Updated on May 4th, 2025
Framing is the foundation of all the other parts of a campervan build. You must have a way to connect your cabinets, bed, and appliances to the body of the van so that your build will be structurally sound. Without solid framing things will wiggle, rattle, flex, and potentially fall over while you drive!
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Key Reminders About Framing a Campervan
Before we get started, there are a few key reminders about framing a campervan. The whole point of framing a campervan is to attach the interior to the body of the van. That means that you will be working with the structural components of the body while framing!
- It is always a good idea to reference your vehicle’s build-out manual. This will include what you can and cannot remove, any important weight information, etc. For the Promaster, you can find it here.
- Before using any screws, double-check that the screw can’t go into the exterior panels of the van.You absolutely do not want to put holes in the van exterior!
- If you choose to use RivNuts like we have below, we highly recommend a step drill instead of a regular drill bit to make your holes. You are less likely to accidentally go too far and hit an exterior panel.
- This is the last step in a van build before your layout is cemented. Now is the time to double-check any measurement and make sure you don’t have any last changes you want to make.
Should We Skin It?
Many people choose to skin their vans on the outside of the ribs to make walls. While this does make for beautiful-looking walls, it adds a lot of weight and you will also lose inches in the width of your van. As much as 6 inches in some places! Yikes!
We are choosing not to skin the entire interior with paneling for both weight and width savings. So all of our framing is done with that in mind. We will add wall paneling in those places that are still exposed after the cabinets are installed.
Ceiling Furring Strips
We started framing our campervan on the ceiling. We used 1/2″ furring strips that are rivnutted to the ceiling ribs. This will give us plenty of places to screw our ceiling into and get a great “bite”. Each strip had three rivnuts that helped us get the furring strips to sit flush with the slight curve of the roof.
Later we will run screws through our ceiling wood and into these furring strips to keep everything nice and secure.
Cabinet and Bed Framing
We decided to do horizontal cleats around the middle rib as our framing for both our bed and our cabinets. Our original plan was to use rivet nuts here as well but when we realized that my (Gwen’s) fingers were small enough to reach inside the rib we opted for the easier option of bolting through the rib cutouts and using large washers to spread the load.
It worked well, but if you decide to do something similar we highly recommend wearing gloves while you do it because the openings can be sharp and my knuckles were pretty scrapped up in the end!
The last thing we needed to consider was how would we secure our upper cabinets and the tops of our floor-to-ceiling cabinets. For our floor-to-ceiling cabinets, we were able to use the ceiling furring strips and some angle brackets. And for the upper cabinets that will be going over our bed, we will be using a combination of the ceiling strips and a pretty ingenious way of hooking the cabinets onto the upper horizontal rib. But more on both of these when we talk about building cabinets!
Tools for Campervan Framing
- Rivet Nut Tool–This isn’t the exact same tool we have but it’s very similar!
- Kreg Rip-Cut Circular Saw Guide–Not Necessary but super helpful for cutting plywood into strips for framing!
Budget Breakdown
Previous Costs: $15,130.48
Note: All costs are as of April/May 2024
- Rivnuts: $10.99
- 25mm Bolts: $9.99
- 70mm Bolts: $9.99
- Lumber (For Framing and Cabinets): $402.74
New Costs: $433.71
TOTAL COST: $15,537.19
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