New to me 1996 E250 SMB

[MarinBlaine]

Looks like some new headlights too? How are they?

Also what tire size did you go for?

Looking good!

[MDBergholm]

Thanks guys! Yeah the headlights were in desperate need of replacement... The new ones make a huge difference in my night time visibility. They were cheap too - something off Amazon.

Tires are 265/75R16 - some minor trimming required but other than that they fit fine.

[MDBergholm]

This past weekend we finally started work on replacing the old refrigerator/pantry cabinet. The old one was awkwardly shaped, took up too much space, and didnt fit our fridge correctly.

Step 1 was to tear it all apart - we also removed the wallboard because it had some holes in it and was easy to get to with everything out of the way...



My fiance covered the old blue leather headbumpers with some new fabric to brighten it up and remove some blue from the 90s interior...




My dad and I worked on the cabinet itself. This is just the lower section so far but its a good start. Trying to be smart about storage and use every square inch! The upper cabinet will be all dry food and clothing storage, the lower cabinet above heater will be spare blankets and pillows, and the large bottom area will have the fridge slide. Above the wheel well, behind the fridge slide there will be a hidden storage compartment for spare parts, recovery gear, and other items we don't use all the time.



Next up we will finish the cabinet, stain it, and paint the walls. Getting closer to "finished" for a while anyways... We have been camping quite a bit but also constantly improving and upgrading along the way.

[marret]

Nice, looking great.

[MDBergholm]

Well we finished our cabinet!



And we went on a 7000 mile road trip. Being COVID times we chose to not go into any restaurant or bars, not to walk around downtown areas, and generally avoid any populated areas. It was a VERY different road trip but we still had a ton of fun! Year one with the van has been incredible!

[Twoxentrix]

Originally Posted by MDBergholm

...not to walk around downtown areas, and generally avoid any populated areas. It was a VERY different road trip but we still had a ton of fun! Year one with the van has been incredible!

Your Pic's sure represent what looks like a good time Avoiding "populated areas" is kinda a theme for the majority of us, unfortunately even that has become more difficult to accomplish these days as so many are now adopting this strategy.

[YoTerryh]

Originally Posted by MDBergholm

And we went on a 7000 mile road trip.

That's a serious road trip. What was your route?

[MDBergholm]

We are from the Boston area so we headed west on the 90 out to Chicago, then the 80 out to Denver, then to Moab, up to visit a friend near SLC, then down through Zion, Grand Canyon, Sedona, Petrified Forest, then back east out the 40 through ABQ, up through Nashville, and then out to Shenandoah National Park, up the east coast, and home. We were on the road for 21 days.

We had our fresh water fill burst when we slept around 8000 ft and the temp dropped below zero, and we got water in our distributor somehow when driving through some heavy rains and I had to replace that in a gas station parking lot. Other than that we made it home without much issue. We did develop a vibration that was a bit annoying but turned out to be a bad u-joint that I replaced when we got home. I was kicking myself for not doing it before the trip like I should have. Overall the van did extremely well considering its got over 200k on the 351W.

[MDBergholm]

Originally Posted by Twoxentrix

Your Pic's sure represent what looks like a good time Avoiding "populated areas" is kinda a theme for the majority of us, unfortunately even that has become more difficult to accomplish these days as so many are now adopting this strategy.

Yeah but normally it would be nice to stop and walk around these downtowns, or at least that's what my fiancé tells me... probably saved me a lot of money! I secretly appreciated it...