Im thinking of building a camper, I want to travel round Europe for a bit, and looking for advice on what van to use. I'd spend up to five grand [euro] on van and want a decent size van, something reliable, not a rust bucket, and something easy to get parts for and work on. At the moment im thinking of a merc sprinter, except they seem to rust in front of your eyes, or possibly merc vario 814 but worried about fuel consumption with them, any one any experience with them or any other suggestions to add to list, thanks
- Thread starter steve t
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AndyStobbs
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Boxer, Relay, Ducato all favourites.
Wendelspanswick
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You can pick up a coach built Merc ambulance for around £3000, I think they would make a superb camper conversion.
Wendelspanswick
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the snooper
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if you are going to tour Europe I think you had better investigate the emission law ie are there any LEZ zones that will cost you to enter if your vehicle isn't up to spec, worth looking into before you buy
MattH
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About year 5 once all the steel has finished being converted to Ferrous Oxide.
Tinbasherdan
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As much as I hate to say it, some sort of vw is likely to be a safe bet, there's plenty of places you can get them worked on on the continent if needs be!
Paul99
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My brother has an Iveco Daily extra long wheel base which he / we converted - in our case it was primarily to be a MX van (as that is his hobby) but even with over half the back taken up with 2 MX bikes, 200l water tank, pressure washer, HD gazebo, all the tools, kit etc there is still loads of room for a sink, cooker, bench seat, double bed etc up front. If it was mine I'd have put a lot more time and effort in and done something a bit more special - and with all the room it could be very special.
Be warned though they do suffer with rust - as I suppose most 13yr old vans would do. I've already done a few days work replacing a few chassis cross members and patching bits of inner arch and have a few more days work sorting out the scabby looking chassis before it gets too bad.
Be warned though they do suffer with rust - as I suppose most 13yr old vans would do. I've already done a few days work replacing a few chassis cross members and patching bits of inner arch and have a few more days work sorting out the scabby looking chassis before it gets too bad.
Shedendman
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Whatever you get,check out the price of spare parts abroad, Fords stuff including Iveco's aren't cheap esp in the likes of france so i've been told
julianf
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I have a self build camper.
Id suggest you look at what you want to have in the living space, and then work from there.
My vehicle is very cramped. If i (personally) were to do it again, id probably go for a Leyland DAF, but that is for *my* spec list, rather than yours.
I went to the overland show in birmingham earlier in the year - some of the self-builds there have a smarter finish than my house.
Well worth going to some shows etc. to get ideas.
Id suggest you look at what you want to have in the living space, and then work from there.
My vehicle is very cramped. If i (personally) were to do it again, id probably go for a Leyland DAF, but that is for *my* spec list, rather than yours.
I went to the overland show in birmingham earlier in the year - some of the self-builds there have a smarter finish than my house.
Well worth going to some shows etc. to get ideas.
A good few years ago I was told that the best vans are the old UPS vans. Apparently they are made by Grumman, a German aircraft manufacturer, and the body is Aluminium and the roof is really strong (for putting stuff up there). This was at a Camper Van Show so I assumed he knew what he was talking about.
Since then Ive kept an eye out for one and never seen one, nor have I ever seen one for sale.....so if they are the best they must keep them.
Maybe worth a look through Auto Trader or Ebay or whatever
Since then Ive kept an eye out for one and never seen one, nor have I ever seen one for sale.....so if they are the best they must keep them.
Maybe worth a look through Auto Trader or Ebay or whatever
AndyStobbs
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And they suffer electrical issues. I've not yet come across one that hasn't had either total lights failure or total instruments failure.
They are also bloody enormous, oh and the clutch works backwards.
Fiat Ducato 07 uses Iveco engine and suffer EGR failure, Iveco EGR valve is much better.
Citroën relay 07 is ford puma engine. Oil pump failure, injection pump failure, injector failure, bonnet cable failure even.
Don't know much about the boxer.
Transit is wasted money in my opinion. You might as well just skip the ownership step and go straight to the scrap it step, when you are left with nothing but rust.
Paul99
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Yep their huge which may or may not be a good thing depending on what you're looking for - perfect for what my brother was looking for but maybe OTT for a dedicated camper.
Luckily there's been absolutely no wiring issues with this one so far (apart from a connector block on the rear lighting cluster needing cleaning). It was bought with one bad injector (which was replaced very cheaply from what I remember) but aside from the rust that is the sum total of money / effort applied to it in the 4ish years he's had it.
I'll echo that - the Iveco replaced an older LWB transit - that was a truly hateful van in comparison - that had the added ability to spontaneously grow rust patches from absolutely anyway and for no apparent reason. To be fair though my brother bought that one for scrap money knowing it had 1 perhaps 2 years (if he was very lucky) left in it - it held on for 4 in the end before even the minimum amount of patching up for an MOT was deemed a waste of time (this was prior to me having the kit to do it myself). It still seemed a bit of a shame when it was scrapped as engine wise it was incredibly reliable - not something I thought I'd ever say about a Ford.
julianthegypsy
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UPS vans are absolutely unobtainable. It is everyone's dream to get hold of one for a camper and has been thoroughly investigated. They never reach the second hand market. They use them and use them and then recycle them. If I could find a source secondhand, this time next year we'd be millionaires Rodney. The LDV's are quite popular as they rust from the outside in rather than the inside out like transits, so you have a fighting chance of fixing it if you see any rust spots. They also yend to use the transit drivetrain which is common and well proven. Only downside is that they are narrower than most which means if you're tall you can't put the bed across the back, which is the preferred way of doing it, unless you have a luton, in which case the bed goes in the luton. Older mercs are very popular, but spares are getting rarer and as someone pointed out, emissions are becoming more of an issue.
fenman
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