Choosing & Buying the Van
Early in 2020 we started thinking about what kind of van we would want for our own van build. Having owned a very small Mazda Bongo and a medium-sized Ford Transit (L2) before this, we knew that for the things that we had on our ‘must have’-list we needed at least an L3 van. That’s where we started with our first Excel sheet of the many to follow for this van; setting out all available vans and their dimensions.
We wrote down all various variations of the most popular and in the UK available vans and their inside dimensions.
One of the must-haves on our list was a full-size bed, and if possible have it across the van rather than going with the length, leaving space at the side, which with us both being 1.75m-ish would be doable. We weren’t going for a shower or closed-off toilet section, so a wider van was probably going to be the smartest move.
That left us with three options: Citroen Relay/Jumper, a Peugeot Boxer or a Fiat Ducato. These all have the exact same chassis and measurements.
Knowing what we were looking for, while still keeping some options open for a bargain to be found in the other brands, we set up various searches on the likes of Auto Trader, Gumtree and eBay.
This can be easily done by simply searching and filtering down what you’re looking for, and copying that link into your spreadsheet. That way, you don’t have to filter down every time you have a bit of time to search.
Eventually, from around August onward we had save up enough money to go out and actually buy the van.
Add to that there was another lockdown looming, so if we wanted to get going, and have something to do as well (the first lockdown was rather boring..) then now was the time to do so.
We made a list of all the potentials we were interested in, and started calling/emailing/messaging. Some had already been sold, others, upon asking some questions, we also crossed off the list.
We ended up with our 2015 Citroen Relay from a town near Mansfield.
The van was a big red, ex-Royal Mail van. It was one of the things that we liked about it.
Many vans were white, silver or black. Given that we like to travel to sunny destinations for walking, and having had a black van before, we know how extra hot it can get in a darker vehicle, black was out of the question.
We drove down to Mansfield, did a test drive, did some tyre kicking and looked under the hood. All seemed well, and we took the gamble and paid on the spot! Ready to take home our new project and very own holiday house on wheels!
This was the very first picture we took of it!
