I have a 1995 E-350 Cab & Chassis Box Van. I have a concession business and use it to transport all of our equipment and supplies to our events. It's been a challenge to keep it running properly so I can stay on the road. It was formerly a DHL package delivery vehicle. This van has needed and does need a lot of work. The entire exhaust system was stripped from it and replaced with just a Cherry Bomb muffler. The smog equipment is missing also creating problems for me to get it registered in CA. It's currently registered in SD. I'm trying to get it repaired so it's all legal but it's been difficult with our schedule. A new exhaust system will go on this year.

 

no im serious. i want it for when we go fishing to live in. would be great to tour country in too. i dont like them huge motorhomes. harder to get into woods with them

 

So, Skip, get yourself an UltraVan. 20 ft long, 8 ft tall and wide, and gets 20 mpg on the highway. Built using aircraft-style aluminum fuselage/cabin and easy as a car to drive.

 

Great thread and a fun read.

Ours was purchased just about 3 years ago in order to have a wheelchair accessible vehicle [for the wife]. Since we like to vacation with a car trailer behind us, the full-size van allows 2 additional [very-important] uses - family vacation machine and tow vehicle.

 

Have used a van since 1986. Carpet laminate hardwood vinyl floors, and all the garbage I haul away. I just bought a 1998 e350 club wagon, v10 for 2200 and have yet to overload this beast it's 9300 gvw is awesome. The gas mileage sucks, I am getting around 8- 10 city, 13 hiway. Love this van.

 

Is this with it loaded down with a lot of weight? What speed on the highway?

I don't know what the v10's are supposed to get, but from the little I have read about them it might be a little low.

I have heard the v10's tow nicely.

 

I don't know about the carpet guy, but thought I'd chime in: My 07 E350 v10 gets 11.5 to 13mpg. (Nearly 14 with ethanol-free fuel). It has probably about 1,000lbs cargo (incl the bins). I drive nearly 1,000miles per week- about 50% hwy/city. I usually don't exceed 65mph. Also about an hour per day idling with A/C on.

And yes it tows like an elephant pulling a child's snow sled.

 

My 78 E250 covers a multitude of purposes. For me it's a work vehicle keeping tools dry and secure, daily commute vehicle, long distance hauler, the van of choice to pick up large items like furniture, lumber, appliances, large garage sale gems, etc. For family, neighbors, and friends, I am the first person contacted to help people move and what makes that usually work fairly well is the large volume of stuff I can get into the back of the van in one haul, although often it's a thankless job! Everything gets protected from rain. A car or pickup would just not cut it for me. Been a van owner for 44 years. That's my story!

 

49 years for me, driving vans.
I've had lots of Ford vans and only a few pickups.
I had to drive a Corvan, in the 60's, hated it.

I now have a van and pickup. The best of both worlds.
Can't/won't haul garbage, gravel and barkdust, in a van.

 

My first van was an E-350 cut-away with 14 ft. cube van body, a work truck delivery van.

The second and third were E-250 Cargo vans. They were my rolling tool box and work shop. Those tool boxes made for pick-ups never kept my tools dry.

Then I got a E-350 Quigley 4 x 4 for Western New York winters. My work required travel at any time of the day or night and they just do not plow/sand/salt the roads at night anymore, not in the country where I live.

Since buying a tow-capable vehicle, I found I can now use it for:

Towing...you can load a cargo trailer, drop it in the yard, and unload it next week, if necessary.

Towing...finally got that travel trailer, our home away from home.

Towing...brought a vintage Pontiac from N.M. to NY some 1,700 miles strapped down to a U-Haul car hauler. The V-10 dragged that 6,500# almost like it wasn't there, and I have the 3.73:1 axles. Tow-haul is handy. Just about 9 mpg at speed limit +4-5.

Towing...a local landscaper somehow backed both rear wheels of his loaded C-60 dump truck into a ditch. Yes, I had the adVANtage of asphalt pavement traction, but I dragged him up and out with no trouble at all.

Doing what they think can't be done...that's where it's at!

4 Ford vans, 4 LTD/Crown Vics, 2 Rangers, 1 Aerostar, and 1 L-7000, years ago.

 

I want to use,,,,,, mine for cross country trips, going to the mountains, or just bug out somewhere. Its a 85 E-150 Mark III conversion van with a 302 and AOD transmission and tow package. It was a 1 owner and has 148,000 on her but she is in pretty good shape for being 30 years old. It had sat for a while we started with new brakes all the way around (master cylinder, calipers, wheel cylinders, rotors, drums, lines), trans filter and fluid, new U-joints and center bearing carrier, tie rod end, new rear axel bearings ( pulled the differential out and cleaned the housing), new tires, new passenger side exhaust manifold, and in the process of doing a DSII swap because it just wasn’t running right and couldn’t get it straightened out. Still have a couple so seals leaking along with intake manifold seeping oil, valve cover gaskets, and window and door seals. But i should be driving her again in about a week and I think I will take my son with me to the mountains!!!!

My mom has a 78 shorty with a 351w. It has the old double couch that makes into a bed, sink, stove, and fridge. My dad used to take me on trips with him... I finally got my own!!
I just need a trailer for my canoe..

 

Many pages ago I posted to this thread in a moment of current frustration, venting about the poor accessibility to do engine work in these vans that have the engine located directly under the firewall (my old "66 Econoline long-body had FAR better engine access).

While I won't retract a word of that rant (I'm currently trying to work on an '87 E350 with a 460, which the factory must have press-fit into the space, AWFUL!!), I have a more positive comment to offer:

I was looking at another thread here, where the owner appears to have set up his van to carry a couple of roadracing motorcycles. And I was struck by the following thought: Where would amateur motorsports have been, in the last fifty years or so, without the VANS built for private ownership by the big three automakers???

I'm an old man, got into racing outboard hydros in the era of the Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys. Whether cartopping the raceboat or towing a light racing trailer, nothing was better than a van! If you could carry the racing machine externally (unlike most of the bike and kart racers seemed to do), you probably had room to camperize your van with a fold-out cot for two, maybe even a sink and icebox and a fold-out table (my '66 Supervan had all this). This meant you had a LOT more fuel-efficient and handy set-up for two-day races than did the guys who had big pickups with huge drop-in camper units.

I wonder if any old amateur motor-racer has ever written a paean of tribute to the lowly van. Club-racers of boats, roadbikes, MX'ers, enduro and trials bikes, karts, sleds, sportscars, dune buggies and sand draggers, . . . if you were in the parking lots and pits at any of these events you'd see vans all over the place. Nice ones, crappy ones, all makes in all lengths. Yeah, we certainly could have used pickups and station wagons, and even old ambulances and hearses and run-out commercial step-vans (which are all geared wrong for highway use), but the vans that started coming out in about 1961, IIRC, turned out to be the deal sheneille for low-buck racing use.

So here's to the vans! Thanks for all the good times!!

 

Good points, Smitty. Good to pay homage to our vans.

I will also note that vans have always been the choice for serious bicycle riders and racers; our vans have been support vehicles for bike races, changing and dining rooms, drove across Michigan with our Boy Scout troop on bicycles, etc.

I am also a musician and our vans have served as tour buses and equipment trucks.

A box is the best shape for hauling *stuff* and my cycling and musician friends still have no shame about driving minivans (although they won't pull heavy race car trailers).

George

 

I used my old GMC van for going to the races when I was younger. I spent many a night at Laguna Seca.

 

Smitty, I agree that vans can be a pain to work on sometimes due to the lack of room. Though it is all relative. Comparing it to my wife 1.8t Jetta she used to have or even my FWD v6 SHO, the van isn't too bad.

My biggest frustration is that you can't just pop the hood and go to town. gotta pull the doghouse to do something as simple as changing the air fliter. Maybe I will fab up a different intake to help with this.....or maybe not.