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Me and Ms AD are thinking of buying a Bongo as a first camper van. As most of our camping trip involve biking, is this going to be a good van? Looks like we could get 2 bikes inside quite easily, or stick a tow bar rack on it, which I guess would block the rear door?
I want something fairly small that might be OK as our only car. The one I'm thinking of buying has a full width rock and roll bed, fridge, sink and leisure battery. No cooker and not much cupboard space, but that leaves more room for the usual junk in bags and our climbing gear for multi purpose trips.
Any thing else I should know or be thinking about. Budget under £6k.
cheers
heavy on fuel by all accounts......
about 30mpg max, as long as you get a 2 wheel drive.
beware cracked cylinder heads. the cooling system needs to be bled rather than just filled up and doing this wrong leads to overheating and cracked cylinder heads. I was thinking about getting one, but you can get just as good T25s for the same money, and they're bigger, and the engines run for eternity...
got a 2wd high top with split fold rear seats and its been round europe and all over the uk with no problems, gets a bit juicy if you cane it 80-90mph on the moterway but if you keep it to 70 or under its a lot better and its very carlike to drive, its no wider or longer than a mondeo so you can get in most spaces but watch height barriers in multi stories, it will take 2 bikes with wheels and my record is 5 bikes and 5 peaple (wheels off) and me and mrs frequently go to the lakes with 2 canoes on roof 2 bikes all canoe gear bike gear 3 dogs and loads of camping gear and its all good, i love mine 
mine has been great,, we went up the westcoast of scotland this year 2 peeps 2 bikes 2 spanials ,, and wetsuits etc
ours is the std 4wd one with all the seats which fold flat, but for this trip we unbolted the middle seat and put the dawg cage in with enought room behind for bikes, we did look at converted ones but thought they were a bit cramped and restrictive we also have a drive away awning
we have found the ecomomy gets much worse over 70mph so stay
i would recommend it and would certainly buy another
got a 4wd hitop- 30mpg ish on the motorway. Only had it since June but done a lot of miles, including a big trip through Europe for a few weeks. Hitop will let you keep the bikes downstairs and sleep up.
It's narrower than our Mazda6, and easier to drive, though suffers a bit from bodyroll. 30mpg on the motorway at about 70.
The coolant problem is a bit of an overplayed issue- the problem is that if there's a coolant loss, in the hose say, the temp gauge doesn't respond quickly enough, which can lead to warping of the alloy head before being noticed- I've fitted a coolant temp alarm to mine, which is a very common and simple mod.
oh, ours was £3600, one uk owner, less than 130000 km, waxoyled, full UK service history. Join bongofury before buying, and pref buy off there- there's a lot of rubbish for sale. You'll probably find somebody on the website to look at vans with you as well, wherever you are in the country.
Done the deal and bought it, so now looking for some post purchase reassurance! It's got a coolant alarm fitted already.
Finally get to do that 7 Stanes / Torridon trip next year, then a month around the Alps.
I dont suppose anyone knows whether I will be able to open the boot with bikes attached to a Thule Ride-On bike carrier?
Any one want to by a gert massive awning for £200?
We've had one for six months now; it's great. As well as being a super campervan it's also an excellent base for day trips providing somewhere private to get changed, have a brew or a snooze.
Ours is unconverted; we didn't get a converted one to save a bit of cash but after six months I don't think we'll bother as it's great that we can camp in it just fine as it is and we can also fit eight people in too! Having an awning gives you lots of room; having a separate sleeping compartment upstairs also means you can keep loads of stuff downstairs or keep the living space / sleeping space separate. And it means someone can do stuff downstairs while someone else is still asleep upstairs!
They're lovely to drive, a very relaxed cab, handle well and are as powerful as you need. Ours gets me to work and back on days I don't take the bike; as Khani says it's smaller in terms of width and length than a Vectra estate.
My mate has a Bongo with a Thule tow bar mounted carrier and I'm 99% sure you can't open the boot with bikes on the rack. It has never been a problem though as with his set-up you can access everything you need via the side door. Does mean you can't shelter underneath the boot lid though I suppose.
blimey deal done 🙂
you didn't take long to think about it,
anyway my brother bought one a few months ago, £3100 with 60000 miles on it,
and thinks it's great,
it's a little thirsty,
very versatile car!
enjoy!
I think you need to service Bongo's pretty regularly and you need to take the front seat out to do so. There a bit heavy on the fuel and probs with overheating otherwise a good van. Those probs put me off and I bought a commercial Mercedes vito van and got it converted it to my spec professionally. Everything done including roof box for further trips was around £5800, had to wait a while for it all to be done which was a pain. Not sure I would use a Bongo as my main run around though. Every van has there probs and I hope your happy and enjoy the van.
not botherd about converting it as the ones i've seen its killed all the room in the back and i like the space, i've had 3 seater settees, single beds all sorts of crap in the back of mine, with the rear seats folded up and the middles down its mahoosive for shifting stuff, the downside is peaple you know will use you like a man with van for hire (without the hire bit :cry:) but its perfect for a quicky weekend with the bike- me in roof, bike in back, kettle and toaster, all good 😀
Get a Fammia carry-bike rack fitted onto the rear door - takes 4 bikes & you can still open the door.
Had a full conversion for just over 4 years, love it. Been to the Alps, south of France, Vendee etc & also use it a lot for races.
Only downside is that it's thirsty - 20mpg if you're doing more than 3krpm on a run (80ish).
Any one want to by a gert massive awning for £200?
Possibly, can't see an email in your profile - drop me a line.
20mpg 😯 My diso used to do more than that hammering it down the motorway.
It's a shame they're not more economical as one would make a great biking motor.
mine is my daily driver , it's great for walking the dawgs and shopping,,
you have so many options with seats , full 8 seater , and still space for climbing gear ,, i do find it easy to park, as it's smaller than my last merc estate ,,
it's not as cool as my old splitscreen vw but it was a bit boring driving around at 50mph
cnat see any reason not to use it as your daily car,, except I should be cycling to work
We seriously looked at Bongos but were put off by all the problems mentioned. We eventually went for an old T25 which had been LPGed. Its v. thirsty but of course LPG is 50p-ish a litre which equates to about 35-40 mpg. I know there are a lot of Bongo specialists out there but not a patch on the veeDub network for reasonably cheap parts etc.