My little white van is going

Bought the replacement battle bus today today.

Collect it Tuesday. It’s a whopping 7.140m long it’s bigger than my garage.

It may only do 60mph And 22ish mpg but it was fairly priced and does what I need without being in the 10s of thousands…..

Has blown air heating and gas stoves – fridge -plumbed in water In the smev unit and the toilet sink- yes it has a thetford cartridge unit in a cludgy. Properly plumbed in led lighting and leisure batteries with proper control panels.

The van has 97k on the clock backed up by the old mots and drives like a van that has 100k on the clock – IE like a shiny new one did when it was 12 years ago. No mistaking it was a van but when you have your bed on your back there’s no need to go fast.

Looking forward to some adventures in it. (After I’ve given it a clean up and replaced both the rooflites which have been sealed shut and cleaned up the under side and get it treated as I would my land rover as it’s tidy ATM but in 5 years time I’m sure it’ll be looking tatty if I don’t start now)

More pics to follow.

edit – apparently photos are ambitious for me these days….. bare with me.

Edit edit – fingers crossed this time….

Love it, puts my wee vivaro to shame. My father in law has just finished a sprinter conversion and I really envy the space he has got. But as my van is my only vehicle then I think I have the best compromise. Enjoy all the adventures 🙂

Iveco Daily ?

Probably a Parcelforce van originally.

I’ve van envy with that one. If I had the space, I’d have one of those for trips out and have my Vivaro for days out and tip runs etc

year daily 35s12

heavy on fuel but less rusty and less prone to terminal rust that some of the other BIG options – ie sprinter and transit XLs which all seem to be silly rusty at young ages.

it has parcelforce heritage. the milage doesnt really correlate with it being a delivery van though especially with the mots backing up the milage. the story goes it was part of a cancelled order of parcelforce vans and the conversion co bought a number of them. When i was googling there are quite a number of red vans with the same layout(which is a strange layout imo having the toilet AND the garage. which suggests it probably has some credence although as it was the previous owner telling me this and with no paperwork to back it up sceptical cat is sceptical how ever i must say when i looked at the van – even as cynical as i am my spidy senses were not tingling re it being abused or dodgy in any way. Seemed an honest van that had got rough around the edges , the previous owner was an older retired fella who didnt seem to be as fleet as he probably once was so unable to do the work needed i reckon.

Yay, you got it! Glad this one didn’t turn out to be a wasted trip.

As I said it looks a beast, if it was just the two of us I’d have something like that in a heartbeat.

More pics please….this is what mrs_oab and I need IMO.

When it’s home on Tuesday I’ll get some better ones. That was just the sellers

Looks great, and vaguely familiar which isn’t surprising if a company did a batch of cancelled parcelforce vans.

If it feels at all wobbly or unstable, check the antiroll bar bushes at the back, they are cheap and the whole bar comes off so easy to change. Made a huge difference on my 2005 van, and I noticed they are starting to go on my current van which is 2014 with just 15k on it.

Trailrat, how did you link your blog to your username?

I like it. I have buddies that use these for MX and they swear by them. As you know people who do engines like to be able to fix their own.

I just put the link into the URL box on profile but that was 10+ years ago……Really should change that now I don’t race (for any more than fun) nor update it any more

Wish I’d had this van when I was racing 🙂

I miss my 35s12 camper van. That also had the rear ARB bushes go.

The big heavy side doors seem to need frequent adjustment to keep the closing properly.

MPG was a little better than 22, mid 20’s typically, to high 20’s on a run, that was a MWB.

If it’s not getting frequent (weekly) use leave the handbrake off. This is good practice with anything, but the rear calipers on these are prone to being a bit sticky.

Aye cheers for heads up mark90

That’s a matter course when you own French I rarely use hand brake at home as I work away so 5 weeks static and it’s stuck on…..

Is there anything I can strip and lube on the rear brakes to make it less prone to sticking ….I’ll be investigating possibilities anyway when I get it home.

Anyway for now I have a list of jobs that built up while I was away to get working through so I get van time next week 🙂

The handbrake is a mechanical linkage to the rear hydraulic caliper. So the usual keeping all the linkage free and greased up, the cables running free. I had a sticky cable on one side, and also a sticky piston on the same side. Not sure if the piston was a result of the sticky cable and it not retracting/releasing properly for a period of time. Ended up replacing both the cables and one caliper. Being a camper and not getting such frequent use probably a contributing factor. Though have know others with handbrake/rear caliper issues on these.

Hopefully the bodywork is good, I think the paint is better on the coloured vans than the white ones like mine, which had a thin/poor coat of paint, especially the roof.

Waiting for the rest of the photos 🙂

I ended up changing both rear callipers. I noticed the first one whilst filling up with diesel, noticed a funny smell so turned around to see the rear wheel smoking right by the pump!

Keep the sliders greased!

They often have paint issues above the windscreen, apparently the robot paint arms couldn’t quite reach so the paint is thinner there!

got a big tube of ceramic slider lube. Will be sure to check the condition of them when I get it home.

Equally the load sensing valve.

The front of the roof looks pretty good on mine as does the joint in the roof……I didn’t have. Aladder so I just reversed the berlingo next to it and jumped on the bingo roof 🙂

That looks really quite nice – I’m semi hankering after another camper.
Would love to see more pictures when you get it home.

Am liking the notion of a toilet sink Trailrat…I guess most campers with sinks fall into that category 😯

Brilliant, I love these threads. Watching with jealous/dreamy eyes.

@trail_rat

You shouldn’t need to worry bout the brakes sticking on while your away, potato and I are already in kahoots about taking it out weekend about when it is not in use by u 😉

So are my parents.

They have notions of going to France in it at end of April. That’s not happening.

Needs a bit of work before that happens.

Rooflites fitted , timing belt , water pump ,full service , ( both standard for any vehicle I buy) couple of warning lights to put out , reversing camera since the rear doors are in another timezone , get the rear appliances tested and generally get a feel for the vehicle. I wouldn’t drive it to France in april my self tbh can only tell so much from a short test drive.

well i got it home, drives well for its size. Its not without its faults – i’m not a rich git so i accept compromises and am willing to put in work to get what i want. – its fuel consumption is attrocious at best(but i suspect a good service will alleviate some of that – it feels a bit strangled at full throttle) – its got a little bit of a mould thing going on at the rear due to the leaky roof lite (but nothing serious) its got a few loose panels and such that im going to tend to quick smart and some design flaws that ive identified and am planning fixes for. First up is to get it dried out and water tight -worry about the rest after thht step.

4 inches to spare at each end and even with all terrain tires on the back it didn’t want to go across the flat grass !

Wife wasn’t too happy
when i wanted to see on the roof…..Just stood on top of her berlingo 🙂

Got it home last night , drives really well for he size of it.

Needs a good service and belts/pumps etc doing.

Heater is stuck on – it’s a Truma trumatic and seemingly it’s a stuck relay in the control panel from research.

The front bed panel needs bracing.

There is a water pipe off the back of the toilet sink which i found when i turned the pumps on.

Both roof lights are banjod

I’ve got the dehumidifier in there just now drying it out – while my new roof lights get shipped. There is some mold/mildew that needs a good scrub and a varnish.

In all not too many surprises i hadn’t seen when viewing.

Be in good shape for europe next summer i think , this summers already planned and it involves long distance biking 😀

crack on with it I need it ready by May

It looks like a tram with the electricity pylon in the roof! That should ease the deisel costs!

Moss on your patio could do with being treated.

patio….. thats a stretch 😀 im hoping the moss takes over then i can just cut it like grass 😀

Toilet looks a bit cramped. Btw, that squeezy bottom ain’t for soap.

youve lost me dave…

its a thetford cartridge unit – that little cupboard behind the generator in the garage is the gas unit and inside that is another cupboard for the thetford to slide in and out of …..camper van rules = NO POO ALLOWED 😉

but yeah its a propper tiny little cludgy im not sure my shoulders fit in it haha.

first order of stuff gone in for a new roof light for the front – fiamma 40×40 crystal vent. I was investigating with a screw driver yesterday and for the rear one it looks to be in good nick and is a mini heki S with blind and fly screen so i think i am going to reuse that – its the bodged sealing round it thats been leaking rather than the roof light its self.

Need to get some PVC window board to make the roof level and also a reinforcing ring out of ply for the inside – that should solve it.

one thing that became apparent last night that it was cold when i got in but with just the dehumidifier going it get warm quick. Its got 3cm kingspan on the roof at least.

Yes I was implying that the garage was the cludgie, would be amusing to see you stooped over in there. Stupid autocorrect changed button to bottom, was talking about the chemical flush.

And we’ll see how long that rule lasts, its really not as bad as the whingers make out so long as you actually dose it properly. Beats freezing your arse off in the wilds and pissing rain. And better than dealing with shitty nappies.

The Heki S is a decent rooflight…I use glazing silicone to seal it. Get a strip of UPVC and cut sections out of it and bed them down in the roof grooves to make a level surface, then another fat bead to bed the rooflight down onto.

I bought the Midi’s for my latest van, pretty much run out of space on the roof with two of those and two solar panels!

P.S Toyo H09’s are about the most aggressive tyre you can put on your 15″ wheels.

The swooshes on the side really do a great job of disguising the shape. Is it about the same size as a LWB T5?

That’s wayyyy bigger than a T5 LWB Shifter, by about 2m!

That vanlooksalmost identical to one that was itched up next to us last summer the seller doesn’t fit the description of the family next door so there must be at least a couple about.

The interior in the one I saw was straight out of an Eldis motorhome. Exactly the same as my MiL’s van.

It looked a good layout, decent room, good sized garage.

Is that 2metres or 2 miles…..

It’s visible from space.

A whole lot more van for less than a 1/3rd of the price of a comparribly decked out t5 and the space is more usable.

My number 1 was i must be able to stand in it at 6ft 3 my second was bikes must be inside -that instantly writes off swb t5s with a conversion in. And thirdly i wanted a fixed bed and storage space for gear. I just saw a t5 getting cramped and expensive quickly.

It’s not my primary mode of transport like most folks t5s so i won’t be hammering the miles into it either.

If it doesn’t get the use of anticipate I’ll sell it on. It’s a big beast to keep on the drive.

Cheers BBS

Got previous owners details off log book half tempted to see if i can get hold of him see if he can shed any light on its history… Always nice to know a little more he had it for 10 years

Hit the black spots with mould killer/cleaner…..Almost all of it gone…… Will hit it again later and i reckon it’ll be back spik and span. Picked up some UPC while I was out and orders some of that non settings bedding mastic the lads on homebuilt camper talk fondly of….And a few tubes of sikaflex. While I’m in about I’m going to reseal the side window as well just to be sure to be sure like.

Should get my fiamma 40*40 tomorrow for above the living area and assuming decent weather I’ll have a go at fitting that before I disturb the mini heki and end up with a totally unsealed van 🙂

I was trying to be funny; clearly I failed miserably 🙁

Ah well good effort 🙂

The high density foam has cleaned up and looks like new and the side window blinds have been dismantled , cleaned up and reassembled . Now the fly screen works as designed 🙂

Small jobs but they are ticking off the list at least.

Most of the soft furnishings are in the house while I work on it. But yeah black and white piped leather is the colour scheme…..Boak. more money than taste who ever converted it. I’ll make some throws for the seats for now and put water proof covers in the front

Heading back to my folks in it this weekend get hand off my pops to seal the roof lights and windows. Extra hands needed

Anyone any ideas on this button ?

3 way rocker not checked it’s wired up yet but it doesn’t seem to do owt.

I guess at load bay fan/ventilation