Accidentally bought a thing - say hello to the yeet van

[emtbPhil]

I've been a bit hooked on vanlife videos on youtube for a few years, love the idea of at least having a long weekend way, sleep in the van, charge the bike etc.. etc..

I often have a bit of a late night ebay browse for transporters/caddy's but they're usually too much money to justify.
Last week spotted a caddy 15 minutes away, already fully converted into a day van by a guy who owns a few orbea eMTB's.
Decided to go have a test drive just to see if I liked driving it, and well errrr long story short, a bit of haggling happened and I took ownership on Saturday

Really happy with it. Room for two bikes or one bike and the bench folds out into a full sized single bed.
Tons of storage.

Few things I want to do - some nicer seats (it has some fancy covers over bog standard van seats which aren't very comfy on long drives) - lower the bench a bit as I'm 6ft and it's a bit high for me to sit on comfortably - then might start looking into a leisure battery + inverter for charging the bike over night. Probably gonna fit a rear camera too as I'm not used to reversing a van lol

Properly excited to get up to Scotland and into the lakes more often for some weekend Whinlatter fun

 

[Teriatric]

If it's a diesel keep it on VPower to protect the injectors.

 

[CJaMTB]

Bloody mint mate! V.jealous down here...

 

[RustyMTB]

Lovely. These things are personal choices but I'd be tempted to take the stickers off, make it harder for the scallywags to suss out which van has nice bikes in the back.

 

[James_C]

where does the bike go when you fold the bed out?

 

[Tubby G]

Lovely. These things are personal choices but I'd be tempted to take the stickers off, make it harder for the scallywags to suss out which van has nice bikes in the back.

And put a biohazard or poisonous chemical warning sticker in their place instead!

 

[Jimbo Vills]

Cool van! Gotta love a caddy

 

[emtbPhil]

If it's a diesel keep it on VPower to protect the injectors.

It is indeed one of the old 1.9 PD engines

where does the bike go when you fold the bed out?

There are 2 fork mounts - one facing back that my bike is on in the picture and one facing forward behind the passenger seat
When you use that one - with the bike up against the wall, you can fold out an extra bit of the bench to make it into a single bed with the bike still in the van.

When I've got the bed lowered a bit I'll take a pic with it all folded out

Lovely. These things are personal choices but I'd be tempted to take the stickers off, make it harder for the scallywags to suss out which van has nice bikes in the back.

Yeah I have been thinking about that. Gonna bin the orbea stickers off cos I have a cube anyway
If the bikes in the van I'll likely be in the van with it. Can't think I'll leave it parked anywhere unattended, but I am aware vans attract a lot of attention.

Up to now my bikes been stood up on a mount in my Mercedes E Class estate with just slightly tinted windows - so you can see the bike from a mile off and it's been ok so far (famous last words)

 

[Jackware]

That's an unusual colour and looks good but is the V5 showing the new colour and does your insurance know it's non-standard? I'm just thinking you don't want them to have an excuse to reject any future claim.

 

[emtbPhil]

Bit of a spec of where she's currently at

Vw caddy mk3 2k swb
1.9tdi pd105 bjb
Respray in tintable raptor coating using ral7011 (pure grey) full outside plus door shuts.
Remapped to 157hp & 323nm
6 speed swap with single mass clutch conversion
Bola b1r 225/45/17
Touran mk1 front end
Touran black front carpets
Touran electric windows
Touran cruise control and midline clocks
Double din with satnav
50mm lower using h&r front springs and darkside developments rear flip kit.
Darkside developments egr delete
Darkside developments boost gauge
Gaz adjustable rear dampers
H&R uprated rear anti roll bar
Maxton splitter
Cat back straight thru exhaust
Gte customs R line seat covers
Rear is fully set out as a mtb day van.
Mtb fork mounts x2
Laminated floor.
4 leds in ply head lining


I've just ordered some Audi A1 S-Line leather/alcantara seats that should be here ready for the weekend

 

[emtbPhil]

That's an unusual colour and looks good but is the V5 showing the new colour and does your insurance know it's non-standard? I'm just thinking you don't want them to have an excuse to reject any future claim.

Yeah it's been fully resprayed in a custom tinted raptor paint (the stuff they use in pickup truck bed liners)
V5 has been updated so it shows properly as grey van. And it's insured with Adrian Flux with all mods declared

 

[thebarber]

Put search for sites on yer phone.
There's some cracking spots to freeload.

 

[GolfChick]

You did well getting the older engine, otherwise you'd have spent half of your life broken down!

 

[emtbPhil]

You did well getting the older engine, otherwise you'd have spent half of your life broken down!

Yeah my "other life" has been heavily into cars and racing. I love the PD engine, but the newer diesels were a disaster.
The whole cheating emissions with DPF's etc... nightmare.

My mercedes is an E320 from 2003 - cracking engine and brilliant car. This is a 2005 van.
I'm not a big fan of modern stuff, would rather fix with tools than a laptop (which is ironic as I'm in software development)

 

[emtbPhil]

Put search for sites on yer phone.
There's some cracking spots to freeload.

WOW thanks buddy. I've done some camping around cornwall when I was younger but that site is amazing! Just drop the pin on somewhere you want to ride and hey presto.

Nice cheap campsites look a good idea, bit safer and an electric hookup to charge the bike

 

[GolfChick]

Yeah my "other life" has been heavily into cars and racing. I love the PD engine, but the newer diesels were a disaster.
The whole cheating emissions with DPF's etc... nightmare.

My mercedes is an E320 from 2003 - cracking engine and brilliant car. This is a 2005 van.
I'm not a big fan of modern stuff, would rather fix with tools than a laptop (which is ironic as I'm in software development)

Yeah when I met my fella I had the 1.6 engine caddy and sold it just before it dumped it's second injector with me. He worked 12 years for the AA so knew the reputation right away!

 

[thebarber]

WOW thanks buddy. I've done some camping around cornwall when I was younger but that site is amazing! Just drop the pin on somewhere you want to ride and hey presto.

Nice cheap campsites look a good idea, bit safer and an electric hookup to charge the bike

Next step is b2b charger and pure sine wave inverter then yer off grid.

 

[Ogofmole]

We have owned small vans for a bout 20 years now as well as a normal car. At the moment we are running a Peugeot Partner which is great for camping trips and transporting bikes etc.

 

[Planemo]

Nice little van! And 323Nm? Blimey! Good to see half the work has been done for you too re the bed, storage areas etc.

I have a Holdsworth T4 camper and would deffo reccomend a split charge/leisure battery. Real handy even just for interior lighting at night/phone charging etc. That said we deliberately only ever go to electric hook up pitches as we always have a fridge on the go. Could easily do without the hob/gas/heating system though - we have never ever used any of it!

Good pick up, I can see lots of overnighters in a little van like that

 

[emtbPhil]

Nice little van! And 323Nm? Blimey! Good to see half the work has been done for you too re the bed, storage areas etc.

I have a Holdsworth T4 camper and would deffo reccomend a split charge/leisure battery. Real handy even just for interior lighting at night/phone charging etc. That said we deliberately only ever go to electric hook up pitches as we always have a fridge on the go. Could easily do without the hob/gas/heating system though - we have never ever used any of it!

Good pick up, I can see lots of overnighters in a little van like that

I'm not bothered about kitchen stuff or heating - it'll mostly be used over summer, and I'll just put a camping gas stove in the storage under the bed. If I ever do more than a couple of nights I'm likely to split it up with an airbnb for a proper shower and good food anyway.

I do want to look into a leisure battery, split charger and inverter though.
There's bags of room under the seats on these, seen a few lads in videos have fitted them there but it's where my knowledge is absolutely zero

Might have to see if anyone does a simple wire-in it. I'm good with electronics and soldering and stuff but I've just never done a leisure battery or split charging install before.

 

[emtbPhil]

This kit makes it look fairly straight forward!

3M/5M/10M High Integrity Voltage Sensitive Split Charge Relay Kit (wiredcampers.co.uk)

 

[Longfellow78]

More pictures of the van please!

 

[emtbPhil]

Haha I'll take a few more next week.
Bed/Bench is out at the moment being lowered a bit for more headroom.
New seats should be here wed/thur

Hopefully get it all fitted back in on Saturday then taking it to the bike park

 

[Planemo]

This kit makes it look fairly straight forward!

3M/5M/10M High Integrity Voltage Sensitive Split Charge Relay Kit (wiredcampers.co.uk)

Yeah and the voltage sensing kits are much better than the older types with relays (which I have). Go for it!

 

[apac]

If it's a diesel keep it on VPower to protect the injectors.

Vpower and Diesel should not be used in the same sentence. That's like saying we're giving you the dirty leftovers but with some fairy liquid added.

 

[Hobo Mikey]

Why not put in a leisure battery and hook up point so if your staying on campsites you can hook up. Leisure battery will stay topped up when driving and when hooked up at campsite so you can always charge your bike up. Chinese Deisel heaters are really good also plumbed into main tank, use zero diesel and keep you warm in winter.

 

[emtbPhil]

Why not put in a leisure battery and hook up point so if your staying on campsites you can hook up. Leisure battery will stay topped up when driving and when hooked up at campsite so you can always charge your bike up. Chinese Deisel heaters are really good also plumbed into main tank, use zero diesel and keep you warm in winter.

Yeah I probably will but I'm gonna mount the hook up point in the engine bay. Don't want to cut a dirty great hole in the side of the van

Vpower and Diesel should not be used in the same sentence. That's like saying we're giving you the dirty leftovers but with some fairy liquid added.

But but.... I don't feel like I've touched my toes enough with the peasant diesel at £1.53 a litre lol

 

[emtbPhil]

Couldn't resist a bit of a tinker after work - got started on some woodworking and lopped 4" off the bottom of the bench/bed/storage box

Much more reasonable height now - I can lay across it reading a book without my head being stuffed in the roof

 

[Geedog]

Hello, nice van, have you thought about a bluetti power bank, lots of ways to recharge, and portable, great for off grid. I got the eb150 on a black Friday deal, it will charge a 625 battery twice from full.

 

[emtbPhil]

Hello, nice van, have you thought about a bluetti power bank, lots of ways to recharge, and portable, great for off grid. I got the eb150 on a black Friday deal, it will charge a 625 battery twice from full.

Can't justify £1k for a battery pack - I can do a full leisure battery, split charger, inverter system for 1/4 of that!
They are nice though