too (2wd) and the our insurance is marginally cheaper than the Cali. Completely agree about the EHU/Heating idea it would be fairly easy to make the underfloor hearing electric I'm sure. We'll probably take a small fan heater when staying on sites where you've got EHU bundled into the price. The only other niggles we've found are the table is a bit a faff to get from under the bed and install each time and our glass hob cover won't stay up which is a real pain and potentially dangerous, not sure if you've had this issue, but evidently this is a common fault. But thanks again, love all your content.

Converting a Crafter at the moment, long hours but worth it in the end.

After much faffing we have plonked for a Sven so looking forward to new adventures ❤

Delighted you guys are enjoying it after your long wait. The Sven would never work for us as we're a family of 3 + dog but it's great that it's made you so happy. I don't regret a second of our time in our two VW Transporters (conversion, then 6.0 Ocean) but having tested a Burstner on a Citroen base and then a Roadsurfer Grand California, it's the GC 600 for us all the way, despite the obvious flaws. The Crafter just drives so well! Albeit I didn't take it over 110kp/h - call me a chicken if you like! Anyway, well done and enjoy the Winter camping.

The mpg on these vans improves as the engine beds in. My mwb crafter is a 140 fwd and now I get an average of 32mpg. Drops to about 29 when on the autobahn. It's worth it though,great vans. Love your channel.

Love the videos, havent long started following you as its my plan to invest in a VW camper when I retire in a couple of years. The Sven looks awesome but I'd be looking to use my camper as a car too

Interesting review and really glad you love it after such a long wait! We picked up our CJL Crafter early Feb after 2 years of a T6.1 and echo so many of the things you've said about less stress, more comfort, etc. Full set up when you reach a site is 5 mins and the huge storage space is brilliant. We originally didnt want a shower room but absolutely love hotshowers in the van now! We have a Truma 10L and like you its fine for 2 hot showers on a tank. Slightly intrigued about the heating you have as have the traditional hot air, but it has a 'comfort' setting (lower fan speed) so overnight you cant hear it, as well as the fact its well hidden from the head of the bed. We have everything switchable from diesel to electroc, or even both if you really want heat and hot water fast! Oneof thebest improvements though is no gas and all electric - 460ah with induction hob, 3kw inverter, loads of sockets etc is superb and full electric when off grid is just game changing! No worries about running it down when you have quality solar and a 100a DC charger. No way i could go back to a smaller van again and just love the space of a MWB 6m van. Having done some very cold wet trips early this year i thi k youll find it just gets even better. Wet room for hanging all your wet clothes and dog towels 😂😂

Great summary of the van. Intrigued about the electrics. I've gone the converter route and got 300AH lithium and full victron. I no longer worry about electrics and hardly ever need to plug in. A lot of the "off the shelf" vans don't seem to advertise their electrics much and I thought old AGM, heavy and not enough power. But good to know you guys are doing just fine with it

You shoudl buy yourself a little electric fan heater and run that when your plugged in on a campsite.

Hi guys , we was looking to perchase a sven, but it wasn't quite what we was looking for . But we perchased a coachman infinity duo on the same chassis as yourselves. It was a man we was looking for as I have had so many Fiat vans in work that are constantly breaking down and developing faults it was a no brainer to chose a man/ vw for hopefully reliability.

As a person with a self build 2020 Crafter, I think most of what you have said applies to all VW Crafter/MAN TGEs. Only thing I can't relate to is the heating as I have a diesel Truma (so cures the electric issue you mentioned). But I never stay in a campsite so it wouldn't be an issue. I can't relate to the Auto benefit as mines a manual. I own 3 cars, 2 manual and one auto and I do love autos as they have their place. But with the situations I have managed to get myself into (places I definitely shouldn't have been), I could never imagine doing that in an auto. Some of the roads I have been down might as well be greenlanes and having owned an offroad car and done a lot of greenlane offroading, you need a manual. But I guess that's the benefit of a selfbuild over coach built, you decide. I do love the pop out side of the Sven... It's so good.

Thanks, really informative, interesting discussion re the changes you have made to the wheels potentially affecting the mpg. Can you show us where Roxy travels whilst you're driving, how she's restrained for safety and where she sleeps at night 😊❤️❤️🐾 xxx

Excellent video, you both look more relaxed or that could just be me, watched and loved your video trip to the Outer Hebrides multiple times and was wondering if you will take on the NC 500

A stunning van on a great man/VW bace ...

Do you have a van tour at all? We are currently planning a van conversion, have 4 dogs so looking at what works for others. Your van sounds lovely

Congratulations on a fine choice of vehicle with the Sven. We followed your Jungfrau trip with a visit in our Cali to Lauterbrunnen in early August staying at the Breithorn Stechelberg site. It was grey and cold but we got lucky on day 3 and took the gondola to the Shilthorn amid blue skies. Now that you have some miles up are you happy with the 235x60R17 Agilis and do you think these would be too much tyre on a California. We plan a trip to Iceland next April-May and need something more robust and comfortable on the road than the standard 215x60's.

Great overview , How many miles so far?. Interesting points re camping in particular. Glad you’re glad, & still love the alloys 👍. ( we get the B62 next week 😊)

Good informative video. I do like the new van, underfloor heating. Wow. Was the water that bad in your cally pop top! We have a leak in our pop top at the zip area, being replaced in two weeks foc. They found fault in a batch but not as bad as what you showed in the video.

As always from this lovely couple, very very useful unbiased info, thank you for all your uploads so far, keep up the good work and spirit. May i ask, as a possible Sven buyer, to post a small video how exactly the heating system works, I'm used to a chausson with diesel heather, who was placed under the body, but it was just blown air, hot... To cold... On and off. Your radiator system looks to be like an Alden system? And how is the floor heated? Liquid? How thanks!

Great van. Think I would be using a small oil filled electric radiator or fan overnight if I had paid for hook up as a previous person said🙂.

Our last van was a coach built jobby with a shower and I think we used it once and as you say the water ran out for the second person. Cumbersome to drive, park and navigate through tight lanes So 9 years ago we did my 3rd self build, £5,000 all in including the Vivaro base vehicle and everything is better apart from the bed width...maybe. We park in all car parks, class 1 on french autoroutes, 40+ mpg and it drives like a car. Reliability is 100% just fitted a new clutch at 180,000 miles. Now I guessing yours was a little more costly, well we spend our money on travelling, about 300 nights so far I would guess, all over Europe. Interesting to see how the other half lives and oh, so thanks for sharing. We never holiday in the UK any more, too much hassle, not to mention the weather. Funny you should worry about what people think of your luggage..Why would the campsite tell you how to park, what is it run by school teachers??

Interesting reflections and some obvious advantages to bigger van with more space. Underfloor heat and showers tempting Perhaps it would be possible to calculate a pleasure value to cost rating. eg smiles per day out of 10 v cost. Cost could based on different factors such as the overall cost of the van or the trip. Could make some interesting comparisons between vans and with other holidays Not seen the Pronto put to real use yet. The design looks great and tempted.

Hi, came across your channel while looking for more in depth review having just watched Those happy days, looking for a camper to take to USA. I like your honest and informative review, and your insight into what you wanted from van as times gone on. We currently have a 2.3m x 7.5 Moho, never tried a pop top, but your experience was as I imagined. If I were to downsize, after your great review, something similar to your Sven Hedin would definitely be the way to go, even though the price tag seems rather eye watering compared to what we paid for moho at 12 months old. Have clicked subscribe and look forward to watching previous, as well as future vblogs. All the best to you both.

28 for a hi top loaded van is good to my mind.

Nice video. Lots of interesting info, also for DIY enthusiasts like myself! What make and model is the "drawer" fridge? Haven't seen that before

I loved your review and your recent trips, I always like to watch for inspiration. I have a question about toilets (sorry), but we are often put off wild camping or park ups due to the lack of facilities. We have a Cali with a portapotty onboard for those middle of the night emergencies. I used to have a motor home and the toilet on that worked the same way as the Cali portapotty. So how do you survive when off grid for 1’s and 2’s? 😄 again sorry, but we would love to wild camp for, but not sure what people do.

We pick up our Sven in October/November and re-watching your video, could you give us some more detail on the Victron upgrades?

Hi - we have only managed to use our Sven Hedin for a few single overnight stays but wondering how long you have managed off the batteries alone without EHU or driving. Dealer thinks 3-4 days but would welcome your experience. We dont have solar panels on the roof but do have a portbale one which we have yet to use as fitted by previous owner.

A really helpful video again thank you both ! We are in the process of picking a camper for longish ( multi week ) touring holidays and think the Sven might be "the one" . I assume you guys don't cycle but do you think there is room to store a couple of bikes under the bed , hybrids or maybe folding bikes ? . I appreciate we can get a carrier but would prefer storing them inside if possible . Cheers

It seems to be a hype to buy bigger vans. Rarely you see a Transporter or Cali being reviewed nowadays. Which is kinda sad really.

Which site are you on? We’ve always had continental motorhomes/camper vans with the habitation door on the offside and have never been asked to drive in forwards because ‘the doors on the wrong side’, as long as we adhered to the distance between the neighbours outfits for fire regulations. That includes Caravan and Motorhome sites, Camping and Caravan Club sites and lots and lots of private sites. Enjoy your Sven, we went for a Hymer Free S 600 which we collected around the same time as you picked yours up, so it’s good to compare by watching your reviews.

Everyone gets a good look at your back door 😂

Hi Will, when you talk about MPG are you allowing for any changes that the larger wheels would make, if any?

Love your review of the Sven. We have four of us (2 adults and 2 kids) though - what would be your recco of a 4 berth MWB (pop top) that comes close to the SH to upgrade from a Cali?

When are you doing the NC500 currently going around now, stunning

We get 42mpg in our California.. non 4 motion…

Hi, have you got a tow bar and bike rack ?

Can I ask where you got your internal thermal blinds from?

Is it 3.5 ton or up plated?

Does it have adaptive cruise control?

“Betis er coyed”

Horrible pokey little things that cost a fortune !!! anyone spending that sort of money on a glorified work van that you can even move around in is crazy !! for that money you could have bought a decent holiday home in Portugal !! the whole thing is insane

Great review and very honest also very helpful . Thankyou . 🫶❤️🐾