09 AWD Express travel van

[OldYota]

Couple van shots in this clip of the Grand Canyon with the kids last year

https://youtu.be/VxuI6ZTAi4w

 

[wjeeper]

Looks like you really got out and enjoyed the van. Cant beat taking it out with the family.

Looks like you need to ditch the ground effects/ get a lift!

 

[OldYota]

Ditched that center console/cooler thing. Always hated trying to step over it to get to the back. Not sure why all my pics went sideways... Apple problems

 

[Choff]

Our Conversion did not come with floor console, you did good by taking it out, we love to be able to get up and move to back of van when traveling.

 

[TexomaPowerboater]

Yeah I'd lose the ground effects and add some trim molding to cover up the holes. Those ground effects are expensive to repairs. You have to replace them to fix, and they are expensive to ship. Cost me around $1,600 to replace just one side. Wish I would of just removed them all. Air bags are a good idea. I run a 3/4 ton conversion van and it's pretty bumpy back there without any weight. Some adjustable Rancho shocks would also work work well. Turn them up when loaded down and turn them down when unloaded.

 

[Choff]

When I was checking my doors for rust this fall, I did not find much at all , just surface rust spots on the inside of the doors. no outside rust at all!!
I do think the ground effects has help cut down on the rust at the bottom of our van.
and I do drive this van hard year round in some of the worst weather that Wisconsin does have-and lots of salt.
Yes I do keep it washed-running through the gas station car washes and have knocked off lots of 5 an 10lb chunks of ice/snow
All this after over 140,000 mile we have put on!!!
I now have 182,000 on the clock and love the AWD in Snow !!

 

[OldYota]

finally took it to a semi local spring and suspension place and had two more leaves put in the spring packs. new rear shocks and bumpstops and it rides like a dream now. Thinking spring for pulling the ground effects??

 

[TexomaPowerboater]

finally took it to a semi local spring and suspension place and had two more leaves put in the spring packs. new rear shocks and bumpstops and it rides like a dream now. Thinking spring for pulling the ground effects??

You can do it yourself, they are held on with screws or bolts and there should be stock bumpers underneath. There will be holes left so you'll need to cover with trim molding or maybe get rocker panels or vinyl stickers to cover up. Could also have body shop fill them and maybe go with non-stick coating on the belly. Also, if your rear end is now quite a bit higher than the front it's pretty easy to adjust the torsion bars on these to raise the front, but you'll need to check the alignment after it's raised.

 

[OldYota]

My awesome girlfriend got me the ARB 2500 awning for the van for christmas. I incorrectly was thinking it would mount to the rain gutter....I guess I have to buy some kind of poor rack system and chop it up to make it tall enough to mount over my high top? I tried searching but haven't seen any good solutions yet for mounting an awning with a high top. Anyone else already run into this??

 

[OldYota]

I found a guy who mounted his awning by taking both sides of a set of roof bars and putting them on one side. He drilled into the fiberglass top for support behind the brackets. I'm not crazy about that idea. I ordered the same roof bars that he used, They are steel so i can cut/extend/weld them pretty easily if I decide not to do it the way he did....


https://www.amazon.com/Highland-200...1ab083a9ebe02cd57fee0d969943c2&language=en_US

https://gnomadhome.com/mounting-arb-awning-no-roof-rack/


edit: Yeah, chickened out on drilling. I ordered another set of roof bars so Ican modify them all at the same time.

 

[OldYota]

I had a mock up On the van out of wood, pulled it and prepped everything for final install. Waiting for this snow storm to pass this weekend..
.

 

[OldYota]

The rain finally stopped and the temps are slightly above freezing but I l picked one of the windiest days of the year to mount the awning. Gonna wait for a calmer day to finish and see how it looks deployed

 

[OldYota]

Tightened everything up and did a test drive. The horizontal pipes rattle a little over 45 mph. I’ll have to figure something out to get rid of that noise. But it seems to fit the van nicely.

 

[OldYota]

Picked up a set of 17x8.5” rims with 265/70R-17 bfg a/ts. They are maybe 1.5” taller than the 20’s that were on there. I did have to trim the plastics a bit since they were rubbing a bit. Planning on finally removing the ground effects this spring anyway.

 

[OldYota]

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