We have this deal in Texas where young men and (God help us) sometimes not so young men take perfectly good pickup trucks and cut holes in the beds near the cabs and put "stacks" up from the exhaust, maybe 6-in diameter tubing rising 3 or 4 feet up from the bed over the cab roof, so they can belch noise and smoke. It is some WEIRD ^%$#ing semi-truck Freudian $#%@, lemme tell you.

Scratching and scratching and scratching my head down here.

Boo-yah on the bicycles-- I was wearing tights when it was REALLY not cool..........When men were men, Americans couldn't win major bicycle races, cycling apparel was made out of wool, if you wore a helmet it was leather hairnet, and you wound up getting in fights with people driving pickups who threw the contents of their spit-cups on you out the window. Ah, the good old days.

k9dr

 

I ride with miracle poly/lycra clothing these days, but a long strip on a nice 37 mile round trip ride from my house goes along Jefferson, basically a shoreline road along Lake St. Clair, has guys with pickups (some pulling boats on trailers) routinely try to buzz me, crowd me off the road with their trailer, etc. Drivers don't realize how vulnerable a bicyclist is. Even a good modern helmet is no match when you're up against 2-4 tons of motor vehicle. I'm the prez of a big bike club in Michigan and virtually every year, we lose a member or a friend to an accident with a motor vehicle. Sometimes the cyclist's fault but usually the motorist's "I didn't see the bicycle" thing.

I'm an old drag racer and love motorsports, but am confounded by people who try to "hotrod" pickup trucks. An F150 is hard to make into a NASCAR truck. I have seen Lightning pickups on autocross courses and they're pretty humorous...you could beat their times with a stock Ford Pinto. And I've seen "coal burner" diesels at the dragstrip as well.

As a van guy, though, I give this local dude a LOT of style points and have talked with him at auto shows. (Sorry it's a Chevy...)


George

 

Hey k9dr---check your visitor message center---left you some helpful info there.

With the glut of so-called "psychological studies" about our personal choices and how they reflect or inform our lives I'd be curious what it "means" to seek out and own either a pick up or van, assuming they're not directly related to a real work need.

Higher performance and other enhancements are abundant for pick ups yet vans have almost never received that same attention. That in itself is interesting and more than mildly frustrating.

But DrK9 we too have those Freudian pick ups up north here---its not as regional as one might think. Almost always the owner of such a thing is a big rig driver or mechanic, the idea of thick black smoke boiling out of those stacks quite intoxicating. I wonder if those guys realize how puny and wimpy those big bore pipes make their trucks really sound?

We could include that mindset in my afore mentioned pending study.

 

Quote: As a van guy, though, I give this local dude a LOT of style points and have talked with him at auto shows. (Sorry it's a Chevy...)

That is awesome. I plead guilty myself to a little F150 hotrodding. I have an '03 F150 FX4 and a huge pile of supercharger parts to slap an Eaton supercharger on it and a forged block and trickflow heads to put in when the stock engine blows because of the blower. But it will be a sleeper. You won't be able to tell it from a stock one from the outside. No lift, no stupid huge wheels and tires. Complete stock. Etc.

Sick basta$D that I am, I am also wondering if I can stick an Eaton on an E150....

k9dr

PS-- I'll check visitor message center, thank you very much!

PPS-- Found a really nice '06 E150 with alloy wheels, perfectly straight body, chrome bumpers and all, sliding door, and cruise control and electric windows and locks. Looks great but it is in Ohio and probably spent its life there (100K). Do I need to sweat body and undercarriage rust from that part of the country?

 

Yes, Ohio is in the heart of the rust belt. Even their license plates rust there.

Not sure your budget concerns, but the best "truck" value out there is the last ~5 years of the E-350 Wagon. We went to a bigger camper last year and started to look for a suitable tow vehicle. I found ample E-350 vans that are former rentlals, less than a year old, under 20k miles, and under $20,000. I settled on one that was 11 months old, 18k miles, and paid $18,250. It is an XLT model with privacy glass, power windows and locks. MP3 CD stereo (6 speakers) with AUX input (for phone or MP3 player), cruise, . . . evrything needed.

In the last few years of these wagons, the 250 was only a 4.6 liter and the 350 was the 5.4 liter. I get 16-18 mpg highway cruise ad avg. high 14's combined. 9-10 towing the 29'camper.

I would think it is easier and cheaper two get window shades or curtains added to a pretty loaded club wagon than it would be to try to get the interior panels and rear AC into a cargo van.

Final thoughts. . . There are white ones everywhere, about have as many silver ones, 1/4 as many Gold metallic ones. any other color in a wagon is literally needle in a haystack to find used.

 

And, in general, your power windows and such tend to be standard on XLT models (as opposed to the XL.) Both on wagons and cargo vans.

In the hay day of conversion vans (80s-90s) the manufacturers were selling specifically equipped XLT type cargo vans that had upfitter prep stuff in it. Extra wiring, the rear AC, a bag of factory option harnesses, privacy glass. . .

 

Thanks for info on rustbelt (maybe I'll hunt a nice Arizona van!), and e350 bargains. I think an e350 is a little more van than I need, and I'm trying to keep the vehicle inexpensive, maybe 9 or 10K........

k9dr

 

Sorry to get so geographically defensive but Ohio is NOT the rustbelt so many want to paint it as being. While its true vehicles here POSSIBLY have rust issues that's due more their upkeep (lack thereof) and brand too. Cheaper will rust long before quality; always was, always will be.

FWIW license plates stopped rusting years ago, just about the same time they began being made from aluminum.

As a perfect example I have an '00 E250 bought locally that was a collision salvage van. There was no body damage, only bolt-on mechanical items. Even now the minuscule rust that can be found is nothing more than on the surface around the wheel wells. OTOH I have an '03 as does a friend, mine bought locally used, his brand new from the stealership. Both have some of the worst rust issues I've ever seen, years before and after our's NOT experiencing the same thing.

When I'm in the market once again for a new-to-me van I'll look for any year BUT 2003 based solely upon what I've seen that year do---or not do more specifically which is be better at resisting rust in general.

Yes something from "up north" is potentially subject to rust and a simple in person inspection armed with knowledge what to look for, how to interpret it is the only real way. This applies no matter where a vehicle lived the bulk of its life. Keep in mind its quite easy for an Ohio/Michigan/Pennsylvania van to somehow find its way to the so-called SunBelt----location isn't always the one and only guarantee something is rust free.

 

I'm in Detroit, which is definitely the rust belt...

I bought my '02 new and have kept it clean in terms of running it thru car washes in the winters. It is barely starting to bulge a couple door seams and it's not gonna look bad for another few years. Here's a pic--I have finally started to figure out uploading photos here:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...3d1e091ba4.jpg

If you are able to examine any van, feel all the door seams on the door bottoms and see if they're starting to bulge anywhere at all. If one is going anywhere on the vehicle, the others are not far behind.

In Michigan, seems like we have a mix of steel and aluminum plates, but our steel ones are probably older. The one on my wife's car looks a bit rusty, but it's probably 14 years old.

If you carry lighter loads, the 150 is a better riding van and I wouldn't really want to drive a 250 or 350 for my purposes.... If you want a 5-lug 150, you'll have to look for 2006 and older vans. I believe the 4.6 got a few more threads in the spark plug sockets circa 2004-2005, so 05/06 might be the best years to seek if you have a choice and want to spend less.

One-year old E350 Club Wagons off-lease are like $20k and that is a screaming deal...if I was looking for a long term keeper passenger van, they would be hard to resist at that price point. But if you want to spend $10k, you'll have to go older.

George

 

Here's how that's done:




I hepped ya out coz ya said such nice things about my hair!

 

JWA--I'm stupid and can't see what ya did to get the pic up--is there some html code you put around the link or something?

That is a nice pic of my van--it was a few years ago and the white tire treads are from salt residue on the roads (I had just had it washed and stopped at our city park to take a few nice shots).

K9DR (or was it leevening from another thread?) was the one who liked the hair...I was actually looking a little below that

George

 

Well, at the risk of sounding repetitive, I'll say thank you again for all of the input. I like this van:

Cars for Sale: 2006 Ford E-150 and Econoline 150 in Bedford, OH 44146: Van Details - 377248920 - AutoTrader.com

Anybody (who truly knows their mierda) happen to be in Bedford Ohio to look at it for rust?

Thanks,

k9dr

 

I'm about 200 miles away...we were just at NHRA nationals in Norwalk a few weeks ago.

Man, that van is close to its birthplace...E series were built in Lorain and Avon Lake!
George

hey, check your visitor messages...

 

I'm in Columbus which is about 140 miles +/-, 2 hours north of me.

Keep in mind a few things about Autotrader.com:

-That van may or may not still be available regardless what the 'net ad says. I've called on several before only to be told "its already been sold.........but we have others........." Naturally call first.

-If that is the original E150 (5 wheel lugs) its max weight is listed at 6,700 pounds which doesn't give a lot of capacity for adding interior fittings for your Dawg Duty.

-What CID is the engine? The 3:55 rear gearing would concern me---a bit too high a gear if its the smaller V8 motor. Add any sort of interior cabinets etc and you'll have another dog on your hands, the 4 wheel gasoline powered variety though.

-Mileage is great, interior looks well cared for which is a positive sign. Rips, tears and stains inside can signal a general lack of other maintenance too. It does have PDL, PW and A/C too. Not sure how this one ended up with the Club Wagon type rear area headliner but that's a nice feature too in the event the factory type rear A/C & Heater were ever to be installed.

Its worth a look-see but not sure it would meet your longer term needs.

 

There is another insert link for photos, I'm guessing you used the one highlighted in red?



To post a photo in the thread use the brownish-highlighted link button instead. Your images will have to be hosted on a photo sharing site such as PhotoBucket et al.


I suspect as red-blooded men we ALL look a bit south of hair, it just sounds more PC complimenting on the hair? BTW its not by accident that particular image is displayed................just sayin'......................

But as the Kardashians say there's no such thing as bad publicity.