Quote:
Originally Posted by Stubby79
Over-drive. or change the rear end ratio.
Tune. Econo cam.
Narrower, taller, over-inflated tires and/or LRR tires. Lighter wheels.
Aero mods. Boat tail, under-tray.
Weight reduction. (not going to have that much impact)
Alternator/accessory delete, under-drive, whatever.
Block heater, grill block, warm air intake.
Plug-in hybridize it?
More importantly...will you be camperizing it? daily driver? work vehicle? Off-road beast?
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My thought process is to first do some simple aero mods like grill block, front air dam, etc. I'm going to refrain from things like a belly pan until I get far enough along with camperizing it: I think I'll mount grey-water and/or fresh-water tanks underneath.
I do plan to spec-out some wheel & tire combos like you described, so when it's time to replace them that decision won't be rushed. Hopefully, before then, I'll have a better idea as to the vehicle's final weight and use-case by then as well.
I'll probably look at tune, cam, and final drive after a few thousand miles' use. I feel as though I should approach it's final weight first, to get a better idea of how much I can get away with.
As for weight - I'm going to start pricing out weight-savings options from day one. Since, sadly, the van as a camper will all but certainly end up weighing more than it does now - I'll be looking at weight-gain-avoided alongside lightweighting the vehicle in more typical ways. But yes, I agree, it's a lot harder to realize efficiency gains from lightweighting a vehicle of this size (rotational mass excluded).
Thanks again for your input!