2002 Honda Odyssey "The Ody"

[Darkrider]

Not exactly the most conventional of builds but none the less here we go. I bought this van to replace the '00 Chevy Astro that i had made a thread on here for in the past. For the longest time when i first got it i thought it was an interesting little mini van due to some of the features it had in it but not really considering myself much of a mini van person at the time. I looked at it as a Point A to B vehicle for doing pizza delivery since i still had my '95 Chevy Blazer at the time. A couple months after i bought the Odyssey the brake system completely failed on the blazer and that is where i drew the line on continuing with it. After i reached this point I started looking at the van as a viable project vehicle and started participating more in car club meets with it. In September i bought my '84 Chevy C10 and the roads to get to the place where i bought the truck from were a mix of gravel and pavement...almost like a rally course. After i got a feel for the van on these roads i started to realize it was quite fun to drive on them. Fast forward to now. I have had this van on many longer road trips that still occasionally take me on these sorts of roads traveling back and forth between home and the small town that my fiancee was raised in to go visit the in laws. These trips have had me seriously considering the idea of adding aux lighting as well as skid plating and maybe some more all terrain style tires.

So the plan as it stands at the moment.

Custom made nudge bar/light bar
Skid plating to protect the engine and transmission
aux lighting most likely in the form of LED lights like Rigid Duallys or similar
Most likely going to use rubbermaid storage containers to create an organization system in the back. May or may not work around the idea of using the well that the rear seat folds into to store them for the most part or just store them in the area created behind the second row bucket seats with the third seat folded flat into the floor.

Tire wise im looking at moving to 215/65R16 tires as this does give me some all terrain options like the General Grabber AT2. This tire size is .4 taller then stock so not all that much difference height wise when it comes to the things that would be affected by it. But a lot better manners on the mixed terrain and more likely wear a bit better then the winter tires that are on the van now.

Here are a couple pics of the van to show what i am starting with..These are all from last summer as i have not felt the need to take any updated ones but anyways..the first pic is from a car club meet and the rest are from the sellers ad.

 

[CurtStyler]

I had a 2001 Odyssey in college, still holds the award for my favorite vehicle. Got it to 217000 miles before the transmission went out. I had General Grabbers on mine and they were great. I don't remember the size. I'll see if I can find any of my photos from a few years ago showing them.

 

[Darkrider]

I had a 2001 Odyssey in college, still holds the award for my favorite vehicle. Got it to 217000 miles before the transmission went out. I had General Grabbers on mine and they were great. I don't remember the size. I'll see if I can find any of my photos from a few years ago showing them.

It was seeing your post in that thread about the fit mentioning your Ody is what inspired me to actually start a thread on mine, So any pics you can find of yours with that set up would be awesome!

 

[CurtStyler]

Haha awesome! I've had 2 HDD failures since back then so I lost a lot of pictures. Here the few that survived. The Grabbers dos a great job on the sand in Daytona where I went to school as well as the snow back home in Chicago. My build was definitely more show than go, and I have since change to practicality over show. That said, it was awesome to drive :-D

I painted the bumpers black, built a roof rack to hold CB antennas and had the Grabbers installed. I also built taillight guards for absolutely no reason . I was in college and I wanted a zombie survival minivan. Needless to say I had the coolest can around. I did spend some time in Arizona with it too. Jumped it over a part of the road that was washed out and missed the transmission on a rock by about 2 inches. That was scary.

All in all, it was a surprisingly decent chassis. I never expected taking it the places I did when I inherited it, but it was a great camp car and I beat the living daylights out of it. FYI, if you remove the front bumper you can remove the lower resonator on the intake and it makes sounds you never thought a minivan could make, sounds downright mean.

 

[Darkrider]

Haha awesome! I've had 2 HDD failures since back then so I lost a lot of pictures. Here the few that survived. The Grabbers dos a great job on the sand in Daytona where I went to school as well as the snow back home in Chicago. My build was definitely more show than go, and I have since change to practicality over show. That said, it was awesome to drive :-D

I painted the bumpers black, built a roof rack to hold CB antennas and had the Grabbers installed. I also built taillight guards for absolutely no reason . I was in college and I wanted a zombie survival minivan. Needless to say I had the coolest can around. I did spend some time in Arizona with it too. Jumped it over a part of the road that was washed out and missed the transmission on a rock by about 2 inches. That was scary.

All in all, it was a surprisingly decent chassis. I never expected taking it the places I did when I inherited it, but it was a great camp car and I beat the living daylights out of it. FYI, if you remove the front bumper you can remove the lower resonator on the intake and it makes sounds you never thought a minivan could make, sounds downright mean.

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Def looks like it was a fun little unit. The Grabbers look quite good on there! What i am thinking with mine since i am doing the AT tire upgrade for gravel anyway is i may pick up a set of black steel wheels to run them on. Partly for durability and partly for more aggressive looks. I may see if i can somehow stuff a slightly taller tire under mine as well to gain a bit of ground clearance. If not, oh well thats what the Skid plating will be for. I can already see two holes in the lower sub frames that i might be able to use to mount said skid plate. If not i might just use U bolts to mount it to the round cross member just behind the rad support. With a good look under there i am sure i can sort something out. Some of the roads here have me cringing and they are the paved ones!

 

[CurtStyler]

Make sure you measure your tire size to make sure it won't rub the cone on the spring. I don't remember there being a lot of extra room. Spacers or a larger offset might work.

Skid plates would be a good idea. Luckily you really only need to worry about the front of the car, one of the benefits of being front wheel drive.

Good luck! It will be cool to see how it turns out. Tons of room and a well built vehicle for sure!

 

[Darkrider]

Make sure you measure your tire size to make sure it won't rub the cone on the spring. I don't remember there being a lot of extra room. Spacers or a larger offset might work.

Skid plates would be a good idea. Luckily you really only need to worry about the front of the car, one of the benefits of being front wheel drive.

Good luck! It will be cool to see how it turns out. Tons of room and a well built vehicle for sure!

The Grabbers i looked at were not that much larger then stock so those are probably safe. But it will be a good idea to take a good look under there to see what i could squeeze under there. Took a look under it today to see where the ice collects on it and seen that it will def be a good idea to have some sort of skid under there. As it is i am probably replacing the remaining 3 mud flaps on it come spring. I now understand why the one near the drivers side front tire was gone when i got it. The passenger side one is all messed up from ice collecting on it then the ice slamming into the ground on some of these roads. The one thing i really like about the grabbers is that they are studdable.

 

[CCH]

Odysseys are great vehicles. That is probably more practical for most NA travels than a lot of "built" stuff. I know the comfort level cruising down the highway from one destination to another is way beyond my JK, and the cargo capacity is amazing. If they would make the AWD model with the clearance of the Pilot, it would be a pretty all around rig for everything but hardcore offroading. Enjoy your adventures!

 

[Darkrider]

Odysseys are great vehicles. That is probably more practical for most NA travels than a lot of "built" stuff. I know the comfort level cruising down the highway from one destination to another is way beyond my JK, and the cargo capacity is amazing. If they would make the AWD model with the clearance of the Pilot, it would be a pretty all around rig for everything but hardcore offroading. Enjoy your adventures!

Thanks man, When i first got it i viewed it as an interesting point a to point b vehicle..mainly because it has the power sliding doors which made it great for doing the pizza delivery work i was doing at the time. I was transitioning from a Chevy Astro at that point and had gotten to like having the sliders to unload Pizza from. But yea...there is a crap ton of room in the back of it when the third seat is folded down. What i may look at doing is making a removable tray of some sort that uses existing mounting points inside the van to secure it. Most likely u bolts or some sort of strap mount using the securing loops for the third row seat to hold it in place. That way it is easy to remove if it comes down to ever using the rear most seat. Which..i have yet to use the entire time i have had the van thus far. The tray allowing the possible use of an air mattress or foam pad to be a sleeping platform while allowing the storage of the rubbermaid containers. For the sort of on road adventures we have planned..the Ody will be a great platform for it. For more off road stuff..well i do have my Sierra which i will be going through bumper to bumper soon.

 

[axcxnj]

Thanks man, When i first got it i viewed it as an interesting point a to point b vehicle..mainly because it has the power sliding doors which made it great for doing the pizza delivery work i was doing at the time. I was transitioning from a Chevy Astro at that point and had gotten to like having the sliders to unload Pizza from. But yea...there is a crap ton of room in the back of it when the third seat is folded down. What i may look at doing is making a removable tray of some sort that uses existing mounting points inside the van to secure it. Most likely u bolts or some sort of strap mount using the securing loops for the third row seat to hold it in place. That way it is easy to remove if it comes down to ever using the rear most seat. Which..i have yet to use the entire time i have had the van thus far. The tray allowing the possible use of an air mattress or foam pad to be a sleeping platform while allowing the storage of the rubbermaid containers. For the sort of on road adventures we have planned..the Ody will be a great platform for it. For more off road stuff..well i do have my Sierra which i will be going through bumper to bumper soon.

you are describing exactly what i built for my grand caravan. i removed the 3rd row and used the mounting points to install the sleeping platform, ive had it in there for 1.5 years now with many nights spent in the van. it works awesome. the minivan is a fantastic platform for those of us who dont need to do a bunch of off roading

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/130718-oh-no-another-minivan

 

[Darkrider]

you are describing exactly what i built for my grand caravan. i removed the 3rd row and used the mounting points to install the sleeping platform, ive had it in there for 1.5 years now with many nights spent in the van. it works awesome. the minivan is a fantastic platform for those of us who dont need to do a bunch of off roading

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/130718-oh-no-another-minivan

Just checked out your thread, Great idea, It's odd that my honda has the third row as the fold and stow type but the center row seats clip in and out. What I may do is build my platform is make it folding like you did but set it up that the folding portion rests on the folded second row seats.

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[Travelin _man]

Any updates on the ody?

 

[herecomestony]

Nice build! Your Ody's looking great!

 

[Darkrider]

Any updates on the ody?

Not really, Got sidetracked with moving and still getting organized at the new home. Found out just how much stuff I can pack in the van during the process.

Nice build! Your Ody's looking great!

Thanks, Hope to get back to the build soon, Between the move and working on a couple sites I have determined it will need two items. A laptop mount as well as an inverter that is compatible with laptops. Most likely going to use the Ram mount system to allow for mounting of my MacBook and hard wire in an inverter along with a small Agm battery. Plus I will be upgrading to an Odyssey Agm battery for the main battery.

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[Darkrider]

After traveling around with the van for the past week with the rear buckets removed and using the rear 12 volt socket to run my inverter to keep the front plug free to charge my phone. I have a better idea as to how i want to set it up for the occasional excursion. Sometime after the wedding i will be building a sleeping platform that is held together with Carriage bolts and wingnuts to make it easy to remove to revert it back to passenger duty. Since it will require the rear seat to fold flat into the floor to work, More then likely i will build it just tall enough to clear the rubbermaid containers i intended to use for this and gain access to them by having the wooden platform itself hinged at two points. Or at the very least hinged at the rear most section. The goal here is to stow away supplies and gear in the aforementioned containers. As for storage of clothing that will probably be done via gym bags stuffed under the platform somehow. This will be more of a road trip type set up with the intention to use the sleeping platform mostly when we need to stop on the side of the road to get some rest.

Also after a discussion with a friend of mine today the van will more then likely be receiving a pair of Baja Designs Squadron Sport LED lights for forward aux lighting. Still deciding how i am going to mount them at the moment. I do have a Smittybilt street light bar from an old GMT400 project i could use but i want to save that for my dually. So more then likely i may look into fabbing something similar and most likely drilling two round holes through the bumper cover to install a pair of nutserts into the steel bumper to bolt it to the bumper itself. Other option is removing the bumper cover long enough to bolt or weld two L shaped brackets to the steel bumper and simply cut slits in the cover for them to protrude for a floating light set up.