Autosleeper Duetto

We have decided to downsize to a Duetto . Looking at models 1998 to 2005 , Is the bed bigger when made up in the older models ? Wanting something under 80,000 miles . What are the main things to look out for or consider prior to purchasing a  Duetto.that fall in these years .. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you

At that sort of age Transit you'll be talking mainly the Mk6 base vehicle with the long gear lever. Ford offered an automated manual gearbox on the Mk6 and because an automatic panel van was so rare, quite a high percentage of Duetto's were purchased with it fitted. The auto has a poor reliability record and lots of reports that it's hard to get on with.
The other thing to watch out for is rust, especially around the rear wheel arches, cills and windscreen. Also numpty mechanics often try to jack up Transits using the cills, not the dedicated jacking points. This results in a deformed cill, which can rub the bottom of the cab door. Both surfaces have their paint worn away and rust sets in on cill and door bottom.
I've heard that early Duetto's used the L3 (long wheelbase) Transit and later ones were on the L2 (medium wheelbase) that's 5.2m long. In all Transits the sliding side door is the same width and I suspect the rear seat would be in the same place. So any difference in van length would be taken up in the rear furniture, the bed length being the same in both types as it's the rear seats that define bed length. 
If you need more than about 6ft of bed length then a Horizons Unlimited Cavarno might suit as they had front seats that were modded so that the seat back wound out horizontal, giving a bed about 7ft long . A bit fiddly to do each night but definitely worth it if you're 6ft or more tall. The rest of the Cavarno is very similar in layout to the Duetto, though most are on L1 (short wheelbase) 4.987m Transits and are rare.
Please be aware that HU only really made two ranges, the Cavarno and the Innovation. There's an outfit up Lancaster way who advertise their conversions under the HU brand on Autotrader but have nothing to do with HU. They actually call their vans 'Horizon' but won't get A/T to list their brand separately.

Thank you so much for your extremely comprehensive reply. Very informative and a huge help. Have had a look at the Horizon, not for us, we like the bench seat concept  plus double doors at back. From your description 6ft duetto bed will be fine .. thank you once agin

Bought in 2007, we liked our 2003 Duetto very much, if A/S were still making a Ford based Duetto we probably would have bought one, so needing to look for a replacement we bought in July a Kemerton XL which I'll have to admit is both bigger and better than the Duetto but has cost much more money. Mostly the issue here is the general environmental impact / pollution from older diesel engined vehicles.

Our 2003 Duetto seems still for sale somewhere on the web, PM me if you want some help finding it. We saw it for sale recently at the Warners Motorhome show in Lincoln, hint, hint. We'll be looking out for our old Duetto. We have stuff to give the new owners.

I should add that Ford continued to improved the engine in the Duetto after our 2003 model.

Sospan wrote:Thank you so much for your extremely comprehensive reply. Very informative and a huge help. Have had a look at the Horizon, not for us, we like the bench seat concept  plus double doors at back. From your description 6ft duetto bed will be fine .. thank you once agin

I'm sorry but I missed this response when it first appeared.

The Horizons Unlimited vans have two single rear seats with an aisle in between them. Both drop down to make single beds, rather like the ES AutoSleeper vans. To make them into a double bed you fit a bolster in the aisle space. That same bolster is used upright against the offside of the van to make the collapsed bench into a sofa for two, or with the driver's seat swivelled a great feet up relaxing bench.
Admittedly most HU vans have the Ford lift back door, which is ideal for sheltering under, but some have barn doors, especially when the Mk7 came in, when, initially there were only barn door variants available from Turkey. Most Cavarno's and Innovation's were built on SWB Transits of just under 5m, with a custom made GRP roof. We have an Innovation 3, which is on a  5.2m MWB Transit, which is identical to the smaller model but with a foot deeper 'boot. As it's an MWB it can have a Ford metal roof and barn doors.