Smallest vans that can carry 8' x 4' sheets of MDF/plasterboard inside?

[Stephen Dawson]

Stay well away from Renaults, bloody expensive to keep on the road!!

[Kat]

I will, thanks. Never owned a French vehicle yet... I've never found one that I liked. I've only owned Britsh, Japanes, and American vehicles so far...

K

[Kat]

Good point! :-)

K

[Kat]

Interesting - cos I've never driven a beemer in my life.

That was my exact description, upon driving the only Volvo I ever drove: a brand new 740 or 760 estate, I think, back in 1985... Like driving a tank.... a very comfy tank, though... ;-)

K

[Christian McArdle]

I've got a Fiat Ducato, which you'd probably find too big. The sheets just fit. I'm not sure you'll find a smaller van that will take them. However, when shifting 8x4 sheets, I almost always put them on the roof with roof bars, or occassionally put them in the trailer. These methods would work on almost any van.

BTW, I love driving the van. Much more satisfying than the car. You get better visibility over hedges and oncoming cars turning right at the lights and it has no larger footprint than a Lexus.

Christian.

[Christian McArdle]

Strange. I prefer the Ducato/Boxer/Relay. Both the Trannie and Ducato are nice to drive, but the Ducato has the dash mounted gear stick and right hand mounted handbrake. The former is great for being lazy, the gear knob being no more than 10cm from the steering wheel. The latter is great when carrying passengers and they don't mangle themselves into the centrally mounted controls.

Christian.

[Christian McArdle]

Peugeots are fine. But then, they're mostly British, rather than French...

Christian.

[Christian McArdle]

Wow, half a million miles on one set of tyres!

Christian.

[Christian McArdle]

The X-Type is 4WD as standard on the 2.5 and 3.0.

Christian.

[John Rumm]

as are some of the Volvos.... an old 850 T5 R (as favoured by plod) also goes like stink (250bhp, 4WD) - easy to recognise by the implausibly low profile tyres!

[Kat]

Do any of the aforementioned vee-hicles have traction control?

K

[Kat]

A bit like my old Vauxhaull Astra then, described as British, but designed and built in Germany. Go figger... . ;-)

K

[Christian McArdle]

If you need traction control on a 4WD, then you need to lose your baseball cap, and learn to control your feet!

Christian.

[Morten]

With 340hp and 460Nm you need traction control, regardless of how lightfooted you are, and add wet roads and you would never leave the startline even on 245/19/35 profiles and permanent 4wd drive...

/Morten

[Paul Barker]

I have a Transit 80 circa 1994 and a Fiat Ducato same era. The Transi

is the Morris thousand of vans, many faults but you can't beat it fo reliability and cheapness of both parts and labour. The Fiat is bigge more thirsty, quicker off the mark, but isn't a personality.

I frequently carry 20 or more plasboard on the full frame roof rack o the tranny, which vertually turns it into a double decker. Aged 47 shinning up to the roof one foot on the back wheel, a good grip on th roof rack and I'm up there walking on the bridge round the back of th merchant's pulling sheet by sheet off the forklift. That's the beauty o a transit, it's at home with all things building trade.

My trade is gas fitter, but I renovate houses and coordinate al trades, so I get my hands dirty in all aspects of building, and I lov it, get payed for playing at being a builder.

Just go and get a Transit with a big f**k off roof rack, you'll alway get back what it cost. Last one I sold only stayed on the end of th road for an hour before it sold and then I could have sold it twic more the same evening. I got all my money back

-- Paul Barker

[John Rumm]

All of the above in one form or another - at least as an option I would guess... (in the case of the Subarus it is by virtue of viscous couplings in each of the diffs)

Depends a bit on the surface I suppose, but you are right is is generally far less of an issue - certainly upto 250bhp anyway.... you do have to try very hard to spin a wheel on my car, you can only just about get the back to slide a little if you turn out of a side road on a wet surface very aggressively (or on ice obviously), having said that the centre viscous coupling on mine is getting rather tired.

None of the above mentioned vehicles were quite in that league (at least in the commonly available guises)

WRC cars seem to manage just fine without it...

[Lurch]

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 10:16:55 -0000, "Christian McArdle" strung together this:

I used to have a 2000 W SWB Boxer 1.9D and I thought it was in general, crap. It spent more time in the garage under warranty than it did on my drive and everything is backwards, and cheap plasticy type crappy flimsy. I sold it at 43,000 miles. Don't know what the new ones are like but I had an 02 reg Partner 2.0 HDi after that and that started to fall to pieces pretty quickly. To be fair I had it for 15 months ish and did 52,000 miles in it, after buying it with 9,000 on the clock. I don't think it should have had to have two new alternators, new crankshaft pulleys, bearings etc. eveery 20,000 miles as it seemed to, but it does though.

In summary, Peugot are crap, I wouldn't be overly keen on getting another.

[Christian McArdle]

A very different experience to mine, then! My first was a 1995/M (Boxer). It did just short of 200,000 miles before some joyriders rammed it at 30mph in reverse. I sold it to a friend of a friend (a mobile mechanic who had just had his van and tools nicked) who has pulled out the damage and it is still on the road, presumably at well over 200,000 miles now. Very few signs of rust, given the age and mileage, too. My second is a 2000/X (Ducato) on around 50,000.

I haven't had any serious mechanical trouble from either. The older one did require a new heater matrix, but apart from that, it is just brake pads, tyres and batteries I've changed on either of them.

Of course, they aren't really Peugeots, they're Fiats with a Peugeot drivetrain. The engine chosen (the 1.9 XUD) is the one that seems to be in about 50% of diesel engine cars of the period.

Christian.

[Lurch]

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 09:14:22 -0000, "Christian McArdle" strung together this:

I think that's the problem, the XUD was\is a good engine and they seem to be riding on the back of its success currently. It's just a shame that anything they attach to the engine falls off.

[Morten]

Volvo V70 R with a tuned chip from

will give just that AND a hell of a ride to :-)

Because they ant driving on flat surfaces road most of of the time, if they were doing WRC on flat tarmac they would start using low profiles a well, maybe not 35 profiles but much lower that they use for WRC...

/Morten