lowered, pimped van attempting to navigate ruts

You know me better than that 🙂 Couldn’t be further from being me.

but there will also be a lowered, pimped van attempting to navigate ruts.

But if I don’t make my T6 look like a BTCC car how will everyone know I’m a Rad-Dad?

By the “One Life” sticker on the tailgate of course.

You know me better than that 🙂 Couldn’t be further from being me.

Very true! Keep at it your way weeksy, nothing better.

By the “One Life” sticker on the tailgate of course.

Mrs Weeksy may prefer the “one wife, livid” version, seeing how the budget has already been blown apart in the last few pages.

Couldn’t be further from being me.

It’s the boy’s van though really. How can he possibly succeed with negative energy being generated by a van that’s still at stock ride height?!

Grabber MT tyres will justify the ride height and increase the rad-dadness.

doomanic
Full Member
Grabber MT tyres will justify the ride height and increase the rad-dadness.

ooohhh nice alt approach there. Snorkel and random ladder up the back also required

👍 Now you’re talking!

One bit of advice not to be ignored, do not put any mtb stickers on it anywhere as you will only be advertising what’s in it, Thieves may look anyway but will def look if there’s a sticker telling them what may be inside. Also fit deadlocks and when you park up strap the sliding door shut so it can’t be folded down and then reverse up to something if possible. It’s all you can do even if taking the bikes out into a hotel room 🙂

So onto the report…. I REALLY like it. Sure it’s been used, sure it’s got more marks than the Kuga has… but hey, it’s a van.

Does it drive like a car, no, it drives like a van, but it does drive like a nice van at that. 🙂

Heated seat is a dream today.. air con…. DAB … heated windscreen. Didn’t get to test the Cruise out, but it’s the same setup at the Kuga, so pretty familiar to me.

It goes along well, the clutch is nice, gear changes are nice. Brake pedal is a bit high, but that’s van driving for you instead of cars. It’s interesting with certain T junctions locally that in a van you need to re-think the approach angles etc.

Once i got it parked up i started throwing the bikes in..

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2o4VYDR]2022-12-09_01-17-39[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

It takes the 3 bikes, would take a 4th easily enough, with enough space for the bike washer, the riding kit, kit bags, toolbox etc.. Sure, there’s not a TONNE of space other than that…. but there’s ‘enough’ that i’d get anything else in i could consider for sure..

My thoughts are leading me towards “Do i honestly need any bigger” and i’m struggling with the ‘when’ i’d actually need more.

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.

Hmmm. Be careful with assuming a windowless is somehow secure. There are occasional posts on here about numpties leaving vans of bikes outside hotels etc and losing the lot.

Given how much you post on here, and that people will be able to see what’s in your van when you’re at the race then… People will have a pretty good exact detail of what’s on offer… Privateer, 141, online,XT, fits 5’10” 55kg kid etc etc.
Giant Fury times two, one with x Fusion etc

Perhaps get a floor lock

PS +1 for LWB

Very much this above. Maybe I’m risk averse working in insurance, but I’m surprised how much intel you are posting on a public forum about your bike inventory (in your words £10K worth) and where it will be. I’d like to think that all those people who care to take an interest in reading STW are law-abiding citizens, but I suspect not.

The only practical advice I can offer, having dealt with hundreds of thefts from vans of plant and tools, assume that the van is not ever locked and any lock or security you do buy, the scrotes have probably already worked out how to defeat it.

And get good Insurance.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2o4VeZU]load[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Long isn’t that much longer really then.

My main security advice is to make your van look as normal and non-flashy as possible (same with garages), no stickers on it or bike related stuff left in the cab. If it’s parked in a Tesco car park then no one knows it’s full of nice toys. My current Custom just looks like a rich middle class family wagon rather than a van full of bikes. And none of my old ones had anything advertising any of the sports I do.

And biking events there’s not much you can do as they’ll assume all the vans have expensive toys in them.

Fancy tyres, wheels, stickers, etc will just advertise and sttrsct attention.

The bog standard white panel van is invisible. Even traffic wardens don’t bother ticketing you half the time as they often assume you’re a delivery driver or unloading.

White van + hazard lights. Ultimate stealth vehicle.

Nah, it is always handy to have a bit more length…

Long isn’t that much longer really then.

you can do a lot with a bit of extra length (genuinely, does make a fair difference)

Just tell Mrs Weeksy she has a new job as a security guard for a MTB team 😀

How long before the long van gets swapped for a shorter one as it turns better?😉

If you can get a longer one without blowing the budget I’d go for it. The only reason I have an SWB is a) because they’re harder to park in towns and cities, b) the wife has to drive it and she doesn’t like parking bigger vans and c) we’d already spent just over £30k on the SWB and couldn’t really justify the extra.

If you can get a longer one without blowing the budget I’d go for it.

Waiting to see what my mate can find/source, he’s put an offer in on 2 LWBs with the intention of me having 1 of them, but depends if they come off or not. We’ve got a little bit of a timescale on things as we’ve got events/days of coaching upcoming and the Kuga is being collected Mon/Tues. So i need something either soon, or borrow next weekend too. But that’s for him to worry about. At the end of the day, if this van gets to be mine, i won’t be unhappy with it 🙂

ok so who bought this one.

I was expecting you to show 2 options (big and small) and then right at the last minute buy something completely different (like a horse box or American bus) at the last minute 😜.

For personal use you can’t really go wrong with most modern vans as you won’t be loading them up heavy and not me giving them a hard life.

I just think that from personal experience the Customs are pretty good and (touch wood) I never had a problem with my old one (2013 and 2.2/125hp) or the new one (2021 2.0/170hp) and you get more/better for your money than a VW.

PS love my heated seats and windscreen (both things I thought were frivolous 3 years ago!!!)

Enjoy the van life

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CibyLl-Digi/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Wonder if that would work in a high enough van 🤔

Is that the one you were going to be testing for the weekend? Generally the approach is test then buy

Wonder if that would work in a high enough van 🤔

It would be fine until you started driving then it would sound like a cheap drumkit.

Is that the one you were going to be testing for the weekend? Generally the approach is test then buy

Me? No, I was/am testing the Custom..

The boy gave it approval tonight after driving to get Chinese.

Me, not him.

It would be fine until you started driving then it would sound like a cheap drumkit.

🤣 or you could just strap them up 🤦🏻‍♂️ 🤣

Seriously weeksy, back off.. buy a LWB 🙂

Me? No, I was/am testing the Custom..

Gotcha, apparently not been paying enough attention

I had a 2.2 Limited Custom until recently. Really nice van, good to drive, fairly practical, easy to work on and was reliable for me.

If you get one there’s a few security upgrades you’ll want to do sooner rather than later. The drivers door lock can be opened with a pair of molegrips – replace this lock with a ‘hi key’ lock that can’t be done this way.

Additionally the side door has a known weakpoint where crims punch a small hole through with a screwdriver and can open it easily. A company produce a metal cage that goes over the lock mechanism to prevent this approach working.

(Both of these are DIY jobs if you are reasonably competent.)

To be honest the price on that looks a little spicy. I sold mine with slightly less miles, a year newer for £13250 (no VAT) about 6 months ago, and it had a part camper conversion, fully insulated, solar panels, fridge, single rotating passenger seat etc. – and this took 6 weeks to sell advertised on both ebay and autotrader, so it wasn’t vastly underpriced.

I appreciate it’s a dealer and they need a margin but they’re not exactly giving that away, hope you can bargain a deal.

To be honest the price on that looks a little spicy

It’s not the cheapest, but it is backed by a mate owning it, plus the fact having driven it i know it’s ‘right’ and not likely to fall apart next week. There’s cheaper, but private sales, or more miles or worse condition. For the spec, the miles and condition, it’s not badly priced… but no, it’s not the cheapest out on the market i’ll admit.

How long before the long van gets swapped for a shorter one as it turns better?😉

How long before we’re debating the merits of bigger vs smaller wheels, or the ‘compromise’ option of mulleted van?? 😱😂

Van worked lovely on the day… Sadly my MTB never as i lost a bolt… sadly for me it was a game changer bolt which can’t be sourced on the day as it’s very very specific to the bike.

But anyway, the van.
It’s a little lumpy when first starting at 6.30am in -3deg…. But soon gets to sounding OK in 20s. It’s a fairly ticky/noise/diesel engine, but that’s a Transit Custom for you.. well, it’s actually a van as we know.

Everything works perfectly though.

It does have a slightly ticky/tappy noise on right handers, which Couchy tells me is CV joint potentially, but the van wasn’t prepped for sale yet, so that’ll get done before i collect. But other than that… no issues at all with it for me. Drives as it should 34-36mpg but a chunk of that was uppy downy back roads and through the gearbox… i think i’ll see closer to 40s on a decent run.

I even provided an uplift service for the boy and his team-mate who got 3 full runs with a quick uplift in the van after they’d been sessioning the trails earlier.

Excellent 😀

I even provided an uplift service for the boy and his team-mate who got 3 full runs with a quick uplift in the van after they’d been sessioning the trails earlier.

Excellent 😀

And that’s what it’s all about 👍🏻 cracking stuff…shame about the Slayer

3 kids in a transit? Don’t know how lucky they are, we used to shuttle FOD 6 up in a Toyota Hiace or similar Nissan back before Fly-up started. Can only dream about the luxury of all that space!

Back when OP said they were off to buy something unexpected I thought we were going to see them with an old Asda delivery van. Decent size beer and bbq meat fridge at least.

It’s a bit small Weeksy – look at this opportunity:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285056501943?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=fgtbpd1csds&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Don’t know how lucky they are, we used to shuttle FOD 6 up in a Toyota Hiace or similar Nissan back before Fly-up started

INSIDE the vehicle?! You don’t know how lucky you were, we used to be hanging onto the car belonging to whatever driver cared least about their vehicle

Back when OP said they were off to buy something unexpected

I don’t even recall what either of them 2 we’re now. But clearly I didn’t buy them.