The short answer
Most van conversions are expensive because they are built like furniture — one at a time, by hand, with measuring and fitting on the van itself. Timber builds like a manufacturer: CNC-milled from our own CAD files, made to order, in one Boulder facility. Removing hand-prototyping, rework, and supplier lead times is what puts the Camp at $31,485 instead of $47,950 — without changing the materials.
When people ask how our conversions cost less than comparable builds, they usually expect one of two answers: cheaper materials, or offshore labour. It is neither. It is how the parts get made.
This is the least glamorous post on this blog, and it is the one that explains the price.
What lean manufacturing actually means
Lean is a manufacturing philosophy that came out of Toyota in the post-war period, and its core idea is unglamorous: identify everything in a process that does not add value to the customer, and remove it.
The classic waste categories are worth naming, because a van shop generates all of them:
- Overproduction — building inventory nobody has ordered yet.
- Waiting — a van sitting in a bay while a part is in transit.
- Transport — moving components between facilities and suppliers.
- Over-processing — measuring, fitting, trimming, and re-cutting work that a correct file would have made unnecessary.
- Inventory — capital tied up in parts sitting on a shelf.
- Motion — a builder walking across a shop for a tool, forty times a day.
- Defects — rework, which is the most expensive waste because you pay for the work twice.
Why a hand-built van is expensive
Here is the traditional process. A van arrives. A builder measures the actual vehicle, cuts panels to fit, offers them up, trims, fits again, and screws them in. Cabinets are built on a bench and adjusted on the van. Every conversion is effectively a prototype.
That produces beautiful work and it produces four expensive things at once: skilled labour hours spent measuring rather than assembling, offcut waste from cutting oversize and trimming down, variation between vans that makes support harder forever, and rework whenever a piece is cut wrong.
Craftsmanship-by-eye is genuinely a skill. It is just an expensive way to make the hundredth identical part.
What we do instead
Every Timber component starts as a CAD file. It is cut on our own CNC machines in our facility at 1901 Central Avenue in Boulder, Colorado, to a tolerance the file guarantees rather than a tolerance a tape measure allows.
Four consequences follow directly:
- Parts fit each other, not just the van. Our bed system matches the curvature of our panels because both came off the same drawing. Our water tanks are shaped for the space they occupy rather than being a rectangular box we built a cabinet around.
- Assembly replaces fabrication. In a DIY kit build, cabinetry week is a week of putting labelled, pre-drilled parts together — not a week of cutting. That is the same reason it takes about thirty evenings rather than a season.
- Made to order, not to stock. We do not carry a warehouse of finished cabinetry hoping it matches demand. The file is the inventory.
- Repeatability becomes support. Because van number four hundred is identical to van number four, we can diagnose a problem over the phone and ship the exact right part.
Precision is cheaper than craftsmanship-by-eye once you have built the tooling. That is the whole insight.
Where the money actually goes instead
The savings do not come out of the van. They go back into it. Precision-cut Baltic birch instead of big-box ply. High-pressure laminate instead of an oil finish that needs annual maintenance. Marine-grade refrigeration instead of RV-market components built for occasional use.
You can see the outcome in the side-by-side comparison: the Camp at $31,485 against comparable models at $38,800 and $47,950, with more chassis options and a modular bed neither includes.
The tenth-year argument
There is one more benefit that has nothing to do with price, and it is the one we care most about.
Because every component is our own design cut from a file we own, a replacement panel or cabinet door in year ten is a production run — not an archaeology project, not a discontinued part, not a “we would have to make that by hand now.” A hand-built van is only as supportable as the memory of the person who built it.
That is also why we manufacture domestically: proximity to your supplier is proximity to your ability to fix a problem.
Come look at it
The machines are real and you are welcome to watch them run. 1901 Central Avenue, Boulder, weekdays 8–4 Mountain. Or start with a DIY kit or a full conversion.
Frequently asked questions
What is lean manufacturing?
A production philosophy originating at Toyota that identifies and removes everything in a process that does not add value to the customer — overproduction, waiting, transport, over-processing, excess inventory, unnecessary motion, and defects requiring rework.
Why are camper van conversions so expensive?
Most are effectively prototypes. Builders measure each vehicle, cut panels to fit, trim, and adjust on the van, so skilled labour goes into measuring and rework rather than assembly. That process cost, not material cost, is what drives most conversion pricing.
How does Timber keep conversion costs down?
By manufacturing rather than hand-building: every component is CNC-milled from Timber’s own CAD files in one Boulder facility, made to order. That removes hand-prototyping, offcut waste, rework, and supplier lead times without changing the materials used.
Does CNC manufacturing mean lower quality?
No — the opposite. A CNC-cut part holds the tolerance its file specifies, so every unit is identical. That repeatability is also what makes long-term support possible, since a replacement part years later is simply the same file cut again.
Are Timber van kits made in the USA?
Yes. Panels, cabinetry, galleys, water tanks, and structural assemblies are CNC-milled at Timber’s own facility at 1901 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado.