Spotlight on Moorlake Campervans

Ed recalls seeing customers physically tense up as they walked onto the Moorlake forecourt, fearing the hard sell, but that’s not part of the Moorlake approach.

“Buying a campervan should be a fantastic experience,” says Ed. “This is a lifelong dream for a lot of people. So, our ethos really is to make someone a cup of tea and have a chat. You just see people relax a little bit and then it's a conversation. It's not, ‘We think you should buy this campervan’. It's ‘What do you want from a campervan? Have we got something that fits?’ And most of the time we find someone a campervan that works for them.”

“We've got a huge amount of stock coming in all the time,” says Ed, “and we can build the interior they want – they can choose the upholstery, the worktops, the furniture, etc.

“If you were to look at a campervan and say, ‘I love everything about it apart from the upholstery’, I can change the upholstery for you and you can take this campervan. Or if you don't like the worktop or the cupboards or the flooring, we can build you a campervan to your exact specs;  all the edging, the worktops, everything. That's the sort of flexibility we offer people.” 

You might imagine that this level of flexibility would impact on the price, but that’s not the case. As Ed explains, “The only thing that's affecting the price is the price of the van. So, if we can still buy vans at the prices that we've bought these ones at, then the price stays the same, even if you get it built to your specification.”

Moorlake specialises in VW Transporter conversions and the latest model – the Liberty – is built on the new T7. Simplicity is an important part of what is on offer, though. Instead of a huge number of layouts and a seemingly endless list of optional extras, Moorlake basically has one model that you can tweak to fit your own taste. The idea is that one model will include pretty much everything on most peoples’ wish lists.

The Liberty is available as a manual or with an eight-speed automatic gearbox and there’s an Austops pop-top roof with a large sprung bed. Downstairs is a sliding three-seater bench with Isofix which converts into a flat double bed. You can slide it forward on its rails to maximise load space in the rear.

A key new feature is the optional EcoFlow 1kW portable power station, a cost-effective way of going off-grid. It gives you the ability to power all manner of electrical gadgets even when you’re not hooked up to the mains. Other features include a 150W solar panel and a 200Ah lithium leisure battery, a two-ring gas hob, 50-litre fridge and a microwave, which can be swapped out for a cupboard if you prefer. Not to mention a very neat pull-out worktop extension.

Ed says, “We love the campervan. What we’ve tried to do over the years is take feedback from customers. People would say, ‘I love that one, but it hasn't got a sliding bed or it hasn't got solar, it hasn't got a diesel heater, and I need five seats, etc. So, we thought, let's try and fit everything into the campervan and then no one can say it’s missing this or missing that. We've tried to build a campervan that includes everything on most of people's wish list.”

Part of the Moorlake success is down to the first-hand campervan knowledge of the people who work there. Vic has a six-year-old campervan, while his colleague, Mark, owns a 20-year-old campervan. 

Says Ed, “The combined knowledge they have is fantastic – for example, Mark knows how to tinker with things a bit and knows from his experience what works for him and what doesn't.

“We never try and push anything on someone. It's just a different perspective and I think the more perspective we can offer, then the more information they've got to make their own mind up about what they want in their campervan.”