Easy Renault Grand Scenic / Citroen Picasso camping conversion for under £200

Although created for the Renault Grand Scenic – this camping conversion suits any MPV where you take the rear seats out. The idea is to build a single-piece platform to easily slide in and out of the boot. I have added some of my improvement suggestions – better materials or a simple idea for low-budget drawers.

This camping conversion won’t cost much money or time, but it will serve nicely for many years. I’ve added more images from a similar conversion of a Citroen C3 Picasso with plastic storage containers underneath and a hinged front as an example of how to extend this conversion. The hinged front is handy for two reasons:

• be able to access storage from the front without having to pull it out all the way to the back
• be able to keep the seats in if you want
• be able to put the front seats into their normal position when driving

Materials

• 18mm plyboard (OSB boards) – from personal experience, I would recommend using finer plywood as OSB boards tend to crumble a lot at the edges and make your car very messy over time. Additionally, they are heavier – making the whole platform unnecessarily heavy when you need to take it out.
• cheap insulation roll (from Aldi)
• wood glue & screws

Recommended improvements:

• it’s hard to see in the pictures from the author how the vertical boards are secured – angle-braced. I would recommend either using steel brackets or thick timber in the corners + screws from both sides to ensure the frame won’t tilt to the sides
• if you make the frame fit the width of the car exactly, it will help secure it in place
• I would recommend anchoring the frame to the floor properly – so it doesn’t fly around during an accident
• It’s hard to tell whether the top board opens in any way or it’s fixed and there will be drawers in the compartments (more likely). It makes sense to make DIY drawers – even by sticking (linking with a thin piece of plastic or standard lumber – plastic won’t crumble and slides better ) say three or four plastic storage containers together so you can pull them out in one move and they won’t fall to the ground. (see image 5 and the Citroen C3 Picasso camping conversion images)
• drill holes into the entire platform, especially the top board – it will reduce the weight by a good amount (see Citroen C3 Picasso images below)

Suitable for:

Any standard with at least 180cm boot length (even if you have to push the front seats forward) – which is about any standard car you can think of! It will be better in an MPV with a higher boot to allow for more headroom, it could get a bit too cramped in a hatchback or an estate-type car.

• best suited for MPVs like the Citroen Berlingo, VW Caddy, Grand Scenic, VW Sharan and similar
• will also work in (with less headroom): estates like the Audi Avant A4 and similar, hatchbacks too (albeit these tend to be a bit shorter)

Author’s original post on Facebook