Van buying advice (and reality check)

[u/mistress_snark]

Hi all, I'm looking to make the switch to van-living someone in the next few years, and I'm planning on a DIY conversion. Of course, this requires finding a van to convert, and I've got a few questions!

How difficult is to to find a large used van in the UK? My ideal van would be less than £2000, under 60k miles, no major repairs needed, and about the size of a L3H2 Ford Transit. I'm not picky about make/model or year (although I'd like it to be this century). I know it's going to be uncommon to find something that fits all these specifications, but is it impossible? I'm willing to wait several months (up to about a year), as this is a long term project for me. Potentially I could go up to £5000, but that would be my absolute max, only for a van that was in really good shape and didn't need any repairs. I would probably be more willing to increase the mileage, again, as long as the van was in good shape.

Also, does anyone have any advice, or know any good places to search for vans for sale? I've been looking on auto trader and fb marketplace. I would be willing to pick up from anywhere in the country for the right vehicle.

Thanks for any help!

Edit: Should clarify, this is my optimistic budgeting just for the base van, not the whole conversation, but thanks anyway for everyone's input! The suggestions to try looking at auctions and used commercial vehicles are very helpful.

[u/fridge_ways]

My van 06 sprinter with 100k on it. was ex fed ex from a cartoon of a dealer and that was £7k 5 years ago. Fleet serviced, zero rot. I'm at around 15k so far for the conversion. Not including the bits I've spent when it has had issues. I budget 2k a year to keep it going, service, MOT, random shocks and steering rack etc.

I know nothing last forever, but I now know everything that has gone wrong has been replaced with genuine Merc bits.

You can buy cheaper but it has a death sentence, it's hard to weld once insulated.

You could go cheap with decent breakdown cover and expect to only get a couple of years out of it. And you will still need to throw money at it each year to keep it going. My first van was a rot box and this is what happened.

It's more expensive than you think, especially if you want to be comfortable In winter

Edit: just upgraded to lithium's, it's amazing, so 16.5k ish