VW Transporter dimensions: T5, T6, T6.1 by variant — SWB, LWB, high roof

A VW Transporter is 1.42 m high inside with the standard roof and 1.94 m with the high roof, on 2.45 m of cargo floor as a short wheelbase and 2.85 m as a long one. Every “VW camper van dimensions” question resolves to those four figures. The standard roof is a sit-down van on either wheelbase; the high roof stands most people but comes on the long wheelbase only; and the length decides whether the kitchen sits beside the bed or in front of it.

Below are the three variants in the planner’s database, inside and out, with the payload each one leaves after a real build. The figures are the T6.1’s, read from the Volkswagen technical drawing named on the vehicle page and checked September 2026 — and the T5 and T6 before it are the same body shell.

The three variants, measured

L1 is the short wheelbase (3.00 m), L2 the long (3.40 m); H1 is the standard roof, H2 the high roof. There is no L1H2 row because Volkswagen builds the high roof on the long wheelbase only — three variants, not four. Interior length is bulkhead to rear doors, width is between the walls (only 1.24 m between the wheel arches), height is floor to headliner before a build. All three are front-wheel drive; 4Motion adds weight but not a body.

On the floor length. Volkswagen’s drawing prints two load lengths per wheelbase — one at floor level under the front seats, a shorter one to the seat line — and the planner’s figure sits between them, which is where a bulkhead or a swivelled seat actually ends. The source note on the vehicle page names both; plan with the table.

T5, T6, T6.1 — and the T7 that is not a Transporter

The table is the T6.1 (2019 on). The T5 (from 2003) and the T6 (2015) are the same body shell from the A-pillar back with a different front each time: the interior box carries across, the exterior length and the kerb weight moved a few centimetres and kilograms with each front and engine range, and the database does not model them separately — read the papers of an older van for the plate and the overall length. The T4 before them is a different, narrower body and is not in the database.

The T7 (2024 on) is not this vehicle at all: it is a Ford Transit Custom with a VW badge — wider between the walls, the same standard-roof height — and it lives in the planner under that name. The California is a factory pop-top camper on the short-wheelbase body — the exterior of the L1H1 row plus the roof; the database does not model the conversion.

1.42 m or 1.94 m: which roof

The standard roof is 1.42 m raw, about 1.35 m once a floor and ceiling are in. Nobody stands in that, on either wheelbase — it is the same class as the Mercedes Vito, the other 1.4 m van, and it is planned the same way: cook sitting or outside, dress on the bed. The Transporter’s usual answer is a pop-top, and it has the largest pop-top market of any van — but the database does not model one, so the standing verdict here is the steel roof’s.

The high roof is 1.94 m raw, 1.87 m finished: it stands anyone under that, with the standing-height table for the other vans. The price is outside — 2.48 m overall, every car park and most height barriers gone, and long wheelbase only.

The standard roof is 1.99 m outside: a centimetre under a 2.00 m barrier bare, 2.14 m with a domed roof fan and over it. The barrier comparison runs the arithmetic fitting by fitting — the Transporter H1 is its one-centimetre case.

1.70 m between the walls: a lengthways bed, three-quarter width

1.70 m between the bare walls, 1.64 m once insulated and panelled. The sleep-across rule — your height plus 5 cm — gives a sleeper of at most 1.59 m: nobody, in practice. So the bed runs lengthways, and on the floor its width is set by the 1.24 m between the wheel arches. That figure is why the classic Transporter rock-and-roll bed is three-quarter width: the bed sits between the arches and the kitchen sits over the one on the near side. The sleep-across table runs the same rule for every van.

What fits on each wheelbase

A lengthways double takes 1.90 m of floor. What is left in front of it is the whole build:

• Short wheelbase — 2.45 m of floor, 0.55 m in front of the bed. Not enough for a kitchen ahead of the bed, so the kitchen goes beside it, over the arch, and the bed is three-quarter width — bed and kitchen fit only because the bed is narrower than the van. A slim unit or a fridge behind the driver’s seat uses the rest. Weekend van; still a car on Monday.
• Long wheelbase — 2.85 m of floor, 0.95 m in front of the bed. The length that lets the bed be full width: a kitchen console or a certified seat row fits in front of a 1.90 m bed, or a fixed bed rides above the arches with a garage under it. The same 0.95 m with the high roof, plus standing.

The archetypes — rock-and-roll bed, fold-out bench, solo platform, tailgate drawer — are in the small-van layouts post. The Transporter adds one twist the Vito lacks: on the long wheelbase the high roof turns the sit-down version of each into the standing one.

3,080 kg gross, 1,075 kg to 1,196 kg of payload

A small van but not a light one: 1,884 kg to 2,005 kg of kerb weight against a 3,080 kg plate leaves the short wheelbase 1,196 kg, the long 1,131 kg and the high roof 1,075 kg — the same class as the Vito. A minimal 350 kg build — bed, insulation, 40 L of water, 100 Ah, a hob — plus the EN 1646-2 two-person reserve leaves 702 kg, 633 kg and 577 kg; the 600 kg reference build of the large-van posts leaves this:

A pop-top and a certified rock-and-roll bed weigh a good third of that reserve between them, which is the honest line on the standard-roof van: the roof you add to stand up is the payload you do not have for water and people.

Source line. The 3,080 kg is an optional gross weight per the database note on the vehicle page; lighter plates exist and are common on used vans. The kerb weights are planning figures inside Volkswagen’s range per engine and gearbox. The plate on the van in front of you wins; the small-van payload comparison puts the Transporter next to the Vito, Trafic and Custom.

Transporter, Vito, Custom: the 1.4 m class

The Mercedes Vito is the other van with this interior height: a different body, a few centimetres less between the walls, one roof only, and three lengths where the Transporter has two. The Transit Custom — now also the T7 — is the wider body at the same standard-roof height. The twins post draws the full map of which vans share a body.

Which Transporter for which build

• Short wheelbase, standard roof — weekends, surf, bikes: three-quarter rock-and-roll bed, side kitchen, pop-top if evenings matter. The best payload of the three, 4.90 m overall.
• Long wheelbase, standard roof — the full-width bed with a kitchen or a seat row in front of it, still 1.99 m tall and under most barriers bare. 5.30 m overall.
• Long wheelbase, high roof — the only one you stand in: 1.87 m finished, 2.48 m outside, 327 kg left after the reference build.
• None — if standing up in a short van is the criterion. Only a pop-top gives it.

The planner puts your layout in the real variant, with the wheel arches at 1.24 m, weight and axle loads live.

FAQ

Related: every Transporter variant page · payload calculator