I grabbed this old church van for around 3k with 130k on the odometer. Seems to run pretty good. Pretty sure it has a small manifold exhaust leak on the 5.4. I hear a tapping noise that varies with rpm when it is cold.

Other than that it seems to be in pretty fantastic shape for its age.

I want to turn it into a hunting/utility vehicle type setup. Has anybody here done this? I'm thinking I should go ahead and strip out all the interior molding, headliner, and seatbelts. I already pulled the seats out.

I welcome your advice.

Pics of the van

http://imgur.com/a/k35ba

Edit: I'd like to add that I would want to maintain the ability to use the van for hauling stuff like lumber and plywood. So less camping and more on the utilitarian side.

 

If u want it as a supply hauler then just strip everything out. Just be aware that it could increase road noise in the van.

i will post a pic of mine. I use it as a dd, camper and supply hauler.

 

how long are you going to stay out and what commodities do you want to take with you? Whats the weather like where you will be? How many people will be going?

If you will need to cook, here is a nifty chuck box you can build..

 

Here was the original setup. Had middle row captains chairs and a jackknife sofa in the back

I pulled the jackknife sofa and replaced it with the back 2 bench seats from a 12 passanger. This gave me options for different configurations. The one in the pic below was for a 3000 mile road trip. Took out the middle bench and had tons of room for the trip

I built a platform so I can remove both seats and haul pallets of stuff:



For camping I built couple of beds for the back.