4×4 Van Conversion: Sleeping in a Hammock in a Van - Might be a great grad gift.

[jtuck004]

Always timely, more and more a great idea for mom and dad too. Have noticed a few more vans in the Walmart parking lot lately, but it may just be coincidental.


Posted on September 26, 2013 by Bob — 32 Comments ↓
(Today we have a guest post by a reader who has something very unusual in his van. There isn’t a bed, he sleeps in a Hammock!)

My van conversion was very easy. I simply HATE vans that are full of stuff all over the place. If a police officer does open my van, it is designed to look very simple and much like a work van so that they cannot think that I am living in it. This has saved me a few times! It came with a third row seat which I moved to the side of the van to use as a couch. It provides a nice comfy view out of the side doors when they are open.


It’s a 1996 4×4 Quigley conversion van and has a very high ground clearance. It has a 7.5 liter V8 Fuel Injected engine with a 6,000 lbs towing capacity. I found this van buried in AutoTrader. The person selling it had not marked it as a 4×4 except in the description of the van so it never came up if you were looking for 4×4 vans. Plus, he only had one bad photo of it that didn’t show it was a 4×4. I decided to go and see it even though it was about 250 miles away. When I saw the van I immediately had a good feeling about it. The engine had been redone 65,000 miles ago. The owner did not really say why he was selling but I got the feeling it was bad on gas. I paid $4800.00 for it. I drove it and it was really bad on gas. It got 6 mpg!

Hamm-van-side-door

I started to go over the van really carefully. One thing led to another and I found that a squirrel or rat had chewed off one of the rubber plugs that was on the fuel injection intake manifold. This stopped the vacuum working for the air conditioner so air would not come out the front air vents. It cost 89c for a new plug and then the miles per gallon went up to 9 MPG. It had been sucking in air which messed up the whole air/fuel ratio. I wanted to put a new air filter in so took the whole air filter box off. The same rat or squirrel had built a nest in the intake part of the air box, so the engine was hardly getting any air. I cleaned all that out and the MPG went to 11 mpg. So far I cannot beat 11 mpg but want to try and clean the Mass Air Flow sensor when I find where it is.

I have a table and collapsible rain barrel behind the driver’s seat and some tools are also stored there. Anytime I need the table I just pull it out and pull the legs out. It fits perfectly in front of the third row seat when assembled.
...
?w=480
...

Excerpt from http://www.cheaprvliving.com/conversion-details/4x4-van-conversion-sleeping-in-a-hammock-in-a-van/

[dembotoz]

1. to live in a van would not be my preferred lifestyle choice

[jtuck004]

3. Tens of millions of Americans are not living their preferred lifestyle choice. But it beats that

flat space under the highway bridges, and most dumpsters that I have seen.

Frankly, given that we have now replaced ten million homeowners with renters who are at the mercy of just a handful of greedy companies, this may be the only way some are ever able to free themselves from that bondage that our politicians have sold them into. And there is more pain ahead as the party moves toward its election.

http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/homeownership-rate-households-income-rents-historical-us-home-prices-diversify/

[felix_numinous]

2. There are more and more people

living this way, I have seen the numbers growing, people who used to live in houses and now are out and about. This is an awesome idea for those in vans.