Motovan--2000 Ford E350 ex-wheelchair van

I sold my 2003 Toyota Tundra in order to get a van that I could keep dirtbikes and riding gear secure and dry inside at all times. Outside of the fire season, my hours at work are very flexible. Sometimes I'm sitting at my desk and I get tired of browsing GRM. I wanted to be be able to say berkeley it, I'm going riding, with minimal load up and hit the road effort. I entertained the idea of 10' box vans, ambulances, short buses, conversion vans, and wheelchair vans. My list of requirements was cruise control, power windows and locks, and a higher than standard top. I really wanted tall rear doors so it would be easy to load and unload my taller bikes without having use a ratchet strap to compress the front suspension. This would also serve as my non-Corvette weather daily driver. This thread covered most of my thoughts and how I ended up with a wheelchair van as the best compromise. Learn me 10ft box trucks

I probably paid too much, $8250, but this van was in really great shape, 137k miles, from California so no rust underneath, had the required cruise control, power windows and locks, rear heat and air conditioning, a 6'2" inside height (I'm 5'8" so I can stand and move around inside easily, tall rear doors, rubber floor, steel roll cage inside the fiberglass top, better aerodynamics than a bus or box truck, 5.4l gas V8 (didn't really want a diesel), extended length which makes it long enough to keep a bench seat between the bikes and front seats, and it was a one ton which meant it had great disk brakes and the capacity to carry everything. The additional cubic feet of space and airflow with the rear fan makes gasoline fumes in the cabin a non issue. Even with my trials bike and a leaky petcock I don't smell any gasoline fumes inside. Bonus, it came from a retirement home so it had a bunch of service records on the carfax, although I don't know what was actually done. Since it was made for old folks, it has a nifty automatic retractable step and courtesy light for the passenger side double doors, and a solidly mounted steel hand rail on the right side of the entryway. How about some photos?

Inaugural moto trip to Tillamook State Forest

Comparison shot with my temporary van, a '97 E150 standard length

So unfortunately my Facebook hosted photos all have broken links. I got a Flickr account but I haven't gone back to fix anything. Here she is as of August 2016:

It came with decent highway tires with about 40% tread remaining. I got stuck the first time I parked at a friend's house in his unpaved overflow parking area covered in packed snow. Needs meaty treads. Should I go with mud tires? I hate getting stuck. 4WD conversion costs way too much and requires a 4" lift minimum. I'll go with mud tires. Do I want mud tires on the front? All they do is steer and brake, do I really want the extra hum from the aggressive tread up front where my ears are? How about I go Baja truck style with mud tires on the drive wheels and all terrains on the steer wheels? With Kedge Grip from Treadwright

I had those same style tires on my Tundra and really loved them. They wore well and handled snow and ice very well for a tire with tread blocks that big. They were also on super sale with free shipping so I had all 4 sitting in my living room for $480. Paid a local shop $50 to mount and balance. One of the higway tires had way more tread than the other 3, so I kept it to be mounted for a spare and sold the other 3 tires for $20 on craigslist. Picked up a junkyard steel wheel for $14. Since the wheelchair lift was mounted where the spare tire normally is, I didn't have a spare.

She says, "It's actually not as terrible to drive as I thought it would be!"

Does that mean the Aliner is gone? Let me know how you like the treadwights. I think i will be getting a set for the rear end of my RV. Its dualies and i'm a little sketched out with retreads on the front.

Wow that lift is heavy! Almost 400 pounds I'd say. I had to disassemble it into chunks just so I could move it. Nobody buys these things once they're out of the van, especially not one like mine. This was a pretty invasive install. Although if I were to have one, I'd want one like this that is completely outside of the passenger compartment when stored, no wasted space. Anyway, now I've got some good thick sheets of aluminum and a bunch of steel to sell for scrap.

I needed to get a hitch on this thing ASAP so I can haul my Aliner. Picked up a hitch from a junkyard for $50, mounted it with some grade 8 hardware and wasn't real happy with how far it hung down. It was made to clear the regular bumper. Well my bumper had a big notch cut out. Now I need a new rear bumper so it doesn't look so goofy, something with a step would be nice too. Or wait, what if I flip the receiver hitch upside down...

BAM!!

A perfect fit! What are the chances of that? This is a big deal because with the extended length van, the departure angle sucks. With a low hanging hitch it sucks even more! I'm happy it's tucked way up inside the frame rails. Bonus, I don't feel like I have to spend additional $$$ on a new rear bumper.

java230 wrote: Does that mean the Aliner is gone? Let me know how you like the treadwights. I think i will be getting a set for the rear end of my RV. Its dualies and i'm a little sketched out with retreads on the front.

You can't break up a combination this awesome

This is important to point out, as I'm not building a camper van. I'm building a Motovan. Camper duties are taken care of with the Aliner. A 4WD pickup with a big slide in camper and a cargo trailer would also be a great setup, but when driving to the track, where would I sleep? Towing a camper to the track with my racecar is too awesome to get away from for right now.

Treadwrights are awesome. They're made the same way new tires are made. Brand new tires have the case made, and then the tread is vulcanized on. They aren't injection molded all in one shot. The only downside is the cases are older than the tread. If I haven't worn them out in 5 years, and the cases are starting to get weather checked, then I'll consider replacing them. Chances are I'll replace the van before the tires wear out though.

OK good! Loved the Aliner and Vette combo!

I like where this is going.

Van developed a stutter on the drive home. It was the worst at low rpm in high gear. Got a #5 misfire code. I figured it was a bad coil since these modular motors have a reputation for eating coils. Threw the new one in and went for a drive, no change. Ok lets change the spark plug. No change. Ok let's change all the plugs. No change. Fuel filter is cheap, let's try that. Bingo! Yay that was a fun knuckle buster changing all the plugs. Needed to be done though, they were in pretty rough shape.

Just did a highway trip through some really gnarly winds and got 15.2 MPG. Not bad, but I was hoping for better. I drove down a muddy road and was pretty impressed with the traction. Front tire piles up a ton of mud on that retractable step though. I may have to make a shield to remedy that. Also, rear axle might have some sort of LSD in it.

I yanked the rear 4 seat belts out since I didn't have a seats to go back there and I had no intention of putting seats back there. It baffles me that Ford didn't put any insulation or sound deadening material behind the plastic interior. Also, the plastic interior panels kind of suck. I'm not keen on making new ones though. I used the bolt holes from the seat belts and some chain links to make tie downs.

I've got more bolt holes that I can fill with tie downs but I ran out of chain. I'm also thinking I should get some of these instead.

Any ideas on how to cover this hole up?

So one of the big advantages to this van was that it had a rubber floor and some e-track already installed. Turns out the rubber floor doesn't like gasoline. My trials bike dripped some fuel and now my floor has a big pimple.

Tires are working well in the slick stuff.

Rip out the rubber floor and replace with DIY bedliner. It's fuel resistant.

EvanR wrote: Rip out the rubber floor and replace with DIY bedliner. It's fuel resistant.

. . . . and put some sound insulation below it before you put the bedliner down.

The bedliner would act to dampen vibrational noise (sort of like Dynamat). Aside from that, I can't see how to put insulation underneath it - it needs to stick to the metal.

NGTD wrote:

EvanR wrote: Rip out the rubber floor and replace with DIY bedliner. It's fuel resistant.

. . . . and put some sound insulation below it before you put the bedliner down.

You got a good deal, I've been watching these locally similar ones here are 11-12k.

I'll be watching this thread.

Pbw wrote: You got a good deal, I've been watching these locally similar ones here are 11-12k. I'll be watching this thread.

That's good to hear. It's the only one I found that had all the things I wanted. There are many vans with fiberglass tops, but many of them are not tall enough to stand up in, or they have tall side doors and not the tall rear doors. Some of them have a really flat front too, I like that mine has the same angle as the windshield.

Regarding the flooring, I'm not sure what I want to do yet. I don't want to just bedliner the metal floor because of the loss of noise and thermal insulation. I don't have a lot of free time to tear it all out and start over either. I have a to do list a page and a half long and many projects have been waiting a long time. Currently I'm using a small chunk of plywood with two motorcycle chocks mounted to it. This piece of plywood is not mounted to the floor so it can be moved, or removed easily. I have a piece of grippy foam underneath it and it doesn't slide around at all with a bike tied down on it. I'm thinking I'll do the same thing but with a bigger sheet of plywood that would catch the fuel drips. I'm also thinking I would cut a small hole in the plywood to line up with the front section of E-track in the floor. That way I could have a tie down going from a handlebar to the floor and keeping the plywood from sliding forward or backward in an emergency stop or an accident. On the long term list is installing a cargo net to separate my skull from the heavy projectiles in the back in case of a bad accident. I would do something similar to the cargo airplanes I used to fly. I don't want a metal barrier that is heavy, noisy, and cumbersome to remove. A cargo net with cinch straps and a dozen anchor points around the perimeter would be good.

I really like your choices in vehicles and toys. These are a couple of fun setups!

See if you can get one of the pickup rubber bedmats/liners (not the plastic ones), they hold up to just about everything. Add a few screws to hold it down so it doesn't move. That way you can remove it if needed.

Van candy came in the mail today.

Didn't slide in far enough with the handles on so I removed them and now it fits pretty well.

Did I mention I hate getting stuck? I had the winch laying around from an old log skidder project vehicle anyway. Install was super simple too, I only had to enlarge one hole on each frame rail. I didn't have to touch the bumper. This was a lot cheaper route to go than a custom front bumper or aftermarket winch bumper. Additionally, those tube framed pre runner style bumpers that look so cool have more aerodynamic drag so fuel mileage drops.

Petrolburner wrote: Just did a highway trip through some really gnarly winds and got 15.2 MPG. Not bad, but I was hoping for better. I drove down a muddy road and was pretty impressed with the traction. Front tire piles up a ton of mud on that retractable step though. I may have to make a shield to remedy that. Also, rear axle might have some sort of LSD in it.

I was going to suggest a LSD, but sounds like you've got that covered. That missing panel should be a standard Ford part. Couple dollars at pick'n'pull.

In reply to Gearheadotaku:

That missing panel was where a seatbelt reel was mounted, but maybe the cargo vans have a cover there instead?

When in the snow it feels like an open diff, but in the mud I was spinning both tires evenly. I was planning on an Eaton mechanical LSD like a Torsen. I think it's called the True Trac.

Cool van and project. The cost is decent considering you got what you wanted and needed. Not many vans like that around.

Nicely done. I keep thinking about something like that as a small camper.