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Which van?

Diwrnach

Well-known member
Messages
3,309
So, I am quite happy with my pick up, but always looking to the future and considering a Van, what is the ideal van for a decent van mount? obviously needs to be able to carry the weight and have enough room for everything, but also ideally readily available, cheap and also cheap to insure and run!

Thoughts?

 
I have just bought a Vivaro. Superb van to drive, loads of room for all your stuff. Im putting a 650L tank in and having a 2 man system eventually. Insurance and road tax are reasonable and its decent on fuel too. Im well pleased with it.

 
Ive got a caddy, and it fits the bill nicely as my only vehicle. If it was just soley for work id probably look at the new berlingo's/partners.

 
Depends in the amount of water you want to use I've got a Citreon nemo 1.4 hdi compact van big payload for what it is cheap on fuel insurance and fits in all the car parks and spaces I need it to.

 
You really want a good size van that will take a decent max payload if you ever want to go large and stick a 1000 litre tank in it.

 
What's the largest size tank you'd put in say a berlingo/partner/kangoo size van? Without power/handling suffering too bad? I'm about to kit a van out but bit scared to go too large as we got a vauxhall combo 1.7 straight diesel with a 250l upright tank and it struggles when full ! :-/

 
I've a 1.5 ton max payload renault master ex gas van that does me just fine now for the time being. The berlingo 600kg 1.9 d I out grew it very quickly. Most small wfp vans I see about their arses looks like they are dragging on the floor where they are carrying to much weight. :rolleyes:

 
My pick up has 1 ton payload, if I wasn't doing pressure washing and gutter clearing I would stick a baffled tank in the back, but not enough room to get everything in at the same time, have a job tomorrow that is drive and patio pressure washing, gutter hovering and window cleaning lol.

 
Good luk with that...I take it you will be towing a trailer too then:D
Luckily its 2mins away so I can pop back and drop some stuff off and pick some up, but it has highlighted the issue. if it was further away I would have to do it over two days or as you say get a trailer which I am considering, but it would be such a pain in the **** all the time.

 
Guess I could put a van mount in the pick up, 250l would fit easily with plenty of spare room, then buy a small trailer for pressure washing jobs.

 
That's the problem I found trailers are a pain in the **** to tow & park to get my other gear in/out.

I also found out very quickly just having a 250 tank I soon out grew that aswell so had no real choice but to get a much bigger van in the end.

 
Would of thought 250 would be enough for a days work? unless you have pump running full blast and never turn it off lol

 
No I found it's not big enough for window cleaning when you get busy. For example the job I did yesterday I got through over 500 litre of pure water and I was 8 miles away from base. Being that far away would have been not cost effective to go back to refill. Having a small tank is like having a small van as in the end you realise it's not big enough as you take on more work.

I'm sure I will end up with a 1000 litre tank and a much bigger van in the end than the one I've already got now the way things are going. :rolleyes:

 
Bloody hell Smurf, I get through maybe 150l on a day at the moment, but I only really work from 9:30 to around 3:00, two days a week, then a day or two doing gutters/pressure washing.

 
Like I metioned before when cleaning windows

High flow = faster cleaning & rinsing so more bucks you can earn in less time.

I also use warm/hot water on mostly first/one-off cleans that also helps.

Also I think pure water is dirt cheap to produce too.

 
I'm also wondering now how much water you think you would have needed with that recent enquiry you had on that large window cleaning job....

Bloody hell Smurf, I get through maybe 150l on a day at the moment, but I only really work from 9:30 to around 3:00, two days a week, then a day or two doing gutters/pressure washing.
 
Ordered another 7 25l barrels, so I could take nearly 400l, I would need it running the entire time I am there to get through that much

 
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