Dog Handler Seeking Van

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Sat 10 May 2008 14:28
Dog Handler Seeking Van - welshrich
I am looking to buy a second hand van (around £3k) for transporting dogs around in (e.g. Berlingo/Kangoo maybe an Expert/Dispatch size)
Does anyone have any advice on what commercial vans convert well to LPG. I have heard to avoid Japanese makes and Berlingos suffer from valve seat discretion.
Also, do any vans have sunken spare wheel compartments? I need all the room I can get in the back of the van for cages.
A local LPG garage fits tartarini systems. Are these well regarded?
Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 10/05/2008 at 17:17

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Sat 10 May 2008 15:40
Dog Handler Seeking Van - ifithelps
Friend of mine has to drive a new small LPG van for work and says it's absolute rubbish.

Don't know if that's a good or bad quality conversion, but I would have thought for your budget of £3k, a diesel is the only way to go.
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Sat 10 May 2008 22:09
Dog Handler Seeking Van - Vansboy
If you want a PROPER dog van, assuming you wont need more than 2 cages, don't buy a van!!

Buy an ex Police Mondeo or Focus estate, which has already been kitted out as K9 operations vehicle.

They make pannies at auction compared to a proper estate car!

If you do need the extra space a van offers, again Police fleets are best source, as many leave the valuable cages installed, so you'll be saving £$£$ this way.

& LPG conversions on a van won't be easy to do, as most vans are diesel - finding a petrol will be hard enough work!

www.british-car-auctions.co.uk will let you know where a Police sale is held near(ish) to you.

www.woma.co.uk have them a couple times a month

VB
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Sat 10 May 2008 23:55
Dog Handler Seeking Van - stuartl
I was interested in buying an ex-police Omega Estate a few years back but didnt in the end.
When someone asked advice on buying ex-police on here a few years back there were some real horror stories emerging.

Personally, having owned two without any problems I would go for a Vauxhall Combo Van, great vans, mine were 100% reliable and easy to drive too.
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Tue 14 Apr 2009 15:25
Dog Handler Seeking Van - stockross
www.k9express.eu have a good selection of used vehicles, and they do new conversions too :-)

Edited by stockross on 14/04/2009 at 15:25

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Tue 14 Apr 2009 16:50
Dog Handler Seeking Van - oldnotbold
The chances of a police dog-handlers' van being thrashed is pretty unlikely. It's almost certain to have been assigned to one officer, not been a pool vehicle, and most trips will have been inside the legal limit. Police dogs normally live at home with their handler, so the van goes home too.

WOMA often have them, properly converted, and they are cheap, because they are almost useless for anything else.
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Tue 14 Apr 2009 18:06
Dog Handler Seeking Van - Altea Ego
The chances of a police dog-handlers' van being thrashed is pretty unlikely. It's almost certain
to have been assigned to one officer not been a pool vehicle and most trips
will have been inside the legal limit. Police dogs normally live at home with their
handler so the van goes home too.


Plus the dog is mighty grumpy if its thrown around the back and likely to bite its handler on exiting same.

(mind some forces dogs are so wimpy they cant bite thier pedigree chum, let alone a scroat I saw one case where a handler had to lift and carry his dog over a 5 bar farm gate - I ask you - suprised the handler didnt bark himself)
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