Vans vans Vans...... talk to me

[spruce]

Bit off topic but if a van has a payload capacity of 600kg for example. Does this mean the tie down points in the rear of the van are capable of securing a 500kg load in the van.

Or if that is not the case, what are the tie down points capable of safley securing weight wise? 

When I was in the trade I asked that question of the Citroen vans we sold in the 1999 to 2006 era. The answer was that they were there to secure loose items. Even with the bigger vans the tie down eyes are held in with a couple of spot welds. Imho none of them are man enough to hold your tank securely. 

On the Berlingo vans of that era and the one my son has, the tie down hooks are wire hooks welded to the rear and front of the wheel arches.

I bent one of them back with a pair of pliers.

The spares department could order an elasticated cargo net for the customer.

 

[THL4KEL]

Crazy when you think we live in this so called Health and Safety era of regulations/standards and in all honesty vans cannot safely transport products without modifications to a vehicle and those modifications are never tested.

 

[spruce]

I think we are starting to get a 'wobble' with electric vehicle charging demands on the energy grid.

https://uk.motor1.com/news/356197/government-smart-charging-points-july/

Ideally they want people to charge electric vehicles during off peak periods. A smart link would allow a users energy supplier to charge much higher rates during 'high demand' times with the option to switch your charging point off at peak times. (High demand times will be early morning and early evening.) The pretense is that your vehicle can be charged at times in the middle of the night when tarriffs are low.

Is there a timer on these household charging points? When I come home the first thing I will do is plug my electric vehicle in. My electric vehicle will reach 80% of recharge in an hour. If I come home at 18.00 hours then I'm assured to be paying the highest electric charge tarriff. By the time the cheaer tarriff applies, charger will be on trickle charge or float mode.

Then the grid has the option to switch my charging point off. What happens if they don't switch it back on again? My car might not have enough charge to get me to work and back. (This was a system employed in South Africa in years gone by when the electric system wasn't in chaos it is today. During peak times, a 'ripple' was sent down the line which activated a switch to switch the electric geyser off. When the peak past the ripple was sent down the line again to switch the geyser back on. On occassion we only found out that the geyser was off when we had no hot water. This was blamed on the switch, it was never an operator problem.)

 

[chelmsclean]

Had my last Renault trafic for 11 years.

Never had an issue in all that time not even any rust at all

Got a new one in september, it's nice to drive, economy pretty good.

My bro went from a traffic, to a sprinter, to a dispatch, to a transit, now back to traffic, he hated everything else.

Citroen fell apart, sprinter was horrible to drive, transit was juicy.

I got a pre reg one for similar price to a 2 year old one, that would be my advice, second hand vans may have been ragged beforehand, especially if they were fleet vehicles

 

[spruce]

Had my last Renault trafic for 11 years.

Never had an issue in all that time not even any rust at all

Got a new one in september, it's nice to drive, economy pretty good.

My bro went from a traffic, to a sprinter, to a dispatch, to a transit, now back to traffic, he hated everything else.

Citroen fell apart, sprinter was horrible to drive, transit was juicy.

I got a pre reg one for similar price to a 2 year old one, that would be my advice, second hand vans may have been ragged beforehand, especially if they were fleet vehicles

It took me 3 years looking on and off for a replacement for my Citroen Relay 04 plate. Mechanicals of the van were fine but built in an area of no anti corrosion protection, failed MOT for rust underneath.

May have had it welded up (again) but this time the front suspension needed to be removed so the cost of repair would be too high.

My replacement is a Peugeot Boxer 2.2 hdi which is heavier to run on fuel than my old 2.0hdi in the Relay.

I've never really liked the 2.2 as it was recognised by the trade that the 2.0 hdi was a better engine.

I see that both Fiat and Ford have gone back to the 2.0 hdi variants (multijet and TDCI) and Iveco have opted for the heavier 2.3 engine of theirs. It will be interesting to know how the PSA purchase of Opel in Europe and Vauxhall in the UK will effect the diesel engine partnership with Ford agreed back in 1998. I read recently that the engine plant where these engines were built in Dagenham was closing down.

 

[Part Timer]

Ideally they want people to charge electric vehicles during off peak periods. A smart link would allow a users energy supplier to charge much higher rates during 'high demand' times with the option to switch your charging point off at peak times. (High demand times will be early morning and early evening.) The pretense is that your vehicle can be charged at times in the middle of the night when tarriffs are low.

The percentage of new electric vehicles is circa 6%, how are they going to manage when that gets up to 25%. Another well thought out plan, just wait for hydrogen engines

 

[Pjj]

We have Renault master , traffic and Vito  the Vito is a nice drive but a rust bucket and payload isn’t great , master payload is great turning circle and gear change is appalling , traffic is ok but typical Renault , I wanted the new shape crafter but payload isn’t enough so stuck with the master at the moment , we are also looking for another van to take an Ionic’s thurmopure 600 ltr system need 1200kg payload and don’t want to be paying 32 k that ford want for a 340 custom 

 

[spruce]

The percentage of new electric vehicles is circa 6%, how are they going to manage when that gets up to 25%. Another well thought out plan, just wait for hydrogen engines

They've given that up as a bad job. If they released the information on how to split water easily everyone will be using the technology in their back garden and the Govt would loose all that guaranteed revenue stream. So they needed to come up with a way to 'store' hydrogen in fuel cells meaning that the only place to purchase the next tankful would be at a garage - tax assured.

I'm guessing that the technology was just too easy to 'by pass', hence the reason for it's 'demise.'

 

[Pjj]

On the subject of electric cars I took my Audi into the local dealership for a service ,the sales guy who sold it me can over and we got talking he said that he had just got back from a factory visit of audi in Germany and whilst there they were told that the electric cars only have a 25%  saving on greenhouse gasses as the power needed to charge them is so great , so it is a saving in the environment but it’s still not a huge saving like the authorities are telling us it is 

 

[Clisty1989]

got a 61plate vivaro 65000 miles

ex Scottish power vehicle  - super clean.

yet I had the the slave or master cylinder go! 

gear box out job new clutch to boot 

£600. 

wish I spent a bit more and got a transporter.

see a couple of them being used for window cleaning around the Swansea area and they just look the ******** 

Seen a few of them round Swansea, one of the winds that has one has a ancient brodex system in it. bit out of my budget but if I find one I'm nabbing it

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Put that Cataclean  into my tank today and I recognized the smell immediately. All it is, is xylene commonly known as paint thinners and used to remove oil. Think I'll buy a gallon of the stuff and put some in my tank every 3 months. As for vans, buy anything German and it will run forever. :1f609:

 

[spruce]

On the subject of electric cars I took my Audi into the local dealership for a service ,the sales guy who sold it me can over and we got talking he said that he had just got back from a factory visit of audi in Germany and whilst there they were told that the electric cars only have a 25%  saving on greenhouse gasses as the power needed to charge them is so great , so it is a saving in the environment but it’s still not a huge saving like the authorities are telling us it is 

Exactly, but what its doing is ticking the pollution reduction boxes for inner cities by moving the source of pollution (ie power stations) to another part of the country.

We were on holiday with an aircraft saleman for Airbus in March. He was saying that the pollution around Heathrow airport is so bad that even if there was no other sources of pollution, Heathrow would still never reach its pollution reduction targets.

Yes, Heathrow airport has taxed 4 engined passenger carrying Jumbos out of use due to excessive landing pollution taxes. I believe the tax to land a Jumbo is £12,000. The industry has got around the taxation issue by replacing the Jumbo with 2 planes each carrying the same amount of passengers (300 each) as a single Jumbo. Landing taxes for the smaller 2 engined planes is £3000, so halving taxes for the same number of passengers. But the amount of air pollution hasn't been reduced, its still at best the same.

So whilst they have reduced pollution from the larger Jumbos they have also dramatically increased the number of planes in the air. London can't afford Heathrow to reduce it's passenger carrying capacity. In the name of growth, they need to increase the number of passengers (including tourists) entering London via that airport.

It needs to grow and in doing so will create more pollution.

So again, the car is being used as a guaranteed revenue stream. At this moment battery driven cars are the flavour of the month. Too many Government officials have a lot invested in this industry so they will drive that to its death. Its not about saving the environment, its about creating new products and banning old to force change.

No I don't want to buy a new digital TV. Tough, the broadcasters are no longer broadcasting in analogue so I'm are forced to buy a replacement even if I don't want to.

They make it sound as though we are being given a proverbial carrot, but actually we are being given the stick.

 

[Craigmac]

Trying no to sound like a crazed conspiracy theorist but have a watch of unacknowledged and Bob lasars documentaries.

Our governments have the knowledge and better technology to give free, environmentally friendly energy. 

problem being the people who actually run this planet have made and continue to make their fortunes by selling oil.