Which van for budget build?

[Deshet]

1995-03 7.3 van build for under $5k total will be hard.

Hard to find a good ford full size gas van for under $4,000


I would avoid the dodge vans. They are the least reliable. The old Chevy g20 and g30 are ugly but they seem to be reliable and Chevy 4x4 ones pop up for time to time.

The Toyota Previa came in awd. They are somewhat capable and very reliable but small on the inside.

 

[Corneilius]

Count me in as a Ford gas van vote. Mine started as a 150 conversion van. You can get them cheap but it is REALLY easy to overload the factory suspension and brakes. You can find 3/4 ton conversion vans but they are more rare.

 

[TWIH]

I’ve looked at f.s. vans off and on, about 99% of (Ford) conversion vans are E150’s, I’ve seen maybe 3-4 E250’s on EBay but they are never under 5K.
You can easily overload the E150’s, unless you remove the middle captains chairs and the heavy folding back powered bench. That can free up 200+ lbs of
payload for you.

Better choice may be an E250 or E350 12 or 15 passenger, 1999-2003 could be within your price range, bench seats to pull but then there’s no payload issues.
I had always hoped to find an airport or hotel shuttle in order to get the standing room fiberglass top however they are scarce and often only sold off after several hundred thousand miles.

Nothing wrong with Chebbies either (passenger) other than the bench seat track/rail hold-downs are reportedly much more difficult to completely remove.
Try to stay in the vortec engine era, 1996 and later, that also gets you OBD2.

Keep us posted!

 

[winmag4582001]

I'm prepping a 1999 E350 EB passenger van to sell here in a couple weeks. 120k miles, 5.4L, 100 series trans and a factory 4.10 FF rear end. I'm in Denver

2 weeks ago I sold a 1999 E350 EB high top, 157k, with a 3.55 FF rear. Got $7k out of it. I went through it completely before I sold it. It's very hard to find anything that's worth a ********. 90+% of the vans I look at that are priced under $15k are basically junk here in Colorado.