Thread: LDV vans

Mrs wants a campervan. Cost will make your eyes water, you could buy a very nice boat for the price! Not surprisingly, LDV have come up cheapest. Thinking of buying one (not electric) and fitting it out myself. Any real world experience of LDV?

They rust very prematurely.. the utes at least.

wouldnt go near them. had to work on one of their campervans and found all sorts of issues

There's a gazillion late model campervans being flicked on at the mo, with times being tough. If you were choosy about which one you bought I think the numbers wouldn't stack up doing your own build.

Will cost you a LOT more to build one yourself, AND you will never finish it. Lived in ex rental during the covid mistake. Just buy secondhand and do it.

Do not buy a transit or Ducato

Go caravan can be cheaper and still leaves you the ute to go hunting, that's what we have done.

They are shit. Be careful of the mercs if they have had the roof chopped they are starting to get cracks around the b pillars and need a certified repair done in the future and its quite expencive

I think there's some merit to the caravan idea, they tend to have more internal space at the same length (or put it a better way the internal space can be better utilised without needing to meet driving requirements which often translates to better layouts inside). They are also lighter and allow you to have the option of dumping the snail's shell when you get to where you are going so you can go to town or little side trips etc.

On the other hand, if you have to buy a caravan and a tow vehicle, it will cost you more most likely than just buying a camper. As suggested above, a second hand option may be a lot more cost effective BUT - be very careful that you don't end up with one with dodgy modifications to meet the new toilet compliance requirements that come into force next month.

They are fucking abysmal, avoid

My 92 yr old relative used to buy second hand caravans (3 in all) from the UK and have them shipped here. Way cheaper and in much better condition, than anything on the local market, but then he'd have to wait, for the ship to arrive.

The last one he got was like a small house, separate bedrooms (2), a lounge, bathroom, .... jeez.

Me, I'm a campervan man.

My customer have LDV cab chassis circa 2018 from LDV West, not sure if they are the same as van,
truck was good during warranty period, then it had troubles with the clutch, engine light and some other issue
all happened after 3 years warranty collapsed, nothing major but cost about 5k each time.
Overall, owner is happy and for the price he paid he said it was good a purchase.
his LDV truck is still going strong but I ended up with overpriced Japanese truck and I fed up with VTNZ (CoF).

With campervan you will have CoF, Electrical, Self contain cert, etc... all that are $ and time consuming tasks.
Hire one and go for a few trips before buy one. Just my 2 cents

uk caravans mostly use C section chassis that get filled with salt thru the winter. so check that really carefully.
also the rear wooden corners tend to rot out, have a good feel and poke around there.
also check on top to see what the state of sealant is on skylight and vents.

some will enter nz and get the electrical fitting changed to the flat type, you will notice a circular plug there too. thats to provide power to keep the fridge going while you are driving.
check the cover that covers the tow assembly, if it has an led in it look behind the axles, if you see a square metal box on there thats the anti sway system which also requires vehicle power. it senses if the van is getting a bit fishtailed and squeezes the brakes on.
seen plenty of people not know about this but its a 1000 pound option

My parents use to have a camper van but found they would often take a second vehicle for driving around. They have got a large 5th wheel caravan now which suits them much better as they are often away for weeks at time so they go to the camp ground or park over property and disconnect the Ute and drive that around, they might drive 2-3 hours away in a day looking about.

Originally Posted by longrange308

Do not buy a transit or Ducato

Amen to that family friends had a ducato and fuckall parts in NZ anyway had to pay 10k for a secondhand gearbox then sold it thing only had 50,000km on it so now got a caravan that can sit parked up until its used once a year