crazycaseys53
Member
So, I had posted in another discussion thread that I was considering doing a build thread on my 1998 E350 EB Overland Rig “if anybody would be interested”, and I didn’t get a single response...
So with that kind of overwhelming encouragement, how could I not!?
Anyway, we picked up our van just about 1 year ago, and we finally got to start working on it just over two months ago, so I’ve got some progress pictures already back-logged to hopefully keep the updates coming fast enough to keep this thread interesting. So, like any good story, let’s go back and start at the beginning...
I was a little late to the party, but I suppose the whole “Adventure Van” thing has always been on my radar...I didn’t do my first Craigslist search until this time last year. Being in the SF Bay Area a handful of well-used Sportsmobile 4x4’s popped up, ranging from $60-80k, and one VERY derelict Salem-Kroger converted E250 with like 300,000 miles for $25k. Having sort of “co-owned” an early 2000’s gas Econoline van with a close friend of mine, I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing in terms of pricing on these things. I got discouraged pretty fast.
I decided to do some more research anyway. I stumbled onto Expedition Portal pretty early on; the value proposition of these 4x4 camper vans started to make a little bit more sense. Then I found Chris Steuber’s U-joint Off-Road, and I knew right away that a Ujoint Conversion was the the way I was going to make this happen. I must have annoyed the hell out of Chris at first, with multiple emails back and forth trying to find a way for my shoestring budget to fit with one of his conversion kits. Ultimately I “stepped up”, but more on that later.
My previous “Expo” rig was a tired old ‘62 F100 Unibody with a matching ‘53 Lancer “canned ham” trailer. The F100 went most places I tried to take it, but at about 10 mpg by itself and about 5 mpg towing the trailer, I always felt limited in where I thought I could try to go. I’d always wanted a one-ton diesel pickup so that I could tow a bit more weight and get better mileage doing it, and I explored the whole pop-up truck bed camper idea pretty thoroughly, but it seemed like all roads were pointing towards an “Adventure Van”.
The rough shape of my plan was starting to reveal itself to me. I knew that a Ford E-350 with a 7.3 Powerstroke was going to be my platform of choice. I knew that if I could sell my current truck and trailer for about $15,000, I could probably shoestring another $5,000 together for a total budget of $20,000. Let me tell you that that’s not very much when you’re talking about building a one ton diesel 4x4 van. And having such a tight budget meant that I was going to have to find a van for under $10,000.
Now, I’ve done enough big projects to know that cost overages are a reality. Some of them you just soak up along the way, like three trips to the same hardware store on a Sunday afternoon...those receipts never seem to make it into the vehicle folder for tally anyway, but still, I knew that the scope of the 4WD conversion meant that there would be a lot of little nickel and dime pitfalls, and so the lower I could push my van’s purchase price, the greater my chances of ultimately staying within’ budget would be.
But the problem with the combination of the words “budget” and “7.3 Powerstroke” was completely unknown to me. And I’ve never been able to wrap my head around purchasing a used vehicle, any used vehicle, with over 150,000 miles on it, no matter how good the motor is supposed to be. This wasn’t going to be easy...
I searched and searched. I actually found an App called BRZO that lets you search the entirety of Craigslist all at once. I was looking coast to coast. I surpassed my own mileage limit and starting looking at vans with up to 200,000 miles on them...I think I even looked at one with 215,000. Everything was either too expensive, or, some other massive compromise, like rust, body damage, etc.
For a while I was sure I was going to buy an ambulance. Even with the possibility of high “hours” I still mentally preferred the idea of low mileage. But here’s a little bit of info for anybody looking at an ambulance for their own Adventure Van build; ambulances are not rated to tow...anything. In fact I have read that some municipalities know to look for an ambulance pulling a trailer, as it’s pretty much a universal fact that they aren’t tow-rated. This might merely be fear and conjecture that I am repeating, but I found enough forum discussions on the subject to steer me away from an ambulance for my own project (though their are certainly plenty of positives to using an ambulance as your starting point).
At one point I had been ready to fly out to Utah on a Friday night to buy a van and drive it home over the weekend...and that’s when an ugly little plumbing van popped up just down the coast in Monterey for a price that seemed too good to be true.
1998 E-350 Plumbing Van 7.3 Powerstroke LOW MILES - $6,500
Something had to be wrong. I called the owner to ask what he meant by low miles, and he told me the van only had 87,000 on it. He told me the CarFax was clean and sent me a copy. Evidently he buys a lot of vans from this company and always gets the ones with the 7.3 because he can turn them around pretty fast. He even had one from them that was his daily driver.
The only catch was that the CarFax revealed that the van had been sitting for the last three years. The seller had fired it up with new batteries, and had taken it to get smogged, which it passed, but sitting is hard on vehicles. I already knew I was going to replace the entire suspension, so I decided it was worth the gamble...I just had to get it home. A deal was struck, and we were on the road!
So with that kind of overwhelming encouragement, how could I not!?
Anyway, we picked up our van just about 1 year ago, and we finally got to start working on it just over two months ago, so I’ve got some progress pictures already back-logged to hopefully keep the updates coming fast enough to keep this thread interesting. So, like any good story, let’s go back and start at the beginning...
I was a little late to the party, but I suppose the whole “Adventure Van” thing has always been on my radar...I didn’t do my first Craigslist search until this time last year. Being in the SF Bay Area a handful of well-used Sportsmobile 4x4’s popped up, ranging from $60-80k, and one VERY derelict Salem-Kroger converted E250 with like 300,000 miles for $25k. Having sort of “co-owned” an early 2000’s gas Econoline van with a close friend of mine, I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing in terms of pricing on these things. I got discouraged pretty fast.
I decided to do some more research anyway. I stumbled onto Expedition Portal pretty early on; the value proposition of these 4x4 camper vans started to make a little bit more sense. Then I found Chris Steuber’s U-joint Off-Road, and I knew right away that a Ujoint Conversion was the the way I was going to make this happen. I must have annoyed the hell out of Chris at first, with multiple emails back and forth trying to find a way for my shoestring budget to fit with one of his conversion kits. Ultimately I “stepped up”, but more on that later.
My previous “Expo” rig was a tired old ‘62 F100 Unibody with a matching ‘53 Lancer “canned ham” trailer. The F100 went most places I tried to take it, but at about 10 mpg by itself and about 5 mpg towing the trailer, I always felt limited in where I thought I could try to go. I’d always wanted a one-ton diesel pickup so that I could tow a bit more weight and get better mileage doing it, and I explored the whole pop-up truck bed camper idea pretty thoroughly, but it seemed like all roads were pointing towards an “Adventure Van”.
The rough shape of my plan was starting to reveal itself to me. I knew that a Ford E-350 with a 7.3 Powerstroke was going to be my platform of choice. I knew that if I could sell my current truck and trailer for about $15,000, I could probably shoestring another $5,000 together for a total budget of $20,000. Let me tell you that that’s not very much when you’re talking about building a one ton diesel 4x4 van. And having such a tight budget meant that I was going to have to find a van for under $10,000.
Now, I’ve done enough big projects to know that cost overages are a reality. Some of them you just soak up along the way, like three trips to the same hardware store on a Sunday afternoon...those receipts never seem to make it into the vehicle folder for tally anyway, but still, I knew that the scope of the 4WD conversion meant that there would be a lot of little nickel and dime pitfalls, and so the lower I could push my van’s purchase price, the greater my chances of ultimately staying within’ budget would be.
But the problem with the combination of the words “budget” and “7.3 Powerstroke” was completely unknown to me. And I’ve never been able to wrap my head around purchasing a used vehicle, any used vehicle, with over 150,000 miles on it, no matter how good the motor is supposed to be. This wasn’t going to be easy...
I searched and searched. I actually found an App called BRZO that lets you search the entirety of Craigslist all at once. I was looking coast to coast. I surpassed my own mileage limit and starting looking at vans with up to 200,000 miles on them...I think I even looked at one with 215,000. Everything was either too expensive, or, some other massive compromise, like rust, body damage, etc.
For a while I was sure I was going to buy an ambulance. Even with the possibility of high “hours” I still mentally preferred the idea of low mileage. But here’s a little bit of info for anybody looking at an ambulance for their own Adventure Van build; ambulances are not rated to tow...anything. In fact I have read that some municipalities know to look for an ambulance pulling a trailer, as it’s pretty much a universal fact that they aren’t tow-rated. This might merely be fear and conjecture that I am repeating, but I found enough forum discussions on the subject to steer me away from an ambulance for my own project (though their are certainly plenty of positives to using an ambulance as your starting point).
At one point I had been ready to fly out to Utah on a Friday night to buy a van and drive it home over the weekend...and that’s when an ugly little plumbing van popped up just down the coast in Monterey for a price that seemed too good to be true.
1998 E-350 Plumbing Van 7.3 Powerstroke LOW MILES - $6,500
Something had to be wrong. I called the owner to ask what he meant by low miles, and he told me the van only had 87,000 on it. He told me the CarFax was clean and sent me a copy. Evidently he buys a lot of vans from this company and always gets the ones with the 7.3 because he can turn them around pretty fast. He even had one from them that was his daily driver.
The only catch was that the CarFax revealed that the van had been sitting for the last three years. The seller had fired it up with new batteries, and had taken it to get smogged, which it passed, but sitting is hard on vehicles. I already knew I was going to replace the entire suspension, so I decided it was worth the gamble...I just had to get it home. A deal was struck, and we were on the road!
