Dodge minivan camper

[77blazerchalet]

My daily driver / camping vehicle for the past 13 years has been a VW hatchback. Naturally, the one teensy little irritant about my Chalet is that it is so........ wide. I continually overestimate where the passenger side is. And there's acres of hood to look across, so much that I can't see the spare tire out front....

When I ran across this ad http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-cars-veh...-Unique-97-Dodge-Camper-Van-W0QQAdIdZ30072376 it caused me to go "hmmmmm". This one is a front wheel drive, imagine an AWD, lifted just a bit for better ground clearance. More maneuverable probably, not much hood on these things. I wonder if dieselizing the minivan engines is worth the effort for more fuel mileage.

 

[Lynn]

You know that Tiger started out building mini-motorhomes on the AWD Astro? They had a pop-top much like the 4WD campers. There was one listed on craigslist here a while back for about $3500.

And there are lift kits and stuff available for the Astros. Joaquin pointed me in that direction when I mentioned the craiglist Tiger over on ExpeditionCampers.

 

[Ursa Minor]

Gtrv

Haven't seen too many of these here in CA, guess we're in Sportsmobile's backyard...

www.gtrv.com

cheers
John

 

[chet]

ya I see the chev astro AWD with a camper set up every once in a while around here. cool rigs!

 

[77blazerchalet]

...Tiger started out building mini-motorhomes on the AWD Astro....

Yep, I knew that, my parents owned a 2wd and now my brother in Johnstown PA has it - pic below. They are very nice, a bit pricey when they are in really good shape. Rather spongy ride, although that's probably due to the terrible tires it originally came with. I've seen various customized Astros, no doubt there's more aftermarket parts & such for those than Chrysler minivans.

Sometimes my artistic left brain side gets carried away with aesthetics, which is why the Dodge minivan camper appeals to me at the moment. And it is a big part of my craze for Blazer Chalets. Then my right brain side chimes in with "too big, too impractical, too expensive, too this, too that...."

 

[Lynn]

Sometimes my artistic left brain side gets carried away with aesthetics, which is why the Dodge minivan camper appeals to me at the moment.

I've tried to come up with a way to use the stow-and-go seats in a mini RV. So far I can't envision a good way to use the space gained. I quelched such thoughts after I took a short ride in one. Those seats are really uncomfortable.

Now those new swivel seats that they are offering now-adays, there's got to be a good application there...

 

[HMR]

My wife and I were just pondering this same topic a few days ago while camping. The last 2 times we've been on a popular SoCal 4x4 trail (as seen in this thread) there's been at least one AWD minivan surprisingly deep into the route. They're not doing any rock crawling or deep water crossings but they're getting plenty far along to see some great stuff. I spend a good amount of time each summer exploring offroad routes in CA,OR,WA,ID,NV and MT on my motorcycle. More and more I realize that there are THOUSANDS of miles of dirt roads that will take you to beautiful places and are perfectly accessible via a stock, AWD van.

 

[Bella PSD]

I have one of the GMC AWD vans and it is very capably. Just short on ground clearance and no 2-speed transfer case…both are fixable. But it does ok off road. In the snow it is great. I drove it in about 10” of snow just fine. Took it across a muddy farm field once and it just floated across to the surprise of most around to see. It does have BFG A/T's that help. Not often you see a smaller van in mud and not get stuck. Gets about 20mpg too. Now, if it was just a TIGER RV!!!

Louie

 

[eugene]

We had a 1992 AWD Plymouth Voyager, basically a caravan with a plymouth grill. The AWD system was made by audi and was an overrunning clutch with a fluid connection to the transmission to switch the overrunning clutch into reverse. When cold it was slow to switch so you would be backing up and hear and feel a loud bang as it would bind up, I thought we hit someone the first time. It was also slow to engage the rear wheels, if I hit the gas and broke the front loose it would spin a couple revolutions before the rear would start pushing and then the rear would finally kick and the front would slide to one side or another as the rear start pushing.
We managed to get 25mpg highway with the 3.3L V6 auto but it went down to as low as 14 city. For comparison my v8 4x4 frame based Chevy truck gets 15-21mpg.
The brakes on the chysler minivans are the same as their fwd cars that share parts with the minivans and are inadequate for the heaver van. Every fall I needed to replace the brakes and rotors after our summer trips in the WV mountains. Again for comparisons both my chevy trucks before and after brakes and rotors lasted well past 60k and many years.
we managed to get it off the paved road pretty far but then just about any vehicle can if you really want to. I found it to be a turd of a vehicle. Dodge also used Mitsubishi for some of these electrical components so we suffered through all kinds of electrical problems. Notice that the people who thinks Japanese are best, they always point at toyota or honda but no one ever claims mitsubishi makes quality and the mitsu parts on the Plemon were evidence of that.

Id tell you to stay away from those, if you want an AWD minivan look at the gm astro/safari combo.

 

[77blazerchalet]

We had a 1992 AWD Plymouth Voyager......Id tell you to stay away from those, if you want an AWD minivan look at the gm astro/safari combo.

Eugene,

No doubt good advice, tho' maybe the next gen version after '96 improved. Or not. And the practical right side of my brain says there isn't likely to be many who are modding those Caravans / Voyagers. Meanwhile a random quick google search immediately turned up this site (pic below) http://www.overlandvans.com/0104_aboutus.html plus another with a V8 swap: http://www.jtrpublishing.com/Pages/AstroVan_V-8.html

 

[eugene]

Eugene,

No doubt good advice, tho' maybe the next gen version after '96 improved. Or not. And the practical right side of my brain says there isn't likely to be many who are modding those Caravans / Voyagers. [/url]

My friend is a mechanic and shop foreman at a dodge dealership in MD, from what he's told me the drivetrain stayed the same all the way through the late 90's. My in laws 99 the engine, tranny, etc look exactly the same as our 92, their water pump failed right around 80k like ours did, etc. Also when they went from the body style of our 92 to the 96 and newer the crash test and safety scores went down along with the rest of the cab forward designs of the late 90's and didn't go back up until the next generation.

The Astro/Safari were very similar in design to the S10's and can share a lot of parts and modifications suck as the v8 swap, solid axle swap, etc. When I had my S10 I learned that a Cummins 4b series engine had a GM bolt pattern so it should bolt right up to the transmissions used in the s10 or astro. That was going to be my power plant. I found a site called safari condo who did rv conversions on them as well.