Spec me a van to convert please.

mollymoo

mollymoo

mollymoo

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I'm looking for a donor van for professional conversion to a horse box. I'm looking around the £4000 - £7000 range.

When ever I've seen a Sprinter they always looked like the back doors are about to fall apart from rust, but I suspect they will have good running gear.

I've seen a Nissan Interstar 60 plate 105000 miles that doesn't look like the driver has been in and out of it too often judging by the bolster on the seat.

There is also someone selling already converted vans they all seem to be Renault Masters ranging from 04-07 and 150000 ish full service history.


So my question I suppose would be are there any vans out there that are way better than others or are they much of a muchness.


 
The Renault and nissan are the same van, same as the vauxhall. They're all Renault vans with a different badge.They don't suffer from rust but they do have other faults.

Ford and Merc's on the other hand, are more bulit proof but suffer from rust.

From what I've seen, most people use Renault vans, because the chassis's are less likely to rust, so it's not getting welded year after year when the van gets older.

After having a vauxhall I stick to ford. But I just my van as a van so I'm not spending a load of cash on a conversation,so it doesn't matter about welding because I'll get a newer van before it gets to the point on big bills
 
What is the insurance situation like for something like this? as Sprinters tend to be a lot higher compared to the competition though we use them a lot at work as they tend to be reliable. I've heard the Iveco vans have good reliability but no experience personally.
 
Surely the conversion people will be able to tell you what can they would consider to be appropriate?

Assuming as a horse box it’ll be sat around for weeks without use?

Do you need to consider LEZ? Or ULEZ?
 
Maccapacca said:
Surely the conversion people will be able to tell you what can they would consider to be appropriate?

Assuming as a horse box it’ll be sat around for weeks without use?

Do you need to consider LEZ? Or ULEZ?
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Thank you for the pointers. The people I'm looking at look to have done Movanos, Renault Masters and Nissan Interstars, but as mentioned above they are pretty much the same van. I have messaged them but thought I might also get impartial advice whilst I'm at it.

The sitting around without use it was mainly bothers me, there always seems to be a mechanics up at the stables :)

I'm not sure about ULEZ/LEZ rulings. As far as I can see they are for cities and we will be going to rural areas but I will certainly look into it.

Rroff said:
What is the insurance situation like for something like this? as Sprinters tend to be a lot higher compared to the competition though we use them a lot at work as they tend to be reliable. I've heard the Iveco vans have good reliability but no experience personally.
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Hi good point. We've not looked at insurance yet, although it was something I thought about last night. I might take a look today if I have time.

koooowweeee said:
The Renault and nissan are the same van, same as the vauxhall. They're all Renault vans with a different badge.They don't suffer from rust but they do have other faults.

Ford and Merc's on the other hand, are more bulit proof but suffer from rust.

From what I've seen, most people use Renault vans, because the chassis's are less likely to rust, so it's not getting welded year after year when the van gets older.

After having a vauxhall I stick to ford. But I just my van as a van so I'm not spending a load of cash on a conversation,so it doesn't matter about welding because I'll get a newer van before it gets to the point on big bills
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Hi thank you that's good to know, I think the rust issue is more of a consideration than the maintenance, I don't need a horse falling through the floor whilst on the Motorway :)
 
The Renault ones are way better as they're galvanised so dont rot away like the ford and merc ones but you pay for it with other reliability issues like electrics which have never been a strong point of the French, issues like that may be compounded if its left sat not being used for most of its life.

Is there any reason you need a van which will spend most of its time sat doing nothing still needing to be insured, taxed and MOT'd rather than a horse box trailer and upgrade whatever your daily car is to something big enough to pull it?
 
For a horse box you probably want some front wheel drive since the floor in the back is lower. This means either the Rensanhall or the Pugeot/Fiat/Citroen Boxer/Ducato/Relay.

Edit: The current VW Crafter is also front wheel drive, but probably not in budget. The previous model is a rebadged Sprinter.
 
sovietspybob said:
The Renault ones are way better as they're galvanised so dont rot away like the ford and merc ones but you pay for it with other reliability issues like electrics which have never been a strong point of the French, issues like that may be compounded if its left sat not being used for most of its life.

Is there any reason you need a van which will spend most of its time sat doing nothing still needing to be insured, taxed and MOT'd rather than a horse box trailer and upgrade whatever your daily car is to something big enough to pull it?
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I've had a french car so I know where your coming from.

The reason behind the box is we've been there with a trailer and my missus, who will be the one driving it is even worse then me with them. She wants a horse box and I'm not going to argue, she's a crazy horse lady after all :)

K.C. Leblanc said:
For a horse box you probably want some front wheel drive since the floor in the back is lower. This means either the Rensanhall or the Pugeot/Fiat/Citroen Boxer/Ducato/Relay.

Edit: The current VW Crafter is also front wheel drive, but probably not in budget. The previous model is a rebadged Sprinter.
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Good shout on front wheel drive, I never even thought of that.
 
Another thing to bare in mind is that although the long and extra long wheelbase versions have more room inside they will generally carry less weight. Pretty much every van of this sort is built to 3.5 tonnes when fully laden, since once you go over this it legally becomes a lorry and your missus will have to start eating yorkies and wearing a dirty hiviz 24 hours a day.
 
K.C. Leblanc said:
Another thing to bare in mind is that although the long and extra long wheelbase versions have more room inside they will generally carry less weight. Pretty much every van of this sort is built to 3.5 tonnes when fully laden, since once you go over this it legally becomes a lorry and your missus will have to start eating yorkies and wearing a dirty hiviz 24 hours a day.
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Thanks for the advice. I don't think she will mind eating yorkies all day :) I think they are generally 1000 - 1100 when converted so one big horse and one little horse.
 
Surely you need to get something strong enough to take a couple of horses over the rear axle. More than likely need a dually. Absolutely will need to be long wheel base.

Transit Luton box van would be ideal.
 
most 3.5t vans would be overweight with 2 big(ish) horses, still need to add the weight of driver/passenger/tack/feed etc to any advertised payload...it's not the strength that's the issue though it's just they're limited to 3.5t - you can get them uprated to 3.9 - 4.5t just by getting the paperwork changed but then you need a 7.5t licence to drive it

talk to whoever you're going to get to build it first, the vast majority are the models mentioned above Renault Master/Movano/Interstar or Citreon/Peugeot's, Merc's/Iveco's are slightly higher floors and things like a Transit Luton box van is more like a truck /ladder frame chassis with the box sitting way higher
 
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I've found one already converted the way I would have wanted. It's a Renault Master 06 159000 miles diesel 2.5l. Would this be good or bad do you think. Will it have a galvanised chassis at this age and are the engines any good.
 
I'm not sure about the chassis but ideally you want one of the higher output engines...not that you'd be going fast but if you're going to be carrying 2 horses the lower output/smaller engines will be very slow on hills etc

the materials used and the standard of the conversion is just as if not more important than the chassis

is it a converted panel van type (still looks like a van with ramp/windows added) or coach built type with fibreglass luton etc?
 
Depends which 2.5L it is - if it is the YD25 they have a decent amount of torque though still maybe a bit underwhelming if you are past 3.5t territory - but they will cope. If it is one of the other 2.5s then they would really struggle.

If it is the YD25 you might want to look up details on the timing chain - there are some potential issues when used for prolonged periods under heavy load - but cheap (relatively) and easy to fix/prevent if done pre-emptively.
 
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builder22 said:
I'm not sure about the chassis but ideally you want one of the higher output engines...not that you'd be going fast but if you're going to be carrying 2 horses the lower output/smaller engines will be very slow on hills etc

the materials used and the standard of the conversion is just as if not more important than the chassis

is it a converted panel van type (still looks like a van with ramp/windows added) or coach built type with fibreglass luton etc?
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Hi It's a fibreglass Luton style conversion with aluminium deck.
 
Rroff said:
Depends which 2.5L it is - if it is the YD25 they have a decent amount of torque though still maybe a bit underwhelming if you are past 3.5t territory - but they will cope. If it is one of the other 2.5s then they would really struggle.

If it is the YD25 you might want to look up details on the timing chain - there are some potential issues when used for prolonged periods under heavy load - but cheap (relatively) and easy to fix/prevent if done pre-emptively.
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Cheers, how would I find out this information?
 
Yeah be careful with weights, a lot of box vans get caught out with this as they're mostly only 3.5t and with a tail lift installed and 3 burly lads in the front seats the actual payload they can legally carry is amazingly small, like 800kg sometimes.

Make sure you do the sums and fully understand GVW and MAM etc as its very easy to get caught out, i've heard of a lot more people getting stopping and sent to weigh bridges over the last couple of years.
 
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