I have been offered an 05 plate transit and it's relatively cheap. Tipper bed

But it's MWB I think, I measured 3500 wheel centres, has anyone used one to build a beavertail or do they need to be LWB?

 

Mines a mwb, only realised after I had bought it, there's very little difference
Obviously the overhang will be need to be a little bit longer
Had all sorts on the back, my saph, 3 dr, e46 drifter every other weekend,
Freelancer at the weekend
Takes it all no prob so whatever anybody else says I can say from experience that it'll be fine
We've got a couple lwb transits in work and when parked next to a Luton there's less than a wheel difference in length

 

It's ok saying 'it will carry it' etc, but will VOSA be happy with in on the weighbridge, or will you be having a prohibition and forking out to have it recovered?

 

It's got the same gross weight as a lwb I.e 3500kgs
So I don't see what your trying to say?

 

better check the max weight it can carry to be safe wish i had one tho

 

Same as a lwb, anyhow the point I was making is that it can (legally) carry the same as a lwb

 

What I am trying to say is that once it has been converted will VOSA be happy with it?

I spent along time working on and on recovery systems, and wheelbase versus percentage of overhang comes under construction and use act.



The weight at 3.5t van will soon have a legal payload of next to nothing if the bed is not of a seriously light design/material.
Even at that I would not bother with a 3.5t vehicle for a transporter.

There are so many 5ton vehicles about now that are cheap that have no worries with your large car.

 

On paper it might look like it can.
Only when you physically build onto it will it have to be designed correctly.

It is not just a simple as throwing a body on to a chassis cab.

 

Ok I'm with you now, it's been tested by vosa several times, I know the overhang is legal cause 1 of the testers did say it was close to the allowed limit but I don't know what the limit is
I have the luxury of a 7.5t MAN to recover larger stuff, but most peoples licence these day only allows upto 3.5t max so there is defo a market for these, and now legally to use a 5t van/truck (for work use), you need a digital tachometer and operators licence and CPC,
So not worth the hassle to small garages etc

 

All I want to make Andy sure is that he buys/builds a vehicle that is fit for purpose, I am sure you will agree there are a lot out there that are not.

I have seen so many 3.5t vans will an all steel frame beaver tail, with 6mm steel checker plate on them and the owner/driver thinks he can carry an average family saloon legally, no way, you end up with a payload of about 800kgs max.

 

Yeah totally agree with the above,
IF it's done with a decent modern body then it's fine, but if it's using an old body off an old smiley transit like loads are then the payload won't make it worthwhile
Pretty much like any conversion, just do it right the 1st time and it's all good
I know the payload if mine is just over 1500 kgs, so not to bad
There's lads of fabrication places that'll knock you up a decent new lightweight body for around Ł1500, so it's not that expensive to do it right (as long as you don't mind doing some of the donkey work yourself)

 

I'll wait to see if its cheap enough that its worth buying or not, it also means i'll have a tipper back to sell too.

I'll keep updated

 

andy the ones me and dave made out of vw lts were only 100kg overweight when my mate got pulled with a 5 series estate on! to be honest though it looked overloaded to fuck tho lol so no wonder he got pulled!!

 

Over loaded is still over loaded, and a 5 series estate is only about 1.5ton iirc

 

i know mate just what im saying is if it is only just overloaded with a bmw estate then there is not many cars he could not carry as im presuming he will mostly be carrying fords

 

carbon fibre load frame and bed

 

i'm looking out for a petrol/LPG mk6 transit LWB chassis cab soon, as they are the lightest of the chassis cabs, and don't have london LEZ issues as far as i'm aware, with an alloy bed built by a engineering friend (with his own engineering company) i should have a good payload.

just a point with the MWB with big overhang, with a large over hang you will put more weight on the rear axle than a LWB with a short over hang, even with the same car on both, because on a LWB more of the car is ahead of the rear axle throwing some of the cars weight to the front axle, with MWB more of the cars weight is over or behind the rear axle, putting more weight on the rear axle and more chance of overloading the rear axle, you may well still be under 3.5t but the front axle will be under weight and the back axle over weight, just a though

 

Had a quick measure today and there's only (roughly) 300mm difference in wheel base today
I know it's a difference but not as much as you'd think

As for the above front and rear weight difference, this is something we were concerned over at 1st,
As we thought the steering may go light once these something on the back, but it's never been a problem upto now

 

It isn't just a question of light steering - each axle has a weight limit, as well as the GVW

 

I think it will be ok for most cars, a friend of mine built this sprinter crew cab transporter alot of people said it was too short but he could fit a Vectra C on it. It complied with all wheelbase/overhang regs.

 

Axle weight limits are identical to the lwb's
We looked into that before it was converted to do recovery

 

some helpful info on here,

I am looking to sell my car for a small ish 3.5ton recovery truck only something cheap around the 2.5k mark

If you are only using it for your own vehicle what kind of insurance do you need? is it just the same as normal car insurance?

Also can you up the weight limit of the 3.5tons by fitting uprated leaf springs or whatever they run? I can drive up to 7.5ton but can't tow a bloody trailer so this is my cheaper option

Thanks
Marc

 

agree, but its where the vehicle sits and the way the weight is spread over the front and rear axle, the payload of a LWB and MWB is the same, but in the real world and VOSA world, the LWB will be legal to carry more because some of his payload is transferred to the front axle keeping less weight on the rear axle, the long overhang will also be like a leaver putting more weight on the rear and less again on the front axle, it gets very complicated, but a LWB is a better option

 

how hard is a c1 practical test?? us losers with post 97 cant drive anything over 3.5 ton.

If youve got a silly low race car, most the beavertails ive seen are too steep even with longish overhangs and ramps.

going 7.5 ton on a decent sized crew cab tilt and slide seems the sensible choice if you dont mind doing a c1 test. You could even get a box wagon in that size converting half into a mini camper and having an uprated longer rear tail ramp to load the car. seen a few like that at ford fair and coombe over the years.