[Closed] If you had a brand new van, what would you do different?

Reckon I'd get a Barbarian manfully riding a giant wolf painted on the side. Ideally there'd be a lady Barbarian seductively laid on a rock holding an enourmous double headed axe.

Think piemonster has pretty much covered it. The only thing I dislike about my van is the sat nav is mental.

First thing I would do would be a sliding van vault so I didn't have to worry about expensive bits being left in the van while I was riding

Second thing would be a hard anchor point that I could lock the bike to so I didn't have to worry about expensive bikes being left in the van when I [i]wasn't [/i]riding

If it's a transit you need to upgrade the door locks, immediately

2nd thing, go and buy a big breaker bar and socket, a trolley jack and some lumps of wood.

Hard point would be good, I found what I lacked most was a place to put smaller stuff with out it sliding around! So a shopping bag slides around! Solved by a box in the boot! Otherwise I'd add heated seats for post winter rides!!! 😆

I found what I lacked most was a place to put smaller stuff with out it sliding around!

Thats the weird thing about van ownership - 13 cubic meters of load space and yet all [i]my [/i]stuff ends up on the dashboard and the passenger seat.

Find a plug you can discretely disconnect under the bonnet that means the engine cranks but won't fire. You might come back to a broken window, broken column and flat battery but at least you'll still have a van.

Lots of Curver boxes and elastics to hold them in place.

Vans have immobilisers...Cranks but won't fire.

If no bulkhead, sound deadening under the ply floor and walls.

I'm currently considering the armour plate lock covers, but so so expensive!

does your van have a bulkhead? we had a dog crate which we could ratchet strap in the back.

i agree totally about small items floating about in the back, its a ballache. when we went away on trips, my wife got a load of those clear plastic stackable boxes, as mentioned above, with the elastic sprogers (as i like to call them) to hold them in place. these work very well, makes loading and unload much better as you dont have stupid random stuff falling all over the place. everything has to go in a box - camelbaks, shoes the lot. much better.

Vans have immobilisers...Cranks but won't fire.

Thieves have all the electronic tools they need to beat the manufacturers' anti-theft devices but a disconnected lead (or hidden switch) to something vital and they'd soon give up and move onto another vehicle that starts first time. Anyhow, thieves have given up on three of my vehicles: My T2 wouldn't start because I had a cut out switch. My 605 was saved by a humble steering-wheel lock. And security guards turned up when some traveling thieves were still trying to start my Ducato.

piemonster

Reckon I'd get a Barbarian manfully riding a giant wolf painted on the side. Ideally there'd be a lady Barbarian seductively laid on a rock holding an enourmous double headed axe.

Be your own Barbarian

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Rustproof, rustproof, rustproof. 🙂

Thieves have all the electronic tools they need to beat the manufacturers' anti-theft devices but a disconnected lead (

Are those the same mythical thieves that go around France pumping knock out gas into motorhomes before robbing you.

Modern vans -even the dealer has trouble getting round the immobiliser....I've seen vehicles need new fuel pumps because the immobilisers gone tits up.

So either these vans you speak of have crap immobilisers or these are some mit level hackerZ

If i bought a new van i would make sure it had cruise control and i wouldn't fit a toilet in a cupboard and just live with a portable cartridge unit stored in the boot.

As trail rat says, immobiliser is usually encapsulated into the fuel pump with tamperproof bolts. The whole point is its difficult to remove.

You can get it deleted from the ECU, but you'd have to steal that, get it reprogrammed, and then put it back in the van. If they have that much time, a hidden switch isn't going to hold them back.

Buy a car instead.

As good as a van is for the occasional bike road trip, I got fed up running a van for personal use with not being able to get in the council tip without a once a month permit, not fitting under McD's drive thru height barrier/IKEA/carparks, absolute crap in snow, finding a double length parking spot in a supermarket, constant battle against rust, crap modern diesel technology, lack of comfort (I'm 6'6" and my Transit crippled me) , crime (wheel trims stolen, and a separate attempt to steal it)and finally I had hassle with insurance.

[url= http://www.largus.fr/actualite-automobile/24-voitures-recentes-faciles-a-voler-sans-cle-et-sans-effraction-7673384.html ]The Renault Trafic can be stolen in ten minutes without a key and without breaking in.[/url]

[url= https://www.challenges.fr/automobile/actu-auto/volkswagen-particulierement-touche-par-le-piratage-des-telecommandes_415097 ]Volkwagen too.[/url]

Edit to elaborate;

They clone or attack the electronic system, open the car with their computer, and everything comes on as normal, it cranks but won't start. What do you think the crim is going to do? Sit there cranking and hunting for a hidden switch and risk getting caught or get out and go try another vehicle. The simplest security devices work best because they break the normal pattern of event the thief is familiar with and the obvious thing to do at that point is give up before getting caught.

And a transit, edukator, my mates an auto electrician, and they got his in seconds by plugging something in to the obd port. His new van is wired so the obd port is a dummy that will blow electronics, with the actual port hidden elsewhere

Really good ply-lining with sound insulation and probably plastic floor, maybe some kind of covering on the sides. More tie-down points. After that, I'd be leaving it as a proper can that can do proper van stuff without compromising it with bogs and fridges and pull out beds and all that shite.

Things I want next time are 6 speed gearbox and air-con. DAB radio with bluetooth and cruise control would also be nice.