J herb
So. Oregon
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HI Mike,
looks like nice winter camping at Custer State Park! the weather looks nice and nice photos of the area and the wildlife.
WE went camping New Years eve for two days and hope to go again in late Feb. and more camping in the spring.
J herb
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Seon
Lake Camanche, CA
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Joined: 07/02/2006
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Sorry for not updating my quest for a van.
Last month I found this '10 Ford e350 w/55k miles from original owner. Had a wheel chair lift that was almost impossible to give away free but fortunately I found a taker for his wife.
It'll be used as a Home Depot run as well as my tow vehicle for my boat or TT so will only install a sofa bed and a slider tray underneath for easy loading and removing overnight camping gear.
BTW J herb, nice setup on your conversion.
Also Black'95 as well.
![[image]](http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1462/13616456/24828187/414505833.jpg)
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J herb
So. Oregon
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Seon,
nice van and they are hard to fine, it will make you an nice tow vehicle and the way you will set it up for trips to Home Depot.
We use our van for short camping trips and we have a 17' Casita trailer that we tow for longer trips.
Mike ( Black 95 ) has done a lot of upgrades to his van and he seams to enjoy doing them and going camping.
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Black95
South Dakota
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J herb wrote:Seon.........Mike ( Black 95 ) has done a lot of upgrades to his van and he seams to enjoy doing them and going camping.
As J Herb says I do enjoy working on my van and using it to go camping. I used to have a Tahoe Glide Lite 23 foot trailer camper with slide-out. As I got older (I have been retired for over 10 years now.) my wife and I found that we enjoyed going with the van camping, so last year I sold the trailer. Now we use the van exclusively for camping as, like J Herb, I have a trailer for hauling jobs. In South Dakota the winters get cold, but often, like last week, the temperatures in the Black Hills get into the 50's and 60's so we can go camping even in the winter. On the trip out to the Black Hills we usually take a detour drive through the Badlands National Park. Having a Senior Pass means the trip through the national park is free. Then before we get back on I-90 we stop in at Wall Drug for my free "veterans" donut and coffee while my wife has a 5 cent cup of coffee which is always available to tourists. I have a heated garage so the van is packed and ready to go at a moments notice. If you follow this forum thread you know that I do not get fancy with my modifications, but I sure do have fun with them and can improve or modify things whenever I see something I like. So that is my advice to you is have fun with your van and modify it. You might even want to start a forum thread like this and show us all your modifications. I have borrowed a lot of ideas from others, like my window AC from LenS and his "Green Tardis" which is the name he calls his van. Search and you will find his ideas. He used to post in RV forums but I think he has switched to YouTube videos here lately.
* This post was
edited 02/07/21 09:29am by an administrator/moderator *
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drsolo
Milwaukee
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I started with a conversion van fitted with an overhead Coleman AC + heat strip and rigged for AC current plug to the outside. I stripped everything behind the front seats out put down ply and vinyl and installed a counter with equipment underneath like dog cages, 3 drawer plastic cabinets and big plastic bins and a microwave, coffee pot and toaster on top. A Home Depot refrigerator. For sleeping (me only) I got a narrow recliner. Made a box to hold the porta potty behind the recliner. We use the RVan to haul building supplies now and then, so everything is made to slide in and out easily. When we upgrade the van we can just slide the equipment into the new one. What I really like about the RVan is no overhead bulky bins that close the overhead space in claustrophobia ... and I have the entire front window to see thru from the recliner.
Ingrid and Dan Retired teachers from Milwaukee, WI
1992 GMC Vandura conversion
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J herb
So. Oregon
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Black'95 wrote:J herb wrote:Seon.........Mike ( Black 95 ) has done a lot of upgrades to his van and he seams to enjoy doing them and going camping.
As J Herb says I do enjoy working on my van and using it to go camping. I used to have a Tahoe Glide Lite 23 foot trailer camper with slide-out. As I got older (I have been retired for over 10 years now.) my wife and I found that we enjoyed going with the van camping, so last year I sold the trailer. Now we use the van exclusively for camping. In South Dakota the winters get cold, but often, like last week, the temperatures in the Black Hills get into the 50's and 60's so we can go camping even in the winter.
Mike,
we have a Casita trailer fully self contain and we really like it but the van is a lot easier to just get in and go to places that the trailer can't go. At 75 the two RVs are getting to be more work to maintain so I see the both of them go in a few years and get one HI top van (so we can stand up in it ). I don't want a class B or C ! I want something simple like the van we have now.
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J herb
So. Oregon
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drsolo wrote:I started with a conversion van fitted with an overhead Coleman AC + heat strip and rigged for AC current plug to the outside. I stripped everything behind the front seats out put down ply and vinyl and installed a counter with equipment underneath like dog cages, 3 drawer plastic cabinets and big plastic bins and a microwave, coffee pot and toaster on top. A Home Depot refrigerator. For sleeping (me only) I got a narrow recliner. Made a box to hold the porta potty behind the recliner. We use the RVan to haul building supplies now and then, so everything is made to slide in and out easily. When we upgrade the van we can just slide the equipment into the new one. What I really like about the RVan is no overhead bulky bins that close the overhead space in claustrophobia ... and I have the entire front window to see thru from the recliner.
drsolo,
would like to see some pictures of your inside setup as it may give us some ideas that would help us do some mods in our van builds.
Most of my stuff is bolted down but can take part of it out in a few minutes if needed to, I have a utility trailer to go get things that I can't put in the van.
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Black95
South Dakota
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J herb wrote: drsolo,
would like to see some pictures of your inside setup as it may give us some ideas that would help us do some mods in our van builds.
Most of my stuff is bolted down but can take part of it out in a few minutes if needed to, I have a utility trailer to go get things that I can't put in the van.
Ditto from me on posting some pictures. We all like to see what others have done so we can "borrow" their ideas that we like. So, please, post some picture of your van or give us the link here if you decide to start your own thread.
* This post was
edited 02/08/21 09:10am by an administrator/moderator *
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Seon
Lake Camanche, CA
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Black'95 wrote:... please, post some picture of your van or give us the link here if you decide to start your own thread.
Here's the link to the thread I started. Thx.
http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,130161.0.html
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drsolo
Milwaukee
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My RVan link
here is link to my RVan
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