Ben Lee's Piaggio Porter.

Hey all,

I'm Ben from Belgium.

Just bought me a 2003 Piaggio Porter panel van, a blue 1.3i petrol.

I actually rescued it, it's in a bad shape. Alldough not to much rust and a good engine (58000km) it needs a lot of cosmetic work.

I want to renovate the little sucker, without breaking the bank. There4 I'm here to pick all your brains.

The van is ment to move some dogs up and down to the woods to take a walk, so I want to make it a little offroad-able (if that's even a word).

Suggestions are welcome.

On a more personal note, I have a wife (going on 23ys now), two kids a 15yo daughter and a 13 yo son. Furthermore I have 3 dogs and a cat.

As a hobby we take in dogs from people on vacation, therefore I got the van to go on walks with up to 7 dogs (my wife and me).

Grz,

Ben.

How about fitting a Bull Bar to the front and a Towbar to the back. Then when your Offroad Exploits get you stuck, you can use the 7 dogs tied to the Bull Bar or to the Towbar to pull you out, depending on which direction you wanted to go in.

I hope that you don't expect any SENSIBLE suggestions on this Forum - being a Newbie - you have got to take some stick first. But never the less - welcome Ben.

If you are going on the Woodland tracks, then I suggest that you put a good bit of weight over the back wheels of the van. If you look behind the bumper up at the underneath of the floor, you should see 3 rows of flat Iron Bars bolted to the underneath of the floor. Vans had them, but MPV's and Caravans like Raggy's also Dual Fuel models would have had them removed.
If they are still in place then I would go for about 100 kilos of weight in the very back.
In my pick up in the winter, I would carry 10 - 12 bags of sand to weigh the back down and could get to a lot of places that a 4x4 could go, with it.

welcome

Welcome and good look with the renovation. Think my camper conversion has the weights, sure I saw them last time I was under when doing the exhaust. Will have a look when it's not quite so 'damp'!