ATPT

[TheATPT]

How our commuter van was transformed into the family adventure wagon.

 

[TheATPT]

I bought the van with the intention of converting it to 4wd , found a van with only 17k mi on it, thought that would mean it would have no mechanical issues. Wrong, shortly after purchase the transmission lost a roller bearing and dropped the phone no into the planetary gear. So the transmission needed rebuilding. I thought I would get ahead of the game and knowing that eventually I would need the tail shaft , and a transfer case for the 4wd I would have that done now. In doing that we discovered the transfer case hit the fuel tank. So I called UJOINT off-road got a tank shorting kit and a x-member from Chris and got back from n the road with a 2wd van with a transfer case. We drove it this way for 6 months.
Then after doing my research decided to take it to North Carolina and let Chris do his magic.

 

[TheATPT]

Chris did a great job, the van is awesome.

 

[TheATPT]

Needed some steps so the family could get in, so I went local and to agile off-road and got some aluminess gear

 

[TheATPT]

Next it is more transmission problems

 

[TheATPT]

After dealing with more transmission swapping than I care to document I finally have the right set up and it is ford blue

 

[TheATPT]

The rear springs were sagging a bit and Chris took care of me and had new ones sent out, half a day of wrestling the van and we are all fixed up

 

[TheATPT]

Family came to Vegas for Thanksgiving so we went on a trip to red rock canyon, weather went from great to snow but we had no problems

 

[TheATPT]

Today we went to The Valley of Fire, not any off-roading but still very cool state park.

 

[iggi]

Great looking rig. Which trans kept blowing up? What did you replace it with? Any perspective on what caused the issues?

 

[TheATPT]

Great looking rig. Which trans kept blowing up? What did you replace it with? Any perspective on what caused the issues?

The transmission is a 4r75e, had it beefed up with heavy duty parts and the torque converter turned out to be causing my problems, increased the stall and everything seemed to get better

 

[TheATPT]

We went to the Hauser geode beds today. It was a great place to take the kids found a lot of treasures for them to display and just had a great time out in Gods country.

 

[45Kevin]

Nice pics man.
Keep them coming.
Your rig is narly.

 

[TheATPT]

Today we did the Nelson gold mine trail, it is the most technical trail we have done with the van so far. The jeeps we encountered were shocked to see us there..

 

[TheATPT]

We did smash up our aluminess nerf bars a bit