4 wheel drive vans

[tim361]

Does anyone know which companies are making 4 wheel drive vans I could potentially have a tipping body fitted to. I think there is a Ford transit and Man (VW & Mercedes) who do them but don’t know if anyone else does one.

Also is there anyone on here that has one with good or bad words to say about them. My transit gets stuck in some of the most stupid places and it drives me mad. 

[Ratman]

Iveco?

[AHPP]

The general lack of 4wd vans is maddening. They're such an obviously useful thing. I've been considering hawking myself to Volvo to design them one. Minor downside is that I'm not an automotive designer but I think I have some good ideas. Internal combustion engine drives front wheels, electric motors drive back wheels. It's a hybrid so you could tick all the bullshit eco boxes for low emission zones etc and more importantly provide real utility for when a van needs short bursts of high power and/or high traction (off road, out of a steep driveway, pulling a tree over etc). Plus you'd have on-board batteries for charging tools. And I don't know for sure but I suspect the easily variable power and regenerative braking of the rear wheel motors could be used to greatly improve towing. 

Unfortunately, I also suspect the automotive industry is happy to sell a tree surgeon both a van and a 4wd pickup when the tree surgeon only needs a 4wd van.

[openspaceman]

7 minutes ago, AHPP said:

Internal combustion engine drives front wheels, electric motors drive back wheels.

Pug 3008 hybrid4 does that and there is due a  citroen aircross hybrid4 and maybe a vauxhall equivalent plus it's the same layout as a one of the vans, possibly a berlingo but no 4wd version van. The cars are supposed to be plug in and run for about 20 miles on battery.

 

I through I would need to tow a chap out of a wet field in an older C5 hybrid  but he drove out and it was quite strange to see the rear wheels spinning faster than the front.

 

I mentioned this to @Big J a while back in a thread as he has one of the citroen vans using the same base

[difflock]

7 hours ago, AHPP said:

The general lack of 4wd vans is maddening. They're such an obviously useful thing. I've been considering hawking myself to Volvo to design them one. Minor downside is that I'm not an automotive designer but I think I have some good ideas. Internal combustion engine drives front wheels, electric motors drive back wheels. It's a hybrid so you could tick all the bullshit eco boxes for low emission zones etc and more importantly provide real utility for when a van needs short bursts of high power and/or high traction (off road, out of a steep driveway, pulling a tree over etc). Plus you'd have on-board batteries for charging tools. And I don't know for sure but I suspect the easily variable power and regenerative braking of the rear wheel motors could be used to greatly improve towing. 

Unfortunately, I also suspect the automotive industry is happy to sell a tree surgeon both a van and a 4wd pickup when the tree surgeon only needs a 4wd van.

The AWD version of the Rav4 HEV already does exactly what you suggest, with staggering good  fuel economy for an petrol engined AWD vehicle. Just need it transplanted to a commercial chassis. 

BUT! apparently some "geeks" have deduced that Toyota are likely to introduce a diesel engined version of this HEV drivetrain for their larger trucks/pickups, based on information Toyota has released to the US market about (new?) diesel engines.

Bring it on!

[scraggs]

9 hours ago, Ratman said:

Iveco?

The Iveco is a nice truck and a proper 4wd with high/low box, however Iveco don't have a demo version and haven't had for a few years, quite how they expect people to pay nearly £50k for a truck that you can't try before you buy I don't know.
Also only available in 5500 kg upwards now.

I have a Transporter 4x4 which is the 4motion, tbh I doubt it would take much abuse and would be crap for towing anything.

Edited October 17, 2021 by scraggs

[josharb87]

8 hours ago, AHPP said:

The general lack of 4wd vans is maddening. 

There’s no lack, pretty much all manufacturers offer them, just at a price which isn’t really justifiable to your average Arb co. 
 

[difflock]

Ineos Grenadier?

[Dbikeguy]

Biggest problem is weight, something transit sized, then add transfer box, axle, etc etc and the already stupidly low carrying weight goes down by another 250kg
Add the arb body and you can legally sit in it and possibly put your weekly shop in the back without going over the weight limit!

[Con]

11 hours ago, tim361 said:

Also is there anyone on here that has one with good or bad words to say about them

Expensive

(Haven't got one)

Edited October 17, 2021 by Con
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