iridewheelies
Adventurer
After 15 years, I decided to sell my Vanagon Syncro earlier this year. It was a good van and she never let me down but I was at a point where I either dumped a whole bunch of cash into it or I sell it and get something bigger. I decided to sell it because I needed something that could tow a heavy trailer. Plus I thought I'd be able to get a pretty good price for it, Syncro vans seem to be at, or near, peak value right now.
I'd originally planned to keep the vanagon forever, thinking that there was no new vehicle (sold in the USA) on the market that would meet my needs. Sprinter is too big for off road travel, I don't want a giant Sportsmobile 4x4 and something like a Tiger is way out of my price range. I just can't see spending $130,000 on a camper van. I'd be afraid to drive it anywhere.
One day I was looking around the internet at camper van forms and I came across Accrete's van on the sportsmobile forum: http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=5996
When I saw his van with the hightop on it I knew it would be perfect for me. I made the decision to sell the vanagon and get a chevy right then and there.
I contacted my local chevy dealer and asked about ordering a brand new one from the factory. Since it was getting close to the end of the manufacturing year and the dealer couldn't guarantee my van would be built, I decided to buy one off the lot at a dealer up in Mt Vernon. It was pretty close to what I wanted and it was the only one available so I think I was pretty lucky to find it.
This is the van, not sure why the video is still on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wftrKkiCRwI
I've put about 13,000 miles on it already. My girlfriend and I have camped all over the northwest this summer. Not long after getting it we took it on a road trip down to Bahia De Los Angeles in Baja Mexico stopping in San Diego and Lake Tahoe on the way home. The van drove great. It was so nice to have air-conditioning! We camped for almost three weeks and only spent $100 on lodging for the whole trip. We camped for free most nights, all of the camping fees were at campgrounds in Mexico.
Now that I've sold the Syncro I have the money to start making this van into a 4 season camper. First step was getting some headroom. I've ordered a 24" hightop from Van Specialties in Oregon. It's being painted silver to match this week and hopefully I'll drive down to have it installed next week. Once the top is on I'll build the interior. I'm going to build a dinette in the back, a kitchen cabinet on the drivers side, swivel passenger seat and cabinets along the roof on the driver side only. I bought a webasto gasoline AT2000ST from Ebay to keep us warm in the winter. We like to camp out in the RV lot at White Pass on weekends during ski season.
I have so many cool ideas for this van. I'll do my best to share the work I do here on the forum. I'll update this post with pictures as soon as I get my top on. I'm excited to get started on this build. I have a long road in front of me.
I'd originally planned to keep the vanagon forever, thinking that there was no new vehicle (sold in the USA) on the market that would meet my needs. Sprinter is too big for off road travel, I don't want a giant Sportsmobile 4x4 and something like a Tiger is way out of my price range. I just can't see spending $130,000 on a camper van. I'd be afraid to drive it anywhere.
One day I was looking around the internet at camper van forms and I came across Accrete's van on the sportsmobile forum: http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=5996
When I saw his van with the hightop on it I knew it would be perfect for me. I made the decision to sell the vanagon and get a chevy right then and there.
I contacted my local chevy dealer and asked about ordering a brand new one from the factory. Since it was getting close to the end of the manufacturing year and the dealer couldn't guarantee my van would be built, I decided to buy one off the lot at a dealer up in Mt Vernon. It was pretty close to what I wanted and it was the only one available so I think I was pretty lucky to find it.
This is the van, not sure why the video is still on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wftrKkiCRwI
I've put about 13,000 miles on it already. My girlfriend and I have camped all over the northwest this summer. Not long after getting it we took it on a road trip down to Bahia De Los Angeles in Baja Mexico stopping in San Diego and Lake Tahoe on the way home. The van drove great. It was so nice to have air-conditioning! We camped for almost three weeks and only spent $100 on lodging for the whole trip. We camped for free most nights, all of the camping fees were at campgrounds in Mexico.
Now that I've sold the Syncro I have the money to start making this van into a 4 season camper. First step was getting some headroom. I've ordered a 24" hightop from Van Specialties in Oregon. It's being painted silver to match this week and hopefully I'll drive down to have it installed next week. Once the top is on I'll build the interior. I'm going to build a dinette in the back, a kitchen cabinet on the drivers side, swivel passenger seat and cabinets along the roof on the driver side only. I bought a webasto gasoline AT2000ST from Ebay to keep us warm in the winter. We like to camp out in the RV lot at White Pass on weekends during ski season.
I have so many cool ideas for this van. I'll do my best to share the work I do here on the forum. I'll update this post with pictures as soon as I get my top on. I'm excited to get started on this build. I have a long road in front of me.
