A Duetto, maybe?

Having researched long and hard I've come to the conclusion that an A/S Symbol with aircon is probably going to be too expensive and being in my 10th year of retirement there's no lump sum to look forward to. 

So alternatives?

Well aircon was available on both Tranny's and VW's before Sevel got their act together in that regard in 2007. And A/S VW vans tend to have short beds (I'm 6ft 2ins) with little room for dogs and usually no third seat for the occasional Grandson. And as we've owned a Transit based van in the past, this may be the answer. I'm not keen on the Mk7 Transit front but Mk 6 Trannies, like our much loved Innovation, are beginning to look dated, so maybe we'll have to go Mk 7.

Has anybody any advice about Transit longevity and Duetto issues?

There's a big and helpful forum for all flavours of Transit.

I know Luke, one of the mods, he's a very knowledgeable bloke, (and also a motorhomer) maybe some questions there would help?

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meanchris wrote:There's a big and helpful forum for all flavours of Transit.

I know Luke, one of the mods, he's a very knowledgeable bloke, (and also a motorhomer) maybe some questions there would help?

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not forgetting that there is a camper van section on that board too.

Thanks for the reminders guys, in fact I should still be a member on that forum from the days when we had the Innovation.

steamdrivenandy wrote:Has anybody any advice about Transit longevity and Duetto issues?

As a Mk5 owner i can't speak for longevity on either the 6 or 7 but as you mentioned your height of 6' 2" it's worth bearing in mind that the Mk7 Duetto is a good foot less in length than the Transit Mk5 Duetto. Having aircon isn't much of an advantage if the van beds are not long enough for you and you may find your only method would be to use both beds sleeping diagonally!

Bulletguy wrote:

steamdrivenandy wrote:Has anybody any advice about Transit longevity and Duetto issues?

As a Mk5 owner i can't speak for longevity on either the 6 or 7 but as you mentioned your height of 6' 2" it's worth bearing in mind that the Mk7 Duetto is a good foot less in length than the Transit Mk5 Duetto. Having aircon isn't much of an advantage if the van beds are not long enough for you and you may find your only method would be to use both beds sleeping diagonally!

Oh darn!

I thought Ford just swapped cabs and rear light colours when they brought out the Mk 7, I didn't realise they changed lengths. I do know that sleeping widthways in the Innovation wasn't too good as my 6ft 2ins frame was a touch cramped in a 5ft 10ins or so bed.

Can anyone tell me the 2005 and 2007 bed sizes for a Duetto, so I can compare? Don't you wish that more makers were like Bailey who have an archive of their brochures online and if you need a dimension or weight of a previous year's van you can just download it and check.

Having had both a MK5 and a MK7 Duetto, I can say that the beds in both seemed the same size to me. The overall length of the MK5 was, from memory 18ft 2in and the MK7 was 17ft 8in, so not quite a foot shorter. In fact the MK7 was built on the MWB Transit (the MK5 was on the LWB version).

The beds can be made up in many ways and because we are both under 5ft 10in, we slept across the body, as this was the quickest way to make up the bed (no need for any additional cushions). The extra cushions to make up the 6ft 2in double bed were kept at home and never used (this gave a very useful amount of storage in the over-cab locker.

In effect the MK5 and the MK7 are the same internal dimensions; we certainly never noticed any loss of length (7years use for the MK5 and 6 for the MK7).

Spospe wrote:Having had both a MK5 and a MK7 Duetto, I can say that the beds in both seemed the same size to me. The overall length of the MK5 was, from memory 18ft 2in and the MK7 was 17ft 8in, so not quite a foot shorter. In fact the MK7 was built on the MWB Transit (the MK5 was on the LWB version).

In effect the MK5 and the MK7 are the same internal dimensions; we certainly never noticed any loss of length (7years use for the MK5 and 6 for the MK7).

The bench + side seat bed may be the same length as fitted in the Mk5, but in order to achieve that, valuable cupboard space was sacrificed on both sides in the Mk7. I'm surprised you didn't notice.

Here is the Mk7 below sink cupboard and drawer;




Here is the Mk5 (full width drawers also note the larger cupboard below cooker)





Here is the Mk7 "wardrobe"





Here is the Mk5 wardrobe

Thanks for the info and pics guys. Presumably the Mk7 vans had a bigger oven/ grill to  reduce that under oven cupboard by so much?

We managed in our 15ft 11ins SWB Innovation and that was getting on for 2ft shorter than the Mk7, with a 2ft deep space between the rear wheel arches for the dog crate. There again it had no oven and the fridge was just 50 litres and on the nearside there was no shower room, just a spce for the swivel Thetford behind double doors and a half height wardrobe with useful shelving in the back above the 'garage' space. 

A gas tank underneath would have been good to save the under fridge cupboard where the 907 gas cylinder lived.

What I do wonder is where all the gear that we stored on top of and either side of the crate would go go in a 'normal' PVC? Leaving aside the dog grooming trolley for dog shows, we had a folded up puppy pen, a pair of folding chairs, a bowl with dog towels in it on top of the crate. Then over the wheel arches were levelling ramps, EHU cable, hoses and other bits and pieces.

steamdrivenandy wrote:Thanks for the info and pics guys. Presumably the Mk7 vans had a bigger oven/ grill to  reduce that under oven cupboard by so much?

We managed in our 15ft 11ins SWB Innovation and that was getting on for 2ft shorter than the Mk7, with a 2ft deep space between the rear wheel arches for the dog crate. There again it had no oven and the fridge was just 50 litres and on the nearside there was no shower room, just a spce for the swivel Thetford behind double doors and a half height wardrobe with useful shelving in the back above the 'garage' space. 

A gas tank underneath would have been good to save the under fridge cupboard where the 907 gas cylinder lived.

What I do wonder is where all the gear that we stored on top of and either side of the crate would go go in a 'normal' PVC? Leaving aside the dog grooming trolley for dog shows, we had a folded up puppy pen, a pair of folding chairs, a bowl with dog towels in it on top of the crate. Then over the wheel arches were levelling ramps, EHU cable, hoses and other bits and pieces.

Difficult to see the oven in both Mk5 and 7 as full on view pics, but the oven in my Mk5 is a four hob top with grille/oven under which has two racks with facility to vary. My cooker is still like brand new though as i've only cooked or grilled anything a few times though do use the hob regularly for brews. The under cupboard is large enough to stack half a dozen bottles of wine standing upright with room to spare.

The Mk5 certainly lacks in the gas facility but i expect the Mk7 to have improved on that. As for where to stick EHU cable, levelling wedges and various other bits, i store mine in a rear back box and even manage to squeeze a folding chair in. Internal space in PVC's is at a premium so it does make you think things out carefully. One recent addition i purchased is one of these gems; [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I bought it to carry the toilet cassette as everyone will know a full cassette can be quite a lump to hump off to a disposal point. OK if you are only a few feet away, but much further and it's not fun! That trolley wedges neatly in the small space between the side of the fridge and back door.

Post 2000 Ford did make a LWB and also a "Jumbo" which in my opinion would have made a brilliant base vehicle for a PVC, but Ford are not exactly cheap which i believe was the reason A/S went over to Fiat and Peugeot.

Here is a useful link detailing faults to look for on Mk7's; [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

No idea what happened there.....double post! 

i have a 1998 duetto she is a old girl, the internal build quality shock me, still like new on a van that done 77k wow

Bulletguy wrote:

The bench + side seat bed may be the same length as fitted in the Mk5, but in order to achieve that, valuable cupboard space was sacrificed on both sides in the Mk7. I'm surprised you didn't notice.

No we did not notice the loss of storage volume. Don't forget that the underseat storage in the MK7 is quite good, we used underbed boxes with wheels to store our clothes and found that the storage in practice was little (or no) different in practice. The overcab storage in the MK7 seemed to us to be greater than the MK5. It is true that the MK7 looses volume to store gas (one 7kg + one 4.5kg) compared to the MK5 (two 4.5kg), but this is simply a trade-off and for continental touring we preferred the extra gas capacity.

If you can live in a MK5, you can live in a MK7 and vice versa, the differences are small, but the extra gas capacity of the MK7 is useful.

Spospe wrote:

Bulletguy wrote:

The bench + side seat bed may be the same length as fitted in the Mk5, but in order to achieve that, valuable cupboard space was sacrificed on both sides in the Mk7. I'm surprised you didn't notice.

No we did not notice the loss of storage volume. Don't forget that the underseat storage in the MK7 is quite good, we used underbed boxes with wheels to store our clothes and found that the storage in practice was little (or no) different in practice. The overcab storage in the MK7 seemed to us to be greater than the MK5. It is true that the MK7 looses volume to store gas (one 7kg + one 4.5kg) compared to the MK5 (two 4.5kg), but this is simply a trade-off and for continental touring we preferred the extra gas capacity.

If you can live in a MK5, you can live in a MK7 and vice versa, the differences are small, but the extra gas capacity of the MK7 is useful.

Underseat storage in Mk7 will be the identical to Mk5. Where A/S "lost" the space in the MWB Mk7 was the kitchen and wardrobe.

The gas storage area in the Mk5 could be enlarged by removing the wardrobe floor and setting it higher but personally i don't think it worth the faff. Some owners have done a fair bit of modifying, one i remember had removed the entire shower compartment! In Scotland i met another Duetto owner, a Serbian guy from Birmingham (really!!) who had done no end of internal modifications on his van.

As a base vehicle I couldn,t fault our Mk7 Transit which we have just changed.
Performance, reasonable running costs etc
I always used to think the VW T4 & T5s were the best drive of the commonly used chassis until I got our Tranny. 
OK its only got 47 miles on it but its X290 replacement isnt upto the Mk7s standard

A friend is an engineer at a large telecoms company which operated 80% Ford and 20% Merc. Two year ago 10 Fait seed vehicles were placed into fleet which are more trouble than the rest of fleet put together. I hope this helps.

Bulletguy wrote:Internal space in PVC's is at a premium so it does make you think things out carefully. One recent addition i purchased is one of these gems; [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I bought it to carry the toilet cassette as everyone will know a full cassette can be quite a lump to hump off to a disposal point.

Love this - I am shopping now!