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Old 04-06-2019, 07:26 PM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Knocking around an idea and need your thoughts

OK, please don't hate me. I'd like to get a bus, but I live in Chicago and to park a bus, even a mini, would send me to the poor house. Soooooooooooo, I'm thinking about buying a passenger van for now and converting it to a camper. My reasoning is this: 1. I can afford to keep it. 2. I can convert SOMETHING into a camper and I have been itching to do this for years.
My question to all you is this: What passenger van would you recommend to convert and why that model?
John

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Old 04-06-2019, 09:56 PM   #2
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OK, please don't hate me. I'd like to get a bus, but I live in Chicago and to park a bus, even a mini, would send me to the poor house. Soooooooooooo, I'm thinking about buying a passenger van for now and converting it to a camper. My reasoning is this: 1. I can afford to keep it. 2. I can convert SOMETHING into a camper and I have been itching to do this for years.
My question to all you is this: What passenger van would you recommend to convert and why that model?
John
I'd go for a plain white cargo van.
Chevy would be my pick. I just sold my dodge cargo van and they're just not as nice as the Chevy vans. The Fords are more of a PITA to work on and cost more.
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Old 04-09-2019, 08:47 PM   #3
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Any full size van would work. They take up one parking space, and they all have roughly the same cargo/living space. I assume you don’t have a garage to do major work, so you might want to make sure whatever you buy will not have mechanical issues. So newer is better in that case. My 0.02
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Old 04-10-2019, 11:28 AM   #4
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If you can fit me in your budget I would recommend a Sprinter.

I have met a handful of people living in Sprinters. One couple that I met down in Mexico had been full time in a Sprinter. for 18 months and we're having a ball.

They had an awesome setup and managed over 20mpg.
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Old 04-11-2019, 09:29 AM   #5
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research update

So I've been watching You Tube to learn more about passenger vans and define my parameter of needs a bit more.
It seems that the Ford van E 150 - E 350 with the 4.6 liter motor seems to get the highest miles on average. Longevity and a sound drive train is the number one priority I am using to base my decision on.
One of you commented that Fords are a PITA to work on; if you can go into this a bit it would be helpful.
Another person has a preference for Chevy. I'm more familiar with Chevy cars and find that the older 1960's and 70's cars are simple to work on, but I know nothing about their passenger vans.
Someone also suggested a Sprinter. I'll have to investigate those a bit more.
Priority number two is windows. I want windows all around the van. The great thing about a school bus to me has always been the windows. They allow you to see the world, and take in the view. Most Sprinters I see are for cargo use and have no windows. I don't want to mess with cutting metal and installing my own windows, that is why I like the large passenger van idea. I'm sure there are sprinters out there with windows all around. More research to be conducted.
BTW, Here is a good Y-Tube link about vans:
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Old 04-11-2019, 10:37 AM   #6
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I like sprinters but they seem like they stick out. If I were doing a van I'd get one of the many plain white fleet vans and put wording on the side to make it unattractive to break into. Joe's Septic Repair or Doug's Dog Poo Removal or something. You can find late 90s/early 2000s Ford E350 with a 7.3 diesel too.
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Old 04-11-2019, 10:44 AM   #7
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Of note regarding the Sprinter vans - my wife follows a climber / vanlifer who has had three transmissions go out on her in her late model MB Sprinter.
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Old 04-11-2019, 10:53 AM   #8
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Of note regarding the Sprinter vans - my wife follows a climber / vanlifer who has had three transmissions go out on her in her late model MB Sprinter.
Ford transmissions are probably the WORST.
That guy in the YT vid doesn't mention how much it cost to get those Fords to that unusually high mileage.
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Old 04-11-2019, 03:58 PM   #9
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If you can fit me in your budget I would recommend a Sprinter.

I have met a handful of people living in Sprinters. One couple that I met down in Mexico had been full time in a Sprinter. for 18 months and we're having a ball.

They had an awesome setup and managed over 20mpg.
Newer Sprinters have a limited dealer/service network and have had emissions related problems that you can look into at https://sprinter-source.com/forum/

If you're going as old and cheap as possible, I like the GM platform, but the Transit is my preference for the newer generation. The Promaster is ok, and offers a lot of space inside, but the steering column isn't adjustable and at a bad angle if you're tall.
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Old 04-11-2019, 05:31 PM   #10
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I worked at a dodge dealer for a few years.
The older dodge vans are underpowered, hard on frontends and eat transmissions.

It really does depend on your driving habits for transmissions but those are bad.

The for 4.6l was famous for spittin sparkplugs out of the head. 5.4l ford were bad for breaking plugs off in the head when doing a tuneup. They have changed th plug design on the newer 5.4's. Took me oersonally 8 hrs to do a tuneup on a 5.4l triton 5 out of th 8 plugs broke and its a tedious process to get them out.

If the ford route is what your after I would go the 7.3l there too underpowered to hurt themselves and prove very reliable. Put a built tranny behind it and away u go.
The chevys in the fullsize vans seem to just work the odd trans. Some frontend work but the 6.0l would be the best. There are some cargo vans out there that have the 6.6l duramax. Only rated at 250hp but it would be a great option.
The sprinters have tonns of room, good mileage. Ive seen them with 750,000 km and up. As for transmissions havnt heard much. Most off the courier vans in my area run sprinters or the mercedes version cuz thats what a sprinter is.
I personally would go with the chevy in a d-max but thats me from an automotive mechanics perspective.
Stay away from the ford 6.0l unless its been "bulletproofed"
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Old 04-11-2019, 06:06 PM   #11
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The Chevy G series and Express vans are good choices. The 5.7L is good, but the 6.0L is better, and Duramax diesel is best if you can find one.

Ford E-Series vans are reliable, but a little tighter in the engine working compartment. The 4.6L is good, 5.4L better, and 7.3L diesel is best. Avoid the 6.0L diesel van at all costs.

Dodge full size vans are all pretty decent regardless of the engine, but as stated, they are mostly underpowered.

I work on a lot of Sprinters. This one company has 3 of them and all 3 needed transmissions replaced. The 3.0L diesel is a great engine, but very expensive to fix compared to other diesel engines.
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Old 04-12-2019, 05:36 AM   #12
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Old 04-20-2019, 06:07 PM   #13
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Ross Lukeman has a website and Facebook forum and videos about choosing and coverting vans.
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Old 04-21-2019, 03:28 AM   #14
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Ford vs. Chevy vs. Dodge is an old discussion that rarely is backed up with good reasons.


I like Mopar products but I think I would not choose a Dodge simply because the newest Dodge B-series van is getting pretty old. The Mopar TorqueFlight A727 automatic is probably the stoutest automatic in a light duty truck/van ever made. The follow on A518/46RH is the same transmission with OD and lock up torque convertor. Most of the last versions had either the 3.8L V-6 (the 318/5.2L V-8 with two cylinders lopped off) or the 5.2L V-8. The 5.2L was adequate. The 3.8L was pretty whimpy.


I dislike Fords and have never owned one that I wanted to keep. The Ford E-series vans suffered from using the Twin-I-Beam front suspension, the Ford E4OD/4R100 transmission and the diesel engines that were not the 7.3L diesel engine. The absolute worst Ford E-series were from about 1993 and newer that had the ball joint Twin-I-Beam front suspension. In my experience the front end never stayed straight after the first chuckhole you hit after leaving the front end alignment shop. As for the E4OD/4R100, it wasn't a bad transmission in the Crown Vic or even in the F/E-150 but in the F/E-350/450 it just wasn't enough beef to it. Without spending $4K+ to build a bullet proof transmission you will be changing it out on a regular basis. And then of course the Powerstroke 6.0/6.4/6.7L V-8 diesel is well known for costing $5K-$15K to bulletproof. By the way, the older style square nose vans with the king pin style Twin-I-Beam suspension is a lot easier to get to all of the important bits. The engine is far enough back inside the doghouse that with the doghouse removed almost everything can be reached with no problem. The newer rounded nose vans have the engine further forward making it nearly impossible to reach some stuff from inside or outside.


The Chevy/GMC G-series vans would be my first pick of any van or van/cut-away bus. While some left the factory with an inline 6, a V-6, or several different sizes of V-8's, the G-30/3500/4500 had either the 350/5.7L or on the newer versions the 6.0L gas V-8. Stay away from either the 6.2L or 6.5L diesel V-8's--low power, smoke a lot, hard to start when cold, and parts are becoming very difficult to find for them. The G-series only 6.5L parts and pieces are particularly hard to find as GM dealers no long stock them and there is NO aftermarket support for them. Some of the newer models might have the Duramax with the Allison automatic but those are pretty few and far between. The older vans would have the TurboHydramatic THM350/400, the follow on THM700RV (the THM400 with OD), or the newer 4L60/4L80, or the newest that would have the 6L80. All of those transmissions have been super reliable. The front suspension on the G-series vans has not changed appreciably in more than 40 years. It is a simple design that works well and has a lot of aftermarket support to address the few weak points that usually only show up after a lot of severe service over really bad roads.


Generally speaking the most common van chassis sold today is the Chevy/GMC G-3500/4500 with the 6.0L gas V-8 with the 4L60 transmission. In regular service it has shown to be very durable, inexpensive to keep up, and usually has the best fuel mileage of any of the gas powered vans and sometimes as good or better than the older non-electronically controlled diesel engines.
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Old 04-22-2019, 04:15 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cjgoertzen View Post
I worked at a dodge dealer for a few years.
The older dodge vans are underpowered, hard on frontends and eat transmissions.

It really does depend on your driving habits for transmissions but those are bad.

The for 4.6l was famous for spittin sparkplugs out of the head. 5.4l ford were bad for breaking plugs off in the head when doing a tuneup. They have changed th plug design on the newer 5.4's. Took me oersonally 8 hrs to do a tuneup on a 5.4l triton 5 out of th 8 plugs broke and its a tedious process to get them out.

If the ford route is what your after I would go the 7.3l there too underpowered to hurt themselves and prove very reliable. Put a built tranny behind it and away u go.
The chevys in the fullsize vans seem to just work the odd trans. Some frontend work but the 6.0l would be the best. There are some cargo vans out there that have the 6.6l duramax. Only rated at 250hp but it would be a great option.
The sprinters have tonns of room, good mileage. Ive seen them with 750,000 km and up. As for transmissions havnt heard much. Most off the courier vans in my area run sprinters or the mercedes version cuz thats what a sprinter is.
I personally would go with the chevy in a d-max but thats me from an automotive mechanics perspective.
Stay away from the ford 6.0l unless its been "bulletproofed"
As a mechanic, listen to this guy. Also look at overall height for headroom. A plain passenger van is pretty short.
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