Does anyone use an Elgrand as a windsurfing van? If so, does it work well?

I am thinking of an E51 as I miss having a windsurfing van, and I think this can fit it all in as well as a few passengers if needed.

I wanted to buy one 2 years ago, but I have only now just started looking

Gday Mate

just bought an E51. Removed the center row table and drivers side seat, used the track brackets for a 12mm ply shelf with protective rubber floor and vertical guides to slide two boards in on their rails (Rocket 125, Gecko 112 or Futura 97). Can also fit three sails vertical next to the boards and two masts under the shelf and my fin box etc fits easily behind the 2nd row seat. The third row seats both fold up which leaves seating for three people. When the boards are not in or just our surf boards in, the forth seat in the third row on the passenger side folds back down and when I fold the rear 1/3rd of the shelf forward I get the other rear seat down. Quick and easy and very comfortable. I cant take all three boards but can cover most situations with two. There are better dedicated windsurf van options out there but my choice need to fill a few roles.
Good luck

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drogue said..
Gday Mate

just bought an E51. Removed the center row table and drivers side seat, used the track brackets for a 12mm ply shelf with protective rubber floor and vertical guides to slide two boards in on their rails (Rocket 125, Gecko 112 or Futura 97). Can also fit three sails vertical next to the boards and two masts under the shelf and my fin box etc fits easily behind the 2nd row seat. The third row seats both fold up which leaves seating for three people. When the boards are not in or just our surf boards in, the forth seat in the third row on the passenger side folds back down and when I fold the rear 1/3rd of the shelf forward I get the other rear seat down. Quick and easy and very comfortable. I cant take all three boards but can cover most situations with two. There are better dedicated windsurf van options out there but my choice need to fill a few roles.
Good luck

Thanks for that. Do you know what the length of the boards are that you are fitting in there?

I'm pretty sure I will buy one anyway, as long as there is a way of fitting the gear in. Worst case, I remove all the seats except the front ones, and hopefully fit things down the middle.

These things look very flexible when it comes to the seating!

Measure it! I looked at one once (not sure of actual model) and there was only 230cm of space available. You have to be sure!

I got one. Had it maybe 8 years or so.

l'll sell you it if you want. Cheap. (well cheap in my opinion maybe you have a different idea ?)

Drives like a car not a van. Two side doors. Plenty of seat options. Pretty well specced compared to Toyotas and the like. I have had no issue with servicing or parts or anything even thought they are imports. Local Nissan dealer has all the parts books etc.

I only chuck boards in the back, but I get plenty in. I don't have any racks or anything and never arrange it, just load it in using the 'pile it up' method. Take the centre middle seat / table out and you'll fit several 240 long boards no problem


Two issues I have are that I am not 100% sure it is the best van in a sandy carpark. Vans ain't good anyway and a manual would be better and I have never got stuck, but ...

And I reckon they are more for Tokyo streets than the jungle tracks of northern NSW. Not a reliability issue, just maybe not as 'rugged' as a VW or something else. If you never really leave the blacktop then not an issue. If you live down the end of a 1km dirt road with ruts that swallow Hummers then maybe there is something else.

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Carantoc said..
I got one. Had it maybe 8 years or so.

l'll sell you it if you want. Cheap. (well cheap in my opinion maybe you have a different idea ?)

My idea of cheap is almost certainly cheaper than yours

I am also a little worried about kilometres of any Japanese import not imported by me. They have a bit of a bad reputation. A lot of dealers would import them, adjust the odometer, and sell them with sometimes hundreds of thousands less kilometres showing on the odo.

The deregistration certificate from Japan shows the recorded kilometres from their rego checks, but the import process into Aus does not need that, so the figure recorded here may not match. Its only when someone gets the deregistration certificate that they find there is a difference.

I after a 4wd version. It may not be proper 4wd, but it might help for those sandy carparks.

You can fit a 10.6 bic windsup in an e51 diagonally,

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33frupus said..
You can fit a 10.6 bic windsup in an e51 diagonally,

What length is a 10.6 bic windsup? 10ft 6? I.e. 3.15 metres long?

If so, that's heaps. Do you need to move the seats around?

I guess my questions are pretty redundant now, I ended up buying one from a Japanese auction, so I am pretty much committed to having one. I look forward to modifying it to fit the gear I have. It won't help that the boards I like to use are older ones and tend to be a little longer.

From what it looks like, and others have said, you can fit at least two boards between the 2 front seats, so that will sort out the larger boards.

I rented an imax one year on the annual WA trip and it had a safety cage in it. The only way I could fit my boards in were to have them diagonally, but at least they fit.

Maybe in 3 months I will have a write up on how to cut noses off old boards, or how to modify an Elgrand to fit larger boards. It would be a real shame if I was the only idiot running around with a van and I still had to put the boards on the roof...

I will be happy if the van turns up and is mechanically okay. Its a bit of a lucky dip.

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FormulaNova said..
..I ended up buying one from a .. auction...

Awesome.

You can use it for spares when you buy mine.

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FormulaNova said..

33frupus said..
You can fit a 10.6 bic windsup in an e51 diagonally,

What length is a 10.6 bic windsup? 10ft 6? I.e. 3.15 metres long?

If so, that's heaps. Do you need to move the seats around?

I guess my questions are pretty redundant now, I ended up buying one from a Japanese auction, so I am pretty much committed to having one. I look forward to modifying it to fit the gear I have. It won't help that the boards I like to use are older ones and tend to be a little longer.

From what it looks like, and others have said, you can fit at least two boards between the 2 front seats, so that will sort out the larger boards.

I rented an imax one year on the annual WA trip and it had a safety cage in it. The only way I could fit my boards in were to have them diagonally, but at least they fit.

Maybe in 3 months I will have a write up on how to cut noses off old boards, or how to modify an Elgrand to fit larger boards. It would be a real shame if I was the only idiot running around with a van and I still had to put the boards on the roof...

I will be happy if the van turns up and is mechanically okay. Its a bit of a lucky dip.

Yes it's 10ft 6in, I removed the second row headrests then folded flat and slid backwards. You can then recline the front passenger seat pretty close to flat. Check out the XLmodel if you want all the features

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FormulaNova said..

33frupus said..
You can fit a 10.6 bic windsup in an e51 diagonally,

What length is a 10.6 bic windsup? 10ft 6? I.e. 3.15 metres long?

If so, that's heaps. Do you need to move the seats around?

I guess my questions are pretty redundant now, I ended up buying one from a Japanese auction, so I am pretty much committed to having one. I look forward to modifying it to fit the gear I have. It won't help that the boards I like to use are older ones and tend to be a little longer.

From what it looks like, and others have said, you can fit at least two boards between the 2 front seats, so that will sort out the larger boards.

I rented an imax one year on the annual WA trip and it had a safety cage in it. The only way I could fit my boards in were to have them diagonally, but at least they fit.

Maybe in 3 months I will have a write up on how to cut noses off old boards, or how to modify an Elgrand to fit larger boards. It would be a real shame if I was the only idiot running around with a van and I still had to put the boards on the roof...

I will be happy if the van turns up and is mechanically okay. Its a bit of a lucky dip.

Yes it's 10ft 6in, I removed the second row headrests then folded flat and slid backwards. You can then recline the front passenger seat pretty close to flat. Check out the XLmodel if you want all the features

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Carantoc said..

FormulaNova said..
..I ended up buying one from a .. auction...

Awesome.

You can use it for spares when you buy mine.

No worries. Send it on down. Do you have photos, or will I expect it to be the first Elgrand that shows up in my driveway? How much do I need to send back to you for the van?

This will be the second non-Aussie car I have owned. The first was an E2000. Great van for fitting in gear as it was LWB, but my god it was slow. It took all the drama out of overtaking though as you just gave up and sat in the left hand land and got angry if there was some weirdo that was slower than you (it did happen!).

Funny thing, the E2000 was okay to drive once you removed the extra leaf spring that was there to support a huge payload. With it, they bounced around too much. I think if I had kept it, I would have somehow wrestled a turbo onto it, but lucky for me the rust got to it. I think they ship them from the factory with rust already in the roof just to get you started.

Why are you selling your Elgrand?

The one I have agreed to buy has less than 60Kkms, even though it is a 2003 model. Sometimes that's a good thing if the car has been driven regularly but for short distances. Not so good if it has been sitting around for a long time and not maintained. Engines do rust especially when the coolant is not changed regularly. At least with Aussie cars its relatively cheap to throw on new brake rotors, a new radiator, and parts are generally cheap, especially when there are heaps of aftermarket copies made.

In looking at mentions of Elgrands I came across the thread from 2016 about ugly cars. Hilarious.

I think the winner had to be this. Does anyone know where I can import one?

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33frupus said..

FormulaNova said..

33frupus said..
You can fit a 10.6 bic windsup in an e51 diagonally,

What length is a 10.6 bic windsup? 10ft 6? I.e. 3.15 metres long?

If so, that's heaps. Do you need to move the seats around?

I guess my questions are pretty redundant now, I ended up buying one from a Japanese auction, so I am pretty much committed to having one. I look forward to modifying it to fit the gear I have. It won't help that the boards I like to use are older ones and tend to be a little longer.

From what it looks like, and others have said, you can fit at least two boards between the 2 front seats, so that will sort out the larger boards.

I rented an imax one year on the annual WA trip and it had a safety cage in it. The only way I could fit my boards in were to have them diagonally, but at least they fit.

Maybe in 3 months I will have a write up on how to cut noses off old boards, or how to modify an Elgrand to fit larger boards. It would be a real shame if I was the only idiot running around with a van and I still had to put the boards on the roof...

I will be happy if the van turns up and is mechanically okay. Its a bit of a lucky dip.

Yes it's 10ft 6in, I removed the second row headrests then folded flat and slid backwards. You can then recline the front passenger seat pretty close to flat. Check out the XLmodel if you want all the features

I keep forgetting that these things have seats that fold every which way. Here I am thinking you need to remove them, but laying them flat is almost as good.

That's awesome. It means I can fit in anything, and still fit in passengers/customers behind me. They would probably prefer not having to talk to me that way.

I ended up with a highway star model. I asked them to look at the very basic model, the V, as all the extra features are going to be wasted on me, plus some of them like the navigation don't work outside of Japan anyway. Some have what look like low chin spoilers as well, and the last car I had that had one of them ended up being torn off a few times.

The weird thing about these vans is that the majority of the cost is the import cost and the compliance costs. The difference between a ratty van and an excellent van might only be a couple of thousand dollars, yet the landed and complied cost is not going to be that different as the handling, shipping, and compliance are the same. In other words, you could buy a van with less than 100Kkms on it and another with 300Kkms on it, and the difference in auction price is probably $1000.

Does anyone have problems with the proximity key? It sounds like a great idea unless you want to leave it in the van while you use a 'surf key'/non electronic key when sailing.