by seanl82 » Sat May 01, 2021 7:57 am
I have a pre facelift LWB Tourneo Custom so can't offer advice on engine & gearbox info, but we bought ours to transport my son's kart around in and it's perfect for our needs. We're still fairly new to ownership but like you, it was bought over a transit due to value for money. With heated leather, the cab is a nice place to be and the rear row of seats come out very easily. Insurance can still be a little tricky unless If you have a single passenger front seat, but it shouldn't be as it is 8 passenger seats which is the key thing. It only goes into minibus territory for 9 PASSENGERS. Unfortunately some companies see 9 seats so won't insure. That said, as you've suggested it isn't a commercial vehicle so m'way driving isn't restricted to 65 mph. I think a lot of the newer commercial vans have electronic restrictors too which could cost you to have them mapped out if you wanted to. Fuel economy is pretty pants on the 2.2 though, so my 83 mile each way commute on mostly motorways, I sit with the cruise control set at 70 anyway which returns around 33mpg for the trip. If you're converting to a day van, you'll still want to insulate it so you'll have to remove interior trim, maybe think about removing the rear AC unit for a bit more space too. The rear windows have roll up blinds integrated into the cards and though they don't cover the entire window, I'm sure you could modify them and fit full width ones. As you say, a pop off curtain/blind is easily put up in the rear doors/hatch. Depending on how you fit a bed will determine on whether you have to cut up interior trim as well so it could become unsightly if you want to run it without the bed in place at times. For a motorbike if it's just yourself, I'd suggest a blow up bed that sits across the rear 1st row seats and down into the footwell as there is tons of space there. There are pros and cons to both, but it's worth doing a bit of research into how you would set it up. Look at other manufacturer conversions too along the same lines (VW Caravelle, Merc Vito etc...). Ours is an ex taxi too so although quite high mileage, the history and servicing are really good and much lower than the daft long intervals specified by Ford. That's added premium and harder to find for commercial vehicles as well. Good luck with your search.