Search results

I agree that it's a matter of how you drive it. I had a Defender 110 for awhile with a steel roll cage and a steel roof rack with a tent. It was, IMO, overloaded and top heavy. I drove it very conservatively, with the philosophy that in the event of a potential collision, I wouldn't swerve or...

Fastlane, thanks for the information. Definitely some considerations I wasn't aware of!

Hi, I have a ford E-350 build in progress (http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/72722-Another-E350-build-thread) and am planning on installing a second alternator. There's room for another one in the engine bay, (apparently it came with the ambulance package on these vans.) I'm...

On Saturday we drove up to see the van (at Colorado Camper Van) and plan the next phase. We spent about 2 hours with Derek (and even got to meet his new baby!) drawing lines on the floor in sharpie. Here's a brief summary of the interior we have planned, starting at the rear and working forward...

Sorry I missed the question about the sliding side door, but it seems like others' comments pretty much cover it. I have 31" tires on mine, and the door just hits the tire when it opens. The door does open fully, I'll just have to be careful not to try to move the van with the door open!

This has to be a REALLY slow trip - In areas with no dedicted EV charging infrastructure, they're going to charge on regular 110V outlets. If the car has a 16kWh battery (that's what the mitsubishi i has according to wikipedia) it will take about 16 hours to charge on 110V. Even if they're not...

That definitely eases my mind a bit. Thanks for the information!

So what are the consequences of a mildly overloaded vehicle? After reading this article posted on expo, it sounds like safety (mostly increased stopping distance) and reliability are two of the main ones. I do plan to upgrade the brakes on our van. Sportsmobiles seem to have a pretty good...

Van Weight I've seen a few posts in various threads asking about van weight. I'm going to try to keep the total weight of ours under the GVWR, so first I need to know how much it weighs empty, which I did today using a commercial truck scale (the weigh cost $9) The van in question is a 2001...

We got our top situation sorted out. Here's what we ended out with, if anyone stumbles across this looking for similar information: Van height, ground to gutters: 86" Colorado Campervan high top: 16" Fantastic Fan: 4.5" High cube container door height: 101" High cube container interior height...

coquzzi, Thanks for the offer! If we decide we want to see one before making the decision we may take you up on it. The extra interior height with the top down would be really nice. A high cube container has a door height of 8'5" and an interior height of 8'10". If you're at 8'9" yours just...

:) Yeah, I know one picture isn't much, but it really is just an empty cargo van right now. I'll leave it to your imagination as to what it looks like inside. I promise to do better as the van comes together! Thanks for the link!

After lurking here for quite awhile, our family of 3 now has the makings of a 4x4 camper van! Thanks to everyone here who has provided inspiration and great ideas! We bought a 2001 E350 extended body (7.3L diesel) with a salem kroger 4x4 conversion. Right now it's just a bare cargo van. It was...

I would like to see the van too if you make it to Denver.

Another variable in the live inside vs. live outside decision (which also influences vehicle size) is the climate you're travelling in. During a year in Africa, we lived outside of a Defender 110 in a rooftop tent. Out of probably 300 nights camping, there were only a handful that we wished we...

Old thread, but I ride alpine touring (randonee (french for "can't tele")) in the backcountry. Most of my knuckle-dragging friends ride splitboards. I currently have a pair of Black Diamond Justice skis and Marker Duke bindings. The whole rockered (reverse camber at the tip/tail, short section...

Excellent, thanks for clarifying. So you kept the two original van seats and just used the center portion of the Honda seats? Did you custom-build the mechanism to unlatch and remove the center seat, or is that something that's built into the honda seat? This sounds like the perfect solution...

Good point on the HVAC. I recall FREEZING even in the front seats of our air-cooled VW anytime we went down a long hill in the winter. Eventually my mom sewed up a set of heavy curtains hung behind the cab area to block what little heat was available from escaping to the back of the van. A/C...

Thanks for the replies! We're planning to go with a poptop, and we'll definitely have windows so the rear seat passengers can see out, if we go with a rear seat. I like the idea of the center jumpseat with fold-down capability. Still wouldn't be able to swivel the front seats, but it frees up...

We're shopping for vehicles for a longish (6 months to 1 year) trip we're planning in a few years. It'll be my wife and I and our son who will be about 5 when we leave. We're leaning toward a sportsmobile or something similar based on a full size van. We're struggling with where to put the...