van choices

[andyfitz]

Hi, I'm looking to transplant my Romahome demountable onto a new van from an Acty. I know that a Daihatsu is a popular choice, but what about a Suzuki Carry or a Piaggio porter ?
Can it be done on these, is there a clear favourite / best van ?
Thanks
andyfitz

[glenw]

Hi, From what i understand, the piaggio porter is pretty much the same vehicle as the daihatsu hijet so I can't see any problems there.Not sure about the suzuki carry, sorry. There is also a bloke who remounts them onto new acty's, imported from japan, www.actyvan.net

[Derek]

The Acty and the Suzuki/Bedford were different heights from the load bed to the roof of the cab.

I think that the Acty had the lower roof (I hope that I have it the right way round)

The late Suzuki had an even higher cab roof. I have seen one used as a replacement for a Bedford with packing timbers between the pod and the load bed.

The Daihatsu seems to be a suitable replacement for the Acty. The Piaggio Porter is supposed to be the same as Daihatsu but I would do a lot of measuring to be sure.

I think that the original builds allowed access to the van engine via a hole in the floor of the pod but this may not be in the correct place if the base vehicle model is changed. Not a big problem, just have to remove the pod to get at the engine.

Good luck with your project, a bit of adaptive engineering will get round most of the problems

Derek

[andyfitz]

Thanks Guy's, looks like it's a Daihatsu then !
Seems the way to go with the least hassle.
Now it's just finding the right one !
Andyfitz

[peterfowden]

Hi Andy.
I think the Piaggio cab is slightly bigger.They have put a bulge behind the drivers/passenger seats to give more leg room.
This might cause you problems
Cheers Peter