I’m looking for a new to me van. I’ve got got amwb relay extra hitop and its too big for my needs and rusting away! I’d like a hiace ideally lab but these either seem to be 1999 old bangers or 2010-2012 and too expensive!

Requirement 3 seats up front. Room for 8×4 in back. Reasonable towing limit, ie no 750 kg limit like some of the small transits.

Don’t forget if you’re towing for work of some sort then your total limit of plated max trailer and van weight is 3500kg unless you’ve got a tacho so the lower limit doesn’t really matter for a lot of people.

Yep thanks for the reminder swear of those issues! They are a pain. My towing is all personal

LWB Trafic ?

The problem with the Hiace is hardly anyone buys them new. You won’t get an 8×4 in the SWB so its the LWB only on that count, and from a selection of very few, only an small proportion are LWB.

on the 8×4 criteria only a big question is how you want that sheet to go in. Increasingly van manufacturers are only accommodating them flat on the floor, a rearward sloping bulkhead means you couldn’t have a board on edge strapped to the side of the van. That discounts lots of current vans for me as I’d need to totally unload all my kit each time I wanted to put a sheet in or take it out.

If you’re happy to carry sheets flat then smaller vans would be maybe be

VW transporter I think swb takes a sheet flat ( you can just get an 8×4 in on edge in the LWB)
Merc Vito (on paper sheets will go in flat in the LWB or on edge in the rarer XLWB but they won’t go in the compact)
New shape dispatch/scudo or peugot thingy – the LWB would allow sheets flat on the floor only
The renault trafic and similar will not quite get an 8×4 in flat (2.4m so plasterboard will go in plywood won’t) the LWB will take a sheet on edge.
The LDV vans can take sheets flat but the bulkhead leans back higher up, so a taller stack of sheets would go in

After that its proper transit sized vans – tranny, swb sprinter, boxer.

Verify all that with a tape measure at a dealers though – manufactures figures can’t be trusted and different types of bulkhead may reduce the available length at floor level.

I’d never thought of the sloping bulk head thanks. I was thinking the lab looked like the only option on the hiace front I agree. Flat only in the back is no good as I will probably build some shelves on one side. I was just taking a look at vauxual vivario. A little bigger but still smaller than my mwb relay. It the super high roof the kills the mpg on mine. Any one got any opinions on the vivario? Known problems. The relay has been a rust bucket.

Depends what age you’re buying at with the vivaro (and the nissan/vaux equivalents) – there was a problem with earlier engines having water pool on the top of them and bork the injectors – the top of the engine as also very difficult to get access to so labour charges for injectors and plugs and the like can be very high (as in 3 figures for injectors)

Later 2.0 engines should have that addressed (at least the water problem – still poor access)

Lwb vivaro or low roof, swb tranny are probably your best bet for MPG. The SWB sprinters are better vans thirsty but comparison.

Good info thanks. I thought transits had some similar injector issue?