Additional Thermal Insulation

We use our Kemerton all year round without any problems but find the rear shower room is consistently 4 or 5C cooler than the rest of the van in cold weather.  Draft-proofing the central vertical area of the rear doors has helped, and I recently plugged a howling gale coming through the gap between the two floors at the base of the doors.  Prompted by several comments on here about poor insulation I’ve now added more to the rear of the van. 

I found that AS had fitted the bare minimum, with many voids in both the doors and in the rear quarter panels.  These areas and also the side sliding door swallowed a 5m x 1m roll of 50mm thick automotive insulation without me having to stuff it in hard.  

Based on this experience I can imagine there’s scope for more insulation to be added elsewhere but access is impossible without deconstructing the shower room.  As always it’s a compromise.  I now need to get more heat into the shower room and hope that the roll of additional insulation will help keep the warmth in.

Tim

That is my understanding also Roopert. 
I did a self build on a VW T5 back in 2012 and the general thinking on the VW forum (and there were many many threads regarding insulation) was exactly as you mention.

Thanks for the remarks and I agree about the need for convection space to reduce the risk of condensation problems.  I judged that in the case of our van the spaces left for such a purpose (assuming that was AS’s intention) were simply too large, and that the balance between adequate insulation and convection space was all wrong.  

Time will tell whether it was a worthwhile modification.  Overall though, and rear shower room aside, we have found the van to be sufficiently warm in cold weather conditions and are happy to use it throughout all seasons.  Not sure we’d take it to the Alps in winter though, even if we had the right tyres!

Tim

Although I commented above about not filling the voids completely with insulation, I have to agree Tim that A/S insulation has generally been pathetic in the areas that I have investigated.
As you mention, time will tell but like you I’ve added a bit more in many areas of my van.