I’m thinking of getting a MWB or LWB high top van to travel around France, Italy, Portugal ect for the next year but just thinking if I’m missing a trick.

RHD van would be easier to sort out here and camper convert but a bit of a disadvantage on tolls, on my own for blind spots ect..

Also I’m wondering if a big van is going to be a bit clumpy in some of the more remote places (I’ve been down a lot of tiny roads in Italy to get to good places).

So whos done it? LWB, MWB, Smaller van – what do you think?

Stipulation is it has to be big enough to live in with biking and climbing gear and also comfortable enough to work out of 2 days a week and be self sufficient.

Ive had a LWB High Roof van for about 12 years and taken it to Europe countless times.

No problems whatsoever. Tolls are not an issue – just scoot over to the other side, or use the tolls on your side, or get one of those auto toll passes.

Drive at a steady pace and being on the RHS is not an issue, your not going to be racing about trying to overtake so dont worry about it.

Roads are way less busy in Europe. You will benefit from the headroom and space.

I have driven both a LWB VW T4 and a LWB Peugeot Boxer around Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland, including the Black Forest.

The vehicles were only that size out of need, and never once did I think of them as problems.

Honestly, if a LWB high top is what you want, I would say go for it. If you’re not used to the size by the time you get to Dover, you will be within an hour of disembarking on the other side.

EDIT: If you’re already in the UK, you ARE in Europe. Oh. You meant ‘the Continent’.

Nah we’re not in Europe are we – brexit means brexit 😉 I acknowledge were in Europe but don’t have an issue driving around these roads in a rhd 😀

That sounds good. I just don’t see the point in getting a mwb as the fuel economy is the same an the tolls cost the same. I’ve got an auto bleeper from when I was living in France I just haven’t driven anything bigger than a lwb trafic for any period of time so thought a lwb van may have 1 too many blind spots and be an arse to park up / drive down small lanes ect.. but this all sounds promising!

I had lwb, med high in a transit, tall enough for me 5’9 to stand up in, I’d have the length over the height really as it’s much more useful if you can stand up and it’s the extra height that does your economy

I’ve driven a Merc Sprinter (LWB + high top) whilst doing support for a group of roadies riding the Raid Pyrenean, along the length of the Pyrenees from West to East.

No major issues, but the hairpins on the descent of the Col de Pailhères (East side) were interesting!

It was out of season, so not too much traffic and only had one instance of having to reverse uphill.

Had a co-driver, so no issues with tolls, but would have been easy enough to slide across if I’d done it solo.

If anything, the van was too big for just 8 bikes, plus luggage and supplies for a week.

I should have added that my Boxer is also a High Top.

No blind spots, though, as long as you know how to use your mirrors.

We’ve driven our LWB T5.1 down to Italy a few times and it’s fine. We did go over Monte Baldo in 2015 and some of the hairpins took 3 goes to get round and the German couple in an Audi were convinced that we could make our way past them on the inside of a hairpin so I had to be a bit “van driver” at them.

Just remember that if you end up with a twin wheel axle tolls are a lot more if you use them in certain countries.

I think I need the height for storage really, used to only getting 30mpg from my car so it’ll feel fairly good value in a van I’d expect with my life on the road. If possible I’d like to fit a motorbike in the back too!

I was looking at boxers but getting a bit more put off now at my price point (7-8k tops) so looking back at 313 sprinters and lwb transits.. however I have driven a boxer and they are a very comfy drive for such a large vehicle

Toll issues easily fixed with a TAG.
Much less queuing too.
What you looking for? A mate has a load of ex DPD vans going for not a lot…

Not a lot between a mwb sprinter and LWB transit, not all wheelbases are equal.
Vans tend to benefit from big mirrors, taken an XLWB Iveco Daily down a lot of small lanes and between houses, squeezed it down docks and off-roaded it across country estates.

Knowing a couple of people that have converted them, ducato/relay/boxer easily take underslung tanks for water and gas.

Whats the deal with the DPD vans DT?

That was on my next check list to check wheelbases – the boxer is the only one I know about as I was interested due to its width and having the bed sideways instead of long ways.

I’m pretty much open to anything that will be reliable and doesn’t look trashed anything xlwb is out of the question for me though 😀

boxers ect seem a little out of my budget for a decent one. My mate managed to get a 56 plate lwb silver boxer with 60k on the clock for £6500 a few years ago but looking now there is nothing close to that for the price.

I bought an ex-school minibus for £5000 three years ago.

It is a 03 reg, and had 60K on the clock when I bought it. It’s still going strong, and I am just now looking at renovating the interior so that it is more comfortable to travel long distances in.

My LWB Trafic Crew was £8k+vat a few years ago with only 72k
Struggle to find one now close to that.
Prices for certain Ines have jumped.
A manual would be even more.
Should really shift it on

They are all Sprinters, some are high milage some lower.
No mistaking the DPD ones have done the rounds but will have been serviced as required.
He has stock for all budgets TBH.
Email in profile and I can give you the details of the guy I know if you are interested.

We’ve got a LWB, high-roof Transit and have had very few problems abroad.
The motorway tolls are a pain if you are on your own but you can avoid that in France with a electric thingy (mentioned above). Getting down little lanes is easy enough, it’s the Austin Powers-esque 47 point turn which can be a bind but you get much more of that in the UK if you go down to little beaches etc.

If you can get a van with cruise control and a 6spd box it will make cruising along the motorways/A-roads a lot easier and probably slightly better fuel economy. Most modern vans have fantastic mirrors nowadays but reversing sensors/camera would be great addition to any vehicle.

The only major issue with a van that size is parking it in town centres but that is the same here. We just park on the edge of town when visiting nice little villages. Or on the street rather than in the supermarket car park.

In France anything over 2m is subject to higher toll prices. Anyhthing under 2m is the same as a car.

These are useful:
https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/
https://www.theaa.com/european-breakdown-cover/driving-in-europe/country-by-country

We have a LWB high top Fiat Ducato camper which we take to the continent every year, two of us, two MTBs, gear, clothing etc, no problem at all. Its a right hand drive but I find it no problem at all, even the tolls are easy, some have payment points on the right hand side of the lane for UK drivers, but if not its no issue to unclip the seat belt and slid accross to the passenger seat, might take a few seconds longer but hey ho. Blind spots aren’t really an issue either, the Fiat has huge mirrors so rear vision is pretty good. We wild camp so tend to stay off the beaten track on smaller roads, if your a confident, competent driver, its a doddle. The worst experience I had was when the the sat nav took me down some very tight roads in Surrey, scary!

As above – a Sanef tag makes life so much easier on the peage, although stores up pain for the month after when you’re back at home. Be quite careful with the tag placement though, I put ours on the windscreen as the instructions recommended and it was too high to be read by the gate but fortunately I had a second mount and with a bit of experimentation found where it would reliably trigger the gates which was at least 8″ lower.

No more blindspots in a LWB van over a MWB. You can get a van pretty much anywhere a car can go as long as you’ve got half an idea how to manoeuvre it. The only exception that that is the LWB Renault Masters with their shockingly bad steering lock, the ones at work are trashed but as soon as you give the guys a Transit or Ducato, they magically stop getting dents and losing trim panels.

I’ve got an Iveco (not the most refined of the vans by a longshot, and with some careful planning, my sideways bed looks like it will be a minimum of 6’1″.

You also want to consider which wheels do the driving, RWD is slightly less likely to get stuck, but FWD have much lower floors, and often the overall height is less as a result.

Got a Sanef tag here too, makes things much easier. Apparently if you get one from one of the French tunnel operators, the fee’s are cheaper. Sanef is the UK seller and the cost is a bit more. Eurotunnel also do a deal on the Tags.

This may help, anything over 3m or 3.5 tonnes gets expensive on the tolls.

https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/what-is-liber-t

We have a camper that is 2.92m high. the French make them that high to get under the limit. First year was great with no problems at the tolls.
Last year we could get on them but not off as the tag is for a class 2.
Managed to blag our way through France and back but on checking with them we had put a roof aerial on which took us over the height. Lowered the aerial down so we are still under and on the last trip it worked great

You can still use the tag with an overheight vehicle, you just go to a manned booth and hand it over so they can scan it as the correct (more expensive) class.

FYI the French tags I think are only cheaper on specific sections of the tolls.. ie the management company of a specific toll give a discount using tags sourced from them but its not much. I’d be more put off with the exchange rates the UK tag would get you but its probably not worth setting up a French bank account over!

Thanks for the info – thats the luton out of the question and my thoughts on why a master is so cheap!

This couple seem to manage something a fair bit bigger than a lab van! (Would be too big for me but interesting way to pay for your life!)

[video]https://youtu.be/ehKAkRbP43k[/video]

Do lots of trips I’m my swb. If I was going to do a year and buy a van for it definitely lwb high top.

No probs with the length of the vehicle when driving our LWB Vivaro around France (many trips to the Alps), Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Austria.

The only issue we have is with height limits and widths of spaces when wanting to park up in towns and cities. There are a lot of cities who have predominantly underground parking so you just have to plan a bit or be prepared to drive around until you find a space.

I was given a round of applause by a bunch of Swedes after successfully managing to get out of a tight space in a tight car park at Lake Garda, with a load of Italians beeping desperately wanting get in to my space and the one a little further down the car park.

Vivaros are more like car’s I used to drive transfer vans in the alps and they used lwb trafic so I’m not so worried about that kinda van it’s more the lwb sprinters which are proper massive!

I’m going to risk it for a biscuit though and commit to a big one!

I have an L3h2 Boxer (Ducato/Entrprise) Once you learn where the corners are it’s no more of a problem then a very large car or a LWB T5. Only problem we’ve encountered is underground parking and height restricted car parks as we’re 2.7m tall with the roof lights.

Remember your pollution sticker for access to more city centres.

The police are taking a soft approach to visitors at present but intend to enforce more rigorously in future. A few music touring companies have been fined and were not aware some congestion schemes even existed outside the well known ones.

Blatant sales plug but im selling my 07 plate Transit LWB, was a mess/welfare van but now fully stripped bare interior apart from the two factory fit side windows. 100k miles, owned for 3 years. email in profile.

A little too small for me sorry Rusty I want to put the bed sideways

Afraid thats where the Transit has its shortcomings, there is a big structural beams that run around the van above and below the window positions. With a larger RWD van, this means the bed has to go fairly low resulting in a very small garage.

I’ve just fitted the bed in my Iveco at around 850mm above the floor, making the garage just big enough but keeping a decent length for the bed.

I drove a camper that was basically the biggest thing you can drive on a “B” license. (3.5 tonne) It was a pain on twisty roads and in old towns because of its size. A bit bigger than a high top LWB transit. Great as a camper, poor to drive on anything but major roads. I almost got it stuck in a small town in the Netherlands