Motovan--2000 Ford E350 ex-wheelchair van

Petrolburner wrote: Those side folding seats are awesome, but full standing height is more awesomer.

Agreed, since I would essentially strip out the entire interior from the front seats back and rebuild/re-trim everything. The full standing height as well as the additional length is why part of me leans towards a 170LWB EXT Sprinter. Imagine your van, but with an additional 4 feet of length (and hopefully a lot fewer windows). But my wants are different than yours. My dream is more of an "Class B RV/Toy-hauler".

In reply to Ian F:

For the high buy in price of those I think I'd go with an International box truck with a diesel. 4700 or an FL70.

In reply to Petrolburner:

I've thought about it, but I don't really want something that looks quite so much like a commercial truck sitting in my driveway. Plus, the way trucks are registered in PA, the yearly fee would be staggering until I could do the modifications and get it re-titled as an RV. 2500 Sprinters are light enough that it wouldn't be quite so painful. To be hoenst, that's part of what leans me towards a run-of-the-mill E-150 conversion van: as they are often titled as station wagons, the yearly fee is $36 vs. well over $100 for a larger truck.

A new dream I found recently is a "Super-C" toy hauler RV (google: Outback Super C toy hauler), which instead of an E series, uses a Ford F-550 truck as the base chassis. Of course, the two big downsides are the cost (literally more than my house) and size (won't fit in my driveway).

That does look pretty awesome. I like the idea of a traditional hood and engine location. If I were going to be spending in the neighborhood of $20k to get the van I would have gotten the Nissan NV.

In reply to Petrolburner:

For want I want, the NV is just too small for the money. The new Ford Transit as well. The Sprinter is still the king if you want pure cargo room. The longest option is like multiple feet longer than the other's longest option.

This sort of leads me to my delemma: either I go "cheap" and buy an old conversion van for a couple $K, or I go whole-hog and just buy the Sprinter I want. If I spend up to say $10K on a van like what you have, I would still be looking at Sprinters and wanting that extra room... Since I can't afford the Sprinter right now, I lean towards the former (or just keeping the minivan for awhile longer...).

I feel your pain. There's no such thing as too much space until you try to park it or maneuver in tight quarters. A big diesel box truck would be great if I only used it for camping trips, but the Motovan is also a poor weather DD for me. The Sprinters were just too much money at this point. I don't know how some people get by with only one car.

I would also want to use it as a secondary DD, which is one thing that puses me towards a Sprinter vs. an used class C RV that would probably be considerably cheaper when all is said and done (van purchase + RV conversion bits). The general narrow width of a Sprinter would make it more DD friendly.

I got home with the new to me Flexsteel seats from a 94 Ford conversion van. I knew the bases's bolt pattern was not the same as the bolt pattern for my benches in all directions, but it looked like I could get 2 bolts in and drill the other 2. I was only halfway right. I had to remove a smidgen of metal to make the holes far enough apart to bolt them in. I wanted to get them in place, spin them around, move them forwards and backwards, walk between them etc to see if that position would work out. I wasn't going to have time to drill the other holes but I was too impatient to wait until I get back from a Leadplane training event in over a week.

First seat in. Has to be slid all the way forward to have the room to spin around, this is normal. When slid all the way forward however there is very little legroom but that shouldn't be an issue. Legroom is adequate when it is slid all the way back. More might be nice though.

2nd seat installed

New dining room seats/post dirtbike ride beer drinking chairs

These chairs have funky seat belts. There are 2 clips, and they are different. The clip that attaches to the wall is the same type as the ones already in the van. The clip on the seat itself is unique. This means I can't just use the shoulder harness already in the van on the new seat. Fortunately I yanked the required seat belt piece out of the seller's van which was no small feat. I had to run to a hardware store for a T-50 Torx bit and then return it 20 minutes later since I just bought a Torx bit set several days earlier but didn't have it with me. I don't need two sets. I was careful with the packaging so the store could just put it back on the shelf right away.

The left seatbelt works ok with that seating position. Putting the seat a bit farther back would allow for limosine like legroom. I'm not ditching the 3rd row bench in case someday I want to haul a bunch of people. When I get back from AZ I might bolt in that bench and see how legroom would be affected. This may lead me to sell the 3rd row bench if all the seats can't play nice together. Thinking about it now that might be required because the right rear captain's chair has seat belt issues in that spot. When the stubby blue piece is mounted in the right side location, it makes the available belt length to the passenger very short. No one with a big midsection is going to fit. Also the belt comes straight up out of the reel, but has to go backwards at quite an angle to the attachment point, so it doesn't unwind or rewind smoothly. I can't just tilt the reel because it has an inertia lock that "thinks" I'm constantly braking so it won't unwind. I either need to move the seat back or the mounting point forward or adapt the factory gray seat belt. It might be nice to have the bikes staggered in the van anyway so the handlebars don't line up with each other. If the seats are staggered it would allow more room to access the left side seat and determine the bike stagger. I'll have to think on that one.

I seriously dig this van. I've been thinking about getting something similar for hauling the racecar. Girlfriend isn't so into it though.... I even showed her the romantic valentines day dinner-in-a-van picture! Oh well.

Oh, and I want one with the wheelchair lift for easy loading/unloading of spare engines and transmissions.

Carry on.

JohnyHachi6 wrote: I seriously dig this van. I've been thinking about getting something similar for hauling the racecar. Girlfriend isn't so into it though.... I even showed her the romantic valentines day dinner-in-a-van picture! Oh well.

Yeah my girlfriend was not keen on the idea of me selling my beloved Tundra to get a wheelchair van. Fortunately though, it's my money so I do what I want. She's starting to see my vision and the advantages of a big enclosed space.

So I'm in a hotel in Arizona right now and I think I just figured out my seat belt dilemma. I'm going to take that short blue stub and mount it to the seat. Then I can use the stock gray shoulder harnesses. I'll strip of the blue belts then. The other solution would be to stitch on the appropriate male end to the gray shoulder harness. The right side seat might not have to be offset backwards that way either. The gray belt on that side is super long.

Van in snow. Not stuck.

Continuing to sticker the inside with cool moto/outdoor/gun/patriotic stickers. Donations to my sticker cause are welcome if you have extra toolbox worthy stickers lying around.

Also, the helmet/hat shelf also makes a nice out of the way gun rack. I have a 5.56mm rifle with an under folding stock that I keep in a tennis racket case stored up there. Door pocket works well for one of my 9mm pistols in a pocket holster.

Does a Grocery Life sticker fit your theme? I have a couple. :)

Got to have an ar15 and 9mm in zombie van at all times, wheres the secret storage for ammo provisions?

mazdeuce wrote: Does a Grocery Life sticker fit your theme? I have a couple. :)

Seems unlikely but I'll need a photo to know for sure.

chiodos wrote: Got to have an ar15 and 9mm in zombie van at all times, wheres the secret storage for ammo provisions?

Kel-Tec SU-16C actually. No hidden ammo storage yet.

those are fun, but man they are tough on the shoulder not weighing anything.... I always get purple lines from the stock on my shoulder....

Took the Motovan and camper to the 6 hour endurance race at Eddieville this past weekend. I did the practice day on their motocross track on Saturday and the 6 hour race on Sunday, then drove home. Got 10 mpg on the way up to the races Raced 68 miles on Sunday on my XR650R, now every muscle in my body hurts. I only had one teammate so we alternated laps over the whole 6 hours. Except when he had a problem and I had to go right back out for an extra lap. When we got to the pits I unhooked the camper and spun the van around, then hooked it to the front hitch. When the camper just has the stabilzer jacks down and the tongue jack, it is a little wobbly when moving around inside. Keeping it hitched to the van makes a big difference in stability. Since I have to remove the trailer to put the ramp down and get the bike out, it makes one less step to just put the camper on the front until ready to leave again. I'm happy.

I took this photo the other day...

...and it reminded me of this photo I took awhile back

I'm happy with the change in the fleet

The sounds like a long day of riding!

Is that a tiger camper parked next to you?

My winnie gets about 8 mpg at best if that makes you feel any better....

java230 wrote: The sounds like a long day of riding! Is that a tiger camper parked next to you? My winnie gets about 8 mpg at best if that makes you feel any better....

Yes that's my teammate's 2010 Tiger on a 09 chassis. It's all dialed in, it attracts onlookers like Jessica Alba.

If you're 4x4 Winnie gets 8, I feel like my lightweight combo should get 30!

Jealous, those tigers are sweet!!

8 if I stay at 60 or less.... Is yours a v8 or 10?

Love this idea and van, but every time I look at this thread I can't help but think "man, I could have a lot of fun with rattle-can and vinyl" so it doesn't look so much like....well.....a handicap tranport van. Maybe do it up something along the lines of teamilluminata's rally van?

Or are you trying to keep it "stealth" on purpose?

java230 wrote: Jealous, those tigers are sweet!! 8 if I stay at 60 or less.... Is yours a v8 or 10?

5.4 V8

irish44j wrote: Love this idea and van, but every time I look at this thread I can't help but think "man, I could have a lot of fun with rattle-can and vinyl" so it doesn't look so much like....well.....a handicap tranport van. Maybe do it up something along the lines of teamilluminata's rally van? Or are you trying to keep it "stealth" on purpose?

I'm struggling with that. I put all the stickers on the inside instead of the outside to keep it from looking tacky. There are people that say, don't advertise what you have inside the van with big graphics. But I can't help but picture a big Honda wing in red white and blue, HRC logo etc. Oh and gold wheels of course. Here are some photos for inspiration:

Any photoshopped/paint ideas are welcome

No photoshop ideas for vinyl or plastidip?