Well, where do we start? I guess with introductions.
Hi. I'm Alex. I've had a 6.0 Quigley 4x4 e350 for 3 days and I'm probably already over my head. You see, I'm a Toyota guy. I've put 110k miles of cross country adventures on my 2015 Tacoma TRD Pro a Super Pacific X1 camper. It's got more mods than I can list in a single post, it's reliable and pretty simple. It just works.
For some reason, I've always wanted a van. Specifically a 4x4 e350 pop top. Why? Well, the wife and I don't like people. I mean, we love our friends, but people as a whole are the worst. So when we do our annual vacation we pick a state and I plan a set of offroad trails across the entire state. Usually around 1500 miles of offroad per trip. We don't always choose easy trails, in fact, many times they are really difficult trails because that's where the people aren't. :n5:
I wanted the e350 because I don't think it will be the limiting factor in the places we go. Sprinters are incredible and have lots of space, but I don't believe they are made to go the places we go. I also wanted a diesel for towing. The wife and I both ride motorcycles and I wanted to be able to tow them all over the country.
So on a whim I bought a the van. It was exactly what I wanted, for a good price. I flew to Baltimore and drove it home. Then I started the in-depth research and wow. There is a lot more to these vans than my simple Tacoma. The recommended maintenance schedules, coolant flushes, transmission fluid changes, 6.0l bulletproofing...
Then there is the interior. I am not a wood worker and I learned this weekend the floor isn't flat. Sooo, that makes it really fun to make a square box.
In short, I'm in over my head, and I can't wait to get going!
My first problem is the aftermarket oil cooler super nice, but right in the way of the winch mount in the Aluminess bumper. Winches are important for us as we travel solo most of the time, but oil coolers are also helpful since it has some really large vans, and we'll be doing a lot of slow offroad crawling.
Secondly I have a LOT of stuff we carry on our 6000 plus mile offroad trips. So I've got to find a way to carry that without having things rolling around or boxes every. I started that process this weekend.
Ok, you aren't here for the talking, you want pictures, so here ya go.
The new beast:
Old and new
The first boxes are in place. When I took the van down to visit my dad this weekend he wanted to help immediately. So we threw a set of drawers in, and then built an extension to the end of it with 10 gallons of water, the pump, and extra storage. I still need to wrap the shelves in the carpet, and add the bungies to keep the boxes for sliding out.
The next steps will be moving things from the Tacoma and finding homes for it in the van. Now if only it was 98 degrees here in the south...
Hi. I'm Alex. I've had a 6.0 Quigley 4x4 e350 for 3 days and I'm probably already over my head. You see, I'm a Toyota guy. I've put 110k miles of cross country adventures on my 2015 Tacoma TRD Pro a Super Pacific X1 camper. It's got more mods than I can list in a single post, it's reliable and pretty simple. It just works.
For some reason, I've always wanted a van. Specifically a 4x4 e350 pop top. Why? Well, the wife and I don't like people. I mean, we love our friends, but people as a whole are the worst. So when we do our annual vacation we pick a state and I plan a set of offroad trails across the entire state. Usually around 1500 miles of offroad per trip. We don't always choose easy trails, in fact, many times they are really difficult trails because that's where the people aren't. :n5:
I wanted the e350 because I don't think it will be the limiting factor in the places we go. Sprinters are incredible and have lots of space, but I don't believe they are made to go the places we go. I also wanted a diesel for towing. The wife and I both ride motorcycles and I wanted to be able to tow them all over the country.
So on a whim I bought a the van. It was exactly what I wanted, for a good price. I flew to Baltimore and drove it home. Then I started the in-depth research and wow. There is a lot more to these vans than my simple Tacoma. The recommended maintenance schedules, coolant flushes, transmission fluid changes, 6.0l bulletproofing...
Then there is the interior. I am not a wood worker and I learned this weekend the floor isn't flat. Sooo, that makes it really fun to make a square box.
In short, I'm in over my head, and I can't wait to get going!
My first problem is the aftermarket oil cooler super nice, but right in the way of the winch mount in the Aluminess bumper. Winches are important for us as we travel solo most of the time, but oil coolers are also helpful since it has some really large vans, and we'll be doing a lot of slow offroad crawling.
Secondly I have a LOT of stuff we carry on our 6000 plus mile offroad trips. So I've got to find a way to carry that without having things rolling around or boxes every. I started that process this weekend.
Ok, you aren't here for the talking, you want pictures, so here ya go.
The new beast:
Old and new
The first boxes are in place. When I took the van down to visit my dad this weekend he wanted to help immediately. So we threw a set of drawers in, and then built an extension to the end of it with 10 gallons of water, the pump, and extra storage. I still need to wrap the shelves in the carpet, and add the bungies to keep the boxes for sliding out.
The next steps will be moving things from the Tacoma and finding homes for it in the van. Now if only it was 98 degrees here in the south...
