Long or short?

[vanner065]

Welcome Maria, personal preferance for whether you go long or short. As you will know a LWB is harder to fit into car parking spaces but you have heaps of room for anything inside. I have 2 SWB bedi's but drive a LWB mercedes sprinter van every day for work and totally prefere the long over the short, i feel cramped in the short, but the decision is up to you. You can make either look great on the road, you will know what you want when you see it. Good luck. Come along to the cruise on the 31st, even if you are in the Tran Trans Transit.  

[Jock]

Shaz,

That makes 2 of us looking for a SWB as a daily driver...
My LWB is "going under the knife" so to speak and I just can't do without a Beddy...

Good luck with your SWB quest! Jd 

[Shazbot]

Thanks Jock, I will need all the help I can get. There are not too many here in WA.
Also Maria, I don't have any problems parking our Beddy. I take it to the local shopping centres without too much trouble. Just takes a bit of getting used to is all. Now parallel parking.... that is another question, I am not too good in a car let alone a Beddy!!!

[ben]

yeh parallel parking is the worry..

[Jock]

6 months on and I am just starting to nail the parks, parallel, reverse, whatever the only thing I would say is that it is a heavy work out on the arms... Better find me one of those Porsche power steering racks. Jd

[maria]

thanks all for the good information. guess i'll see what turns up. will check out the photos of the lwb.

won't be going to the meet as i'm off on holiday shortly. hooray.

[Jilybean]

Hi Guy's,

Some of the older members might remember on the old site I posted a debate about LWB Chopped or LWB pancaked 'v' SWB streched. I would prefer a SWB for a daily driver and a LWB as a camper but as I'm not to keen on the roof on the LWB I would like to pancake it so it looks like a SWB roof. 

This only my opinion but I would like to see it done!!

[maria]

i'm going to look at a lwb this week and i know what you mean about the roof on it. just not so sharp looking, though it depends. this is a special looking van and could be worth it. i'm also going for a drive today to see a van parked in flemington, melb, that i've been told is for sale. it's a swb. i don't think the swb is duel fuel but the lwb is. the lwb has rust in the rear end. i have no idea what that'd cost to fix. i did the rust myself in my transit years ago but that was...years ago

[Tweaker]

Hi maria and welcome!

I've owned a couple of SWBs and am the proud owner of a LWB. There is no need for the duel wheels on the back unless your using it to carry around 3 ton, which you are not. I've only got singles on mine. So I wouldn't worry about that at all. I'm not convinced that most SWB came out registered as 7 seaters as the most I've ever seen that were original were 3 seaters in the front.

My van is a 5 seater with a queen bed in back. We go trippin in it all the time!...... I mean holidaying! 

As far as parking goes. I never take it in the underground carpark at Woolies as I need a minimum clearance of 2.2m. And something to awaire of is that is on a flat surface! When you start going up and down ramps this hieght changes. I got caught out once in an underground carpark in the city many years ago in a SWB with the low roof. I got in ok and many floors underground, but! When I wanted to come back up, because the wheels are so close to the front of the vehicle, as soon as I drove onto the up ramp I was too high!  I ended up letting the air out of the tires untill the rims where only bearly off the ground, giving me just enough clearance to get back out onto the street. Pretty scary considering I was 7 stories under ground! Had to then drive 10k an hour to the servo which wasn't close to re-pump tyres! 

Reverse parking is like parking anything. You just have to learn to use your mirrors!

Here is a personal parking tip of mine (probably most of you out there already know it, but here goes anyway!). Look for park spaces outside shops. That way not only do you get to park somewhere for everyone to wonder at your parking prowess and fine looking van! You can use the reflection in the shop windows to see the car behind you! Alowing you to get within inches without touching.   

People will marvel at your incredable driving abilites everytime! 

Good luck with your search!

[maria]

thanks for your info. the lwb i'm going to look at has dual wheels so i guess i'd stick with them if i get it. it has flares on the back so if i was to change the rear setup i guess the flares would be a bit wierd with a single wheel.

Also, my mechanic friend around the corner said dual wheels means higher rego. is that true does anyone know?