How Do Our Builds Go From Ideas to Reality?
Every build has to start somewhere. With us, our process starts with a good handshake, a pancake breakfast (ask Jim & Monica), an email with dreams, or a phone call with details.
We’ve had wonderful experiences working with clients who are out of state or out of country. If this is your case, we are still happy to work with you through whatever means of communication is best for you.
After we’ve jotted down a rough idea for a client’s build, we take a few days to write up pricing.
PRICING
Our pricing is formulated in two ways:
1. If we’ve built something very similar to your idea before we will give you a firm cost, with no estimate.
2. If your build is like nothing we have done before we will give you estimates, usually finalized in Time & Material charges. Sometimes we give estimates with a “will not exceed” amount, if an element of your build has similarities we are familiar with.
Formulating pricing for a custom camper is no small feat. This being said, we are committed to maintaining a very transparent posture throughout the entire process and are happy when clients ask questions. We want our clients to know exactly what they are paying for!
Once our client is satisfied with the pricing presented, we ask for a 10% deposit and the signing of our contract to lock in a start date on our calendar.
TIME BETWEEN DEPOSIT/CONTRACT SIGNING AND DESIGN
During this period it is the client’s responsibility to source a van to fit their needs. We are happy to help guide this process but it is the client who purchases the vehicle, not us.
DESIGN
When we are 2 months out from a client’s build start date we will begin to put ideas into 3D modeling software. Our designer takes everything we have talked about and brings it to life. We send the drawings off to our client for edits or confirmation. Once confirmed, we are ready to start!
SCHEDULING/TIMELINE
A van can be in our shop anywhere from 4 weeks to 16 weeks, depending on the scope of work. Our most involved builds take 16 weeks, our standard build takes 8-10 weeks, and our smaller builds take 4-6 weeks.
We never guarantee a finish date until we are 2 weeks away from finishing a build. There are too many elements in our supply chain that are out of our control to guarantee a firm finish date when we start a build.
COMMUNICATION
While a client’s build is in the shop we maintain communication through text and photo updates. Often we have questions for our clients that need to be answered on a weekly basis. These questions are communicated in a way that best suits our client’s needs (text, call, email, Facetime, Zoom, or in person meetings).
PICKUP/DELIVERY
When a build is ready for pickup we schedule a date and time to walk through the van with our client, showing and explaining to them how everything functions. We love ending our time working together with a good bottle of bubbly in the shop (ask Seth & Anna), a good meal shared in the van (ask Doug), or celebratory “move in” (ask Steve).
If you are out of state or out of country delivery looks similar, although without all the festivities (we might open a cold drink via Facetime). We do full virtual walkthroughs for our clients over state lines and seas, covering every functional element in the build.
For all clients we provide a Campo Van Manual, outlining general maintenance, the function of every element in the van, and places to look when our manual doesn’t have the answers.
