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Originally Posted by livewire516
Another Vandweller! Yeah, having never off-roaded, I don't know what I'm missing but if I do any suspension mods, it would all but certainly involve lowering the van, not raising it. One of the first things I plan to do is remove the commercial roof rack - I'll hold onto it, at least for a little while, but I don't haul much gear so right now it's just an aero penalty.
Haha, I bought a composting toilet before I even bought the van! It's a Separett, roughly comparable to the offering by Nature's Head in design and price.
I agree that for more mixed use vehicles, it's smarter to have more gears like the late model 8 and 10 speed autos. But since I really won't tow/haul much, I'm thinking I'll have the most to gain from a manual because of fewer driveline/parasitic losses, and the ease of being able to P&G. But at the end of the day, if I do it it'll just be because I like a having a manual transmission.
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Lifting or lowering an Express is difficult. The rear is simple - swap the axle over the leaf spring instead over it or use custom shackles. The front in the difficult part. All the lift kits use custom spindles - I suspect that is the only way to drop the front and keep the geometry. You could go with lower profile tires. That would drop the van but also raise RPMs which might require new gearing.
One of the reason I went with the Astro is because it is easy to lift. The front suspension, engine, and transmission in on a subframe that you can lift with just simple blocks. My lift kit was $225 and the same amount of lift on a full size van is about $2500. Before I lifted my Astro I was bottoming out the front bumper quite a bit offroad.
Those commercial ladder racks do catch a lot of air. I suspect you would have no trouble finding someone willing to buy it if you decided to get rid of it permanently. I decided to make my own low-profile rack with aluminum 80/20. I'll be adding a 3rd solar panel for a total of 300 watts shortly and shortening my 80/20 to fit. After that it will get a front spoiler. If I didn't need to carry rafts and boats I would have just mounted the panels to the roof directly.