Thanks for the tips Ewan, I also had an Iveco bus a few years back which I converted to a motorhome. I think a transit is probably the best way to go, I used to drive LDV's for the council so I know what they are like so there's absolutely no chance of me buying one of them lol.Ewan wrote: I ran an Iveco 35:10 and a coachbuilt Transit - there's probably photos on Flickr if you do a search for North Harris Motor Services - and they are very different. The Iveco was bought when I needed a bus in a hurry and came off ebay for around 2k. 18 months and several k more in maintenance later I sold it on ebay for around 2k. The front suspension is the bug bear, it has torsion bars and the best/easiest way to change the bushes is to drop the whole front crossmember. That's when you find out that the bars themselves are knackered..... The front crossmembers can rot, and so can the chassis above the rear axle (that's why I sold mine, the next MOT would have been scrap time). On the other hand, it was the most fun to drive of any of my buses and I would have one again for that reason alone. The 49:10 is a bit smaller than the 59:12 and should still have decent headroom, if you get one a Webasto heater you won't even need the wood stove.
The coachbuilt Transit was a much bigger investment, far newer and the best bus I had by far. It wasn't ideal for the Isle of Harris as it was very light unladen and the wind used to catch it something rotten, one of my routes involved going over a high bridge across the sea and that was even scarier because the wind used to get under the bus and lift the back end up..... I think it did around 23 - 25mpg on very hilly routes which was pretty good, and everyone can fix a Transit. The only real problems some people had with them was with the top end of the engine, but I would have thought that any that would have blown up will have done so by now. Just one thing - do not, under any circumstances, no matter how good the deal looks, be tempted to buy an LDV.
Alex, My routemaster had a bar with beer cooler and draught beer on tap, CD Jukebox and sleeping room for about a dozen so pokey hotel room is no comparison, Mind you, every time I came to cleaning out the top deck I would find used luminous green glow in the dark condoms. I never did find out who kept leaving them there lol.
