I get lots of questions along the lines of; “I really want to get a van and convert it into a campervan, what type of van would you recommend I get?”
Well, it’s a pretty ambiguous question.
I’m no mechanic, I don’t even like cars/engines etc, it’s just not my thing. I’ve only ever bought two vehicles in my life, one of them being my van, and I broke pretty much all the rules in the book doing that. So really, I’m of no use to anyone wanting advice on choosing/buying a van.
What I’ll do instead is tell you how I decided to buy my first van and what my thought process was, I’ll also tell you what I’m planning for my next one, having (hopefully) learnt a thing or two over the last few years.
Size Matters
People try to say it doesn’t, but it really does!
When I began looking into buying a van to convert into a campervan my intention was to live in it for extended periods, traveling and exploring for months at a time. For this reason I went for the biggest van that I could drive with just a car license.
This decision came with its pros and cons. The pros were that I didn’t get cabin fever when I was kept inside for days on end by rain and miserable weather, or when I was parked in more urban places and wanting to keep a low profile. (To read more about this see my top tips for wild camping). It also meant that at 6ft tall I never had to stoop or crouch or bang my head on anything. There was also plenty of space for my gear and for many luxury items, without it ever feeling cluttered. But it did have a few cons as well, such as being too tall to sneak under height barriers at carparks, too wide to comfortably squeeze past other traffic on narrow windy roads (RIP wingmirrors) and being so big and clumsy that the thought of navigating and parking in a busy supermarket carpark brought me out in cold sweats.
For these reasons with my next van I want to go a bit smaller. Not so much as to sacrifice greatly on the space or headroom I had, but enough that I find it more manageable to drive and be practical as an everyday vehicle. I think about 8ft long in the back will be a happy compromise.
Cost
To say I was on a tight budget is an understatement. I had scrimped and saved for months, I knew I didn’t really have enough, but I couldn’t wait any longer and just needed something asap to get me started. For that reason I spent £700 on an LDV Convoy. That’s a lot of van for your money, and at that price, even without any mechanical knowledge, I was quite happy to just say that if it went up in a puff of smoke one day, at least it hadn’t cost me the world.
But there are other costs to be aware of!
Tax, insurance, fuel efficiency, parts, it all soon adds up. You pay a little more too for a higher spec vehicle with AC, electric windows, central locking etc. None of which were anywhere to be seen on my rusty but trusty old LDV.
The reliability of the vehicle is also important as, if it constantly breaks down, you’ll have to keep forking out on repairs and on parts. Luckily for me my LDV was cheap and easy to fix, and I got quite handy at a couple of odd jobs it required, but it did have some recurring problems which I never quite got to the bottom of, and it did eventually die on me.
For my next van I’m currently leaning towards a Ford Transit as it seems to be ticking most of my boxes.
How not to buy your van
This next section will detail how I bought my van, and how you shouldn’t buy yours. I decided I wanted an LDV Convoy, saw one advertised on Facebook, and bought it without checking it over in any constructive way.
My thoughts upon meeting the seller and looking at it were; I could bluff that I know what I’m talking about when it comes to buying a vehicle or looking at engines, but they’ll see straight through me and, if they’re that type of person, they’ll just rip me off. Or, I’ll just admit that I know nothing about buying a vehicle or looking at engines, and if they’re that kind of person, they’ll just rip me off.
I decided to save us both the time and just acted honestly. I did, more out of courtesy than anything else, look under the bonnet when offered. However, if it had been on fire I still wouldn’t have known any better. “ahh yes, I see this has been fitted with the 1995 Blazing Inferno engine, top of the range in its day as I recall…”
I was very fortunate that the gentleman who sold me my van had taken good care of it and pointed out virtually every fault that it had. He asked for an amount, I offered him a bit less (I’d seen that bit on TV before so was pretty certain I was doing the right thing), we met in the middle and shook hands on £700. The rest is history.
Next time I’ll do things a bit differently. The AA offer a check on vehicles under 15 years old. I couldn’t take advantage of this as my van was older than that, but the next one will be slightly newer I hope. You could also take a knowledgeable mate or a mechanic to give the tyres a kick as well.
And so ends the story of how I found my van (or did it find me?) and how I blundered my way through the minefield of buying it. There are many cautionary steps you can take to prevent yourself from being stung, but what I’ve learnt is that at the end of the day, you pay your money and take your chance.
