Fiat ducato

anyone know anything about the ducato euro 5which is used in camper vans.thay seem to be cheap for acamper is there someting not right with them! you out there jaz. or do you just get what you pay for!

After years of driving trusty Hiace vans I bought2004 2.8 Ducato with 60,000Km on the clock,it??

Brilliant vehicle, my Folks have one and it is supurb. Loads of power, loads of economy and loads of comfort. Theirs is just the 2.3 but it still pulls out and passes like a car even with a load on. Maintenance is minimal and cheap and reliability is excellent.

Just ignore the silly nonsense from the knuckle draggers who have never owned one. They try and think up all kinds of silly stories to justify Hiace or Hyundai ownership.

The only thing really to be aware of, and its the same with any common rail van (especially campers) and that's to check the gearbox/clutch for signs of abuse. The transmission is NOT weak as many will try and pretend. Its just that these vehicles have an enormous amount of torque available from idle. Motorhome type owners often do stupid things like taking off in 2nd gear or backing and turning with the clutch half out and revs on which will shred clutches and ruin flywheels. They think they are driving their Suzuki Swift and are blissfully unaware that backing and turning just above idle is developing torque similar to a V8 at 4500rpm.

The new Ducato is more resilient than the old ones but monumental torque and stupidity can still cause trouble.

Other than that, not much to report. Usually I would blather on about looking out for this or that but really there are no tricky bits to be aware of. Just go and buy one and enjoy it, I am sure you will be as impressed as me and join those of us who scratch our heads and wonder why people muck around with Hiaces, Hyundai's and other ridiculous over priced rubbish.

Just another tip about motorhomes in general. Check out the fitout very carefully, especially charging systems, battery's etc. I am just blown away with what butchers some motorhome types can be.

They seem to all busily copy each others sloppy work and poor understanding of things electrical, electronic etc. The so called professional fitouts are often no better.

There are some good ones around though just a matter of asking questions and getting a bit of an understanding of what to look for.

Happy motorhoming!

thanks for that jazz

'Hiaces' and 'rubbish' are not usually used together!
Jazz just ignores the fact the world over has voted otherwise.

You barely see Hiaces used as courier or tradey vans here in Australia - they are mostly Mercedes Vito/Sprinter, VW Transporter, Hyundai iLoad, Renault Trafic and of course the Fiat Ducato. The typical tradesmen utes however are Hiluxes and Landcruisers, either that or Falcon/Commodore utes. Australia loves their Toyotas, you just don't see the Hiace used as much as you do other vehicles.

I don't think anyone is describing the Hiace as rubbish (I've had fantastic runs out of them in the past) it's just that many of the modern Euro Vans have left them far behind.

I'm in the process of trying to buy one in the UK as a replacement for my mum and dad's aging hiace jumbo camper.
The feedback from owners in the UK has been mixed but they are used a lot by "man with a van" operations in europe.
The clutch is a weak point but interestingly the feedback I've had suggests that its only after 500000 miles/800000km that they seem to prolifically failsuggesting that it takes a fair ol bit of abuse before they just say enoughs enough.
Compared to a Transit they don't seem to have the same corrosion issues either.
That said my uncle hasn't yet found one for me in the UK that hasn't got corrossion at all which is a worry given how much they cost to freight.
The stuff we REALLY like is being able to walk through the back into the drivers seat.The "tinside" version means that we can place windows wherever we want to giving total flexibility with the fitout.
reversing just using the mirrors is a bit of an issue but we are fitting a decent reversing camera
-Yes Im actively looking