GpnAZ
Observer
I have been going back and forth on building a van for my photography adventures and weekend camping trips and road trips with my wife. I wanted something with basic amenities with AWD or 4wd. Not being very patient, I went ahead and bought this Airstream Avenue while I was checking out Roadtreks. It looked great inside and out except it was 2wd but I thought it would be easier and quicker to convert to 4wd vs building out a van interior and I could use the van for a while to see if 2wd would work for me. Sitting at stock height I only had 6"-8" ground clearance so first things first I decided to lift it and put larger tires on it. After extensive reading on different forums about lifting the Chevy Express van, I drove over to San Diego to talk to Jeremy at WeldTec and decided to start with his 3" lift spindles with Fox shocks and coil spacer. He delivered them as promised and I proceeded on having my 4wd shop, 4Wheeler Supply install them. I had Valley Spring build the progressive spring packs and install a rear stabilizer bar. I then had 4 Wheeler Supply install 4:10 rear gears with an ARB air locker and twin compressor with air up kit for airing up tires. The Airstream Avenue comes with 16"x7" Alcoa wheels and I installed 285/75Rx16 Cooper Discoverer AT3 tires on these wheels. After it was up and running and the test drive showed a brake sensor /abs sensor light we decided we would have to buy a Bully Dog tuner to dial the new tire diameter and gear ratio in. I was kind of hesitant about how well it would drive after this lift but I was pleasantly surprised and happy at how well it drove and handled! Now I need to get it out on some back roads and see how it works off the highway.