apprehensive newbie

james pond

Guest
hi again, still looking to buy a van ; does anybody know why talbots and fiats are so sought after on ebay, but transits not so much ?? is there something i should be aware of methinks !
 
Not many converters have used Fords for their builds, apart from that they are OK, look at the number of white Transits on the roads!

Peter
 
transit

Hi we have a mk 5 transit converted our selves,its has never let us down,the only thing you have to watch is the rust.shirl
 
self builders go for the ducato/boxer/relay because of the extra width but they have definite shortcomings for fitting out,massive wheelarches for a start
 
i had a ford based one some time ago, based on the old cortina car, added extra rear wheels, so a 6 wheeler, huge glassed rear fibreglass body and they called it a starcraft....it never took off, although you can still get the fibreglass home conversion.
 
Transits were not used so much by converters because of the rear wheel drive, this made the floors in the vans higher and made the chassis harder to cut, wihtout loosing the drive train, more Transits are being used now because front wheel drive is available, You are now going to ask how they managed to convert Mercedes, I don't know the answer to that except I suspect they sold for more money ??
 
n brown said:
self builders go for the ducato/boxer/relay because of the extra width but they have definite shortcomings for fitting out,massive wheelarches for a start
Click to expand...

:wave: i'm sure when you fitted mine out you had loads of fun dealing with those arches :lol-053:
 
Mk3 Transit

Hi James

Well we bought a cheap 1989 transit based motorhome in July just to try out motorhoming without spending a fortune. It was coachbuilt by Ci Autohomes and we bought it with a very recent Mot certificate which gave us confidence. Anyway I started a thread where you can read all about the rustbucket that is our motorhome. I've learnt a lot about transits from our local garage, mainly that the diesel engines run forever and the chassis do rust badly and often need a lot of welding to keep them going.

Anyway we had the welding done and have just returned from a 1500 mile 18 day holiday where the vehicle itself was very reliable and never failed to start. The 2.5 ltr diesel was rather underpowered though and hitting the Yorkshire moors and the Pennines forced so much gear changing, often down to 3rd and sometimes down into 2nd, and even into 1st on one hill! I suspect the turbos would be much better.

That's my pennyworth if it's any good.

Rob
 
We've just bought a 1989 Fiat based Swift Kontiki, and except from the normal lazy gearbox, it is absolutely superb. They're popular because they do the job well, remain easy to source parts for and are fairly inexpensive to run.

Older transits tend to be CI's, a little smaller, and as has already been mentioned are very prone to rust. However, the smiley has an easy to work on, bombproof engine, and as long as you don't mind the welding, should serve you well.

There are plenty of rough examples of both around, so choose with care, and if in any doubt at all, walk away.
 
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