Making an autosleeper more stealthy?

Hi all,

I've been thinking of buying an Autosleeper (maybe a Harmony, Duetto or Symbol) as a vehicle for daily use, and when I'm travelling.

One bug bear is that I find Autosleepers very noticeable. I'm travelling at the moment using ParkForNight, and especially in countries that aren't so friendly to campervanning (or foreigners), it would be nice to have a big bland black van, rather than something that draws a lot of attention.

Has anyone ever had their Autosleeper toned down, or just re-detailed to be black? Or would that take off a lot of value?

I would suggest the value would be greatly affected. Auto-sleepers are well known for holding their value far more than other brands.

booms81 wrote:Hi all,

I've been thinking of buying an Autosleeper (maybe a Harmony, Duetto or Symbol) as a vehicle for daily use, and when I'm travelling.

One bug bear is that I find Autosleepers very noticeable. I'm travelling at the moment using ParkForNight, and especially in countries that aren't so friendly to campervanning (or foreigners), it would be nice to have a big bland black van, rather than something that draws a lot of attention.

Has anyone ever had their Autosleeper toned down, or just re-detailed to be black? Or would that take off a lot of value?

Have you heard of vinyl wrap, google it , you could cover your van in any colour and remove it later.
Boaby

No panel van could be stealthy. The owner only has to slide open and crash closed the door for everyone within earshot to curse them.

I have seen a few vans in London that are motorhomes with a cloaking device. They are basic panel vans with no side windows in the rear but are motorhomes inside.
You can spot fridge and heater vents, otherwise they appear as an ordinary van like your plumber would have.
I think workman use them to live on the street or in car parks where a motorhome would not be allowed.

I assume these are self conversions from a basic van.

I think adding a cloaking device to an AS would destroy it's value.

Value would be affected for sure.

You could remove all decals and wrap it in white, it'd blend in a bit more than black?

The footballers wrap’ their Bentleys (camouflage?) and then when changing (6months later) remove the wrap to leave perfect paintwork. 

No idea whether possible on a AS van.

booms81 wrote:

....... and especially in countries that aren't so friendly to campervanning (or foreigners), it would be nice to have a big bland black van, rather than something that draws a lot of attention.

You don’t specify which countries these might be. Over many years of travelling by motorhome ( a peculiar VW conversion) in East, Central and Southern Africa for example we found the only problems were because of the size and durability of the vehicle and the availability of spares and repairs . Much as I love AS vans they just would not cope. People: no problem. We’ve never met any unfriendly ones even in war zones.

Something smaller and more car- like would be much more suitable.

Quilter wrote:No panel van could be stealthy. The owner only has to slide open and crash closed the door for everyone within earshot to curse them.

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