Our "new" Tiger...

[weezerbot]

Please continue to follow the story of the Tiger XL here: http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...461#post928461

[Overland Hadley]

Thanks for the link.

[gmg_co]

you ready to sell your Tiger? I'm looking for a XL AWD like yours........
thanks, gary in colorado

It all started at the Expo M&G on Fiesta Island. There were lots of cool rigs full of Expo bling to drool over but I found myself drawn to a funny little Astro van owned by Suntinez. It was like a scene in an old Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs would happen upon a tiny, little Teepee out in the desert: He'd poke his head in the door and inside would be a 20,000 sq.ft. mansion with a tennis court and bowling alley. It wasn't quite that dramatic when I peered into Suntinez's van but it did make my jaw drop a little. Bathroom/shower, 3-way refrigerator, A/C, generator, furnace, 2 separate sleeping areas, stove, sink, microwave... how the heck did they fit all that stuff into a 16' vehicle?!

Suntinez gave me a great intro to the company, Provan, that designed and built the Tiger. They were in production from the late-80's until 2005 when Chevy stopped making Astros (Provan now uses full-size trucks for their platform). I decided then and there that I MUST find a Tiger to add to our camping quiver. My wife loved the idea so we came up with a plan and a budget. After 5 months of searching (I was expecting to fly and buy somewhere far away), we found EXACTLY what we wanted (AWD, low miles, hard top) 30 miles from our house.

1994- It's an oldie but a goldie:


Dirtbike rack coming soon:

[big jefe]

Hi, I just purchased a 1988 tiger astro, with the poptop and a solid axle 4x4 sway under it. The rig has 43k miles and is said to be in great shape, I have not seen it yet. Which injection system is the best, the EfI or the other? And who knows if their has been a diesel swap dome on these vehicles? Jeff

[ihatemybike]

There have been a few diesel swapped into Astros.

www.astrosafari.com
www.astrosafarivans.org

[HMR]

It's been a year since we sold our Tiger and we still get asked about it often. I was speaking with a handful of people earlier this month at Overland Expo about the XL model and, as usual, it became clear: we miss our Tiger!

In the meantime, we've been working on a fun project. I'm posting it here because it's Tiger related. Had we kept our Tiger, one of our long term goals was to completely strip the interior down to an empty shell and redo it using a much sturdier yet lighter weight design like many of the custom "overland" campers we've seen from Europe. Problem was, we had no idea how to do it. After much study and tinkering in the garage we worked up enough courage to give it a shot on our new camper. We chose a Sprinter van to use as our chassis.

The original interior:


Stripped:


And after a long weekend in the workshop:



Okay, it took a little longer than a weekend but the point is, I think this would make for an awesome Tiger upgrade. The materials used make the cabinets completely squeak free on bumpy roads (the side and rear doors, however, continue to test my engineering skills...) and the strength to weight ratio is an order of magnitude better than the stock Provan setup. (Note- The Provan setup is actually pretty good compared to many of the other manufacturers).

Sink cabinet:


Fridge cabinet:


Now I just need to figure out how to shoehorn the Sprinter's amazing motor into an AWD XL...

[ThomD]

Very nice. Can you give a quick run down on the materials and general construction methods?

[brettf]

Very nice. Can you give a quick run down on the materials and general construction methods?

x2! Pretty please

[HMR]

Very nice. Can you give a quick run down on the materials and general construction methods?

The basic idea: I've been using road cases to haul music equipment around since I was in high school. While studying the European campers, it occurred to me that they're using the same materials. Makes sense since the stuff is nearly indestructible. We basically built multiple road cases and bolted them into the chassis.

Road case:


The important stuff:
-All wood panels are marine grade plywood.
-All joints are glued AND screwed. We used 3M Marine Adhesive (Europeans use the similar SikaFlex adhesive) on all the major joints. As a result, the surrounding wood will splinter before the joint separates. There is not a single metal "L" bracket anywhere in the camper. Sportsmobile, Provan, FWC, etc. still use "L" brackets to hold the cabinets together. The higher-end campers don't.

Here's an example of "L" brackets in a brand new FWC:


-90% of exposed fasteners are stainless steel (one type of specialty screw we used was unavailable in SS).
-All connections to chassis are either 1/4" stainless steel or Grade 5 hardware.
-All connections to chassis are rubber mounted. There is no metal to metal contact anywhere between fasteners and chassis.
-All surfaces, except the floor, are covered with ABS plastic. All edges are protected with aluminum extrusions. Corners are steel.
-All surfaces are virtually waterproof.

Additional notes: My woodworking skills and tools are those of the average weekend warrior. The point of sharing this interior idea is to show that with some patience and sourcing quality materials, the average person can improve upon the run of the mill, marginal quality RV interiors offered by many of the popular "Expedition" camper builders. Also, our Sprinter, obviously, is not an "off road" camper. However, in the past few months of traveling throughout the Western U.S. it's seen a fair amount of eyeball-rattling dirt roads. So far we haven't developed a single squeak from the cabinetry or found any loose screws (other than the one behind the steering wheel). I'd love to be able to build something similar in a Tiger someday. IMO, the Tiger floorplan is still the best in the business. Redoing the interior with these materials/techniques would be an awesome combo.

[suntinez]

VERY nice, and not surprising coming from you

Happy to see some inside pics, sorry I missed re-connecting with you at OVX. Hope to see it in person someday.