Hello auto gurus in the house.
I need your candid advice.
I want to get a van. The one that have j5 like body.
I have done my search and found products like Peugeot j5, boxer, fiat, Renault.
Am surprised to see there price btw 700-800k.
Are they rugged?
I need one to move food stuff from the north to Lagos & I don't want disappointment.
What trick have the people using them using to keep them running on such long trip with such load
Do they use other engines, tyres or socks.
Pls advice/educate me appropriately

Please go through some of my posts in the thread below. I am sure some of your questions will be answered. I was in the business years ago but had to kill it before I will get killed by it. As in all transport business, the number 1 problem is DRIVER. In fact they are the sole determining factor of the success of the business not money, not even the type of vehicle or the route it plies.

https://www.nairaland.com/1364888/between-ford-e250-peugeot-boxer#16959926

Cheers.

Fixed:
Please go through some of my posts in the thread below. I am sure some of your questions will be answered. I was in the business years ago but had to kill it before I will get killed by it. As in all transport business, the number 1 problem is DRIVER. In fact they are the sole determining factor of the success of the business not money, not even the type of vehicle or the route it plies.

https://www.nairaland.com/1364888/between-ford-e250-peugeot-boxer#16959926

Cheers.

Thanks so much but you mentioned that you will discuss the reason for the difference in price of petrol and Diesel engine
I still need more info from the house

Please house I will like to get more information from mechanics and drivers especially those who are in haulage business with this kind of van.
Beside the link the previous person gave me where talking of 2013 figures. I need 2017 prices & figures
How durable are the engine of this vehicles?
What is the current price of the engines?
Does boxer and j5 use same engine if not those the engine of one works in the other?

router123:
Please house I will like to get more information from mechanics and drivers especially those who are in haulage business with this kind of van.
Beside the link the previous person gave me where talking of 2013 figures. I need 2017 prices & figures
How durable are the engine of this vehicles?
What is the current price of the engines?
Does boxer and j5 use same engine if not those the engine of one works in the other?

Mr. Router the 2013 figures I gave when I ran the business might be stale but the underlying principles are still valid in the Nigeria of today. Then petrol and diesel were N97 & N160 respectively, now they are both in the region of N145 & N250 respectively. Given the risen cost of all business operations, repair of vehicles, replacement of parts, driver and motor boy allowances and government tariffs;fares charged on the transport of agric products from the middle belt to the south west have also naturally adjusted to match these increases. In the end profit margins remain almost the same despite putting in more funds than in 2013.

As per difference between the J5 and the Boxer, you must understand that there is difference between Boxer and J5. Both vehicles are joint development and production of Peugeot, Fiat and Citreon. The J5 is the older version that were produced from the early80's to the late 90's while the newer model called Boxer or Ducato continued from then till mid-2000. Fiat retained the name from the old model while Peugeot changed to Boxer. For the sake of availability of parts I will advise you go for the more recent model.

As per engine difference, I owned both the petrol and Diesel engine boxers. These vehicles are driven hard by Nigerian drivers. In fact if their engineer per chance witness the way they are used here they will be totally dismayed. Because they are rugged utility vehicles, they usually come from Europe with thoroughly flogged engines with some accumulating high mileage. The key to getting guaranteed low mileage is going for those used as ambulances and fire fighting which I was lucky to get from Jos. Body wise, there are short and long frames. There are also low and high roof models. You should also go for the high roof long frame model which is more suitable for commercial transportation.

There are different variants for both the petrol and Diesel engines. The engines come in 1.9ltr and 2.5ltrs. The petrol usually comes in 2.0ltr. Sincerely speaking I didn't drive these vehicles beyond testing them so I can't tell if the difference in power of the engines are substantial. As you may have observed, the petrol engine option is more difficult to come by making it expensive. Far more diesel vans were produced than petrol vans. Two more factors is that diesel is more expensive than petrol in Nigeria, a factor dealers of these vans capitalize on. Secondly, I have also observed that the petrol engine lasts longer than the Diesel engine from experience.

Like I said, the vehicles are always, I mean always overloaded beyond the engine capacity. You will not be there when this is happening. You only get to perceive this when you have to change tires, rims, shocks, springs and exhaust. I am aware that there are cases where they require a towing van to move a fully loaded boxer over a hill because the engine could not carry it further. In some cases, these drivers prefer to carry a heavier load and take a longer route without much hills than the reverse.

That said, the engines are not too expensive to replace. Well as of 2013, I spent less than 50k on engine replacement for each of the engine type. Engines are available in Ladipo, Lagos and Jos. In terms of conversion from diesel to engine, funny enough I also did this on one of the van. I went through this route for business experiment. I had some parts on ground from one of the accident-plagued vans. The Diesel engine of one of them was ran aground by the driver. In the end I opted to change it to petrol. First I had to buy a petrol engine brain box, fuel tank, the engine itself and a few other things that made me wonder if the adventure was worth it. But in the end I sold the used van @ N950k.

In the end, you may want to ask if the business pays. Transport business like any type of food business will always yield good returns on investment as people must move around for different purpose. Like I said in the opening post, the bane of the business is the drivers. You will make millions from it in a few years if you are lucky to have a good driver which I didn't have.

I sure know that there are ways such risks can be managed. Another issue with mine was that I didn't take it as a full time job which is a requirement as I have another job by the side which does not give me time. So please don't be discouraged.

Though I stand to be corrected, but I seriously doubt if you can get information about mechanics and current operations from this forum. The reason is basically the mechanics are usually Kazeems type of arrangement - the type that remove thermostat to avoid overheating of engine (you will understand this if you are a patron of the Nairaland Auto section). As per drivers, I have never seen any of mine visit Nairaland before

Business secrets are not cheap. Nairaland is rich, but anything beyond what I have provide now and earlier, I am afraid you nee to go out of Nairaland. In my own case, I went to Dei-Dei in Abuja and also travelled down to Jos for 3 days to study the business. If you are in Lagos, I don't know if Ketu market is still functional. They are have a park there. You can also go to Ijora where you can meet with drivers, mechanics and part sellers. They conglomerate some where just outside Akure if you are heading to Owo.

I still have my mechanic's contact who can provide additional information on the business and mechanical aspect though he is based in Jos. Drop your email address here and I can send you the number. I can check my phone for the numbers of drivers. My former drivers are from Nassarawa, only a few of them will be calm to give you the details you want. But the mechanic is more level-headed. One funny thing is that he is very popular amongst those drivers and can identify many of them because they always pass through Jos to carry goods and repair their vehicles.

Good luck in your business endeavor sir.

Fixed:
Business secrets are not cheap. Nairaland is rich, but anything beyond what I have provide now and earlier, I am afraid you nee to go out of Nairaland. In my own case, I went to Dei-Dei in Abuja and also travelled down to Jos for 3 days to study the business. If you are in Lagos, I don't know if Ketu market is still functional. They are have a park there. You can also go to Ijora where you can meet with drivers, mechanics and part sellers. They conglomerate some where just outside Akure if you are heading to Owo.

I still have my mechanic's contact who can provide additional information on the business and mechanical aspect though he is based in Jos. Drop your email address here and I can send you the number. I can check my phone for the numbers of drivers. My former drivers are from Nassarawa, only a few of them will be calm to give you the details you want. But the mechanic is more level-headed. One funny thing is that he is very popular amongst those drivers and can identify many of them because they always pass through Jos to carry goods and repair their vehicles.

Good luck in your business endeavor sir.

My brother thank you very very much You have been very helpful with all this your information.
You answered all the question I had in mind.
Just as you advice, I will be doing the job full time. I don't think I can drive that far so I will definitely need one of those driver that knows all the northern route well
My email address is knowledgecount@gmail.com.
You can give me as much helpful contact you can.
I will also need you no if you don't mind.
Cos am new in this thing and have not yet made a decision.
What of those box body truck. 6tyres? Are they rugged ?
Another though I heard was that why not go for a Toyota liteace which I can use to carry pessenger when there are no loads to carry.
Tell me how you ran your own business? Where u just a transporter cos for me I have personal interest in food distribution in Nigeria so I want to be source especially grains from any possible place in d country, if I now see someone who wants to charter, why not