Prospective Transit campervan owner

[larryex8]

Hi Forum members,

I've been offered a part-converted 60 plate medium roof transit with 59,000 miles on the clock for £9,000. It has a 'sort of' transverse bed, a 2 ring hob, some units, window blinds, a tow bar, gas and some 3 pin sockets plus a few extra camping bits. I hope to do a full conversion at some point, if I buy the van. I don't know if this is a good price and I'm finding out the actual model, with a engine size, from the current owner. He's someone I've known for a long time and he has done most of the work on the van himself and has had it since 42,000 miles. He uses the van for work purposes (he's a forest ranger at Forest Holidays) and a few nights away per year. What are your thoughts given all your experience on here?

If I get the van there will be lots more questions to come, especially regarding the bed situation, lighting and awnings.

Keep up the good work and I look forward to hearing from some of you.

Regards,

Larry

[wazzadj]

Hi Larry,
Welcome to the Forum its a sea of knowledge here and great guys happy to help you out
so don't be afraid to ask any question
and remember your question may have already probably been asked before and is in the posts so do a search you may find it there search function is your friend
I am in the process of converting my camper so feel free to pm for some ideas if you wish

cheers

[GuyT]

Hi Larry,

I'm quite sure others will give you more specific advice but as a comparison I bought a swb 2011 transit with 82k on the clock and paid £5400 inc VAT. I'm building more of a day van than a 'proper' camper and will eventually post some pics. The main point is how much time have you got on your hands. I'm time rich at the moment and converting takes serious amounts of time, simple things like insulating took a day maybe 2, cutting wood for panels, fitting the roof and trimming down again to make it fit properly, lining/carpeting panels takes ages. It took me over an hour to simply fit the driver side full panel and I mean fit the carpet, not including cutting to size, fitting the panel in the van etc. As I am sure you appreciate I am labouring how time intensive it is. I'm loving it, most of the time but 'stuff' takes a while to do and I need to crack on before I start working again. I couldn't tell you if 9k is a good price or not ..... I spent £300 on some basic lighting kit and power sockets and wiring, not including leisure battery or split charging kit so its easy to spend money.

While that may be of no help at all maybe it will help a little!!

As wazzadj said there are a lot of helpful people on here

Good luck

[Beaker]

"Worth it" is a purely relative term, so what is worth the money to you may be different other peoples opinions.

If the van is in good condition, has been well maintained and well looked after and the part conversion has been well done, then £9k may well be worth it - at 59 000 miles it's barely been run in.

AS GuyT said, it's a time consuming job and costs more than you expect. I bought my van from a dealer in September for £7k, and had £2k set aside for the conversion.
Unlike Guy though I'm time poor due to family commitments so progress has been slow. So far I've only managed to prep the van, fit the windows, insulate it and fit the electrics - they are not yet hooked up to the battery. I still need to put the panels in and build furniture.

We have been stocking up on hardware needed though- sinks, cookers etc, and that has almost eaten up our budget.

So yeah, I guess I'm saying £9k is not unreasonable.

[ake]

The van is overpriced by at least 3k unless the conversion is fantastic quality and complete

[wazzadj]

Hi Larry, as the other guys stated prospective is in the eyes of the beholder
2 things that have been pointed out are time and $$$$
this is so true , I bought my van at a half reasonable price , since then it has cost me double that to get it to any standard of what will suit me for my weekend camping and reliability

I have changed out a engine and a transmission and done huge amount of mechanical stuff along the way re invented the interior 4 times trying different setups for the interior, bed ect and are still spending money that was three years ago and I am still going .
SO TIME is a trade off to the $ factor and look at it as a Hobby ongoing Project learning and developing skills along the way :Labour of Love !!!
So is the van worth the Money and time and Maintenance
'YES for me cause I enjoy getting dirty and full of grease and learning new skills of being the mechanic on the vehicle because face it " its a TRANSIT" and a lot of mechanics run for the hills when you tell them you have one Why because it a time factor on these vehicles and so many variants in the models and setups
So embrace your new project and enjoy the adventure that it brings you every day of changing modifying and genera mechanical repairs as you go into the new world of a TRANSIT OWNER

cheers
Wazza