Hello everyone! Rob here again from Van Compass. I'm excited once again to share another personal van build we have going on here at the shop. Many of you have seen my old Pita Van build thread here:
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/156854-Pita-Van-4x4-Conversion
I am happy to report that the Pita Van isn't going anywhere. So don't worry there, the Pita Van is likely going to stay in the VC fleet for years to come. However, ever since starting out this little business venture of ours, tinkering on the older T1N vans, we've always received a lot of interest regarding parts for both 2wd and 4wd NCV3 vans. So I decided it was time for me to start looking for a newer van that we could use to develop parts off of. Originally I was on the hunt for an 07-08 144” WB 2wd Dually, but when the opportunity presented itself to pick up a low mileage 4x4 nearby and within my price range, I deiced to bite the bullet and commit to the 4x4. A 2015 Jupiter Red 144” 4x4 low top, now known as “The Hoff”
The main goal for this van was to use it to not only develop more parts for the NCV3 platform, but to also refine and continuously improve the products we had already developed using previous customer's test vehicles.
The first mod to the van was to remove the electronic sliding door step the van was equipped with and install our rocker guards. We needed to come up with a revised “Mid Mount” which would be compatible with vans that had the Auxillary diesel heater, which luckily, the Hoff was equipped with. So we were easily able to design a revised mount to make our rocker guards both easier to install and fit a wider range of vehicles even better.
Next came the fun part, and the main reason behind picking up a 4x4. Ever since coming out with our 2wd Striker 2.0” Lift Kit for 2007-Present Sprinter vans, we received several inquiries regarding lifting a 4wd van. We honestly didn't expect people to want to lift their 4x4's but we were up for the challenge of seeing if we could make this a feasible option. Since we weren't sure if the 2.0” lift would be doable, we didn't feel confident in using a customer's vehicle as the guinea pig. Enter The Hoff.
I think it is safe to say that many of us have drooled over the Iglhaut Allrad vans sitting on 35” tires and wished we had that option here. Well now that we had a factory 4x4 to run wild with, I desperately wanted to make that option a reality. We only needed to develop a handful of new components to lift the 4wd vans 2” as many of the lift kit pieces are shared with the 2wd vans. The components we needed to address which differed from the 2wd lift were the following:
• Transmission mount lift bracket
• Rear sway bar end links
• Rear U-bolts
• Rear add-a-leaf pack (instead of an additional lift block)
You can see here the transmission mount bracket used to keep the drive train in the original location.
I'll throw up some detailed photos of the installed lift kit in a few. But here's a few overall shots of the van.
The lift kit does put an angle on the front driveshaft but it is equal at both ends of the driveshaft so there is no induced vibration. That was our main concern with lifting these 4wd vans. 2k miles later the front shaft is not showing any premature signs of wear. Suspension geometry is retained and there is no added angle to CVs or control arms.
The rear is lifted using a new 5 leaf add-a-leaf pack which allows us to not only fine tune ride height, but to also increase the spring rate for heavier built out vans. Combined with longer sway bar links, new U-bolts, lower shock mount extension brackets, and bump stop extension brackets, the rear is very straight forward and nearly identical to our lift kit for the 2wd vans.
The van rides and drives so nice. Much better than stock. The van has no problem turning the 35” tires and the RPM drop at freeway speeds is fantastic. We went with 315/75/16 General AT2 tires mounted on the stock wheels paired with an Agile Offroad 14mm wheel spacer to clear the strut up front. The van only lost maybe 1 mpg on average, truthfully I don't think it even dropped that much.
The rear required no trimming at all to clear the tire. The front did require some trimming of the plastic inner fender liners, front bumper and some slight cutting at the rear of the front fender. All in all though, very minor for a heck of a lot more ground clearance and a really ************** look. I'm a little bias though
I'll throw up some photos showcasing the trimming in a few.
After the van was lifted, we adapted our skid plate system to it with the addition of a new steel front “bash plate” which was designed to work with the 2” lift. At the same time, we fitted our heavy duty front hitch which we were finally able to bring into production since we had the Hoff to develop off of.
We've been making our rocker guards for a while now. We've had several requests for a side ladder to work in conjunction with the rockers. So we used the Hoff to design an aluminum bolt together high clearance side ladder which used the rocker as the first step of the ladder for no loss of ground clearance.
-Rob
http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/156854-Pita-Van-4x4-Conversion
I am happy to report that the Pita Van isn't going anywhere. So don't worry there, the Pita Van is likely going to stay in the VC fleet for years to come. However, ever since starting out this little business venture of ours, tinkering on the older T1N vans, we've always received a lot of interest regarding parts for both 2wd and 4wd NCV3 vans. So I decided it was time for me to start looking for a newer van that we could use to develop parts off of. Originally I was on the hunt for an 07-08 144” WB 2wd Dually, but when the opportunity presented itself to pick up a low mileage 4x4 nearby and within my price range, I deiced to bite the bullet and commit to the 4x4. A 2015 Jupiter Red 144” 4x4 low top, now known as “The Hoff”
The main goal for this van was to use it to not only develop more parts for the NCV3 platform, but to also refine and continuously improve the products we had already developed using previous customer's test vehicles.
The first mod to the van was to remove the electronic sliding door step the van was equipped with and install our rocker guards. We needed to come up with a revised “Mid Mount” which would be compatible with vans that had the Auxillary diesel heater, which luckily, the Hoff was equipped with. So we were easily able to design a revised mount to make our rocker guards both easier to install and fit a wider range of vehicles even better.
Next came the fun part, and the main reason behind picking up a 4x4. Ever since coming out with our 2wd Striker 2.0” Lift Kit for 2007-Present Sprinter vans, we received several inquiries regarding lifting a 4wd van. We honestly didn't expect people to want to lift their 4x4's but we were up for the challenge of seeing if we could make this a feasible option. Since we weren't sure if the 2.0” lift would be doable, we didn't feel confident in using a customer's vehicle as the guinea pig. Enter The Hoff.
I think it is safe to say that many of us have drooled over the Iglhaut Allrad vans sitting on 35” tires and wished we had that option here. Well now that we had a factory 4x4 to run wild with, I desperately wanted to make that option a reality. We only needed to develop a handful of new components to lift the 4wd vans 2” as many of the lift kit pieces are shared with the 2wd vans. The components we needed to address which differed from the 2wd lift were the following:
• Transmission mount lift bracket
• Rear sway bar end links
• Rear U-bolts
• Rear add-a-leaf pack (instead of an additional lift block)
You can see here the transmission mount bracket used to keep the drive train in the original location.
I'll throw up some detailed photos of the installed lift kit in a few. But here's a few overall shots of the van.
The lift kit does put an angle on the front driveshaft but it is equal at both ends of the driveshaft so there is no induced vibration. That was our main concern with lifting these 4wd vans. 2k miles later the front shaft is not showing any premature signs of wear. Suspension geometry is retained and there is no added angle to CVs or control arms.
The rear is lifted using a new 5 leaf add-a-leaf pack which allows us to not only fine tune ride height, but to also increase the spring rate for heavier built out vans. Combined with longer sway bar links, new U-bolts, lower shock mount extension brackets, and bump stop extension brackets, the rear is very straight forward and nearly identical to our lift kit for the 2wd vans.
The van rides and drives so nice. Much better than stock. The van has no problem turning the 35” tires and the RPM drop at freeway speeds is fantastic. We went with 315/75/16 General AT2 tires mounted on the stock wheels paired with an Agile Offroad 14mm wheel spacer to clear the strut up front. The van only lost maybe 1 mpg on average, truthfully I don't think it even dropped that much.
The rear required no trimming at all to clear the tire. The front did require some trimming of the plastic inner fender liners, front bumper and some slight cutting at the rear of the front fender. All in all though, very minor for a heck of a lot more ground clearance and a really ************** look. I'm a little bias though
I'll throw up some photos showcasing the trimming in a few. After the van was lifted, we adapted our skid plate system to it with the addition of a new steel front “bash plate” which was designed to work with the 2” lift. At the same time, we fitted our heavy duty front hitch which we were finally able to bring into production since we had the Hoff to develop off of.
We've been making our rocker guards for a while now. We've had several requests for a side ladder to work in conjunction with the rockers. So we used the Hoff to design an aluminum bolt together high clearance side ladder which used the rocker as the first step of the ladder for no loss of ground clearance.
-Rob
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