What if there were no SMBs?

[cellularSTEVE]

I pity the fool...

[Ed in Montana]

If there were no Sportsmobiles, I think I would be considerably wealthier than my present impoverished state.

[MikewTV]

I guess I'd have to join Weight Watchers so I could fit in a VW Westy? (And leave the back hatch open for my size 13's to hang out.) That being said, I wouldn't have my SMB today if I didn't have such great memories camping in our neighbors VW Bus camper as a child of the 70's.

[John and Dana]

The irony of this thread for those of us who love our diesels is I followed the link about the transit vans to the Ford website and under the E-Series vans they no longer list a diesel engine
http://www.fordvehicles.com/trucks/eser ... res/specs/

Does this mean they have dropped the diesel for 2009?

John

[geoffff]

A friend of mine is converting a 6WD Volvo C303 ex-firetruck to be a Sportsmobile-like camper vehicle with a penthouse top he's engineering himself:


http://www.trog.us/

As much as I drool over real military vans & trucks like the Pinzgauer, Unimog, Volvo, FC Land Rover (or even the Hummer H1), I've come to realize that as even though I complain about the Sportsmobile's ride, these other vehicles are all much slower and noisier on the highway -- where, realistically, I spend most of my driving time, just getting to and from the fun stuff.

Here's a photo I like (not mine, and I'm afraid I forgot who originally posted it -- sorry!) showing a VW, Pinzgauer, and Sportsmobile together:



-- Geoff

[Jammyauto]

That photo is mine. Of those 3 only the SMB currently remains in my stable. I still have a syncro as well but not the one pictured.
If I did not have the SMB I think I'd buy a early 80's mercedes van and put a cummins or duramax motor and trans in it and convert it to 4x4. I used to have a '82 Mercedes firetruck that came over from Germany. It was great except for that it would not go over 55mph. Gutless wonder like most european vans.
On another note I have recently seen several new Sprinter ambulances on the streets in Santa Barbara.

[deminimis]

This is an easy one for me. First off, I'd start out with a Chevy C4500 crew cab 4x4 chassis (Duramax, Allison trans) and add a pop up 11' camper (Alaskan, perhaps... perhaps a different one). for example. here's a C4500 with a Monroe body conversion.


This one is just up in WA and only $74k. Look how it dwarfs the Express vans. Add a $20-30K pop up camper and, arguably, you'd have a better off-road vehicle than any of us here.



Thing is, it wouldn't exactly be a daily driver like our SMBs can be. And I thought my SMB was hard to park.



Oh, don't think I haven't run this by the wife already. She was all thumbs up. Of course, not going to do this, but it answers Jage's question.

[winvest]

I liked the quigley conversion on the Pleasureway that was in the classified section.