2000 GMC Safari AWD Hightop - Campervan Conversion | Project Recap
- Thread starter dcbryan
- Start date
izaicinajums
izaicinajums.com
That's very weird. Front tires should be moving - at least one of them, if AWD works correctly. As for back if one has less traction, then only one should be spinning not both, but on snow - both could have similar traction so both spin.
As far as I know and have experienced, AWD transfer case in Astro acts as central locking differential, which means that when AWD is connected it's locked. And then at least one wheel per axle should spin if you have open differentials in front and back and there is less traction on one wheel than other.
This was our Astro with NO-G80 at the back in snow. I would say performed really well considering the heavy PNW snow it had to go through. Yes, we got stuck uphill, but we really didn't wanted to push it as we were not prepared for getting really stuck this time around
Stroverlander
Adventurer
Depends on the year - '98-below used Borg Warner BW4472 full-time viscous transfer case while '99-up used NV/NP/GM 136 electronically controlled part-time transfer case.
My old '97 AWD (BW4472 and no G80 rear locking diff) was pretty outstanding in severe winter conditions with studded Nokian Hakkapeliittas. As good and even better in heavy snow than '90 Audi Coupe Quattro with same tires. My current '04 (NV136 with G80 rear locking diff) suits me well now that I don't usually see any snow.
Oh
Thank you for the education.
So, could the OPs New Venture 136 be non operational?
Body Lift
Thanks for input guys, no way of checking the van now as my cousin's got it up in Alaska for the summer. We did have a AWD warning light when we bought it, and replaced the transfer case encoder motor with a Doorman brand from Amazon. Anyway, back to the build –
Next step, a body lift to get a little more tire clearance. We bought some raw aluminum round bar for $50 and cut it cut down to 2 inch sections. Ordered some big M14 X 160 12.9 grade Screws online, (details in the google doc)
You can see one of the blocks here between the body and frame
Here's how she looks with a 300lb motorcycle on the back! About this time I really got excited about the project, taking the van across country solo, comfy place to sleep, all the gear you need AND having my XR to tear up the trails, that's the good life. Note the bumpers are missing. We had to do a little custom work to extend the bracket on the front bumper.
Before and after GIF [seizure warning]
Thanks for input guys, no way of checking the van now as my cousin's got it up in Alaska for the summer. We did have a AWD warning light when we bought it, and replaced the transfer case encoder motor with a Doorman brand from Amazon. Anyway, back to the build –
Next step, a body lift to get a little more tire clearance. We bought some raw aluminum round bar for $50 and cut it cut down to 2 inch sections. Ordered some big M14 X 160 12.9 grade Screws online, (details in the google doc)
You can see one of the blocks here between the body and frame
Here's how she looks with a 300lb motorcycle on the back! About this time I really got excited about the project, taking the van across country solo, comfy place to sleep, all the gear you need AND having my XR to tear up the trails, that's the good life. Note the bumpers are missing. We had to do a little custom work to extend the bracket on the front bumper.
Before and after GIF [seizure warning]
Electrical Continued and Battery Box
Testing the power consumption of the interior lights, all 90's technology here. These little power hungry incandescent bulbs ate up a surprising amount of power. The plan was the replace them with LED strip, but for now we've just disconnected them.
We did however replace the celing lights with LEDs. They're brighter and use 1/8th the total amperage. http://amzn.com/B00II99ORU
We finally decided where to put the AUX batteries, and committed to the plan by cutting a 2ftx2ft hole in the floor.
Welding up the battery box, it was 16GA steel if I remember correctly.
Anybody who wants to give me **** about my flux core Harbor Freight welder, we used it on a motorcycle project I've been riding the bike for 4 years, and those welds are the only thing between me and the highway. I'm not saying it's a great welder. But if only have 120 bucks, buy it and get started.
Battery box install
Jumping ahead a couple weeks here, but this is the last shot I have before the kitchen goes down. There's an access whole underneath the kitchen cabinet that's large enough to get one battery through at a time. We've also got a jack and a tool bag down there.
Testing the power consumption of the interior lights, all 90's technology here. These little power hungry incandescent bulbs ate up a surprising amount of power. The plan was the replace them with LED strip, but for now we've just disconnected them.
We did however replace the celing lights with LEDs. They're brighter and use 1/8th the total amperage. http://amzn.com/B00II99ORU
We finally decided where to put the AUX batteries, and committed to the plan by cutting a 2ftx2ft hole in the floor.
Welding up the battery box, it was 16GA steel if I remember correctly.
Anybody who wants to give me **** about my flux core Harbor Freight welder, we used it on a motorcycle project I've been riding the bike for 4 years, and those welds are the only thing between me and the highway. I'm not saying it's a great welder. But if only have 120 bucks, buy it and get started.
Battery box install
Jumping ahead a couple weeks here, but this is the last shot I have before the kitchen goes down. There's an access whole underneath the kitchen cabinet that's large enough to get one battery through at a time. We've also got a jack and a tool bag down there.
Hondaslayer
Adventurer
Welding up the battery box, it was 16GA steel if I remember correctly.
Anybody who wants to give me **** about my flux core Harbor Freight welder, we used it on a motorcycle project I've been riding the bike for 4 years, and those welds are the only thing between me and the highway. I'm not saying it's a great welder. But if only have 120 bucks, buy it and get started.
For what it is, it is a decent welder. Run some decent flux cored wire through it and get your settings down and you can put down an ok weld. Mine has paid for itself several times over. If and when it fails I would probably upgrade, but for now I have no complaints about it.
Kitchen
Time to start doing some wood working. For material, I got a couple sheets of pre-finished 3/4in plywood (ripped down for free at the lumber shop). This stuff is great to work with, doesn't tear out easily and the finish is much stronger than anything I could have coated it with myself. 3/4in would have been overkill in a lot of cases, but it allowed me to build the kitchen and bed/couch without much (if any) internal structure.
Also I wasn't able to find anything like this at Home Depot, so you'll probably have to get to a real lumber yard. These was $40 a sheet.
After days of sketching, it was nice to finally make some cuts. One big thing I learned on this project was to really think through the whole process of building something before you start. We all know, the devil's in the details and that's usually the part I don't really think about.
Here's a few pages from my sketchbook. I'm not great at drawing, but by the end of the project anytime I'd try to think through exactly how to back of the couch would be supported or how the foam on the bed would fold up, I found myself looking for this notebook
Pocket holes everywhere! Such an easy way of joining cabinetry, I'm sure there are more structurally sound joints, but I have the jig for this and, along with a few rabbits and half-lap joints pretty much everything is held together with pocket holes.
Marked up the sink for install.
Springily few mistakes on the wood working. The center area is a piece of 3/4in ply laminated with formica (which I had left over from another job). The dimensions of this box were very much restricted by it's function. Overall height had to be low enough so you could reach the food prep area with out a back ache, and low enough not to block too much of the back window. Depth of this box couldn't be anymore than 18 inches because we'd cut into the sleeping area.
Another thing I'd never done before – Hang drawer slides. I got these from a hardware salvage store for $3 each. I found out later they were missing some pieces, but we made them work. I ended up hanging 2 drawers, one full extension set of slides was used on the tray for the stove and the box in the middle labeled "general devices" is a set of server rack slides used to hold up our fridge.
Testing out the stove. Lots of research on this in the google doc if anyone is interested. We decided on running the coleman throwaway cylinders because of safety and space reason with using a bigger tank. We ended up customizing the fitting on this stove, it was a bit of a hackjob, but the metal inlet pipe that coleman provides didn't work with our set up. Bought a 5ft extension hose on amazon, some bending and drilling and we got the pipe hidden away underneath the stove.
Here we're test fitting the kitchen. You can see the space for the water jug on the left. The stove goes below the sink. Storage baskets in the center. Fridge to the right with two drawers above it.
Time to start doing some wood working. For material, I got a couple sheets of pre-finished 3/4in plywood (ripped down for free at the lumber shop). This stuff is great to work with, doesn't tear out easily and the finish is much stronger than anything I could have coated it with myself. 3/4in would have been overkill in a lot of cases, but it allowed me to build the kitchen and bed/couch without much (if any) internal structure.
Also I wasn't able to find anything like this at Home Depot, so you'll probably have to get to a real lumber yard. These was $40 a sheet.
After days of sketching, it was nice to finally make some cuts. One big thing I learned on this project was to really think through the whole process of building something before you start. We all know, the devil's in the details and that's usually the part I don't really think about.
Here's a few pages from my sketchbook. I'm not great at drawing, but by the end of the project anytime I'd try to think through exactly how to back of the couch would be supported or how the foam on the bed would fold up, I found myself looking for this notebook
Pocket holes everywhere! Such an easy way of joining cabinetry, I'm sure there are more structurally sound joints, but I have the jig for this and, along with a few rabbits and half-lap joints pretty much everything is held together with pocket holes.
Marked up the sink for install.
Springily few mistakes on the wood working. The center area is a piece of 3/4in ply laminated with formica (which I had left over from another job). The dimensions of this box were very much restricted by it's function. Overall height had to be low enough so you could reach the food prep area with out a back ache, and low enough not to block too much of the back window. Depth of this box couldn't be anymore than 18 inches because we'd cut into the sleeping area.
Another thing I'd never done before – Hang drawer slides. I got these from a hardware salvage store for $3 each. I found out later they were missing some pieces, but we made them work. I ended up hanging 2 drawers, one full extension set of slides was used on the tray for the stove and the box in the middle labeled "general devices" is a set of server rack slides used to hold up our fridge.
Testing out the stove. Lots of research on this in the google doc if anyone is interested. We decided on running the coleman throwaway cylinders because of safety and space reason with using a bigger tank. We ended up customizing the fitting on this stove, it was a bit of a hackjob, but the metal inlet pipe that coleman provides didn't work with our set up. Bought a 5ft extension hose on amazon, some bending and drilling and we got the pipe hidden away underneath the stove.
Here we're test fitting the kitchen. You can see the space for the water jug on the left. The stove goes below the sink. Storage baskets in the center. Fridge to the right with two drawers above it.
Kitchen Cont.
Made a trip to ikea and got creative. I bought a couple of these baskets for $2.50, hacked one up and used the other as-is.
Routing out some divots for the bottom of the stove to rest in. You can see at this point, I've really let myself go.
Fridge in place, with first drawer box built. Sorry no close ups of the fridge support slides/tray
Jump ahead a couple weeks. You can see everything's just about in place. Hacked ikea backet under the stove for utensils/etc. Above that is the drain for the sink, we had plans for a grey-water storage tank, but at this point you just open the valve and run the hose out of the van when you use the sink. That hand pump faucet was cheap and works great (link in google doc). Access to the battery box under the drill. Fridge tray on the right.
Here's the fridge in place. The wiring was a bit awkward. We needed access to the controls of the fridge, thus the square hole in the front. And the power cord comes out right there, so that's what you're seeing. We ran the slack in a way that wouldn't kink or get tangles (hopefully). Wired in a fuse and hooked it into the van's wiring harness (where the electric folding back seat used to be).
Several weeks ahead again, but this is the kitchen area all finished up. That stove drawer pulls out a little more than that, so it clears the shelf above.
Made a trip to ikea and got creative. I bought a couple of these baskets for $2.50, hacked one up and used the other as-is.
Routing out some divots for the bottom of the stove to rest in. You can see at this point, I've really let myself go.
Fridge in place, with first drawer box built. Sorry no close ups of the fridge support slides/tray
Jump ahead a couple weeks. You can see everything's just about in place. Hacked ikea backet under the stove for utensils/etc. Above that is the drain for the sink, we had plans for a grey-water storage tank, but at this point you just open the valve and run the hose out of the van when you use the sink. That hand pump faucet was cheap and works great (link in google doc). Access to the battery box under the drill. Fridge tray on the right.
Here's the fridge in place. The wiring was a bit awkward. We needed access to the controls of the fridge, thus the square hole in the front. And the power cord comes out right there, so that's what you're seeing. We ran the slack in a way that wouldn't kink or get tangles (hopefully). Wired in a fuse and hooked it into the van's wiring harness (where the electric folding back seat used to be).
Several weeks ahead again, but this is the kitchen area all finished up. That stove drawer pulls out a little more than that, so it clears the shelf above.
Rear Mounted Tire Carrier
Since we put a big battery box where the spare tire used to be, we relocated the spare tire to the back of the van. After brainstorming everything from bumper mounted, hard mounted to the door, different hinging mechanism (research saved here in the Google Doc) we decided on a mount built from the door hinges that would swing away when we needed access to the truck.
First step was back to the junk yard, walking around taking pictures and looking at tire carries. I bought this one for $7 to use as a template, and we ended up using the center section with the hub bolts.
New supports, made from 1inch square steel tube.
Welding the hinges
Hinge detail, before clean up.
Only thing missing here is the latch on the right side.
We got this spring loaded barrel latch from a trailer shop and welded it to a the steel plate behind it, which is bolted through the door
Here's how she sits. Just a couple inches above the bumper, as to not block too much of the view from the back window.
Since we put a big battery box where the spare tire used to be, we relocated the spare tire to the back of the van. After brainstorming everything from bumper mounted, hard mounted to the door, different hinging mechanism (research saved here in the Google Doc) we decided on a mount built from the door hinges that would swing away when we needed access to the truck.
First step was back to the junk yard, walking around taking pictures and looking at tire carries. I bought this one for $7 to use as a template, and we ended up using the center section with the hub bolts.
New supports, made from 1inch square steel tube.
Welding the hinges
Hinge detail, before clean up.
Only thing missing here is the latch on the right side.
We got this spring loaded barrel latch from a trailer shop and welded it to a the steel plate behind it, which is bolted through the door
Here's how she sits. Just a couple inches above the bumper, as to not block too much of the view from the back window.