Converting a hiace van to a crew cab

corkfella

Hi Guys,

I have a friend looking into doing this at the moment, I think it is possible from the research I have done(yet to ring the vrt offfice) but I was just wondering does have any experience of someone taking on a conversion like this and if so what are the do's and dont's?

Cheers

colm_mcm

It's possible alright. It's a pricey enough job and you may be as well starting with a Hiace minibus and converting that.

You're looking at:
Rear seats
Rear seatbelts
Repositioning bulkhead or fitting a new bulkhead
Fitting side windows
Fitting carpets and trim.

From memory the likes of KVC charge €4k for this job.
Then you have to pay 13.5%VRT.

cascade35

If you can find a scraped hiace minibus and take side door(should have a window) and seats from that it would be an easy enough job.
Insurance company might be a bit difficult when you change the details with them.

colm_mcm

like this one:

http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/1069526

think it'd have to be a LWB for loadspace to qualify for crewcab. check this first.

Fey!

You'll need to fit a solid bulkhead behind the rear row of seats. Make sure that the length of the load bay is atleast 45% of the length of the wheelbase of the van.

If the loaded capacity of the hiace is over 3,449kg, then you'll have €50 VRT. If it's lower, than it's 13.5% of the OMSP.

Does the hiace you are using have a bulkhead behind the drivers seat, or does it just open into th load bay?.

You may find it easier, as said above, to find a hiace minibus and conver it, as the seats are already there, as are the windows, carpet, and proper door. This means that you only have to steel plate the rear side windows and fit the bulkhead (you can get a sheet of 0.6mm thick steel for around €20. Get glass paint and paint the inside of the window black, then cut the steel to shape and glue it to the inside of the glass, then, after VRTing it, stick self adhesive felt to the inside of the steel to make it look like a professional finish. Possibly tint the rest of the glass, including the load bay door glass, in order to make it look more "finished").

R.O.R

colm_mcm wrote: »

think it'd have to be a LWB for loadspace to qualify for crewcab. check this first.

How many seats does one of these have? If it's only 7 in total it should be registered as a Category A passenger vehicle so no issues with VRT as far as converting to Crew Cab.

Not sure what VRT bracket a Hi-Ace Minibus would be, but the VW version (8 seats) is Category B for VRT so conversion of that would involve paying VRT.

demag

I was thinking about doing this to my Transit .
The only problem is if you want to keep it taxed as a commercial and pay the lower VRT rate you have to supply the PPS numbers of 2 of your employees when you VRT it. I read this on the Revenue website. Can't remember where but I had been searching for "VRT crewcab" on the website.

colm_mcm

don't you have to have a certain load space to qualify as category B though. (40% of the wheelbase or something)

corkfella

thanks for all the ffedback guys, I had heard something recently about having employees in order to tax a crew cab and found this;

•To qualify to use a commercial vehicle as a Crew Cab, the owner of the vehicle must have a minimum of three employees other than the driver.

on this wexfod county concil link

•When taxing a Crew Cab for the first time as a new vehicle or as the new owner of a Crew Cab, you must submit a Crew Cab Declaration Form containing the Names and P.P.S.N. numbers of at least three employees.
•If you do not have three employees, then you do not qualify for Crew Cab status, therefore the rear seats must be removed from the vehicle if commercial tax is required, or else the vehicle must be taxed privately.

http://www.wexford.ie/wex/Departments/MotorTax/TaxingVehicles/

our incompetent government seems to have put a halt to my friends idea!

turbodiesel

corkfella wrote: »

thanks for all the ffedback guys, I had heard something recently about having employees in order to tax a crew cab and found this;

•To qualify to use a commercial vehicle as a Crew Cab, the owner of the vehicle must have a minimum of three employees other than the driver.

on this wexfod county concil link

•When taxing a Crew Cab for the first time as a new vehicle or as the new owner of a Crew Cab, you must submit a Crew Cab Declaration Form containing the Names and P.P.S.N. numbers of at least three employees.
•If you do not have three employees, then you do not qualify for Crew Cab status, therefore the rear seats must be removed from the vehicle if commercial tax is required, or else the vehicle must be taxed privately.

http://www.wexford.ie/wex/Departments/MotorTax/TaxingVehicles/

our incompetent government seems to have put a halt to my friends idea!

What about converting to a camper but having seating capacity for 6 people?

goz83

We had a Mazda Bongo that was already reg'd commercial for a maintenance company I had. crewcab version was a joke! It's totally impractical in most cases and everyone has a different rule to abide by. The can (it's actually a camper van) had 5 seats with room for 3 more. When going through the DOE with 5 seats, we had to do a crewcab conversion, which did not pass the inspection. This was simply making a new bulk head and welding into place. It was a "safety matter". However, there was no requirement to have a bulkhead behind the front seats if they were the only seats in the vehicle. Typical irish crap regulations written by a drunken lard.

In the end, we ripped out the new bulkhead, removed the extra seats and seatbelts and got it DOE'd as a less safe vehicle than it was with the new bulk head. After getting the cert, we put the seats back in and the seat belts too. Technically this was not exactly legal, but unless you buy a 2nd crewcab reg'd in ireland, you're asking for trouble.

goz83

turbodiesel wrote: »

What about converting to a camper but having seating capacity for 6 people?

Then you dont get commercial tax rates.

kuro2k

turbodiesel wrote: »

What about converting to a camper but having seating capacity for 6 people?

goz83 wrote: »

Then you dont get commercial tax rates.

Motor tax for a campervan is 95 EUR for a year but you have to meet strict criteria to get it AFAIK

L-M

Turbodiesel please start a new thread in future, don't dig up old ones.