Cycling UK Forum

Maybe some more clues from the OP would be useful.

Price, age of vehicle, windows, average distance and frequency of use would be a good start.

Until then..............

People carrier with rear seats out and boxes to fill the foot wells maybe? Enlarges the choice and market somewhat, adds to the luxury element and may remove some van restrictions e.g. some camp sites don't like them, nor do some wives.

My friend's just bought a Citroen Berlingo, with a view to using it for camping. Both rear passenger doors slide and its pretty voluminous, without being van-sized. Usual Citroen quality ie dependable without appearing that well-made, but the jewel in the crown is the hdi diesel which is both reasonably lusty and, she says, nails 50mpg. Depends whether you want to use this fuel, which is on its way out, one way or another...

mattsccm wrote:People carrier with rear seats out and boxes to fill the foot wells maybe?

That's we'd do, and did, with two Espaces for a quarter of a century.
Low load floor.
Drives like a car.
Seven adults inside when needed.
And Windcheetah straight in with no problems.

It's greatest triumph was four up with two bikes on top and two recumbent trikes and all the panniers inside to Passau for the Danube trail.

Jonathan

There's a lot of Vauxhall Vivaro/Renault Traffic (same van different badge) vans about. Mid-sized van, easily get a couple of bikes and kit in but not too big. As vans go, not too thirsty either if you drive them gently. A lot of them about so lots of choice, but beware with the older Vivaro/Traffic the water off the windscreen went into engine bay and seized the injectors into the block so replacing failed injectors can be very difficult/specialist/costly. Vans also tend to have better set up for mirrors etc than big cars.

You might be surprised at how well modern vans drive, especially the smaller ones. They're usually all FWD, drive like a big car and often have some nice cabs. Staying away from the VW cult makes things much more affordable, and a good local independant garage should do a good job on something like a transit or vivaro as they're common enough for a local garage to have all the kit to work on them and plenty practice. A smaller/mids size van (under 3 tonne) is easier as most garage vehicle lifts are up to 3 tonne.

If you've secret hankering after a camper type van, a long-wheelbase high top FWD Big Van can be good value. So long as you steer away from the Sprinters (usually thrashed by couriers, rust easily) and choose carefully you can get a lot of van for a sensible sum. VW Crafter is a nice van, but Renault Master (= Vaux Movano), the Peugeot Boxter or the Ducato equivalent are often better value. Fleets of (non-coachbuilt) ex-ambulances can be a good bet as they have been well maintained and often have useful things already installed like night heaters and leisure battery/auxiliary electrics. Some ex-police tactical vehicles too. But probably no insulation even if lined out. Also, driving a big van is a different experience to the mid-range vans and fewer garages have the bigger vehicle lifts to work on them. Again if you get a van with a decent size engine and more gears you might be surprised at how well they do fuel-wise if driven sensibly on a long run.

In all cases if a newer van, look for something that was used for longer (ideally m-way) trips not solely locally as otherwise the DPF might need replacing/cleaning- again costly. If it's from a big blue-chip corporate (ex-Utility) chances are it had driver monitoring kit in so less likely to have been thrashed.

For the record, I have a LWB Movano used only when essential for work, it was originally a crew welfare vehicle from a railway/civils company complete with lining out, night heater and splitter. Having found that it's a good overnight vehicle (I overnight in it when working away) but chilly as not insulated, I have spent the winter renovating it- insulating it and redoing it. Got sorted just in time as I am still working away quite regularly and hotel rooms even for us key workers are difficult to find.

TPO