"Wynona" - 2000 Chevrolet Express

[temporarydweller]

I wanna see how the fork of your mountain bike attaches to the handlebars of your TW! That's awesome!

I updated my thread getting rid of the broken photobucket picture links so you can see the other pics again. It's a Yakima blockhead fork mount. The bolt spacing turned out to be the same as the upper bar clamp on my TW200. I just leave the mount on the TW all the time.

 

[Backcountry Pursuit]

That's sweet it worked out like that. Nice work.

 

[temporarydweller]

An ARB awning may still be in my future but I'm coming to the point where I need to stop spending so much on my van and start saving more money. So I decided a cheaper DIY would get me by for a while. I ordered a tarp awning sunshade thingy from Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ISTXFI8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Then raided the plumbing department at lowes and came up with this. It makes use of the large tie down holes in the ladder racks. The uprights are paint roller extension poles. :bike_rider: Less than $100 in it.

A lovely day at the mountain bike park!!

Then some more metal cutting for my generator tray. It's getting welded up tonight!!

 

[temporarydweller]

All welded up. The ramp still comes out easily and the tray sits low enough I can still open the rear door. Paint tonight.

 

[temporarydweller]

All locked and loaded for the weekend. I may eventually do an aluminum doghouse cover for the genny but a Genuine Honda cover from Amazon will get me by for a while. Thank goodness for having A/C. I'm headed to camp at Lucas Oil Speedway this weekend for the inaugural offroad event at the new track in Wheatland MO. Hopeful to get to meet Jeremy McGrath. High near 100 tomorrow with good 'ol midwest humidity. Oh and the DIY shower thread got me thinking so I whipped this badboy up yesterday for way less than a tank of gas. Will be nice to at least rinse off the dirt and dust I'm sure I'll be covered in after a day of stadium truck watching and an evening of dirt circle track.

 

[temporarydweller]

So since I am all loaded up for a killer weekend. Motorcycle, generator, 10 gallons of water...er make that 11 with my fancy schmancy shower ready to go, 5 gallons of gas, a smidge of beer and ice. Helmets and gear and a few other things up in the roof carrier, and a full tank of gas in the van. I thought it would be a great time to figure out how much weight I've added to Wynona. I've never had her on the scales. Sort of unfortunately, I've put all this time and money into a 1500 Express instead of a 2500 or 3500. But I was very pleased to be at 7040 lbs on the scale which is under my GVWR but not by much. I doubt I'd ever get stopped and forced on a scale anyway, but thinking about worst case scenarios with an at fault accident and insurance lawyers, it's nice to know I'm under weight.

 

[bozwell13]

how's the drivability with the spindle lift? any issues? Thanks. Jim

 

[temporarydweller]

how's the drivability with the spindle lift? any issues? Thanks. Jim

Drives great. No wandering or tracking issues. Alignment numbers all came back within spec. I did replace all the ball joints and some of the steering linkage that was worn out at the same time. It drives better than it did before the lift.

 

[brooksto]

thank you for posting the progress of your van build, it is very inspiring!

 

[temporarydweller]

I've posted several outside pics of "Wynona" but not much from the inside. Here's the way I laid out my interior. Since my bed is fixed, having lots of storage under the bed was more important than sitting up headroom. The TV is on an articulating swivel arm so it can be swung out to watch from laying in bed. Microwave is tucked back under the counter. Passenger front seat is on a swivel, the 2nd row is mounted permanently sideways.

 

[temporarydweller]

I decided I wanted to add a sink. I see many builds attach it to the side swing out door. I love that idea but since I have second row seating there I decided just to make mine free standing so it can be moved around. Once parked at a destination it can be placed between the front two seats, used outside, or set in front of the side door.

I still need to paint or stain it. I also plan to add a mirror and light to the lid making it a small vanity.

 

[Ngneer]

WOW

AAAAwww man, nice! Love the xtra nice touches on the roof and bumper. Any thoughts towards a winch......mayb hidden. That's a little bit of grille goin on, nice look about it though. This is the direction I would and have put much thought into in the future forme. Very nice man looks great. I'll follow

 

[Ngneer]

One other thing to add for now as it is something I didn't see anyone else here mentioning. I do know that Monroe shocks are no Bilstein's but Monroe has an offering that others don't. I have used them on a couple different vehicles and have no complaints. The load leveler shock is a bolt on shock with a built in coilover to help support a little extra weight. The addition of the coilover does provide a bit of a lift on it's own and will help if your stock leafs are sagging a bit. The part number for stock height is MON 58606 and the next size longer is MON 58600. I just put the longer ones on the rear of mine with a 4" block if info and they were a direct bolt on with the new taller blocks. I would eventually like to do the 2500 Suburban spring swap but for now these seem to work well. According to Oreilly Automotive website they will fit 96-2014 half ton Express and Savana vans including the AWD vans.

nice info

 

[Corneilius]

Liking the sink box, how heavy is it? Good idea to just use cut outs as handles.

 

[UHAULER]

My friend just bought a 99 chevy 3500 2wd srw box van, are there any spindle lifts that will work ?