Newbie - few questions re buying first campervan

JoeySully

Also... the biggest hurdle we had was that I or my parter could not test drive the vehicle before we purchased it!!

My car insurance would not cover me 3rd party on a camper (RSA / 123.ie). Neither could I transfer my car insurance to the camper.
My partner had a limit of 2.3l engines so we failed there too as it was a 2.5L.

I wouldn't take a chance driving without insurance especially with a large vehicle on unfamiliar roads. You could easily loose your license.

clongal

Joey - I never even thought about our car insurance not covering us to test drive. Better check that out. Am amazed you bought one without driving it. Hope it is going well for you!

Am considering not going to see the one today - it'll be at least a 5 hour round trip and am getting a bit paranoid now about him not having the paperwork to back up claims of work on the van. Just seems a bit odd to me especially for work done so recently.

But it does look a nice van and maybe there will always be something...

JoeySully

clongal wrote: »

should I be smelling a rat?

Maybe but its Ireland and nobody keeps anything like that. Ask for the garage name and if they will stand over their work. PM me the name if you like I may know them.

moodrater

The top timing belt cover is very easy to remove and you'll be able to tell at a glance if the belt and pulleys were changed that recently. Its the pulleys more that the belt that fail. In terms of a test drive if the owner is insured you could sit in while he drives it or ask him to drive it somewhere like an IDA industrial estate to test drive it. I'd rather change an engine anyday than deal with damp work so the damp should be of primary importance.

Benbecul97

JoeySully wrote: »

who have you got insurance with ?
I think Dolmens will require a engineers report before insuring as its over 10 years old.

Dolmen will accept a valid DOE/CVRT.

clongal

So did go to see the van today and currently deliberating over it. Everything fab inside all working no obvious sign of damp etc gears etc seemed fine you could see Tb has been changed etc etc.

On roof some signs of sealant over the years and roof bars looked bit tired and rusty.

Underneath a fair bit of rust. Especially towards front underneath of van. Braces on spare wheel rusty too. Main exhaust pipe looked grand but the bigger part of it ( not sure what it's called) was a bit rusty. Whether it's just surface rust or not I dunno.

But other half says any van 18 years old will have some rust.

I have some photos but don't think I can post here as am new to the site.

Guy seemed v genuine. Showed me recent cert everything looked well within the acceptable limits.

Not sure what to do now. He says he has a woman coming from Clare at 5 with cash ready to buy but I don't want to jump into it until I figure out if that sort of rust would be normal.

JoeySully

There is always someone coming with cash .. maybe there is

look at it this way. An exhaust box wont cost you a whole lot, these vans probably don't even have Cat converters. If its chassis rust you can't poke a screwdriver threw then the CVRT man wont mind. All 18 year old roofs are dirty and have there sealant replaced.

Even if the engine did go wallap its probably the cheapest thing to fix. once everything works you cant really loose. Probably will be worth 10K for many years to come, its money invested.

moodrater

clongal wrote: »

So did go to see the van today and currently deliberating over it. Everything fab inside all working no obvious sign of damp etc gears etc seemed fine you could see Tb has been changed etc etc.

On roof some signs of sealant over the years and roof bars looked bit tired and rusty.

Underneath a fair bit of rust. Especially towards front underneath of van. Braces on spare wheel rusty too. Main exhaust pipe looked grand but the bigger part of it ( not sure what it's called) was a bit rusty. Whether it's just surface rust or not I dunno.

But other half says any van 18 years old will have some rust.

I have some photos but don't think I can post here as am new to the site.

Guy seemed v genuine. Showed me recent cert everything looked well within the acceptable limits.

Not sure what to do now. He says he has a woman coming from Clare at 5 with cash ready to buy but I don't want to jump into it until I figure out if that sort of rust would be normal.

Front exhaust section is always really rusty because heat accelerates oxidation, the wheel carrier is always rusty if you gradually let it down working backward and forward then apply water proof grease it should last the life of the van. Without knowing where the rest of the rust is noone couldn't say how important it is. If its recently passed the DOE its very unlikely to be structural. Every van that age will have rust. It wouldn't be uncommor for the forward chassis members and cross section to be completely gone at that age. But it wouldn't pass the DOE then.

moodrater

If I were you I would look at all the ones nearby even if you don't like the layout etc. it will give you an idea of whats normal for the age. From reading this thread it would seem you haven't been *actively* looking very long and you've only actually seen a couple of vans so I wouldn't be in a wild panic.

clongal

thanks moodrater - the thing is we are in the deep west and even looking at things around the county can take a full half a day as "nearby" is usually a couple of hours drive away. I am working and it's really busy with the kids off school too. I don't really want to spend the time I am off with them over the summer looking at more and more vans so if we can find a decent one quickly that would be brilliant. Though I do take your point and you are right, we have only seen 4 and 3 of them were the ducato style so I don't know how we'd respond to any others.

Thanks for your comments about the rust too. It did pass teh DOE so hopefully it's not to worry about.

Joey - thank you very much too - that perspective on the van was very helpful.

The guy today in the end rang me and after a bit of humming and hawing told me he'd take 12,500 instead of the advertised 13,450. I'm thinking it over at the moment. The lady with wads of cash in her pocket mustn't have turned up in the end.

The only thing we didn't see working today was the water boiler - he said he always took cold showers and used washing up facilities on camp site so didn't even know how to use it. Assume it doesn't work so

moodrater

clongal wrote: »

The lady with wads of cash in her pocket mustn't have turned up in the end.

clongal wrote: »

The only thing we didn't see working today was the water boiler - he said he always took cold showers and used washing up facilities on camp site so didn't even know how to use it. Assume it doesn't work so

My inlaws never used theirs either I wouldn't says its that unusual it takes ages to heat up, doesn't heat a lot water and eats gas if you have the alternative of a mains shower you'll most likely take it. For dishes boiling the kettle is faster.

You also have to drain them down in winter, descale if you have hard water, refill and purge the air in spring, take on and off the vent cowls when you're using it lots of people couldn't be bothered.

If there is a problem with it its often that it wasn't drained down and frost has popped the valve or burner need cleaning /servicing. Pat Horans would sort out any issue for you or maybe Ireland West Motorhomes if you're out that direction.

clongal

thinking of taking a mechanic to check out the van - just feel I don't know enough myself to know what might be an issue...and 12 and a half grand is a lot of money to me!

Benbecul97

clongal wrote: »

thinking of taking a mechanic to check out the van - just feel I don't know enough myself to know what might be an issue...and 12 and a half grand is a lot of money to me!

Do that. Was in the same situation and got our car mechanic to check out the van. If your mechanic is happy with it mechanically, and ye are happy with it regarding layout, seen everything working, no damp etc then you can't do much more than that. Its difficult to know the right thing to do when you are a newbie, but if you check all you, can and most importantly, it feels right, then go for it. If it feels wrong, then walk away. Good luck!

JoeySully

clongal wrote: »

thinking of taking a mechanic to check out the van - just feel I don't know enough myself to know what might be an issue...and 12 and a half grand is a lot of money to me!

don't you mean 12K

clongal

do I joey??? maybe you are right (fancy a negotiators job? )

clongal

thanks Benbecul - you are right - you can't do much more than that! I'm worried we've missed some damp in the panels or something but it seemed so dry inside, especially after the torrential rain over the last few days...

Benbecul97

clongal wrote: »

thanks Benbecul - you are right - you can't do much more than that! I'm worried we've missed some damp in the panels or something but it seemed so dry inside, especially after the torrential rain over the last few days...

No problem. If it seems/smells fine inside and you have checked with damp meter etc, then its probably ok. You can be tormented with all the advice, check for this, check for that, and that advice is perfectly valid, but when you are not in the trade it can all be very confusing. Good luck!

gazzaman22

Hi Clongal

How did you get on, Did ye buy yet? or whats the craic, Just after reading the whole thread, i'm interested in doing the same