Room to spread out.

Both share the same open layout and the same way of living in the van. The Summit is the medium wheelbase version — more agile, easier to park, and the right choice if a compact footprint matters to you. The Arête takes that layout onto a long wheelbase, which gives you more living space, a permanent shower room rather than a fold-away cubicle, and the option of a third berth. If you love the Summit but want more room, the Arête is the answer.

The Arête is built around two people, with the option of an occasional third. The Mesa is built around four — four permanent belted seats, a layout designed for a family, and a different kitchen arrangement to suit it. If your travelling is mostly two of you with the occasional extra, the Arête keeps the van open and roomy for the two of you. If you regularly carry and sleep a family of four, the Mesa is built for that from the ground up.

The Arête has a permanent dedicated shower room — a full fixed enclosure with shower and composting toilet, there whenever you want it with no setup. There’s also an outdoor shower connection at the rear for rinsing kit, wetsuits, and dogs.

Two as standard, on the king-sized lengthways sliding bed. The optional Onyx pop-top adds a third berth in the elevated roof section. If you want to carry a third person on the road as well, an optional third belted seat is available, and it folds away when it is not in use. Four-berth, four-seat use is the Mesa’s territory — the Arête is a two-berth that flexes to three.

A composting toilet separates liquid and solid waste, which is what prevents odour. Used correctly — and they’re simple to use — a composting toilet in a well-ventilated van is odour-free in normal use, and most owners stop thinking about it within the first week. The practical advantages over a cassette toilet are real: no chemicals, no cassette to empty at a disposal point, and no dependency on campsites.

The Arête runs a full Victron off-grid electrical system with 400Ah of LiFePO4 lithium capacity, roof-mounted solar, and diesel heating that runs from the main fuel tank rather than the battery. In practical terms that’s several days of comfortable use without solar input, and indefinitely with reasonable sun. Additional battery capacity and solar are available for extended trips.

Yes — it’s built for year-round use across the UK and Europe. The van is insulated throughout, the water tanks are insulated and heated, and the diesel heating runs from the main fuel tank with no gas cylinder to run out of on a cold night.

Yes. The Arête is built on a 4,000kg gross weight base vehicle as standard, which puts it above the 3,500kg limit covered by a standard Category B car licence. Driving it needs C1 entitlement, which covers vehicles between 3,500kg and 7,500kg.

If you passed your car test before 1 January 1997, you will almost certainly have C1 already — it is listed in the categories on the back of your photocard, and it is worth checking there before anything else. If you passed after that date, C1 is a separate entitlement: a medical, a theory test and a practical test, usually completed over a few days.

We would rather you knew this at the enquiry stage than at handover. The base vehicle specification can be changed, so if C1 is a problem, raise it on your discovery call and we will work through the options and what each one means for payload. C1 entitlement on a UK licence is recognised across the EU.

The MAN TGE isn’t the most familiar choice — most people arrive expecting a Sprinter — but it’s the right platform for what we build, and the reasons are practical.

Against the Sprinter, it’s comparable in quality and capability at a slightly lower base price, which means more of your budget goes into the build rather than the base vehicle.

Against the VW Crafter, the more important difference is support. The MAN TGE is the commercial vehicle version of the same platform, which means it’s backed by MAN’s truck dealer network — service centres across the UK and throughout Europe. For a van you’re taking seriously into remote places, that network matters in a way it doesn’t for a van that stays close to home.

We’ve driven other platforms. We kept coming back to this one.

The MAN TGE base vehicle comes with a three-year manufacturer warranty through the MAN dealer network across the UK and Europe. The Onyx build is covered by a one-year Onyx warranty, and Victron components carry their own manufacturer warranty. Every completed build also comes with a free three-month check-up.

Yes. Every Arête goes through an Individual Vehicle Approval process and is registered from new as a motorhome. A panel van registration option is available if preferred and comes with a small discount on the build price. It’s worth understanding the insurance and usage implications of each before you decide.