LWB vs SWB Custom van

only 376mm in it lengthwise apparently… not gonna make a difference, or enough that it’s not gonna fit in normal parking bays or be a hassle to live with as main vehicle?

We’ve got a SWB Vivaro, I’d buy the LWB if I was going to convert it. Really don’t think it would be a problem

Usually that is enough to make it not fit. Is it a combi? That might determine whether bikes go straight in or need to be angled, or you need a LWB.

Have a 2 seat SWB at the moment, yes would be a combi if I change it (to use as main family vehicle, not convert to camper). Bikes definitely wouldn’t go in wheels on with a SWB combi so looking at LWB (where they would fit assembled)

My van is an SWB Transit, next will be a LWB. However much space you have won’t enough. The one after will probably be a LWB high-top…

depends if you do a lot of parallel parking or not. supermarket carparks = not much issue, fitting into a slot long enough for a mondeo, with a car infront and behind = no chance

bays are ok – but when looking for spaces on the road side most will be smaller!

But you can’t fit anywhere near as many bikes in SWB. (Got 8 road bikes and about 20 extra wheels in my LWB).

My LWB traffic crew will take full road or MTB’ s in the back with room to spare.
SWB won’t without removing front wheel.

Either will fit bikes in whole. Diagonally across the rear of a swb but maybe only one or two. Lots in a lwb in a mostly straight line.

I’ve just moved from a SWB Trafic to a SWB Transit Custom. Its quite a bit longer in the back, enough that my surfboard now lays down flat rather than being angled. It _just_ fits in a standard parking bay.

I have a SWB Vivaro, I used to have a LWB Vivaro when I was a delivery driver.

The LWB wasn’t too bad in car parks. If I wanted to keep out the way, I would reverse into a bay were there was a kerb behind so the front wasn’t overhanging but there wasn’t many car parks that were that pushed for space.

Wished I’d have got a LWB instead of a SWB now.

No question the LWB vivaro can be a bit awkward in tight car parks but I’ve not found anything I can’t manage with a bit of effort. And it swallows tandems whole and I’ve got a full sized double bed in the back (have to take out the tandem to set up the bed of course)

I had an old style LWB Trafic fine in supermarkets and normal carparks. I’ve a new SWB Traffic which is almost as long as the old LWB.

The real issue is height, lots of carparks have 2m height restrictions. Fine with my normal Trafic vans, a real pain in my camper old conversion which was a high top. Especially bad in France where every beach carpark seems to be height restricted to stop campers/ motorhomes.

Yeah will definitely be normal height, don’t want an extra dimension of hassle when trying to park, especially as I normally use car parks & rarely park on-street.

Just trying to decide, as it would be a combi, if the reduced space in the back (basically just a big boot on the SWB) warrants the slight extra hassle of the LWB. I suspect the answer is yes especially if you want to fit bikes in the back (I do!)

Actually what I really want, having done some googling, is a SWB or LWB crew cab, then remove the bulkhead & bench seats and replace with folding/removable Tourneo seats thus making it a lot more versatile (similar to how a VW comes in the first place AIUI). Looks like a bit of effort involved, but perfectly doable (found a link on Transit forum giving details).

I find the extra space inside a LWB combi out weighs the extra length outside, especially of bikes are involved. I don’t parallel park on streets much, that would be a hassle as most car sized spaces will be too small. Car parks no issue.

gone from swb t5 kombi to lwb transit custom dciv. no regrets the transit is huge compared to to the vw. parking is fine esp with the camera and sensors.

Cool, that is what I wanted to hear 🙂

Supermarkets have family spaces for vans so don’t worry about that.

The height is more important – needs to be under 2.7m to fit under McDonald’s gantry for drive through coffee…

Got a T5 LWB and never had a problem parking. Not sure why you would every go with a SWB. When you have a smallish van isn’t every cm important. 30cmisjustvundet the width of a cupboard

Got a SWB Vivaro semi-camper (rock-n-roll bed, electrics but no water/hob). Completely a compromise vehicle (needed to be daily driver, camper and bike transporter), but does it all OK with a bit of thought and planning. Fits in pretty much any car park space a saloon will (it’s actually only about 0.5m longer than our little Clio).

If I wanted a purely ‘weekend’ van / camper / bike transport I’d deffo go LWB though…