It’s horses for courses:

Vito has sloping roof at the rear so very limited headroom
VW T5 is still a small van albeit mildly pretty
Bongo – great machine but is still very small and has a known coolant problem

If you’re over 6ft then none of these are perfect unless you like being bent double or discomfort. Many rock’n’roll beds aren’t that long and are narrow so given that you spend at least 50% of your time asleep in the van it makes no sense
Even then you can’t really generalise as it’s rare that 2 campers are identical unless they are stock xxxxxx conversions

Most people just say they have Van A, so Van B must be shit.

Here’s a link you may find to be of interest:

Possibly Interesting Link

I’ve got a VW California that I use as my daily driver, well when i drive that is. Fits in the garage, nice to drive, efficient as you can expect and swallows the family for holidays at the drop of a hat. It’s a compromise, i doubt it will ever do a track day but equally I can’t sleep in my 911! My wife wanted to hate it but is a total convert

Most people just say they have Van A, so Van B must be shit.

That applies to just about everything on STW though, not only vans.

Toyota Hiace’s have always been nice but aren’t they very thirsty compared to a T5?
T5 will do 40mpg
What does a Hiace do? If heard about 30??

Plus don’t they still have the engine under the passenger seat which would restrict a captains chair? Or is that just older models (pre power van)?

Luca. Can you email me some more detail of the primastar please. Email in profile. Thanks

UK Hiaces have easy to access (under bonnet as opposed to seats) engine since about 1995. 40mpg possible if you drive sensibly but yes around 30 if you are heavier on the right foot. Run well on veg oil and even better (with improved mpg) on posh diesel like BP Ultimate (worth the extra few pence a litre).
I agree with comments about people having a tendency to slag off what they don’t have, pretty much all suggested will do the job I reckon. After years of having different (make) vans I’m at a stage where I can’t be arsed to spend loads of time working on them or worrying about minor impracticalities, looks/cool factor, just want something I know I can chuck loads of stuff in, will always start and can drive off anywhere with no worries. As someone else has said I’d better shut up now before prices start getting hiked if too many people know.

Haha as posted previously van a is best as I have one, van b is okish.
Still no idea what ftfy most means.

fixed that for you.

What do folks think about a Trafic/Vivaro/Primastar LWB with a second row of seats? I want to carry a small boat (2.4m long) and some bikes. D’you reckon there’d be space behind the seats to make a usable bed?

I think the load bay in a lwb vivaro factory factory double cab is about 7ft. I don’t have the figures to hand that I compiled when trying to decide what vans would suit me.

Yes, you posted that excellent link to the Anchorvan site with dimensions on. It suggests the load length in the LWB Vivaro is 2815mm. I’m guessing 1000mm would be enough for another row of seats leaving enough for a 1800 bed. There’s a van advertised locally that I haven’t seen yet but it has two rather than three second row seats so allows a boat to be slotted in the space. Looks ideal really.

And I fancy doing something like this:

http://s1294.photobucket.com/user/kendalpaul1/media/20130102_112743.jpg.html?sort=3&o=8

I’m just passing on my experience with my old t4. The white one in the pic looks like its been shot with a shotgun… Even when my lovely wife decided to muller a steel gate post with the side of ours it didn’t breach the galvanising and had no rust despite having no paint for 3 years and spending a lot of its life by the sea.

Yep, prob VW t4 tax applies but it’s just supply and demand isn’t it. Demand is usually stimulated by something either being good or perceived as good. Perception is generally stimulated by some real experience even if not first hand. It’s not like the VW marketing machine are spending millions pushing second hand t4s are they…

I guess I managed to get hold of mine before the demand pushed the prices up. When I was looking for a t4 I did look through some real dogs before I went to the auction.

I run a hiace LWB 2.4td 53 plate. Had it about 7 years and it’s cost me about 4 sets of wipers! Though I only do about 5k a year in it.
Ex electricians so had 100k on its first 4 years but came ply lined and not loaded with bricks. Paint is virtually spotless. Does about 30-35mpg at 70 on the motorway. LWB is 3m long inside so fits our windsurf kit, the swb wasn’t long enough inside for us. Feels quite narrow when driving, Iike a car but the length means manoeuvring around tesco car park needs to be a bit more considered. Rwd is rubbish on anything slightly slippery – it feels like it needs a ton of sand in the back to get some traction.
I need to add side windows and a rear seats now for family use – anyone know if I can just drill holes through the ply floor and bolt through to spreader plates on the underside of the van for the seat fixing?

Ah ftfy I see. Wasn’t broken though?
I’d still go for RAC tranny or at least check them out as should be in tip top condition and will be a blank canvas inside to do what you like. I think a lot of there bad rep comes from they are used widely as builders vans and hence take a proper beating.

Possibly not enough exRAC transits about for a proper comparison but there doesn’t seem to be many rusty ones. From my casual observations it appears that coloured Transits generally fair better than white ones from a rust perspective. Are the colours better paint than the basic ‘commercial’ white? A mate who’s had a couple of dark blue transits following some white ones reckon the darker colours get warmer and therefore dry out better/quicker. Or maybe it just the most transits are white and therefore most rusty transits are white?