Hello all you van guys. I am in the market for a new work van and I have a few questions. I found a 2007 passenger van that was in perfect shape. I actually thought it was new. It has 20k miles on her. It's a E250 with 5.4 motor. They are asking 13,500 for her. I thought that was a good price. It comes with the 36000 3 year warranty too. Does this sound about right?
I need to convert it to a cargo van. Has anyone done this? It seems fairly simple just take out the seats and add some carpet over the cargo area. I also want to know about the 07 E250's, Good year? Any problems that I should be aware of? Thanks for any help.

 

I can't be much help on pricing, but I think I can help with your conversion idea. I have a 2001 E350 SD 15 passenger van that I have converted to a work van. We bought this van almost 2 years ago for just over $12k. It has power windows/locks, front/rear A/C & heat, 5.4l auto, tilt, rubber flooring, cheap vinyl reclining front seats. Bought it with about 56k miles. Only issues I have to deal with is tires and replacing upper and lower ball joints. It gets a consistant 10 mpg with mostly city driving.

We removed the seats, stored in my garage in case I want to sell this van. Put down 1 1/2 or 2 inch styrofoam on the floor for insulation, then 7/8 inch plywood on top of that. The flooring is held in place by using the factory seat mounts and small blocks of wood inside the "U" shape, with a drywall screw going through the plywood, then passing through the seat mount into the block, clamping all together. No holes drilled! I then built my racks for the products I carry, similar to the old post office boxes, securing them to the plywood. These go along each side wall and the middle is open. I did carpet the floor then with some commercial grade carpet I had leftover from a previous job. I did drill one hole into the van, top right rear door opening to secure the one rack as it isn't real sturdy by itself. I have also had a sign shop put opaque white vinyl over all the rear side windows and glued 1 inch styrofoam to the glass for better insulation. Rear windows were covered with 'seethru' shade vinyl as well. I carry perishable candy, nuts, dried fruits, and chocolates, thus the need for insulation.

This work took us a couple of weekends to complete, all built from scratch, and the fact I can revert the truck back to a passenger van easily is nice. Especially now that gas is so high I am thinking of going back to a mini van for better economy!

 

ricfish---Thank you for your input. It's good to know that the conversion is possible. I am going to do some more searching. What I really would like is a extended cargo van with the 7.3 or 6.0 psd so I can run it on biodiesel. Not really sure if it would be worth the extra $$$ for a diesel since it would only be driven around 6k a year. My current van is a 1993 Chevy van that only has 80k on her but is quite abused by my workers.

 

IMO a "passenger van" is about the windows all around & a "cargo van" is not. I don't see a practical way to convert this. Van seats are designed to R&R easily.

Of course a lot depends upon what cargo you intend to carry & how often cargo goes in/out. Many common loads do not threaten to smash out windows. Many loads do not represent an irresistable temptation to thieves lying in plain sight inside a fish bowl. Window vans are harder to AC in hot sun & cargo vans easier to insulate, making them generally cooler inside, of interest in desert/tropical areas.

If you want a diesel & a cargo van its seems like this truck has 2 strikes against it. There's a fair range in prices between basic & loaded versions.

I'd recommend against adding "1 1/2 or 2 inch styrofoam...then 7/8 inch plywood" & "add carpet" b/c it raises the floor nearly 3". The cargo van I converted to camper got a JCW 'custom fit' soft foam floor pad that filled the ribs & gasketed the highs & 1/4" hard board as a flat carpet/pad base. This kept a maximum amount of head room, load space & low center of gravity, while also reducing road noise.

 

Thank you for your feed back. I never really thought of the windows and a load. I make custom upholstered furniture. Sofa's, chairs, headboards and anything the customer wants. So I would use the van for supplies and loading it up with furniture. I think I will scratch the idea of a passenger van and search for a cargo van. The dealer showed me a new 08 E150 with 4.6L engine. They are nice looking but $20k+ seems to be a bit much. Work is a bit slow so I cannot afford to strap myself to thin. I also don't want another 1/2 ton. They just seem to much like a car and not a truck. I also want to look into having the roof extended up. There are times when the furniture doesn't fit and I need just the extra 6-12 inches to get it in.

 

The '08 E150 is no longer a half ton. It's basically an 8-lug wheel truck like the 250 and 350, and has a GVW of 8500+ lbs, meaning it will take a 3000 lb load or so.

As for the high roof, seems like a used passenger conversion van with a raised roof could be had really cheap these days, but it would be a half ton and not have additional door clearance. Have you looked at Dodge Sprinters? They are TALL....but expensive (even used), probably expensive to fix, etc...

George

 

I have looked at the Dodge sprinter (online). They are very pricey! Over $40K new. Good to know about the E150. I didn't know that they were like the 250. I will have to give that some consideration.

 

'08 E-Series van specs:

E150 8520-8600 GVW 3340 Payload
E250 8900-9000 GVW 3670 Payload

The Sprinter may very well pay for the price difference just in fuel savings, nearly doubling MPG! Besides mid 20's MPG they can also carry nearly double the volume. E-Series std length 230/ext 271 cu ft V the big Sprinter at 473 cu ft!

E-Series all got the new brake system & 8 lug wheels. Ford offers a huge advantage in parts & service.

 

Sounds like Ford really stepped it up on the E series van. We had one econoline van I believe it was a 1977 van. We drove it until the wheels came off. It had 325K on the original motor and second trans. We sold her for $500 in 1993 and she was still running. Since then it has been the chevy van that we have never been pleased with. It is now a rust bucket and an embarrassment to drive up to a customers house. I think I just might go back to the dealer and look good and hard at the E150.

 

An Econoline High Top conversion, in some important ways, is not comparable to Sprinter.

To my knowledge those 'Turtle Tops' are all after market fibre glass 'bolts ons' that seriously compromise the body's structure. Whereas the Sprinter's 73" high roof model is all steel factory spot welded just like the standard 64" roof. A man can stand up in Sprinter's big rear doorway.

 

The other important trade off in the windows equation is of course visibility. You can always 'cage' the big side windows if they're regularly put at risk.

Cargo vans can still be had w/back or side door windows for maximum security. Stripped cargo vans also have somewhat more interior space.

 

Understood that it's a different ball game. I've had two actual Turtle Top conversions, a '73 Ford flatnose and an '86 GMC, and those had the rectangular top that could be raised for camping/partying. Even those vans evoked visions of crushing boxes when I though of what would happen if I ever rolled one over. The full high tops these days do saw out the whole roof, and that makes me more nervous yet. I wouldn't want to roll one off the side of a mountain road...but I bet you could get one really cheap these days.

I actually looked at Sprinters when I bought my '02 E150, but liked the lower price and greater ride comfort of the Ford...plus it will fit thru a car wash rack in the winter, important for me in salty Michigan. And at that point, International and Dodge were juggling the Sprinter, so I didn't know where I'd be able to get parts and service. I had a deal going on a mid-wheelbase, lowtop Sprinter demo with 4.5k miles on it for $28k and in retrospect, with the high resale of Sprinters, might have done well to have bought it....and if I knew we'd be seeing $4 gas, I probably would have bought a minivan...so much for hindsight.

George

 

The 5-lug E150, like I've got, has always been hard on brakes, and I'd imagine that when Ford looked at beefing up the brakes and maybe suspension as well on the old van, the empty weight would have gotten so high, with the 7000 GVW, that cargo capacity would shrink to near nil....and vans are so darn big inside that it's really easy to put REALLY heavy loads in them--I'd bet that half the E150's in the world have been overloaded for a portion of their lives, some constantly.

Plus GVW over 8500 exempts a vehicle from the EPA mileage tests and being included in averages. They probably did lose what was left of the "luxury van conversion" market with the 80 lb E-rated tires.

3340 lbs is a BIG half ton (like 3.34 of them...)

George

 

Curious why you keep referring to the E150 as "a half ton"?

The 1st incarnation of this style E150 back in '92 w/XL 15" tires was rated for as much as 6500 lb GVW & 2150 lb payload. In '02 a "5-lug E150, like (you)'ve got" was listed as 2155 lb payload. The '07 E150 was already listed w/8520-8600 lb GVW 3335 lb payload, before the new brakes.

While the over 8500 GVW rating does exempt them from several Federal requirements, that doesn't knock out the "luxury van conversion" market, other factors are doing that. Conversion companies are well known for installing their own choice of wheels/tires, often of inferior quality. A MarkIII conversion plant used to operate near me & they had a store selling 'take off' OEM wheels/tires. These also showed up at the flea market regularly & had been a great source of unused tires for cheap. I bought Goodyears mounted/balanced on OEM alloy wheels for much less than the cost of tires alone! Often conversion companies replaced XL tires w/std load! What prevents these companies, or anyone else, from swapping out "the 80 lb E-rated tires" for a softer ride & reduced payload?

 

Truck history has ALWAYS used the 10/100/150/1500 nomenclature for a half ton truck or van, 20/200/250/2500 was a 3/4 ton, and 30/300/350/3500 was a one ton truck. My old '86 GMC and my '73 Ford flatnose van were 2500 and 200 respectively, and both used car tires because the weights of the vans were so much lower than the new ones.

The listing on the '07 that you found is wrong--I think I saw it once as well (is it linked on this page?) but the '07 is the "old" 5 lug van. The '07 still had 16" car tires (235/70x16 XL's) and a GVW of 7000 lbs and an empty curb weight of about 4800lbs. The '08 moved to the load range E tires, big brakes and axles, and huge GVW's along with a curb weight of 5300 lbs or so for an empty cargo van. The passenger E150 for 2008 has to weigh close to 6000 lbs empty...yikes.

I don't know of any car type tire that would properly fit a 2008 E150 and hold near the weight that it would need to--if there were wheelwell room, they could go to the 305/65x22" (or whatever) tires like on the pickups and gain load capacity via sheer air volume, but the van is limited to around a 30-31" OD tire and ya can't go real wide.

My '02 van is a conversion which has a GVW of 7000, and a payload of probably 1600-1700 lbs net after the addition of the factory glass, conversion interior, dual heat/air, etc.

I know that van converters blow out parts cheap--I'm sitting on a pair of OEM captain's chairs from a converter--my original seats killed my back.

George