Choosing your van

The van picker

VanPlot ships real interior dimensions for 29 vehicles across 195 size/drive variants — the Fiat Ducato and its Boxer/Jumper/ProMaster siblings, Mercedes Sprinter, Ford Transit, VW Crafter, Renault Trafic, Vito/Metris and more. Vans that are specified differently in North America are listed as their own vehicles, on their makers' US sheets: Ford Transit (US), RAM ProMaster, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter (US) and Mercedes-Benz Metris, named the way they are sold there (148″ · High roof · T-250 · AWD, 159″ · High roof · 2500). To keep that manageable, the picker works in two stages: choose the vehicle first, then that model's size · drive variant (for example L3H2 · FWD).

Under the picker you'll see the variant's interior length × width × height and its approximate payload — the planning numbers the whole app works from.

Two shortcuts: a search box above the picker narrows both lists as you type — "sprinter l3", "ducato h2", "transit 250 high ext" or a badge name like "jumper" all work, accents ignored. And if your vehicle isn't in the database at all, choose Custom van body when creating the project: type the cargo area's interior length × width × height, the exterior dimensions, wheelbase, kerb and gross weight (payload is worked out for you), whether the walls are straight or tapered, and how many front seats. The van then behaves like any other — the Body panel shows your numbers instead of the picker, and the weighbridge report notes that axle positions are estimated.

1. When creating a project, pick vehicle and variant right in the New Project form.
2. In the editor, open the Van inspector (the Body button in the toolbar) to change either at any time — your items automatically re-settle into the new interior.

What the numbers mean — and when your van differs

Every variant carries the manufacturer's published figures for the market the van is sold in. That is why the US Transit is not the European one with new labels: Ford US prints different roof heights, offers a low roof Europe doesn't get, and rates payload by series (T-150, T-250, T-350). If you own a North American van, pick the North American vehicle — you should be able to hold the maker's spec sheet next to the Body panel and find the same digits.

Length is the load floor from the bulkhead line to the rear doors, width is the body between the bare walls at its widest (not between the wheel arches — those are modelled separately), and height is floor to roof at the centre, all before any insulation. Payload is the maker's figure for the base van — gross weight minus kerb weight — so options, passengers and a full fuel tank come out of it. They are planning numbers: a brochure rounds, model years drift, and a previous owner may have changed things. Measure before you cut.

Where the figures come from. Every body behind those vehicles — 15 platforms in all — was re-read in its maker's own documents in September 2026: price-list dimension pages, technical drawings, body-builder charts. Each van page on the website names the document under its spec table — Dimensions source and Door openings, each with checked Sep 2026 — and in the editor the Door openings section of the Van inspector tells you which kind of figure you are looking at: Maker figures with the maker's name and the check date, Estimate where the maker publishes no door opening at all (today that is the Toyota HiAce, whose doors are drawn from a formula), or Measured on your van once you have typed your own.

Pick the drive you actually have. On the Ford Transit, VW Crafter / MAN TGE, Mercedes Sprinter and Renault Master the driven rear axle lifts the load floor by 70–100 mm, so a rear- or all-wheel-drive van has a lower ceiling and lower door openings than the front-wheel-drive one with the same body code — a European Transit H2 is 1.89 m inside as FWD and 1.79 m as RWD or AWD. That is why the variant picker lists the drive next to the size.

One difference I know about and haven't solved: Ford US and Mercedes-Benz USA measure cargo floor length to a point further forward than the European sheets do for the same body, so a US Transit or Sprinter reads roughly 10–15 cm (4–6 in) shorter here than the maker's "cargo floor length". Axles, wheel arches and doors are placed from the bulkhead line, so where your furniture sits is right — it is the headline length that differs.

When your tape measure disagrees with the database, correct the van rather than working around it. There are three levels, all in the Van inspector:

1. Wheel arches — type the length, depth, height and chamfer you measured. Furniture clamps and stacks against your arch box from then on; Use the built-in figures goes back.
2. Door openings — set the sliding door's position, width and height and the rear opening's width and height. See The van body & openings.
3. Edit as custom van (under the picker) — turns the database van into a custom one that starts from the same figures, with every dimension and weight editable. The geometry carries over; the badge goes. Switch to a database van brings the picker back.

The shell build-up

Real conversions don't put furniture against bare metal — they build a sandwich: insulation, battens, and a plywood lining, on the floor as well as the walls and ceiling. The Shell build-up section of the Van inspector is where you spec yours, and it's the one place the whole van's insulation is described.

Pick an insulation material for the floor and for the walls & ceiling — XPS board (waterproof and compression-resistant, the standard floor choice), PIR/polyiso (the best warmth per millimetre), sheep wool (breathable, forgiving around ribs), or Thinsulate — and the section tells you how many millimetres of insulation each surface has left once its battens and panels are taken off. Add battens, a 12 mm plywood subfloor, and 5.5 mm lining panels with their toggles.

Thickness is not cosmetic: the Build-up thickness figures — floor, walls (each) and ceiling, 0–200 mm, insulation + battens + panels — move each surface inward by its own amount. Items clamp to the reduced interior, the Max buttons fill to the finished walls, a teal inner outline shows the usable space, and the stats HUD reads the standing height and width between walls you actually end up with. The section also tells you how many centimetres of standing height the floor and ceiling cost you.

1. Drag the Thickness label left or right to scrub the value, scroll over the field to step it, or click and type an exact number.
2. Hold Shift while scrubbing for 10× steps, or Alt for fine steps.
3. Turn on Show build-up in 3D to see the lining, battens, and floor sandwich in the van — generated from the spec, so there's never a plank to place by hand.

Beyond the vehicle: the body itself

The Van inspector also controls how the van is drawn and cut — panel-van vs box-body style, exterior paint, per-panel visibility with camera auto-hide, and exactly-sized window, roof-fan, and hole cutouts. All of that has its own article: see The van body & openings.