I was always curious why there aren't more built Mountaineer/Explorers out there (other than the general lack of aftermarket farkles); they're a great platform to start with, there's no doubt about that.
The aftermarket is actually pretty good for them (certainly for it's drivetrain anyway). I can only guess it's "soccer mom"ish image causes many people to pass over them which is a shame, they can be great offroaders/overlanders (certainly the Jeep guys must know something clamoring over it's axles to replace their own with lol).
That's a cool van you got BTW.
Here's my Bronco II (with Explorer axles under it lol).
The BII's shorter length makes it more ideal for the places I travel, otherwise I probably would be in an Explorer.
Brief specs:
5.5" lift total
35x12.50 tires
Both axles geared & locked
Low-geared crawler box for accessing more technical routes
I recently finished building my storage setup/sleeping accomodation (which I gathered some inspiration for it from the
Storage Drawers thread ). It all folds completely to the rear revealing fully-functional rear seats when needed.