choosing a van

For me the choice of van was influenced heavily by my requirement to build a garage area for motorbikes, pushbikes wind / surfboards, canoe's and all the other gear i might want to take with us. many commercially built motorhomes lack this storage space...

The idea of rocking up to a pitch and rolling a motorbike out for day trips is a prospect i have previously dreamed of.

My motorbike is in excess of 2m long so has a pretty big impact on the rest of the useable space. i suppose i could have looked at getting a smaller scooter to fulfill this requirement, but i love my motorbike and dont really have a need for a 2nd.

This meant i was looking for a very long van; which really limited my choices to a LWB sprinter/ crafter or iveco. After chatting to friends who know more about vans than me they urged me towards the sprinter's and crafter's.

after a lot more researcher and many hours searching ebay and autotrader i found a van that seemed well priced, cleanish, relatively new, low mileage and best of all not white (girlie comment i know but IMO these big vans are not quite so offensive in a colour).... whilst i had wanted a sprinter, they were £2k more for a comparable machine. So i succumbed to the relative value of the crafter.

with the benefit of hindsight i'd like to metnion a couple of points about my choice of van;

colour - has a huge affect on internal temperatures. a friend who was also converting a van (he had a white ELWB sprinter) and whilst his was a lot more rusty than mine (partly down to having had more prangs, but also i have read that white one's show rust more than colours) anyway having had both parked practically side by side without any insulation - let me tell you the temperature difference was significant. the darker paints absorb more heat from the sun and then go onto to radiate it out better as well.... so a double bad both for staying cool and keeping warm in winter, if i was buying again i would spend more time and money to get a silver one!

newer is better - if i was to do another one of these vans i would potentially consider getting a brand new one, the reason being you can spec the most comfortable swivel seats from the factory, you can request Leisure batteries, uprated alternator, split charge systems, windows, sunroofs, air conditioning, cruise control, captain seats instead of bench seat etc etc... potentially saving a lot of work and in some cases saving on cost too... there are plenty of items i have purchased for my van that would have been cheaper if spec'd from the factory. the other thing of course is you want the van to last and newer means less chance of having been abused.

aircon - at the time of purchase i viewed aircon as a luxury. and in the uk it probably is, but south of france, italy, those types of places; Air con is less of a luxury and more of a necessity particularly when driving. if i was buying again it would definitely have air con. to retrofit in dash aircon required uprated alternator and costs in excess of £2k

sprinter Vs crafter - with hindsight i wish i had paid a bit more to get the sprinter. being so much more popular than the crafter it is much much easier to get information and parts for. also by all accounts the engine's are quite a bit more efficient with both more power and greater fuel economy. the electrics are simpler as well.

Just about fits on the shared driveway... Just!

and then the reality hits you..... you've just bought a huge van and have no idea where to start!

gates had to be removed to get her in

time to start somewhere - first job - remove the bulkhead!