Hello all,
We are looking at a possible van to purchase - a 96 7.3 diesel E350 with Quigley original conversion. The van is pretty bare bones (what we want) and the price is good. 125k miles more or less. Ex government van so government maintained up to about 120k miles when sold at auction.
We would do some suspension work to try to get a better ride (Agile Offroad most likely), build out a camper interior on our own, probably get a poptop installed, put on bumpers, a winch, bigger wheels/tires, maybe upgrade front brakes, put solar on, possibly a larger/second gas tank, all sorts of stuff, that will add up to $15-20k easy.
Once built, we will spend ~2 years living out of the van travelling around South America, visiting a lot of very rural locations, so reliability is a pretty big deal to us. It's a bit scary going from an incredibly reliable 97 Tacoma 4x4 to a Ford van which will be a relative unknown to us!
So, we're just seeking general opinions about that era of E350s and that era of Quigleys, and looking to do a reality check against more experienced folks to see if we get responses like "good god don't put that much money into a van that old" or the like!
We are looking at a possible van to purchase - a 96 7.3 diesel E350 with Quigley original conversion. The van is pretty bare bones (what we want) and the price is good. 125k miles more or less. Ex government van so government maintained up to about 120k miles when sold at auction.
We would do some suspension work to try to get a better ride (Agile Offroad most likely), build out a camper interior on our own, probably get a poptop installed, put on bumpers, a winch, bigger wheels/tires, maybe upgrade front brakes, put solar on, possibly a larger/second gas tank, all sorts of stuff, that will add up to $15-20k easy.
Once built, we will spend ~2 years living out of the van travelling around South America, visiting a lot of very rural locations, so reliability is a pretty big deal to us. It's a bit scary going from an incredibly reliable 97 Tacoma 4x4 to a Ford van which will be a relative unknown to us!
So, we're just seeking general opinions about that era of E350s and that era of Quigleys, and looking to do a reality check against more experienced folks to see if we get responses like "good god don't put that much money into a van that old" or the like!
