FS '02 7.3 Chateau Traveler pack

[Offroading_is_Fun]

Looks like a traveler pack van...

https://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/d/sacramento-2002-ford-e350-van-k-miles/7059446887.html

2wd, looks new, 120K mi... $16K.

No affiliation, just a random find. I remember in past threads others talking about how hard it was to find one of these that "ticked all the right boxes" and had the traveler pack.

 

[simplesez]

That will be sold in 5 minutes

 

[Offroading_is_Fun]

Well... For as interested as I am in it... Not the right time/place for me.

It was the same story with the 12,000 mile all options/7.3L E-350 ambulance (Basically sat idle at a nursing home for 20 yrs+) I found in the middle of nowhere, and the old guy who was selling it wanted all of $7500 for it. Think that one was gone same-day after posting it here, too.


I just wish I could find some of them power seats for sale without buying an entire van, but those are like trying to find unicorns.

 

[rgaller]

A chateau with a slider? Interesting.

 

[Grampswrx]

Diesel? Then this will be gone shortly...

 

[mikracer]

That's a rare van. Traveler package with a diesel? Never seen one before. Low miles, best color (I may be biased), and it's very clean.

 

[Offroading_is_Fun]

That's a rare van. Traveler package with a diesel? N÷very seen one before. Low miles, best color (I may be biased), and it's very clean.

When it comes to these vans I can appreciate just about any color that isn't white... Shame that that's the nature of the "commercial" industry... Nobody wants to pay an extra $100-500 for a paint change.

Deal breaker for me was that it wasn't 4wd... And that sliding door.... :r5:
I could probably make due with it not being 4wd... but the sliding doooorrrr....2:


I was just so shocked that it was traveler pack w/ diesel, low miles, somewhere that was "local" (Not mid/East-US), and the owner wasn't asking $40K... Feel like I've seen people ask $12K for a clapped out 6.0 cargo van with 250K mi... Never mind something as mint as this. About the only thing nuttier than the V10/diesel van market is the pre-emissions pickup market.

 

[mikracer]

When it comes to these vans I can appreciate just about any color that isn't white... Shame that that's the nature of the "commercial" industry... Nobody wants to pay an extra $100-500 for a paint change.

Deal breaker for me was that it wasn't 4wd... And that sliding door.... :r5:
I could probably make due with it not being 4wd... but the sliding doooorrrr....2:


I was just so shocked that it was traveler pack w/ diesel, low miles, somewhere that was "local" (Not mid/East-US), and the owner wasn't asking $40K... Feel like I've seen people ask $12K for a clapped out 6.0 cargo van with 250K mi... Never mind something as mint as this. About the only thing nuttier than the V10/diesel van market is the pre-emissions pickup market.

I prefer the barn doors over a slider too, but if I were looking to buy a van and it checked every other box, I'd probably buy it. Seemed like the biggest issue was not being able to fit big tires when converted to 4x4 but everyone makes the extenders now so it's not an issue.

When I bought my van, I really wanted the chateau for its 4 captains chairs. I found my van at a ford dealer in Fresno and actually used the V10 as a negotiating tool since gas was almost $5 a gallon at the time. I wanted a V8 but boy am I glad I got the V10 now.

 

[Offroading_is_Fun]

When I bought my van, I really wanted the chateau for its 4 captains chairs. I found my van at a ford dealer in Fresno and actually used the V10 as a negotiating tool since gas was almost $5 a gallon at the time. I wanted a V8 but boy am I glad I got the V10 now.

Suppose that is the "nice" thing about CA gas prices... Here in MT we pay like... $2.30-$2.50/gal.. When I was home for xmas gas was like $4+...

FWIW I'm under the impression the gas mileage difference between the V8 and V10 is negligible, at least with the V10 you get more HP and a nicer transmission... I was talking to some of the contractors building new dorms here on campus in Bozeman, they had nothing but praise for the ~2006-7 V10 EB Quigley they had bought. Said they ran the hell out of it and still got 8-9 mpg. I get 11 on the freeway @75.



I'll bet that if there's a 350 Diesel Chateau w/ traveler pack, there's probably a few more out there too, even w/ barn doors. course then comes the question of condition/mileage, and how many lifetimes one must wait for someone to be willing to sell them at a fair price.

 

[rgaller]

That's a rare van. Traveler package with a diesel? Never seen one before. Low miles, best color (I may be biased), and it's very clean.

I doubt anyone really cares about the Traveler package nowadays unless VCR's are your thing:n5:

 

[RVflyfish]

Posting has been deleted. Somebody scored a beauty.

 

[Offroading_is_Fun]

I doubt anyone really cares about the Traveler package nowadays unless VCR's are your thing:n5:

Hmm, how hard would it be to re-fit/wire them? I've never been able to check out a van with a traveler pack...

Posting has been deleted. Somebody scored a beauty.

Yeah, went looking for it a day or so ago.. My guess is seller could have gotten $20K instead of 16. At least from the photos I saw, almost everything looked as good as showroom condition.

 

[MSD-SMB]

Hmm, how hard would it be to re-fit/wire them? I've never been able to check out a van with a traveler pack...



Yeah, went looking for it a day or so ago.. My guess is seller could have gotten $20K instead of 16. At least from the photos I saw, almost everything looked as good as showroom condition.

Sale fell thru van looks to be back up for sale...

 

[Offroading_is_Fun]

Sale fell thru van looks to be back up for sale...

I didn't see that coming. My read is someone knew what that was, and the wife said "Nope". Guess it's up for grabs to someone else!

I still think it's a great deal for someone looking for a very well optioned full-size fan, the biggest and most obvious let down being that it isn't 4wd. Quigley wouldn't touch this van, but I presume Agile or Ujor would do it up for $10-15K?

 

[MSD-SMB]

I didn't see that coming. My read is someone knew what that was, and the wife said "Nope". Guess it's up for grabs to someone else!

I still think it's a great deal for someone looking for a very well optioned full-size fan, the biggest and most obvious let down being that it isn't 4wd. Quigley wouldn't touch this van, but I presume Agile or Ujor would do it up for $10-15K?

Agile, Ujoint, CCV, timberline, quadvan, Mg they’ll all do a 4x4 on it heck advanced would as well. Quigley is gonna have to make a change as they’re going to be getting less work with the new awd transit bitting in to their market share now...

 

[Offroading_is_Fun]

Agile, Ujoint, CCV, timberline, quadvan, Mg they’ll all do a 4x4 on it heck advanced would as well. Quigley is gonna have to make a change as they’re going to be getting less work with the new awd transit bitting in to their market share now...

Might be just me, but I've always been under the impression that 4x4 w/ solid axles can take more abuse and in most circumstances, equal or more effective than awd with independent.

My guess is that Quigley can keep market share if it's willing to rework their stance on what E-series they are willing to do conversions on. I would wager that while the newer transits are popular, that there is likely still quite a bit of demand for 4x4 E-series, and that historically (i think?) Quigley was undercutting a lot of companies on their conversion costs.


I priced out what I viewed as a reasonable if not upper-end spec Transit 350, it worked out to be something like $60K. If I can buy a really nice E350 for $15K and get it converted for another $15K, the $30K difference is going to either A) negate any fuel mileage advantages the transit may have for the lifetime of the vehicle, or buy a lot of really nice goodies that the transit is not going to have... Not to mention certain exemptions, like '97 being CA Smog-exempt(diesel), older vehicles typically being cheaper to insure/register, and most of the failures/weaknesses are usually well known and avoidable.

 

[mikracer]

If you have the funds to purchase a 4x4 van, I would much rather buy a clean 2wd van and put the 4x4 conversion of my choice. You'll get a fresh front end, potentially a tranny rebuild, and fresh fluids/gears.

I've owned a couple quigley Van's and they arent anything special. The ride is pretty bad due to the lack of up travel so you're constantly hitting the bump stops.

 

[Offroading_is_Fun]

If you have the funds to purchase a 4x4 van, I would much rather buy a clean 2wd van and put the 4x4 conversion of my choice. You'll get a fresh front end, potentially a tranny rebuild, and fresh fluids/gears.

I've owned a couple quigley Van's and they arent anything special. The ride is pretty bad due to the lack of up travel so you're constantly hitting the bump stops.

Just depends on what you're doing with them... While I have not gotten to ride in or drive a 4x4 E-series with Agile or the "better" suspension kits out there:

For the highway and around town the Quigley has been great... In neighborhoods filled with Mt. Everest speed bumps & on washboard-trails, not so much (Yes, I understand your comment about the bump stops. I've been riding passenger and had my bum leave the seat and head meet the roof thanks to them). Having driven the same paths in other vehicles, the ride was either the same or not significantly worse.

Agile's website either misses the mark with its sales pitch or I own the oddball Quigley that doesn't suffer from the issues they say most Quigleys consistently suffer from... Only one noticeable bump stop issue once in 20 years and I wasn't driving, mentioned above. There is no "major wallowing" that I have noticed. Sure it bounces a little on deep driveway entrances/exits, but seeing as I'm usually the only one in the van and know what's coming, it never seems so bad as what a distracted/unsuspecting passenger might experience. It does tend to bounce a little when going up onto/off of a curb, is it a deal breaker, or to put it in their words, have me "doubting my purchase"? Not at all...


As far as the RIP kit- Their website includes no price or pictures of it installed on a 4x4 E-series, unless I'm blind. My take is the Agile suspension replacement on Quigley vans includes raising the ride height, cutting the bump stops off or both to achieve the increased travel. Not very much information out there.

Not trying to beat up on Agile- just saying that their website, to me specifically, leaves a lot to be desired. It's pretty hard to sell someone thousands of dollars worth of suspension when there is no videos to show the before-and-after effect of swapping the suspension out. I would think that would be a HUGE marketing tool.

 

[MSD-SMB]

Just depends on what you're doing with them... While I have not gotten to ride in or drive a 4x4 E-series with Agile or the "better" suspension kits out there:

For the highway and around town the Quigley has been great... In neighborhoods filled with Mt. Everest speed bumps & on washboard-trails, not so much (Yes, I understand your comment about the bump stops. I've been riding passenger and had my bum leave the seat and head meet the roof thanks to them). Having driven the same paths in other vehicles, the ride was either the same or not significantly worse.

Agile's website either misses the mark with its sales pitch or I own the oddball Quigley that doesn't suffer from the issues they say most Quigleys consistently suffer from... Only one noticeable bump stop issue once in 20 years and I wasn't driving, mentioned above. There is no "major wallowing" that I have noticed. Sure it bounces a little on deep driveway entrances/exits, but seeing as I'm usually the only one in the van and know what's coming, it never seems so bad as what a distracted/unsuspecting passenger might experience. It does tend to bounce a little when going up onto/off of a curb, is it a deal breaker, or to put it in their words, have me "doubting my purchase"? Not at all...


As far as the RIP kit- Their website includes no price or pictures of it installed on a 4x4 E-series, unless I'm blind. My take is the Agile suspension replacement on Quigley vans includes raising the ride height, cutting the bump stops off or both to achieve the increased travel. Not very much information out there.

Not trying to beat up on Agile- just saying that their website, to me specifically, leaves a lot to be desired. It's pretty hard to sell someone thousands of dollars worth of suspension when there is no videos to show the before-and-after effect of swapping the suspension out. I would think that would be a HUGE marketing tool.

Most companies that are small are busy doing working on customers vans not creating an elaborate website. There are many quigley owners on this forum that have Agiles RIP kits & completely happy... in 5 years of being on this forum I don’t think a single person has ever had issues with there a RIP kit. If your interested you need to take specific pictures which they go over on the sight, once you submit this you’ll be contacted with cost & lead time. If you think your quigley performs well now... you’ll be more than pleasantly surprised how well the RIP performs especially if you want to run bigger tires.

 

[Offroading_is_Fun]

Most companies that are small are busy doing working on customers vans not creating an elaborate website. There are many quigley owners on this forum that have Agiles RIP kits & completely happy... in 5 years of being on this forum I don’t think a single person has ever had issues with there a RIP kit. If your interested you need to take specific pictures which they go over on the sight, once you submit this you’ll be contacted with cost & lead time. If you think your quigley performs well now... you’ll be more than pleasantly surprised how well the RIP performs especially if you want to run bigger tires.

Not even a simple "Hey we mounted a gopro on the front bumper looking at the front axle, this is a Quigley going over a deep driveway/speedbump/4x4/whatever @ 30/40/50mph, and this is the same van with our suspension facing the same obstacle at the same speed, notice how the suspension is noticeably better?"

Could be a really short 20 second clip with no commentary that lets the suspension speak for itself, not a high-end production, or elaborate test like the "moose tests" on YouTube. A picture on their website would be worth a thousand words, even. By the looks of it, the pictures they had for their RIP kit was a 2wd E-series.


I'm a college student. I have money to buy things here and there, but am not independently wealthy. I drive about three thousand miles a year, 2200 of which occur over two days driving between Bozeman and SF. Even with the small V8, I only get about 10 mpg, maybe 12 if i can find "the good stuff" without ethanol in it. Bigger tires to me just means more stress on the trans and a higher ride height that would likely lead to worse fuel economy than it already gets.

The question for me boils down to how big of a ride-improvement are they on the highway, and how much if any it's going to hurt fuel consumption. Already I don't like driving much over 250/tank and with the drives I do a lot of times that's about the minimum between bigger fuel stations- so if it has any measurable decrease in MPG I'm either stuck getting the suspension and a long-far-out-of-production transfer flow tank (If you can even find one, all of the other tanks around have a big asterisk and say "diesel only"), or sticking it out with OE/Quigley.

I'm certain that in the 23 years since the Quigley I have has been built, Agile & Fox have come up with better suspension. "How, How much, Worth it for someone who doesn't drive a whole lot & 80+% hwy miles?" I'm sure there's an Agile RIP thread for vans around here somewhere, just haven't gotten around to looking for it yet.