VW Crafter and MAN TGE dimensions: L3H2 to L5H4, one body

H2 is not a standing roof on a Crafter. It is 1.73 m with front-wheel drive and 1.63 m with rear — against 2.01 to 2.08 m in a Sprinter H2. Buy the roof by its letter and you buy 35 cm short. The standing roof here is H3, and above it sits an H4 that nothing else in the class offers.

The MAN TGE is the same body from the same plant in Września. Every figure below applies to both badges, which is why it is written once rather than twice: the searches split between two names, the van does not. All figures come from the planner’s van database, read from maker documents and checked September 2026.

Every Crafter and TGE variant, measured

Interior length is bulkhead to rear doors, width between the walls, height floor to headliner before a build. The same table is the MAN TGE’s. Payload is the 3.5 t plate minus kerb weight — a planning figure; the plate on the actual van wins.

Roof codes: H2 at the bottom, H4 at the top

Three roofs, and the drivetrain shifts each of them by 10 cm, because a driven rear axle lifts the load floor:

• H2 — 1.73 m (FWD) or 1.63 m (RWD/4Motion) inside, 2.35 m outside. Roughly 1.66 and 1.56 m once built: a crouching van.
• H3 — 1.96 or 1.86 m inside, 2.59 m outside. About 1.89 and 1.79 m finished, so adults up to around 1.75 m stand.
• H4 — 2.19–2.20 or 2.09–2.10 m inside, 2.80 m outside. About 2.12 and 2.02 m finished. Nothing else in the standing-height table gets there.

For the drivetrain that means rear-wheel drive costs interior height and 60 to 72 kg of payload. Unless you tow or park on loose ground regularly, front-wheel drive loses nothing and buys 10 cm over your head.

Lengths: L3 is the shortest one built

There is no Crafter L1 or L2 — the body starts at L3 with 3.45 m of cargo floor. That is longer than a Ducato L2 (3.12 m) and longer than a Sprinter L2 (3.27 m). Anyone shopping for “a small Crafter” is shopping for a van that was never made; why the letters do not transfer between makes is the body-code decoder’s whole subject.

L4 and L5 share a 4.49 m wheelbase. The L5 is an L4 with more body behind the rear axle: 55 cm more exterior length and 56 cm more cargo floor, so 4.86 m of floor on a 7.39 m van. That is the longest load floor in the class bar one — the Iveco Daily L5 reaches 5.13 m, on a ladder frame that drives differently.

The catch: 4.86 m of floor and 2.20 m of height cost the payload

Payload falls from 1,324 kg on an L3H2 front-wheel drive to 984 kg on an L5H4 rear-wheel drive. Put a typical 600 kg build and the EN 1646-2 two-person reserve through that and what is left is:

215 kg is two people and a half-full water tank. The biggest van in the class is also the tightest on weight, so an L5H4 with 100 l of water on board is an uprating conversation. The comparison across every base van is in the under-3.5 t post.

Width: 1.83 m, always

Every length, every roof, every drivetrain: 1.83 m between the walls. Take off about 6 cm for two finished walls and roughly 1.77 m is left — enough for a 1.70 m sleeper across the van, not enough for 1.80 m without wall flares. That puts the Crafter 4 cm above a Sprinter (1.79 m) and 4 cm below a Ducato (1.87 m); the arithmetic for every body is in the sleep-across table.

Which Crafter for which build

• L3H3 FWD — the sensible two-person build. 3.45 m of floor, standing room to 1.75 m, 5.99 m outside and 500 kg left.
• L4H3 FWD — lengthways fixed bed over a full-width garage. 4.30 m of floor, 6.84 m outside, 388 kg left.
• L4H4 / L5H4 — for anyone over about 1.80 m. 2.80 m outside means no multi-storey and no height-limited ferry deck.
• L3H2 — day van or pop-top base. Best payload in the range, no standing.
• Rear-wheel drive — only if you tow or run heavy at the back. Otherwise it costs 10 cm of height and up to 72 kg.

FAQ

Related: every Crafter variant · every TGE variant · payload calculator