Buying a used van or pick up.

[Ed Davies]

2 hours ago, Alexphd1 said:

You actually need a big van to fit a 8x4 sheet in

I've got a Toyota Hiace. Selection was basically the smallest van you can get an 8x4 in. They go diagonally on a side which limits the number which can be carried but I got 6 9mm sheets in with plenty of room the other day. Much more and I'd get it delivered anyway.

[K78]

Thanks for all the advice. It’s appreciated. 

 

I wasn’t aware that vans and pick ups cost more to insure. I’ll check that out tomorrow. 

 

I’ve been looking on AT and eBay all night. These things can escalate quickly. 

 

Ive made a offer on a 2016 ford ranger double cab. It’s cheeky so I’m not holding my breath. But I know from painful, personal experience of selling my second car in March, that private sales in this price bracket are very slow at the moment. 

 

If I can pick up a newish truck/van for a good price I’ll go that route. If not I’ll get something older and cheap (maybe an estate as suggested) that I can’t lose much on. I think buying something half way between increases my chances of making a big loss. 

[Ferdinand]

15 hours ago, K78 said:

Thanks for all the advice. It’s appreciated. 

 

I wasn’t aware that vans and pick ups cost more to insure. I’ll check that out tomorrow. 

 

I’ve been looking on AT and eBay all night. These things can escalate quickly. 

 

Ive made a offer on a 2016 ford ranger double cab. It’s cheeky so I’m not holding my breath. But I know from painful, personal experience of selling my second car in March, that private sales in this price bracket are very slow at the moment. 

 

If I can pick up a newish truck/van for a good price I’ll go that route. If not I’ll get something older and cheap (maybe an estate as suggested) that I can’t lose much on. I think buying something half way between increases my chances of making a big loss. 

 

Have you taken the rules of your Council recycling centre into account? It is perhaps technical and honoured in the breech.

 

In many places car + registered trailer is OK, whilst a van is not for a private person.

 

 A car version of a van or a people carrier whether 5 seater, 6 seater or 7 seater, swallows a lot of junk. Whilst 4wd tonkas have shorter load decks.

 

On insurance I am not sure what happens for a van insured for social domestic pleasure; ie does self-build count as business?

 

Sweet spots I would point out for secondhand are firstly a carefully selected diesel estate from between about 2015 and March 2017, which meets Euro 6 and will therefore not be banned from activist-towns In the current wave of panic, whilst being grandfathered in at £20 or £30 road tax and doing 50mpg+. Big estate would tow 2 tons. Alternatively a relative banger can be had for very little money with perhaps 100k ok life left in it.

 

There seems to be a slight risk of govt policy treating diesels as one tax band higher. Not clear whether this would be retrospective, so I have left one band of leeway before mine will be jumping to the punishing tax levels.

 

The way it has panned out for me is a new diesel estate - Skoda Superb - to hopefully be my long term car. The current version came in in 2015, But I have ordered options such as a fold down front seat for longer load length, which I think is quite unusual.

 

Someone I know has bought a small diesel people carrier - Vauxhall Meriva - off eBay for under £400, with seats that vanish into the floor, vintage 2004 but only 120k on it. Miscategorised by the seller. That is now his work vehicle, with perhaps 2-3 years of life in it.

 

Ferdinand

[Alexphd1]

 

@Ed Davies interesting with the hiace, we have a vw transporter t5 and I would have thought they where the same length, vw want you to buy the LWB if you want to to carry 8x4 sheets. Our local owned build merchants has a minimum order but TP will run out with 1 sheet, but we have used them for most of our material so maybe just looking after us. 

We also remove all tools every nite from site into the van. We have very little on our site insurance for tools being stolen while our van has a decent coverage. When the builds are finished the van which was bought for a previous buisness will be sold of.

[Stones]

I bought an old Mondeo for our build for £150, spent £100 on it and ran it for just short of 13 months. Tax was around £20 a month but insurance was only £150. Came with a tow bar fitted so was able to borrow trailers as required. A great load / junk lugger that saved the family car from being ruined.  Scrapped it when finished.

[Ed Davies]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

On insurance I am not sure what happens for a van insured for social domestic pleasure; ie does self-build count as business? 

 

My broker insisted on my occupation being “builder” rather than “programmer taking a break to do a big DIY project” for my van insurance. Don't know what she'd have said if I'd, say, been programming full time, getting most of the house built by a builder, then using the van for all the extra stuff evenings and weekends. Being freelance I've always been insured “social, domestic and business use by the insured in person” so it didn't make any difference to that. I don't think that adds much to the insurance cost, anyway.

 

8 minutes ago, Alexphd1 said:

Our local owned build merchants has a minimum order but TP will run out with 1 sheet, but we have used them for most of our material so maybe just looking after us. 

 

My local Scottish chain timber merchant charges for small deliveries. Used to be £15 for orders under £150, now £25 for orders under £250 which is worth thinking about. I can usually find something to buy ahead to make the break point and sometimes they've not charged me on smaller orders just cause I've got enough from them but even paying once in a while it's probably cheaper overall than TP.

 

Right, off to get one sheet of 18mm OSB3 from them while the wind's calm enough to get it out of the van on my own safely…

[dpmiller]

Hiace aka the carpet fitter's favourite...

[joe90]

This sort of thing would suit you with a tow bar and trailer, shift anything.https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VOLVO-V40-1-8-PETROL-MANUAL-ESTATE-low-miles/292721372460?hash=item44278dad2c:g:NxIAAOSwL1hblnQa then scrap it if necessary.

[K78]

3 hours ago, joe90 said:

This sort of thing would suit you with a tow bar and trailer, shift anything.https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VOLVO-V40-1-8-PETROL-MANUAL-ESTATE-low-miles/292721372460?hash=item44278dad2c:g:NxIAAOSwL1hblnQa then scrap it if necessary.

 

It’s bad enough driving one Volvo. I couldn’t have 2 on the drive. 

 

I’m not 40 yet ?

[Declan52]

Don't discount cars like ford galaxy or vauxhall zafira. Both with the seats down have huge spaces. A tow bar is cheap to add.

[joe90]

50 minutes ago, K78 said:

 

It’s bad enough driving one Volvo. I couldn’t have 2 on the drive. 

 

I’m not 40 yet ?

 

Ha, I used to drive a montego, in fact had two of them, charisma of a dustbin but served me well for years (I know what you mean about Volvo tho ?)

[K78]

14 minutes ago, joe90 said:

 

Ha, I used to drive a montego, in fact had two of them, charisma of a dustbin but served me well for years (I know what you mean about Volvo tho ?)

 

Mine is a xc60 d5 polestar. It’s nice, well spec’d and quick. One of the best all rounders I’ve had, but not the most exciting car. 

 

If i had another Volvo, people would think I’m one of those weird Volvo owner club types ?

[Nickfromwales]

19 hours ago, Onoff said:

Bought my MK1 Focus estate off a mate as pure workhorse. Ghia spec so a bit of comfort on long runs and a not too shabby 138bhp. Roof rack on top, sorted the suspension and it did masses of work. Had to retire it due to tin worm. Got the new sills etc and it's on the to do list some time after the bathroom!

Excellent. You can get classic car insurance then ?

[Onoff]

37 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Excellent. You can get classic car insurance then ?

 

Certainly can:

 

1976 MK2 Capri 2.0 GL

1983 MK3 Capri 2.0 S

1983 MK3 Capri 1.6 Cabaret

 

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

32 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Certainly can:

 

1976 MK2 Capri 2.0 GL

1983 MK3 Capri 2.0 S

1983 MK3 Capri 1.6 Cabaret

 

 

 

And the focus when the sills are done ?

[Onoff]

35 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

And the focus when the sills are done ?

 

Yeah, I SO need another double garage!

[Nickfromwales]

4 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Yeah, I SO need another double garage!

Just build one. The neighbours aren’t going to get planners out anytime soon ?

[Nickfromwales]

AFTER THE FECKING BATHROOMS DONE!

[Ferdinand]

On 14/09/2018 at 19:46, Crofter said:

Trailers are great. Mine was originally a caravan, I bought it for under £100 and used some scrap wood to turn it into a decent little flatbed. Axle is rated at 800kg but for long loads like timber and sheet materials it was perfect. The remnants of the caravan also provided lots of useful materials (or 'that bloody junk' as my wife calls it). Now that I'm finished, it's sitting taking up space but I can't quite bring myself to get rid of it! To say I got my money's worth out of it would be a massive understatement.

 

How did you deal with the "plated weight" thing, and decide what the carrying capacity was and being documented in case you were pulled for a check?

 

Or is not being checked n advantage of being more remote?

 

Cheers

 

Ferdinand

 

[ProDave]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

How did you deal with the "plated weight" thing, and decide what the carrying capacity was and being documented in case you were pulled for a check?

 

Or is not being checked n advantage of being more remote?

 

Cheers

 

Ferdinand

 

My own trailers (general one and boat trailer, now gone)  were both built in the stone age before sticking plates on them was mandatory.  Both have survived a long time doing what they were built for so it is safe to say they are adequate.

 

But I have never been pulled or had a trailer examined.

 

A caravan trailer will have a Maximum Technically Permitted Weight on it's plate.  Once you have stripped the caravan body off and made it into a trailer just get it weighted, and the load it can carry is the MTPW less what the trailer actually weights.  You will probably find the load capacity is not much.  BUT I know at least one old caravan chassis now used as a boat trailer, I am SURE that will be over it's load.

[Crofter]

7 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

How did you deal with the "plated weight" thing, and decide what the carrying capacity was and being documented in case you were pulled for a check?

 

Or is not being checked n advantage of being more remote?

 

Cheers

 

Ferdinand

 

 

The caravan was from the mid 80s so predates the need for plating. The axle itself had a plate saying 800kg.

No idea what the finished trailer weighed, obviously much less than the caravan did.

I've never been pulled over for a weight test, police are probably spread a bit thin round here.

 

You hear of people trying silly things with converted caravans, like using them as car trailers, which gives them a bad name. But for picking up long or bulky loads it's ideal. I only had a hatchback to tow it with anyway so 800kg was about as much trailer as I could use.

[K78]

I ended up looking at caddy and transporters.

 

Caddy was a bit on the small side and only 2 seats. Transporters seemed crazy money due to camper conversion potential. They all had high mileage in my price range and didn’t have nice spec. 

 

Then I stumbled across this. Nice spec, one owner and a price I was happy with. It’s a highline with pretty much every option including dsg gearbox. 

 

Im really happy with it. Not going to bother leasing another car when my Volvo goes back. 

[Cpd]

Can’t go wrong with a ute mate.