The remote-work van: desk, seat and screen dimensions that survive a video call
· 8 min read
A remote-work van needs a desk 1.1 m wide and 0.6 m deep at 72–75 cm, a seat at 45 cm, the camera at 1.2 m off the floor, and the desk on the wall opposite the sliding door so the door lights your face; that pairing fits across every large van, and on its own wall it needs an L3 or longer — an L2 has 0.5–0.7 m of wall left after the door and the bed, which is a fold-down, not an office. Everything else is a gear list. This is the dimension list: the desk as a placed object with a height, a depth and a spot, computed against the vans in the planner’s database and the parts in its catalog.
The two-person layout post calls the office on wheels the most-requested brief and gives it one paragraph; this is the rest of that paragraph. Nothing here is about routers.
The numbers
| Item | Dimension | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Desk width, two people | 1.10 m | Two 35 cm laptops plus 20 cm of mouse and elbow each — the same 1.1 m the layout post uses |
| Desk width, one person + monitor | 1.10 m | A 27-inch monitor is 61 cm wide; laptop beside it, 35; gaps, 14 |
| Desk width, one laptop | 0.80 m | The planner’s table and fold-down parts are 0.80 wide |
| Desk depth | 0.60 m | Puts a screen 50–70 cm from your eyes and leaves 60 cm of knee room; 0.50 is the laptop minimum, and what the fold-down part is |
| Desk height | 0.72–0.75 m | House-desk standard; the planner’s table is 0.72 |
| Seat height for that desk | 0.45 m | 28–30 cm seat-to-top gap is the ergonomic rule; a cab swivel seat is about 0.45–0.50 |
| Seat box + cushion (the bench alternative) | 0.55–0.59 m | Lounge template lid at 0.46 + 0.09 cushion = 0.55; storage bench 0.50 + 0.09 = 0.59 — pairs with an 85–90 cm top, i.e. the worktop, with a foot rail |
| Knee space | 0.60 wide × 0.60 deep × 0.65 high | Nothing under the desk in that box — no battery, no drawer |
| Camera height | 1.20 m | Seated eye height ≈ seat + 0.75; a laptop lid on a 72 cm desk sits at ~0.95 — use a 15–20 cm stand or a monitor with the camera on top |
| Screen distance | 0.50–0.70 m | Set by desk depth; a 0.40 fold-down puts a 24-inch screen too close |
| Desk + seat across the van | 0.60 + 0.65 = 1.25 m | Bench seat is 0.65 deep; a chair or swivel seat 0.55, making 1.15 |
| Sliding-door keep-clear | 0.55 m | The strip the planner keeps free in front of the door for getting in and out |
The seat and worktop conflict is the one people build into plywood: a worktop is 90 cm because you stand at it; a desk is 72–75 because you sit at it on a 45 cm chair. The same surface cannot be right for both. Either build a separate desk, or pair the worktop with a 55–60 cm seat box and a foot rail and accept bar-stool posture for the working day — which is fine for two hours and not for eight.
Table 1: does desk + seat fit across the van?
Width between the walls is from the van database. The rule: desk depth + seat depth must fit in the width minus the 0.55 m the sliding door needs, if the seat stands in the door well while you work — which it does in the “facing the door” placement below. Two pairings: a 0.6 m desk with a 0.65 m bench, and a 0.5 m desk with a 0.55 m chair or swivel seat.
| Van | Width between walls | Minus door clear | 0.6 desk + 0.65 bench (1.25) | 0.5 desk + 0.55 chair (1.05) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fiat Ducato (= Boxer, Relay, ProMaster) | 1.87 m | 1.32 m | ✓ | ✓ |
| VW Crafter (= MAN TGE) | 1.83 m | 1.28 m | ✓ | ✓ |
| Iveco Daily | 1.80 m | 1.25 m | ✓ (exactly) | ✓ |
| Mercedes-Benz Sprinter | 1.79 m | 1.24 m | ~ 1 cm short | ✓ |
| Ford Transit | 1.78 m | 1.23 m | ~ 2 cm short | ✓ |
| Transit Custom, HiAce | 1.77–1.78 m | 1.22–1.23 m | ~ 2–3 cm short | ✓ |
| Renault Master (= Movano, NV400) | 1.77 m | 1.22 m | ~ 3 cm short | ✓ |
| VW Transporter | 1.70 m | 1.15 m | ✗ | ✓ |
| Vito, Trafic (= Vivaro, NV300, Talento) | 1.66–1.67 m | 1.11–1.12 m | ✗ | ✓ |
| Expert (= ProAce, Scudo) | 1.63 m | 1.08 m | ✗ | ✓ |
| Caddy, Berlingo, Connect | 1.53–1.61 m | 0.98–1.06 m | ✗ | ~ / ✗ |
Read it as: the bench-and-desk pairing is a Ducato, Crafter or Daily thing; everywhere else the seat is a chair or the swivelled cab seat, and in the mid-size vans the desk is 0.5 m deep. A ~ means a 0.55 m desk or a 0.60 bench closes it. The full width table is in the dimensions comparison.
Table 2: does the desk get its own wall? Length by variant
The other placement — the one the two-person post describes — puts the desk on the driver-side wall behind the sliding-door zone, with the kitchen on the opposite wall and a transverse bed across the back. What is left for the desk is the interior length minus the door zone the planner reserves from the bulkhead (0.05 m plus the door width it draws, 1.30 m on an L3 or longer, less on short bodies) minus 1.40 m of bed depth. All three from the database; the verdict is against a 1.10 m desk, ~ for a 1.00 m one.
| Van | Interior length | Door zone | Free wall after the bed | 1.1 m desk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ducato L2 / L3 / L4 | 3.12 / 3.71 / 4.07 m | 1.14 / 1.30 / 1.30 | 0.58 / 1.00 / 1.37 | ✗ / ~ / ✓ |
| Sprinter L2 / L3 / L4 | 3.27 / 4.31 / 4.71 m | 1.20 / 1.30 / 1.30 | 0.68 / 1.61 / 2.01 | ✗ / ✓ / ✓ |
| Transit L2 / L3 / L4 | 3.04 / 3.49 / 4.22 m | 1.12 / 1.27 / 1.30 | 0.53 / 0.82 / 1.52 | ✗ / ✗ / ✓ |
| Crafter L3 / L4 / L5 | 3.45 / 4.30 / 4.86 m | 1.26 / 1.30 / 1.30 | 0.79 / 1.60 / 2.16 | ✗ / ✓ / ✓ |
| Master L2 / L3 / L4 | 3.08 / 3.73 / 4.38 m | 1.13 / 1.30 / 1.30 | 0.55 / 1.03 / 1.68 | ✗ / ~ / ✓ |
| Daily L2 / L3 / L4 / L5 | 3.16 / 3.62 / 4.72 / 5.12 m | 1.16 / 1.30 / 1.30 / 1.30 | 0.60 / 0.92 / 2.02 / 2.42 | ✗ / ✗ / ✓ / ✓ |
| Transit Custom L1 / L2 | 2.56 / 2.92 m | 0.94 / 1.07 | 0.21 / 0.45 | ✗ / ✗ |
| Trafic L1 / L2, Transporter L1 / L2 | 2.45–2.94 m | 0.91–1.08 | 0.14–0.46 | ✗ |
| Vito L1–L3, Expert XS–XL, HiAce | 2.16–3.18 m | 0.81–1.16 | ≤0.62 | ✗ |
Which is the arithmetic behind “needs ~3.5 m+”: on its own wall the desk is an L3 in the widest-cabin vans (Ducato, Master, just) and an L4 in the Transit and Daily; a Sprinter L3 and a Crafter L4 have room to spare. Swap the transverse bed for a 1.20 m one and every number gains 0.20 m; drop the fixed bed for a convertible and the strip is the whole rear, which is the other trade.
The two placements
- Facing the door (any length). Desk on the driver-side wall directly across from the slider, 1.1 m along the van inside the door zone, 0.6 m deep. The chair lives under the desk and stands in the door well while you work — you are not walking in and out mid-call, and the planner’s keep-clear is about fixed furniture, not a chair you push in. You face the biggest light source in the van, and the camera sees the far wall panel behind you, not the bed. Cost: the door well is your office, so the kitchen moves aft of the door and the bed is transverse at the back — the L2 layout.
- Behind the door (L3+, Table 2). Desk aft of the door zone on the driver side, kitchen opposite, bed across the back. You sit sideways to the slider, lit from one side (a softer light, but half the face) with the kitchen behind you unless you turn the desk 90° to face the bed wall. Gains: the door well stays a hallway, the seat can be a fixed bench with storage, and two people can work back to back — one at the desk, one at the worktop on a stool.
Light and background, in centimetres
The sliding door opening is 1.25–1.31 m wide and 1.60–1.82 m tall on every large van (the door-opening post has them per model): open, it is a 2 m² soft light source, and there is nothing else like it in the van. A window in the door is a quarter of that. So the camera should have the door behind it, i.e. you face the door; sit the other way and the automatic exposure chooses the window and your face goes dark. Behind you, a webcam at 0.6 m covers roughly 0.8–1.0 m of width: facing across a 1.8 m van that is a wall panel, facing forward it is the bed, and facing aft it is the cab. A plain panel behind the seat is a design decision, not a filter.
The power the office adds
The battery sizing post budgets two laptops at 3 h each (360 Wh) in a 1.0–1.3 kWh two-person day. A working day is 8 h each at ~60 W (960 Wh), a 27-inch monitor at 30 W (240 Wh) and a router at 10 W for 10 h (100 Wh): about 1.3 kWh for the office alone, 2.1–2.3 kWh total — the “~2× the usual capacity” the layout post asks for, which is 300–400 Ah of LiFePO4 and, from the roof table, 600 W of solar: an L3 clear roof or an L4 with a fan on the large vans, and not reachable from a mid-size roof at all — there the second source is the alternator. The batteries weigh 40–60 kg and the rule from the sizing post stands: low, forward, not under the desk.
Before you build it
Place the desk part at 1.1 × 0.6, the seat at its real depth and the bed at 1.4 in the planner and drag them until the door zone, the walkway and the bed all fit at once — the placement engine clamps to the wall taper and flags the door well, so a 3 cm miss shows as a red box before it shows as a plywood offcut. Then check the axle split with the batteries where you actually put them.
FAQ
How big should a desk be in a camper van?
1.1 m wide and 0.6 m deep for two people or one person with a monitor; 0.8 × 0.5 m for one laptop. The width is two laptops at 35 cm plus elbow and mouse room, or a 27-inch monitor (61 cm) beside a laptop. The depth is what puts a screen 50–70 cm from your eyes and leaves 60 cm of knee room underneath. A 0.5 m fold-down works for a laptop, not for a monitor.
Can the kitchen worktop double as a desk?
Only with a bar-height seat. A worktop is 90 cm; a desk chair is 45 cm and wants a 72–75 cm top. Pair the worktop with a 55–60 cm seat box (the planner's storage bench is 50 cm plus a 9 cm cushion) and you get the same 28–30 cm seat-to-top gap as a desk, but your feet need a rail 15 cm up. Otherwise the two heights conflict and one of them ends up wrong for its job.
Where should the desk go for video calls?
On the wall opposite the sliding door, so you face the door. The door is the biggest light source in the van; face it and it lights you, sit with your back to it and the camera sees a silhouette. Facing across the van also puts a plain wall panel behind you instead of the bed and the kitchen. Put the camera at seated eye level, about 1.2 m off the floor — a laptop lid on a 72 cm desk is at 95 cm, which is the up-the-nose angle.
How long a van do you need for a desk and a fixed bed?
For a desk behind the sliding door on its own wall, L3 or longer: the door well takes 1.3 m of wall from the bulkhead and a transverse bed takes 1.4 m from the rear, so a Ducato L3 (3.71 m inside) leaves 1.0 m, an L4 1.37 m, a Sprinter L3 1.6 m. In an L2 the free strip is 0.5–0.7 m, which is a fold-down, not a desk. The alternative in any length is the desk across from the door with a chair that stands in the door well while you work.
