sid Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 My wife and I are looking to buy our first motorhome. Weve done some research and both seem to like the Talbot but have been told that the parts are now difficult to get, is this true? :-| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 sid - 2011-01-07 1:58 PM My wife and I are looking to buy our first motorhome. Weve done some research and both seem to like the Talbot but have been told that the parts are now difficult to get, is this true? :-| Welcome to the forum sid. Hopefully someone with a Talbot will be able to advise you but in the meantime you could try Googling " parts for Talbot motorhomes " and you should get an idea of the availability of parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 It depends what parts are needed really, many service parts are still readily available from motor factors but more specific parts may be difficult to source, steering racks for example are likely to be unobtainable although if required you should be able to get your old unit reconditioned. Delfin Designs in Poole have fair stocks of many parts like headlamp units, clutch cables etc. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayjsj Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 I sold my 22 year old Talbot last year, after re-furbishing it and then using it for 6 years. Some body panels are getting hard to get, and the ones you can get will be 'copies' not Peugeot originals (in case you didn't know The Talbot Express, Fiat Ducato, Citroen C25 and Pegeot J5 are all the 'Same' vehicle for spares purposes) Rust will be your biggest enemy, not in the chassis, but the body panels. The Autosleeper I had, had a Monocoque fibreglass body, so i only had the Cab to worry about. No power steering and virtually impossible to upgrade these days (no parts). Sloppy gearchange, although there are a couple of 'Fixes' for that. This website is a good source of Info : http://www.jktowers.fsnet.co.uk/motorhome/TalbotExpressTechnical.htm Also the 'Preloved' website is full of Talbot owners looking for fixes and parts : http://www.preloved.co.uk/ You need to be a DIY man to take on a Talbot, as even the youngest of them is 17 years old and counting. :D Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickydripin Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Hi Sid. I took on an old Ducato with an Autotrail highwayman on the back I refurbished it and then used it for twelve months we had a great time in it. I think that this is the best way to start motorhoming buy a cheep van and see if you like it first as it is not sutable to everyone I almost liked it more just doing it up to my satisfaction than using it but the other half kept giving me a kick up the backside so that we could make our first trip in it when we did we caught the bug and used it as much as we could if you need parts then ask on O&A I am sure there are people on here that have something lying about or someone that knows someone that does I have a couple of headlights somewhere. Just one word of warning check the Tyres make sure they are not out of date my tyres looked like new until we were doing 60 miles an hour up the M5. welcome to the site and just dive in and enjoy yourselves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred22 Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Having had a 1990 Talbot, I now have a 1990 Transit. I much prefer the Transit, the gear change is more positive and spares seem more plentiful and reasonable priced with a good supply network. Whichever you go for, a must is power steering, it makes driving more pleasurable and it will also be easier to sell when you want to change. If you are tempted to buy without power steering you could be looking at £2000 + to have a conversion fitted. There is no off the shelf kit to convert Mk3 Transits (well I couldn't find one) so go for a motorhome on the Mk4 chassis which was provided with a power steering option. It has taken me the best part of a year to source and collect the various parts needed to convert my Mk3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Collings Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Although many parts are common to the mid 80s - 92 J5/ Talbot and Ducato the diesel engined French versions used Citroen based units but Fiat used their own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 As someone who has a 20 year old transit based camper, even I was surprised how easy it was to obtain parts when our wheel nearly fell off, due to loose nuts 8-) The tyre shop chap phoned his friendly scrappy and a wheel appeared 8-) all in less than 1 hour :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayjsj Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 sid - 2011-01-07 1:58 PM My wife and I are looking to buy our first motorhome. Weve done some research and both seem to like the Talbot but have been told that the parts are now difficult to get, is this true? :-| In short, yes, they are difficult ,but not impossible. But don't be put off. The 2 litre petrol engine is a beauty, very simple to work on and very dependable (with hardly any modern electronics to go wrong). The early Diesels are very slow and underpowered, and the 'Turbo' versions and Power Steering versions few and far between. But they are a cheap way to get into Motorcaravanning and you will be 'There' admiring the view just the same as the guy in his £80,000 'gin palace'. Go for It !! Ray (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 The 2.0 ltr petrol is a good motor and the same 1971 cc unit was used in, amongst others, the Peugeot 504 but not all parts are interchangeable as the car engine put out more bhp. The non turbo 2.5 diesel is slow and noisy but a very tough motor. The turbo 2.5 is also noisy but noticeable less slow than the non turbo. Many turbo diesel engines started life as non turbo with several aftermarket suppliers turboing them most popular of which was TB Turbos at Lancaster who, unfortunately, are no more. I don't know whether non Peugeot turbo conversions are any less reliable or hard to source bits for than factory supplied units but for my money the petrol engine is quicker, quieter and much more pleasant to live with. Fuel wise expect 20 - 24 ish mpg from a petrol engined coachbuilt and 24 - 28 ish from a diesel or turbo diesel as sort of ball park figures so you would need to do a lot of miles to justify paying more for a diesel engined van? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 We've got a 1992 Peugeot J5 2.5TD based A-class motorhome; and previously had another 1992 Peugeot J5 2.5 non-turbo overcab motorhome. I love 'em. They are SO simple, there no electronics or computers or CPUs to go wrong. The non-turbo was slower than an arthritic sloth......maybe 85kph, but it would get anywhere in the end. Our present 2.5TD is noticeably quicker, tops out at about 110kph, and cruises along at about 100kph. The first one cost us 6,000 euros; we ran it for about 18 months, then sold it for 7,500 euros. The present A-Class one was hugely more expensive, at 17,000 euros; and we've chugged all over Spain, France and Portugal in it. It had done about 85,000 kms when we got it a couple of years ago; now it's on about 127,000. So far, utterly bulletproof; and really easy-peasey to self maintain. Spares and service items are really cheap......have a look on ebay. Certainly here in Spain there's no shortage of parts, every auto-parts place has anything you're likely to want, there are still loads of them knocking around, and breakers yards here are full of dead ones. Here's a useful forum for the UK Talbot Express (which is the same van, 'cos they were all made on the same PSA production line and just badged Citroen C25/Peugeot J5/Talbot Express): http://forums.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction-forums.showdiscussion/thread_id-13244/startrow-4601/maxrows-20/08a5ff4a.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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