Which vans stay under 3,500 kg after a real conversion? Every base van, ranked

A short or medium front-wheel-drive large van stays under 3,500 kg after a real two-person conversion with 550–800 kg to spare; the long rear-wheel-drive bodies (Sprinter L4, Crafter L5, Master L4, Daily L4/L5) keep only 50–290 kg; and no compact van plated at 2,250–2,400 kg carries a full build at all. That is the pre-purchase answer. The table below is the working — every base van in the planner ranked by how much of its plate is still free once the build is in and the legal reserve for people and water is set aside.

The point of ranking before you buy is to never need the plate upgrade. Uprating to 3,850 or 4,250 kg costs a C1 licence for anyone who passed their test after 1997 in the EU/UK, different speed limits and a different toll class — the payload guide covers the rules. Picking a van with 500 kg of headroom makes the whole question go away.

The assumptions, so you can adjust them

• Build weight: 600 kg. The planner’s Weekender layout (garage bed, kitchen, fridge, water, battery) on a Ducato L3H2 with a full shell — 25 mm XPS on floor, walls and ceiling, battens, 12 mm subfloor, 5.5 mm panels — totals 585 kg; the Family layout on the same van is 602 kg. The component-by-component weight guide lands at 550–600 kg by a different route. 600 is the round number that covers both.
• Reserve: EN 1646-2 for two people. 10 kg per metre of vehicle length, 10 kg per berth, 75 kg per travel seat beyond the driver (the driver is already inside the EU kerb mass). Two berths, two seats gives 139–172 kg across the table, depending on length. The reserve post explains the formula.
• Kerb and plate are the manufacturer base figures in the planner’s van database — a planning guide, not your vehicle’s weighbridge ticket. Engines, options and a second row of seats move kerb mass by 50–150 kg either way.

Headroom = rated payload − 600 kg build − reserve. What is left is for full tanks, food, bikes, the second battery you add later and the margin the weighbridge takes off you.

The table: every base van, ranked by headroom

One row per body; rebadges in brackets share the row. The headroom column runs from the heaviest variant to the lightest — the named variants tell you which is which. Mid-size and compact vans are ranked against their own plate (3,050–3,100 and 2,250–2,400 kg), which is the number that matters for them.

All figures kg. Across the 85 variants in the table, 46 keep at least 400 kg free, 11 keep less than 200 kg, and 3 go negative — the build alone breaks the plate before anyone gets in.

How to read the headroom number

• 400 kg or more: buy it and stop worrying. Full 100 L water (100 kg), two bikes (30), a second lithium battery (12), food and clothes for two (60) still leave 200 kg for the weighbridge to disagree with you.
• 200–400 kg: fine for two, planned. This is where a 600 kg build works but a 750 kg one — 18 mm ply everywhere, a shower cubicle, AGM batteries — does not. Run the layout through the payload calculator before buying timber.
• Under 200 kg: this is the auflastung zone. Either build light (400 kg is possible with wool insulation, poplar ply and a small tank) or accept that the plate upgrade is part of the purchase price. Below zero, the van is not a licence-B camper at this build weight.

What moves the number

• Length costs about 100–120 kg per step. Ducato L1H1 to L4H3 is 1,940 to 2,270 kg of kerb mass; Sprinter L1H1 to L4H3 is 2,105 to 2,480. The extra metre of van you buy for the fixed bed is 300 kg of payload you no longer have.
• Roof height costs 35–45 kg. Ducato L3H2 to L3H3: 2,095 to 2,130 kg. Transit L3H2 to L3H3 FWD: 2,149 to 2,194. Cheap, compared with length — go up before you go long.
• Rear-wheel drive costs 60–90 kg, all-wheel drive about 170. Transit L3H2: 2,149 kg FWD, 2,237 RWD, 2,317 AWD. Sprinter L2H2: 2,195 FWD, 2,255 RWD. Crafter L3H2: 2,176 FWD, 2,236 RWD. The plate does not move, so the driveline is paid for entirely in payload.
• A mid-size van is lighter but plated lower, so it does not win. A Trafic L2H2 has 300 kg less kerb mass than a Ducato L3H2 but a 3,070 kg plate: 426 kg headroom against the Ducato’s 650. The Expert/ProAce (3,100 plate, 1,744–1,830 kerb) is the exception among the mid-sizes at 522–615 kg — but it is a sit-down van.
• The Ducato is the lightest large van at every size. L3H2 at 2,095 kg against a Crafter L3H2 FWD at 2,176, a Master L3H2 FWD at 2,191 and a Sprinter L3H2 (RWD only) at 2,405. The 471 kg headroom of the Ducato L4H3 is more than a Sprinter L3H2 has (330).

The long-van trap

The vans people buy for a family layout — Sprinter L4H3 (251 kg), Crafter L5H4 RWD (215), Master L4H3 (182), Daily L4H3 (127), Daily L5H3 (48) — are exactly the vans with no headroom for a family. Four berths and four seats push the EN 1646-2 reserve up by another 170 kg (two more berths, two more passengers), and a family build is heavier than 600 kg, not lighter. A 3,500 kg family van is a Ducato L4H2 (506 kg at the two-person reserve) or a Transit L4H3 (345). Everything longer and rear-driven is an uprate on the day of purchase — worth knowing before, not after, and the reason where the weight sits matters as much as how much of it there is on those bodies.

Check your own variant, not the row

The rows are ranges across a body; your variant is one number. Every van page lists kerb mass and rated payload per variant, and the planner subtracts each item you place from that variant’s payload live, with the EN 1646-2 reserve already set aside and the axle split alongside. I have not built a van yet — this table is the sheet I made to pick mine, and the answer it gave me was a shorter, front-wheel-drive body than the one I was looking at.

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