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We went to look at a new van at weekend. Looks good but a couple of questions occurred to me afterwards.
The van is a Vivaro converted to, and registered as, a camper van. Am I right in thinking this makes insurance cheaper and has a higher speed limit on motorways?
The guy that has it is a surfer and so the van has a lot of stickers - Quicksilver etc - on it. Not to my taste. Is it hard to get these off without making a mess?
He has it on a private plate and says he will change it back to original 11 plate. Is this hard to do? What's involved?
He's changed the indicators to LED and they now flash a bit fast. Fixable or will I have to put originals back in?
TIA for any help.
The van is a Vivaro converted to, and registered as, a camper van. Am I right in thinking this makes insurance cheaper and has a higher speed limit on motorways?
Correct. Tax/VED stays the same.
The guy that has it is a surfer and so the van has a lot of stickers - Quicksilver etc - on it. Not to my taste. Is it hard to get these off without making a mess?
Pretty easy. Get some decent tar/bug remover from Meguirs/Auto Glym/Auto Finesse etc. Problem might be that the paintwork has faded but where the stickers have been it hasn't.
He has it on a private plate and says he will change it back to original 11 plate. Is this hard to do? What's involved?
Not hard - tell the seller to sort it out.
He's changed the indicators to LED and they now flash a bit fast. Fixable or will I have to put originals back in?
Mmmm, tacky! If they're complete units (assume they're the wing mounted ones???) then just get some original ones from a breaker. Otherwise its just replacing the bulbs.
1) VED might be a bit more expensive on a campervan over a commercial (mine would be), I pay £250 for commercial but the T4 as private LG is a bit more, and yes drive to a lower speed limit.
2) No idea, ask nealglover
3) easy to do, about £150 IIRC, make sure he covers that, which he prob will if he wants his plate back
4) LED indicators make a mess of the indcator relay due to resistance being out of spec. Some LEDs claim to be mitigate that. The ones hes fitted probably dont do enough. Either spend more on the LEDs for better quality, or go back to tungsten.
Am I right in thinking this makes insurance cheaper and has a higher speed limit on motorways
Not motorways as that's still 70mph. Dual and single carriageways it drops by 10mph for a commercial
The guy that has it is a surfer and so the van has a lot of stickers - Quicksilver etc - on it. Not to my taste. Is it hard to get these off without making a mess?
Depending on the colour of the van, and how long the stickers have been in place, there may be some "ghosting" once the sticker is removed. Caused by the different areas of paint aging at different rate.
Fairly easy to remedy in smaller areas with a fast rotary machine polish to even everything out. Although that could quickly get expensive if the van is covered in them and you need to get the whole van done.
Gotcha. Cheers. I've a feeling that they haven't been on too long so might get away with that. Well, if I pull the trigger on buying it...
It would be an easy job for anyone competent with a machine polisher anyway, so I wouldn't let it put you off.
Roughly £100/£150 to do a light pass over a full car that's had vinyl removed for example.
the led issue is common on motorbikes. if you can't change the lenses easily you can rectify it by fitting resistors in the circuit.