Is Interest in Your Van Increasing?

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by MountainBikeRoamer

To wit:

---------------------------------------

EXAMPLE SCENARIO A:
Hipster McBeardywitz has been dedicatedly down with The Flabberwockys for the last 4 years. (His favorite bearded indy band who plays in the Pearl District.) Owned all their EP's. Wore their shirts. Got himself more than a few dates with the ladies by claiming to be their number one fan.

THEN --
The Flabberwockys suddenly blow up.......


EXAMPLE SCENARIO B:
Brandon McChill just plain loves to go out for rows on the lake in his grandfather's old handmade rowboat. He could certainly afford a new kayak or canoe....or jet-ski.................

You're killin' me .......if that automotive gig doesn't pan out perhaps you can fall back on magazine writing.....

[86Scotty]

I rather enjoyed it also.

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by keytothestone

Do folks with the Transits ,Sprinters etc get as much attention as jacked up E350? Would like to hear these owners take. I would think a Transit with a basic Quigley or Quad 4x4 conversion wouldn't gain as much shock and awe of the E350 variety. Just my thinking. I spend a lot of time in Mex. and eventually plan to do the whole Trans American and after driving to El Salvador years ago flying under the radar is a very desirable thing. I even get cops looking at me. I got pulled over twice in 6 weeks AK-Co. for the bs reason my windows were too tinted. They sent me on my way without any citation but they wanted to have a look see. The van just stands out! Colorado plates don't help either. With everybody thinking everyone on in the state is some type of stoner.

Unfortunately yes and mine is just a 2wd white Transit. Just finishing a 2 week trip and had way too many people bother me to see the interior. I still have no idea how they even knew it was converted since we rarely leave doors open and have tinted and some blacked out windows.

[ctb]

Live in the midwest and YOU WILL KNOW ATTENTION! We get lots and lots and lots and lots of attention when we drive around here/head out...and out on the road, pre-SMB, we used to sleep in Walmart parking lots when we were traveling and no camping options avail..but no longer b/c of the 5am crappy pickups with loud mufflers taking pics of Sporty (lol)...but, yes QUESTIONS!!! But, I will add, we get much more of the 'midwest' question....
After taking some advice from another SMB owner/friend who sd. "go more, go local" ...this weekend we decided to go to the reservoir (biggest lake in IA, otherwise they are mostly farm ponds lol) to camp...thunderstorms were popping up and the west was looking pretty ominous...we pulled into the campground, wife gets out to check in and I pull up to a waiting area...I notice a SUV lurking, inching up to me...thinking I was in the way I pulled into a designated area...they followed...finaly they pull next to me and rolled down the window, "Can we ask you a question?" SURE! I say..expecting the "what is it?, where did you get it? "etc... but I got the "midwest question", "Are you a Storm chaser?" I could see both the admiration of Sporty, but more importantly, the 'panic of are these storms tornado brewing?' in her eyes...I laughed and assured them no we just want to camp! We all laughed and they pulled away....
I don't mind the pics, the questions, the attention...sure you could drive the vanilla box camper van from "Jayco" (or whatever brand) and be the Soap star, or you could be the big time movie star in your elite pop-out laden dual axel diesel Pusher, or even the infomercial star with your box camper/5th wheel (why didn't you just bring the whole d*mn house)...BUT I PREFER, to be the ROCK STAR of camping...and yes put up with the admiration (questions, pics, etc) it brings...I've NEVER heard the Rolling Stones say "awe, we'd rather go back to play the clubs and live out of a crappy van..." now do we? So bring on the attention! It is just a minute or two of our time (talk about a lame excuse NOT to own one) I just hate when they want an autograph too (lololol)...

[Beasty Boy]

Originally Posted by ctb

Live in the midwest and YOU WILL KNOW ATTENTION! We get lots and lots and lots and lots of attention when we drive around here/head out...and out on the road, pre-SMB, we used to sleep in Walmart parking lots when we were traveling and no camping options avail..but no longer b/c of the 5am crappy pickups with loud mufflers taking pics of Sporty (lol)...but, yes QUESTIONS!!! But, I will add, we get much more of the 'midwest' question....
After taking some advice from another SMB owner/friend who sd. "go more, go local" ...this weekend we decided to go to the reservoir (biggest lake in IA, otherwise they are mostly farm ponds lol) to camp...thunderstorms were popping up and the west was looking pretty ominous...we pulled into the campground, wife gets out to check in and I pull up to a waiting area...I notice a SUV lurking, inching up to me...thinking I was in the way I pulled into a designated area...they followed...finaly they pull next to me and rolled down the window, "Can we ask you a question?" SURE! I say..expecting the "what is it?, where did you get it? "etc... but I got the "midwest question", "Are you a Storm chaser?" I could see both the admiration of Sporty, but more importantly, the 'panic of are these storms tornado brewing?' in her eyes...I laughed and assured them no we just want to camp! We all laughed and they pulled away....
I don't mind the pics, the questions, the attention...sure you could drive the vanilla box camper van from "Jayco" (or whatever brand) and be the Soap star, or you could be the big time movie star in your elite pop-out laden dual axel diesel Pusher, or even the infomercial star with your box camper/5th wheel (why didn't you just bring the whole d*mn house)...BUT I PREFER, to be the ROCK STAR of camping...and yes put up with the admiration (questions, pics, etc) it brings...I've NEVER heard the Rolling Stones say "awe, we'd rather go back to play the clubs and live out of a crappy van..." now do we? So bring on the attention! It is just a minute or two of our time (talk about a lame excuse NOT to own one) I just hate when they want an autograph too (lololol)...

ctb where do you live? I used to live in the Quad Cities(Davenport) while I
was truckin. I got tired of the daily T&L storms. Never experienced a twister
though. Traded IA for AK. After freezzzzzing for 12 yrs I came back home to
San Diego.

[MadScience]

I saw this thread the other day and was going to say that my van is looking old and ratty enough that the attention has been going down. However, I came out of a shop last night to someone snapping pictures of every angle on it.

I've also always loved the type of attention the van gets. It makes people smile and think about the places they could go camping with something like it. In contrast, my other car is fast and shiny. And while I occasionally enjoy talking about some of the details of it, with other engineers, I'd get rid of it in a hurry if I was single.

[rallypanam]

Walked out of my house to someone snapping pictures of my van last night. Happens pretty regularly.

[SMB123]

Hi folks - now we know how celebrities feel.



Let's take a moment to be grateful that this takes some of the heat and stigma off the "creepy van".


- The "white van selling speakers at blowout prices - doing sales pitch while driving down the road". Amazing that Klipsch never discovered liquid cooled speakers like these van speaker guys.


- The "would you like some candy" van - these guys are still around now though they range from minivans all the way up to beat up full sizers.


- The terrifying ice cream van. Not the ones we grew up with - I'm talking about the ones that are barely running, have a really disturbing and out of tune ghetto version of some kid's song playing and have a bunch of peeling ice cream product stickers on the side. The ice cream vendor is just as terrifying. Someone get a backround check on that guy.


- The "not used for work" work van - whatever is happening in there - undoubtedly includes rope and formaldehyde.

[Beasty Boy]

Originally Posted by SMB123

Hi folks - now we know how celebrities feel.



Let's take a moment to be grateful that this takes some of the heat and stigma off the "creepy van".


- The "white van selling speakers at blowout prices - doing sales pitch while driving down the road". Amazing that Klipsch never discovered liquid cooled speakers like these van speaker guys.


- The "would you like some candy" van - these guys are still around now though they range from minivans all the way up to beat up full sizers.


- The terrifying ice cream van. Not the ones we grew up with - I'm talking about the ones that are barely running, have a really disturbing and out of tune ghetto version of some kid's song playing and have a bunch of peeling ice cream product stickers on the side. The ice cream vendor is just as terrifying. Someone get a backround check on that guy.


- The "not used for work" work van - whatever is happening in there - undoubtedly includes rope and formaldehyde.

You got issues don'tcha??

[MountainBikeRoamer]

Haha.....yeah it wasn't that long ago that we had to endure "free candy" jokes.....these are indeed some valid points......can't have your cake and eat it too...

When we first got the van, I used to kid with my girlfriend that "she was a critical accessory" --- absolutely necessary IMHO to have her smiling/happy face visible in the van's front seat alongside me as we drove around --- simply because it made the van look instantly "not creepy."

Well at least that's how the reasoning went at the time.
(Vs. a lone bearded guy driving around in a white van....which ironically nowadays, is probably fast approaching "as hip and sexy as it gets.")