The New Van!

[tonga]

Hey everyone. Huge fan of this site and especially the camper van forum! I bought my first van a few years ago but sold it rather quickly. It was a 2006 e350 passenger van, 6.0 diesel, 8 inch lift with 37 inch tall tires. The 4x4 conversion was completed by a local mechanic. The plan at that point in time was to turn it into our family travel vehicle. At that time we also had a 2011 Dodge Ram Sport with basically everything you can imagine and to be honest, the van didn't even compare in speed, comfort, quietness...etc. It wasn't long till we sold the van because the truck was just so much better for our family at that time. Fast forward a few years and my wife and I have 2 kids, 2 dogs, and my parents live with us also. Needless to say, the truck was no longer big enough. We decided to sell the truck to buy a new Toyota Sienna for the family and an old work vehicle for renovations etc. The deal on the Sienna fell through (we didn't like the way we were treated by the dealer) and in the mean time, found a great deal on a 1999 Ford E350 RB, 5.4L v8 with only 125000km! Picked it up for $3700! Well, it's been a couple months with only the Ford and we've basically fallen in Love with it! We need the seating for the family so only the rear most bench has been taken out. Installed some slop free hinges from the pick and pull and everything works great. There are sratches, dents, and rust on the van but I'm ok with that. Something for me to work on!

We've taken the Van on a few road trips already and it's worked great. Love that my wife and jump from the front seat to the back easily to deal with kid issues!

Here is a recent pick of the van loaded up for a mountain bike trip. Installed a hitch and tossed on our 6 bike North Shore Rack. Best rack ever!



A dvd player and back up camera are on the way. Working on installing a keyless entry system and have a OBD2 bluetooth scanner thing I still have to try out also.

 

[packmule]

Good looking van and interesting hitch mounted bike rack. Who makes it and what are the advantages of the vertical mounting style? It looks like it might work better for FS bicycle frames? I've got a Yakima KingPin 5 that works well for bikes with traditional front triangles, but not so much for other frame styles.

 

[SoCalChaos]

Welcome back!

going to lift it?

love the rack! Northshore racks are bomb, im on the fence between NRS-4/6 and the 1UpUSA...
does the rack fold down far enough to access the back?
also, i know with a rear spare tire carrier, 29ers don't fit on the left most fork holders on the 6

awesome that the bikes on rack are worth more than the van.
i like the way you roll!

 

[tonga]

Good looking van and interesting hitch mounted bike rack. Who makes it and what are the advantages of the vertical mounting style? It looks like it might work better for FS bicycle frames? I've got a Yakima KingPin 5 that works well for bikes with traditional front triangles, but not so much for other frame styles.

The rack is made by a company out of North Vancouver called North Shore Racks. The were the first to come out with a vertically mounted rack. One of the main advantages is that as you increase the number of bikes you carry, the length remains the same, only the width changes. My version is the 6 bike rack but you can also get 2 and 4 bike styles. The only parts of the bike that touch the rack are the fork crown and rear tire. Holds the bike very secure. The one con is fitting bikes without front suspension is difficult. I have mounted a road and commuter bike but it depends on configuration. I should add I am in no way affiliated with the rack company. I am just a huge fan!

 

[tonga]

Welcome back!

going to lift it?

love the rack! Northshore racks are bomb, im on the fence between NRS-4/6 and the 1UpUSA...
does the rack fold down far enough to access the back?
also, i know with a rear spare tire carrier, 29ers don't fit on the left most fork holders on the 6

awesome that the bikes on rack are worth more than the van.
i like the way you roll!

ahh...the lift. I'd say absolutely not sure Drove the van up to a DH shuttle trail and the van did ok with exception of a few areas with a bit of water. I'd love to do a ujoint 4x4 conversion or bring a 4x4 van from the states to Canada but not in the near future.

I don't know what to think about the 1upUSA rack. They look nice enough. But I don't like the idea of hanging so much weight off the rear of the van the more bikes you add on. With the bikes loaded, you can fold the North Shore rack down and still be able to access the rear of the van. Oh, for all the fat bike lovers, my fatty fits on the North Shore Rack no problem

 

[lndhark]

Nice find! Is that the Tim's in Canmore?

 

[tonga]

Nice find! Is that the Tim's in Canmore?

Close. That's the one in Golden just off Highway 1.

 

[tonga]

Just a few more pics of the van loaded up with six bikes on the rack with one additional bike in the van. Carried 7 people (obviously) up the shuttle trail with the bikes with ease. Fit a cooler inside for apres bike bevies! This van is great!



Six bikes fit comfortably on the rack without cantilevering too far off the back of the van.



I'll try to post more van pics and less bike pics in the future

 

[GNTY]

Great to see another Canadian and fellow Albertain. Looks like a great van, my last 4x4 Sportsmobile had the 5.4 and it was great motor. Enjoy it!

 

[tonga]

Had a bit of time to work on the van the past few days. I installed a dvd player with backup camera. I was curious and tried the wireless version instead of wiring the camera directly to the dvd unit. Surprisingly works very well. Total cost was just shy of $250 for everything.

I also found some grab handles at the local pick and pull. Unfortunately, they ended up being two passenger side ones. I figured I'd just get both and make it work for the drivers side. It ended up working pretty good except the drivers side handle is 2 inches lower than the passenger side. Also since there wasn't a driver side trim I could take I had to grind out the holes for the grab handle into the stock piece a little at a time. The underlying metal bracket is held on by 3 self tapping metal screws (3/4 inch long). I did pre drill using a stepped drill bit.

One of the great things about the van is all the storage space, the bad thing is it's just a huge cavern. One thing stacks on top of another when full loaded. I'll have to figure out a solution for that but at the same time keep it modular so I can remove it to haul reno stuff. I also recently got set up with a brazing set up for building bike frames and what better way to practice my bronze fillets than building a roof rack! Stay tuned

 

[tonga]

It's been ages since I did anything to the van. Last thing I did was install keyless entry. I've been wanting to do something with the floor for the longest time. I am running a mobile bike tune up business out of the van now so I finally made some progress on the floor. I built a floating subfloor on top of the existing carpet. No screws into the van at all. I used the existing seat brackets to secure the subfloor to the van. I've left cut outs for the two front most benches and will have covers over the openings when I don't have the benches in. The covers will have a simple magnetic latch to hold it down and keep the rattles to a minimum. E-track down each side for strapping down gear. Floor and top of e-track are the same height so it's still easy to slide in plywood and such. Have some trimming to do still but happy the way it's turned out so far.

Just need to finish the edges and then I'm on to making a bike rack for the inside.