Van choice ?

Yesterday i loaded for New Addington nr Croydon,Normanton,Salford,Warrington and a pickup from a Packaging co in Bradford, this is where i came unstuck i did the Addington drop (what a dump) on to Normanton then went to pick up @Bradford trouble was it was 3 large pallets of flat pack boxes & i mean nearly to the roof of the Transit anyway to cut a long story short i pulled out went & did the other 2 drops & returned (what a road that m62 is !) the 3 pallets just fitted ! the load bed of the vans 3.3 mtres these pallets were 1 mtre with overlap so you can guess that wasnt much spare space ! i ended up back @ Essex at 23.00hrs think that detour put 3 hrs on the trip the traffic was awful.

So my question is do i buy a larger van and which one ? i worked in Canada for 2 years and drove a Dodge (Mercedes Sprinter) for a electrical company trouble was it was forever in the repair shop and didnt have the performance of my Transit nore the economy or come to think of it the comfort either ! so ive ruled that out has anyone on here operate the Citroen or Fiat vans am i correct in thinking there the same van? & are they capable of big mileage? The other vehicle ive seen is the Iveco anythoughts on this ? or my favored choice is the larger Transit is anyone operating one of these and what sort of mpg you getting ? my lwb seems to be returning about 32mpg. thanks for any help

What van did you use yesterday mate?

I mean was it a lwb or xlwb? I have an xlwb Transit Jumbo that was recommended to me by a bloke I do most of my subbing for. Feel I ought to have got the 200 that he has rather than the 140 I bought! Still, he gave good advice and is a top man so I have a lot the thank him for.

Mind you, 3.3 mtrs suggests you didn't use a Jumbo

The fiat citroen and peugeot are all the same I believe. These vans are front wheel drive and allow you to carry more weight apx 1.5 ton. The other vans are rear wheel drive so the weight you can carry is reduced and the xlwb can carry even less still so if you are carrying heavy print i would stick with a lwb cause you run out of weight you can carry before you run out of room. It really depends on the work you are doing.

Sound advice bigg  in  thanks

HI guys if any use in my last job I was given an  Iveco daily in 02 which was totally reliable and in 06 it was replaced  (company policy) and I must admit they are comfy and pull bloody well with afull load and was totally reliable and the side door is wider than a transit even oversized pallets will go in mine would carry 3 full sized the jumbo will carry 4 they are not every bodys cup of tea but don't rule it out they are good vans average fuel comp was between 28-35 mpg