Chevrolet Express Van - AWD to 4x4 conversion
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luthj
Engineer In Residence
I am also interested in your results with the 242HD, as I am considering this Tcase for my 4x4 conversion as well. Seems like it ticks a lot of boxes for the light duty crowd who wants/needs 4WD at speed on hard surfaces.
As far as beefing up the 242, I have read that the 6 gear planetary set can be swapped in from other versions of the 241 (possibly other Tcase models as well). I guess dodge had a version of the 241 with this 6 gear set, vs the 3 gear set used in the 242HD. Some reading on this site.
https://fivewheeldrive.me/2015/04/25/a-case-for-all-cases/
As far as beefing up the 242, I have read that the 6 gear planetary set can be swapped in from other versions of the 241 (possibly other Tcase models as well). I guess dodge had a version of the 241 with this 6 gear set, vs the 3 gear set used in the 242HD. Some reading on this site.
https://fivewheeldrive.me/2015/04/25/a-case-for-all-cases/
So I no longer have this van I converted, but I now have a 2004 6.0 4l80 that I converted with a solid axle. The 4l80 has the speed sensor in the trans and not the adapter so it has no idea when I put it in low range. I haven’t used the low range a lot yet but it seems to function pretty normal to me with the high range mapping.
Now this is 4l80 vs the 4l60 and not the same exact setup but still, enough for me to feel confident that if I would have gotten to mounting the speed sensor in the adapter of this van in question it would have been much more functional/practical in low range.
Main downsides are abs light goes on cause it reads the front wheels slow and rear fast, and the speedometer is fast. I don’t care about either of those if I am in low range anyways, at least it shifts normally
fawndog
New member
JB Custom Fabrication
JB Custom Fabrication, JB Fab, JB Custom, twin-stick, triple-stick, stainless steel, transfer case shifters, d300, np205, np203, d20, doubler, cable shifters,
jb-custom-fabrication.myshopify.com
R1ck
New member
This may be a bit off topic. I am looking at the Boulder Off Road Chevy AWD 6" Suspension System. I have a 2014 Express AWD 1500. I currently have a 3" key lift in the front and a 1" block on the rear. Does anyone have experience with this lift kit, or would you recommend something else? I'm thinking of going this way for more articulation.
I do not have any experience with this lift but my question for you is what size tires do you plan to run, And what do you do with the van? I was going to add my lift in the form of a body lift so that I could fit 33's but decided to stick with just torsion keys because of gearing. If u do heavy offroad you might want to look into a transfer case swap to get a 4lo.
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Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
R1ck
New member
I am running 32" with the torsion keys, they have very little flex. I might do the transfer case swap in the future. We live in Nevada, the van is capable of most of what we do. We see rough spots we could get past with better suspension and a little more lift. People we offroad with are amazed of where the van can go.
Did you have to do any trimming for the 32" tires? If you don't mind sharing since info on your rim info like size, backspace, offset etc. Thanks in advance.
Off topic but has anyone figured out how to take the stock headliner out and disable the airbags so you could put insulation and your own panels in the roof of your Chev. Express? I disconnected the airbags in the rear and the default disabled all front airbags. At this point have left the stock headliner in, Thank you.
curtis73
New member
Many moons ago I stumbled on a forum post (not sure if here or elsewhere) that converted their AWD van using a BW unit from a truck. I realize that NP241 is a far more desirable case, but the writeup basically involved "buy truck 4470, swap out the 4473, install cable"
I'm looking to do the 4wd swap, but I don't need anything crazy. I don't need a super-low range, and my off roading is mostly mountain roads and getting to the good camping spots. I don't crawl Moab. I'm thinking the BW case might be a good choice for me to make it a more bolt-in swap.
A) I can't find that page for the life of me and its driving me nuts
B) is there a specific reason you chose the NP241? (if you can remember back that far
I'm looking to do the 4wd swap, but I don't need anything crazy. I don't need a super-low range, and my off roading is mostly mountain roads and getting to the good camping spots. I don't crawl Moab. I'm thinking the BW case might be a good choice for me to make it a more bolt-in swap.
A) I can't find that page for the life of me and its driving me nuts
B) is there a specific reason you chose the NP241? (if you can remember back that far
Many moons ago I stumbled on a forum post (not sure if here or elsewhere) that converted their AWD van using a BW unit from a truck. I realize that NP241 is a far more desirable case, but the writeup basically involved "buy truck 4470, swap out the 4473, install cable"
I'm looking to do the 4wd swap, but I don't need anything crazy. I don't need a super-low range, and my off roading is mostly mountain roads and getting to the good camping spots. I don't crawl Moab. I'm thinking the BW case might be a good choice for me to make it a more bolt-in swap.
A) I can't find that page for the life of me and its driving me nuts
B) is there a specific reason you chose the NP241? (if you can remember back that far
If you don't want/need low range, I'm not sure that a swap from an AWD transfer case to something like a NP241 makes sense, in my opinion.
I chose the NP241 to get low range, and have a manual shifting transfer case.
I no longer own the van. The interior layout was not conducive to our stage of life (2 very young kids), and it was needing more attention than I had time to give to it. I'm getting by with my 17 yr. old Passat wagon, but a crew cab truck may the next iteration of adventure vehicle.
curtis73
New member
Sorry... what I wrote was confusing. I definitely need low range, but I was saying I don't need Moab-crawling 4:1 reduction. Any of the standard 2.72-ish lows would work. I'm looking for a closer-to-bolt-in solution that gets me 2wd/4hi/4lo and possibly retains the FT4wd/AWD. What I really want is a bolt-in NP242, but I don't think I'll find it. I was wondering if there was such a bolt-in swap that could retain factory driveshafts
You'll have to look at my images and discussion on the first page of this thread, then get underneath your van to really understand the features, lengths, and angles you are dealing with. I don't think a NP242 has a booted slip-yoke output for the front. If that is true, and no conversion kit exists, you are looking at a custom front drive shaft. But I've been away from all of this for too long, so my knowledge should not be considered to be reliable. I'm also not fully aware of the differences between a NP241 vs. a NP242. You may find this reading interesting:
May be possible to have 2WD, AWD, & 4WD in a Chevy???
www.silveradosierra.com