Buying a second hand van

[stevecosta]

Hi, first of all I would like to say what an interesting and informative site you have.

I want to buy a second hand soft ice cream van but not 100% sure on what to look for. It appears that the vans produced by Whitby Morrison are the best out there. I am currently looking at one on eBay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ice-cream-Van-/120590410343?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1c13bfa267 . Now the write up on this sounds good but is it? Is the Maria machine good, it states it is a Morrison but I thought these vans came with a Carpigiani machine?

I will be using this in Southern Spain so need to do my homework, don't really want to purchase a van and then find problems that may have been hidden away.

Any help/advise would be very much appreciated
 

Steve

[stevecosta]

obviously not many users though 

[stevecosta]

hola nene!!   

[MissWhippy]

Hi,
Sorry not to reply sooner as you can see the forum hasn't taken off in any big way yet most people land here looking for vans but not many hang around for advice.
For my opinion on the van you refered to is that the body is a Morrison style body which was fitted to Beford Vans before they got took over and called Whitby Morrisons many of the bedfords have been scrapped and the body removed and fitted to the chisel nose transit as they were close in size so the body may be older than the van and you would need to check it is fitted well as for the Maria machine they were an english version of the Carpigiani but not as good I've known one person who had one and don't like it much.
bear in mind if this van is a body swap then the freezer may also be older than the van although the Morrison freezers were good they tend not to work as well when then get older.
It can be hard to tell one van from another if you are new to the trade so it is a good idea to ask just a pity not enough people hang about here to answer questions.
Good luck