Built an external box to hold propane canisters and compartment to hold Bear spray. I don't want either inside Van due to potential heat extremes. Again, prototype, if this works out, I will build it out of aluminum. If this turns out to be a dumb idea, it will go in the fire pit.
Now for something completely different: 2023 Chevy 3500 Extended Express, Yea I know.....It isn't cool.
- Thread starter chuppie
- Start date
This turned out to be a dumb idea and I tossed it.
Post Mortem of 2 week Yellowstone Trip in Van.
The Van:
The 4.3 engine with 8 spd transmission was capable in the big mountains. We had 4 adults, and 2 kids plus a lot of gear both on the van and on the roof rack. I averaged 15.9 mpg over 5200 miles in very mixed driving.
I was able to hold the speed limit in the mountains and the 80 mph speeds on some of the interstates.
The wind was significant. The gusts were a handful. I have done this trip in a Suburban and in a Class C motorhome before and the Van was better than the Motorhome in road manners but not as good as the Suburban as expected. The exception was the MPG. I recall averaging 7 mpg on the motorhome and 13 in the Suburban. The lowest price I paid for gas was $2.81and the highest was $3.49. the van has a 450 mile range so if you did some planning, you could save some money. I made no effort to shop gas prices except looking at signs when exiting.
It was quiet and nice to drive, we encountered mid 20s and snow in Yellowstone and 90s elsewhere. The HVAC did great both front and back. We also encountered heavy rain and flooded roads forcing us to reroute numerous times off paved road. The van did fine on these. More details on this in a later post.
I haven't decided yet if this was a better idea than a Suburban yet.
I will Post Mortem my actual set up in the next post.
The Van:
The 4.3 engine with 8 spd transmission was capable in the big mountains. We had 4 adults, and 2 kids plus a lot of gear both on the van and on the roof rack. I averaged 15.9 mpg over 5200 miles in very mixed driving.
I was able to hold the speed limit in the mountains and the 80 mph speeds on some of the interstates.
The wind was significant. The gusts were a handful. I have done this trip in a Suburban and in a Class C motorhome before and the Van was better than the Motorhome in road manners but not as good as the Suburban as expected. The exception was the MPG. I recall averaging 7 mpg on the motorhome and 13 in the Suburban. The lowest price I paid for gas was $2.81and the highest was $3.49. the van has a 450 mile range so if you did some planning, you could save some money. I made no effort to shop gas prices except looking at signs when exiting.
It was quiet and nice to drive, we encountered mid 20s and snow in Yellowstone and 90s elsewhere. The HVAC did great both front and back. We also encountered heavy rain and flooded roads forcing us to reroute numerous times off paved road. The van did fine on these. More details on this in a later post.
I haven't decided yet if this was a better idea than a Suburban yet.
I will Post Mortem my actual set up in the next post.