General Conversation from minibus to 5 seater family wav

[JamesWAVfiat]

Hi all, I am getting this large minibus on Monday and I need to just confirm a few things with people in the know. So this is a fiat ducato 42 multijet with a Mallor conversation and disability access. The vehicle is 7.5m long, 2.2 wide and 2.8 high. It has a gross weight of 4200kg. I plan to use the vehicle as a wheelchair access vehicle, but adapted for personal/ family use (5 seats max) and not a 16 seater commercial minibus as it is now. My question is, can I drive this on my licence.. I have had my license for 20 years and I have worked for a courier company driving LWB vans. Also, because this is registered as a minibus, I feel as though my insurance quote has come out a tad high.. £730 for a year, is this right or do I need to change something with the DVLA. This is completely new territory for me and any advice you can offer would be simply amazing. Thank you in advance

 

[bugsymike]

You do need to get DVLA advice or similar.
As far as I know 3.5 tonne is the biggest you can legal park on the road overnight or drive on a normal license, there may be some concession for WAV but I am not aware of it and some drive larger camper vans, but may have had to take a separate test for that.
I expect someone on Forum can advise.

 

[JamesWAVfiat]

You do need to get DVLA advice or similar.
As far as I know 3.5 tonne is the biggest you can legal park on the road overnight or drive on a normal license, there may be some concession for WAV but I am not aware of it and some drive larger camper vans, but may have had to take a separate test for that.
I expect someone on Forum can advise.

Thank you for answering.. this is the information I found. Does that make it any clearer?

So I am allowed to drive 3.5t, and because the van has integrated disabled access equipment I am allowed a further 750kg. In my reasoning, this allows my total mass allowance to be 4.25t.. and the vehicle is registered as 4.2t.

 

[bugsymike]

Thank you for answering.. this is the information I found. Does that make it any clearer?

So I am allowed to drive 3.5t, and because the van has integrated disabled access equipment I am allowed a further 750kg. In my reasoning, this allows my total mass allowance to be 4.25t.. and the vehicle is registered as 4.2t.

It will solve your problems, assuming that is the current legal view.
Personally I would get a copy of the current law from the appropriate authorities and print it out to keep in the vehicle to prove to any "over zealous" Officers who question you, as I suspect they will know very little on the subject and may over interpret their understanding of the regulations if there is any grey area, if you know what I mean
Another point that may be worth checking and hopefully before you have bought the vehicle, would be to sit it on a local Weigh Bridge to confirm actual weight.
The reason I say this is I had a Iveco 3.5 Tonne Crewcab twin Wheel Pick up, complete with tipping gear and small Hiab crane, when I checked it on a weighbridge it's actual legal payload was around 300 Kgs with no occupants and this was not a "Down Rated Modification" so even though the truck was well able to carry a much larger load , legally it couldn't !