If you can, fit a wind-out awning rather than using a gazeebo. You won't have water pouring through the drainage channel between the gazeebo & the van door - which will soak inside the van, and you every time you pass through on a wet day. It's also easier for one person to assemble/dismantle, and stores itself.
Bit left of field but from someone who has spent many weekends in the UK and abroad at race events over the last 8 years I wouldn't rule out an older motorhome with a big garage at the rear. We can get 4 29ers with wheels on and no turning the bars in ours. It will have everything you will need at hand for the event. Cost will be a more but the savings on accommodation should offset some of it. When you aren't at events is still comes in handy for family weekends away. They don't depreciate as much as a van so should benefit from that if you want to move it on.
RustyNissanPrairie
Full MemberPeople talking about smaller vans above – remember this is for racing out of, so bike in bits, bike stand, tyres, pump/compressor, tool box, riding gear strewn about, plus the days living stuff – fridge, food boxes, change of clothing. It’s a lot more ‘stuff’ when racing than just going riding for the day. Bad weather also forces that stuff to be inside the van where you’ll be hunched over trying to spanner a bike in a low roof midi van.
Compromise though innit, the big full-race with potential to set up a workshop inside van can also be a complete pain the balls when just on a day trip somewhere that doesn’t have a massive field (or whatever) set aside for a race.
I’d also stick with gazebo over awning (unless a drive away awning), much easier to leave stuff behind when you want to nip away from the race venue for a while.
I think unless i have a budget of £100,000 then anything and everything will be in some way a compromise. It's just a question of which part of it i end up compromising on.
My head says go big.... but my heart (and my wife) says more like a LWB Custom.
I look at van A and think "yeah that.." but then van B and think "but that has..... " then van C lol
In the end i'm just going to have to jump on a plan/van but i haven't quite had that deal in yet.
Missed the race bit. Thats different. That said, I (as I'm sure thousands of others have) have raced out the back of a hatchback but at every race I've been to, theres always someone with a full race pit setup emptied out the back of a huge Sprinter or something. If a van was purely for racing (and sleeping in?) then I'd go with a biggun as long as you have room to store it. Otherwise, something smaller with a wind out awning with sides/blow up awning should do most of the job but be more pratical day to day if needed.
Anything will be a compromise but you need to find the right compromise that fits your situation now and also in the next few years. You wont need a budget anything like what you think. When we worked out food and accommodation costs alone for three of us per race season it was a no brainer. Bought it on impulse and never regretted it, compromise was on no automatic on the Transit at the time.
The thing with the racing is that we have potentially 2 riders and either 3 or possibly 4 bikes... So the hatchback thing isn't ideal. It's mostly not ideal when i've got to leave 1-2 of the bikes behind to follow the lad up the hill or even just to watch the racing, it means trying to shoehorn the 1-2 bikes into the back of the Kuga and that just gets ridiculous, especially if it's wet and muddy etc.
I'm not doing it from a posing/pro context, more from a functionality/simplicitiy.
The things on my mind are for say days when it’s raining, we’ll have the Gazebo up, but we’ll also be loading all the kit in at the end of the day, getting changed in it into clean dry stuff.. There’ll be a BBQ, there’s tools, chairs, gazebo, 3-4 helmets, 3-4 changes of clothes, 3 sets of armour, 2 spare sets of wheels and on many days it’ll be either 3 or 4 bikes in there.
That will all fit in an SWB (L1) custom with a single row of seats, in fact, even with ours as a L2 crew cab with a bulkhead, you wouldn’t have a problem (which because of the crew cab, has a smaller boot overall).
We recently had a trip abroad with 4 people in it, 8 bikes, spares, tools & enough kit for 2 weeks of riding/holidaying & there was still ‘some’ space left & nothing in the cab, other than people.
If you gave me the choice of taking the little van with all our kit & staying in B&B’s, if I could find places locally, rather than than the motor home, I would do that every single time. Maybe I’m just not a big motorhome person. Driving something nearly 7.5m long is a pain in the ass, especially to the sort of places that MTB races are held.
People are really aggressively pushing their own favourite vans here, which are usually, surprise surprise, the van that they already own. Yes, you can drive a small van anywhere with 10 bikes, 8 people and all your kit vacuum packed into a Tetris arrangement on the way to your holiday destination. I know, we've done the same with a Fiat Panda. This is not the same as surviving a race weekend in a muddy field in the middle of nowhere with the rain coming in diagonally from every direction.
They key is height, if it’s not tall enough for you to stand up in and spanner or change kit you’re not going to spend any time in it so just get something that your stuff fits in.
Then find a van with an awning option and buy that because at least you can stand up under it.
Aggressively?
Or people are giving opinions on the vans they own, because that's what they have experience of....
Good point 5in the height, you're 6'1"- 6'2"? It needs to be a high top really, us midgets don't have quite the same problem 😀
Whenever people ask for opinions on here about cars, vans, bikes or whatever, people line up to recommend what they have and act like people would be mad to consider anything else. It just sounds like "Do you know you can fit 29 people in a Mini? So why would you ever buy anything as ostentatious as a Fiesta?"
They key is height, if it’s not tall enough for you to stand up in and spanner or change kit you’re not going to spend any time in it so just get something that your stuff fits in.
Then find a van with an awning option and buy that because at least you can stand up under it.
I agree with this. Being able to stand up straight for whatever reason is a huge bonus. Wind out awnings are also amazing things. Honestly, bigger is better BUT obviously there's a limit. I was limited by the size of my driveway, but our van is for family camping trips or carrying one motorbike at a time so it does the job.
If I was van shopping now and had a longer parking space I'd start with Ducato's.
Is it going to be you everyday drive ?
Is it going to be you everyday drive ?
In a loose term. I barely drive outside of weekends. I'll be in the car tonight dropping the lad off, but it's 3-4 miles from home and i could take the wifes car... but that's likely the only driving i'll do this week other than to FoD at the weekend
Was having a peak at race vans myself, any of these any good?
On the subject of mounting bikes in the van, these are very handy.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0B2VN8WD1/ref=ya_aw_od_pi?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Front wheel out, spindle through the mount (stops you leaving spindles behind too 😉 ) rock solid. Mount on a batten to the floor or wall of the van.
Couple of thoughts:
my van is a t5 LWB had it for about 6 years. It had a new engine at about 20k miles (warranty), common t5 problem.
Been ok since. Mine is diesel euro 5, so it is slowly getting banned (or costly) in the different ULEZ type zones. You might want to consider whether euro 6 or petrol might solve some of those issues.
Also consider how it is registered - a shuttle might be excempt.
I have driven a Ford a few times, I think it drove better than a t5 (just to counter the - people always recommend their own van! 😉 )
Friend had a quite new ford and its engine munched itself with a fixing cost of about £7k (he just sold it as was).
I guess that shows that they all have issues.
In a t5 LWB I could fit about 5 road bikes and by sticking a shelf across the bottom that allowed luggage to go in there too.
A rear rack would allow you to carry more, but obviously comes with security issues (and also generally you dont want to have race bikes on the outside going to an event).
The more serious racers (as has already been suggested) use the motorhomes - much better for multi-day events. But are slow and relatively in-efficient.
If getting a t5 consider headlights - because the standard halogen ones are supposed to be awful (and you might be doing more night driving??)
Petrol vans simply don't exist... so not really a viable option.
I've got a 2013 LWB crew cab Trafic, usually runs around with 2 fully built large bikes in it, 3 go in build but touching.
Recently did a trip with 4 and 3 people, 3 had front wheels off - build a wee stand for the front wheel axels to stagger them a bit. 1 slotted in the side of them fully built. Most riding kit was in the back around the bikes, bags for clean kit in the rear with one of the passengers. We took very little time on how it was packed, for more kit/longer journeys we'd have stacked stuff on top of the bikes.
Wasn't much more effort packing up or setting out riding with the wheels off and it's a pretty nice thing to drive.
I've got a Puggy Partner and love it but I'm trying to convince us that the next size up would be a better size. I'd like to get 3 complete bikes in, I can get 2 complete bikes and the 3rd with wheels off and 3 bodies, but it is tight...next size up (which I've now forgotten the name of the van!) I think would be good but would also like it as MPV rather than van. Potential issue with that is a row of seats to store somewhere but that would then give more space for kit.
I think an awning would be useful - I've often thought of one for the Partner but the height of the car isn't really suitable for a tall person.
SWB vans can get a huge amount of kit in them, but the longer wheelbase versions do make carting kit easier as you don't need to stack as much kit. If you are tall, a higher vehicle is a huge benefit - when I used to do firework shows, I used to fuse the fireworks in the van - back breaking on a lower roofed vehicle and I hated it. Was much comfier in a high-top van.
It had a new engine at about 20k miles (warranty), common t5 problem.
Common early BiTDI problem - not a common "T5" problem.
Petrol vans simply don’t exist…
From what I'm familiar with, Transporters, not strictly true but they're mega rare. T5 (Caravelles only I think) came with a 3.2 V6 option. I think theres an even rarer 2.0 TFSI version of the T5.1 and the T6 came with a 2.0 TSI engine.
22,000 miles, £29,000
Job jobbed 😎
https://www.oakleyhorseboxes.co.uk/vehicle/alexanders-windsor-2015/#
🤣🤣🤣
That’s basically the one we’ve got but a lower roof one. And it’s brown so was only £8k 🤣
It would be epic for bike racing but it’s on pony duty 3 nights a week and weekends so it’s never spare 😭 🤣
I'm viewing 2 vans tomorrow at a mates dealership. I expect to be buying one
Neither are what anyone will be expecting lol.
Exciting! 😎
I look at van A and think “yeah that..” but then van B and think “but that has….. ” then van C lol
Buy van A; in 2 months trade up/down/across for van B. When that's not the right one trade back to van C. Just like bikes innit?? 🤔 And you do have form... 😜😜😜 Only kidding, whatever you end up with, remember, it's the adventures you'll have that count. 😁
I’m viewing 2 vans tomorrow at a mates dealership. I expect to be buying one
Standard Weeksy behaviour 😂
Bonus of a little (or a fully loaded) van.
When we got to the border in a van rammed full of muddy kit after some WC races, the customs guy asked to look in the back. I stood back as we opened the door & a pile of muddy tyres landed on him. He wasn't bothered about looking any further & off we went 😂
@a11y - I bloody love the heated windscreen in my Transit Custom. No idea how I survived without it LoL. I’ve had 2 Customs now, a 2013 basic one (only need AC in France, but the UK never used to hit 30C!) and a 21 plate Custom Active with lots of fancy bits on it. Idon’t think the more powerful engine (170 vs 125hp) is necessary, but I’m loving the windscreen and AC.
I’d happily replace it with a 3rd when the time comes. Both much nicer than similar priced Transporters.
The old 2.2 engine was nice if not nicer than the new 2.0 and they both drive really well in snow.
Years ago I had a high top LWB Citroen Relay, it wasn’t a very good van but being able to stand up in it and so much space was awesome. You could stand up and take your wetsuit off after surfing while it was pissing down outside. The extra space was great. Also had the same love for a similar sized (very) old Sprinter (which eventually rusted to death).
Those Movanos are ok. Nothing fancy but would be great as a base for your racing.
It’s a great size. You could probably fit a small sofa behind the seats for him to chill out on and have space to spanner. The downside to big vans is low MPG but if it’s not a daily runner then that’s all good.
Just get a big van. I’d get a big van if I didn’t need to drive to school, work, shops each day. I’m a big fan of if you want a big van then get a BIG van. Too many friends have got a medium van when they should have got a big one and regretted it.
Just buy a cheap ikea futon to use as a sofa/bed for Jnr and go big. It’ll be slow and drink a lot, but if you get a Custom, Vivaro, etc you’ll regret it for what you need it for.
I’ve had a Fiesta van, Citroen Relay (Hi LWB), Toyota Hi Ace (LWB), Sprinter (Hi LWB), Vivaro (SWB) and 2 Customs (SWB) and for road trips and spending summers in Alps it was the Relay and Sprinter that were by far the best, especially when it’s pissing down or cold and you want space to do stuff or chill inside it.
Note - all bought for surfing, kayaking, mountaineering and biking. I don’t (nor ever have) required a van for any job I’ve done (first car was a fiesta van at 17 and now I’m 43 and owned more vans than cars).
PS - buy a big van, you won’t regret it.
Vanbase have lots of ex British Gas Transit Custom in near me.
L2H2 ones.
Would be ideal for your purposes.
https://www.carbase.co.uk/vanbase/used-vans/ford/transit-custom/2-0-tdci-130ps-long-wheelbase-l2h2-high-roof-van/aetv10494039/
Neither are what anyone will be expecting lol.
is it a Nissan Prairie?
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is it a Nissan Prairie?
A rusty one with a fusion reactor?? 😂
Weeksy:
Unusually for me, I’m not going to jump into this one as for the next few months anyway
Also Weeksy:
I’m viewing 2 vans tomorrow at a mate's dealership. I expect to be buying one
🤣🤣🤣
The ex British Gas van looks superb...
That's just a smidgen more than i'd ideally like to pay.
But as it's just a copy and paste from my forum, i thought i'd lob the info up on where we are.
Funnily this isn't the same place we were last night as Mrs Weeksy threw the blockers on Plan A last night, along with a mate who told me the older Transit are both 5 speed and rusty, the MOT history had several reports of corrosion, but not structural, which makes me think she's arguably correct on the older...
SO the big fella above was out.... partly because the expensive one was sold, the cheaper one wasn't as nice but was priced better... but was a Cat S.
So then jumped into a rabbit hole of, if but maybe and ended up thinking of an older Transit due to how much less.
Then [mention]Couchy[/mention] pinged me about it being a 5 speed and potentially prone to corrosion (which the MOT history then showed up too), along with Mrs Weeksy saying no due to lack of mod-cons.
So i'm now sitting with a short watch list
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/van-details/202211181806759?fromSavedAds=true&advertising-location=at_vans
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Transit Custom, decent miles, good spec, slightly high on price, it's a company owned by a mate who we spend NYE with each year, but i don't think he'll be offering a massive discount as i don't think they have the margin these days.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/van-details/202212062327361?fromSavedAds=true&advertising-location=at_vans
[img] 
[/img]
Another Transit Custom, slightly lower miles, slightly lower price, but also is the LWB version.
The last one is a minor curve ball. But only a little. Partly because, well, i really did like the Vito. Despite it having it's issues, if it hadn't had them it would've been a no-brainer. But it did miss out in the 'security' context as it was Windowed in the back meaning leaving £10,000 of MTBs in there when out riding wasn't the best plan.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/van-details/202210130679958?fromSavedAds=true&advertising-location=at_vans
[img] 
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This I do like... but it's slightly lower than the transit, although possibly longer than the grey one?
If I had to pick from the 3 it would be the middle one. Its blue and also LWB which will give you a bit more room in the back.
We have the 2.2 6 speed manual in the camper. Came with the 155hp set up but its pushing out a bit more than that now.
Transit Customs above - at least being the older 2.2 you're spared the worry surrounding the wet belt degradation of the later 2.0 engine. 2.2 is euro5 if that makes a difference to where you're likely to be driving (2.0 is euro6). The British Gas van posted earlier would be approaching needing a wet belt replacement which is a £800ish job at an independent (nearer £1500 at Ford dealer).
They're a nice van to drive, no complaints from me. Mine's a 2.0 130bhp L2 H1 double cab, so a much smaller load area than a van without the extra row of seats. Lack of headroom to stand in the back is a PITA when trying to get into or out of a wetsuit, but at the time we bought I was garaging the van overnight hence needed 2mtres max height.
But I can't help thinking for that sort of price you'd get a hell of a lot more van going to next size bigger, e.g. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/van-details/202212012175827
LWB for me every day. When it comes to mileage, if they're within 10k of each other I'd think of them as the same.
I've got an XLWB Viano, so not using as a van, more a nice big people carrier for camping and the like, the extra length means you have to pick parking spaces a bit better than you would in a car but other than that I don't really notice it. Space inside is what you need, so unless you're going for height, length has to be the overiding factor. Get a SWB and you'll be gutted when you run out of floor space.
But I can’t help thinking for that sort of price you’d get a hell of a lot more van going to next size bigger,
I think as some others have pointed out, there's long and there's MASSIVE.. in terms of parking at venues, even getting to some of them on the tight nadgery back lanes, think proper goat tracks in North Wales for say Caersws and Rhyd-y-Felin, they're horrible lanes in anything, let alone throwing in a massive monster van and for the majority of the time we wouldn't use the massiveness of the big one. It's then just a bit massive, a bit cumbersome etc.
So i think LWB in a medium van, rather than LWB in a large van is the way forward.
i'd check the size of the expanded ulez before buying anything euro 5. Its basically the entire of the inside of the m25 that's blocked from access. Might not be an issue, but it might make resale tricky
LWB 2.2 custom looks good, ulez issues aside.
I had a chat with my local mechanic about what to replace my van with eventually and his view was that the 2.2 was a good shout. He also said that issues that were coming through now were with the lowered powered ones, so get a cheaper 125ps and then get it up to 165ps or so and that would improve things. I can't remember the actual reason why more power is more reliable.
Are the lower powered engines the same as the higher powered engines but with less oomph? If so, more power sounds like it would work, but if the more powerful engines have different bits/parts/config then more power on the lower block probably won't fix the potential issues.
(Spoken from someone who doesn't really know anything about engines)
I think 125/155ps are the same engines from the factory.
