Ford econoline Quigley conversion or Chevy fullsize allwheel Educate me!!!!!

[Jeep or Tacoma]

Trying to decide which way to go.

The goal is to have a reasonably capabple van that go offorad and not get stuck, I am used to driving a rubicon for reall off road exploration so my stnadards are high. I do relaize that I need to reuce my expectations though.
The van will be my prinicpal commuter form San diego to Oakhurst where I now reside. It will be used as a mobile office stealth camper and will need to be a high roof. i will be building in a shower cook top porta porty sleep area and work area.

so the options in my price range are ford and chevy In essence a poor mans sportsmobile.

looking at Ford there are a lot more quigley conversions out there and Lot of econoline that are basic 2 wheel drive units with really good low prices and low miles. So I could search for a quigley converted 4 wheel drive they seem to be $25,000 to 35,000 to which I would need to add a high roof and build out. I found fiberline and see that they do indeed do that.
so price this way it would probably push 30K-40K more than i want to spend.

Ford otion 2 is find a goo used low mileage van <10K add 4wheel drive ~12K and high top Guessing about ~4k total ~26K.

benefits are I know the van low mileage lots of suport and a true 4 wheel drive with low range.

Now for chevy I know you can get them in awd. Have not checked prices and do not know anything about he allwheel drive system. I assume it doesn't include low range. So How does the chevy perform off road?

I am posting this becasue while I know a great deal about 4 wheel drive I don't know how that works in a van and I don't know it works in an allwheel drive chevy van,

As Ilike to say you don't know what you don't know Ya know!

So pelase tellme all that you can think of and what i am missing and what i don't know. Thanks

 

[marret]

There are Quigley GM vans as well, I have one. They do have the independent front suspension.

Ford 4x4 vans are definitely more common. Ford 2wd vans may be more common in some places. GM 2wd vans are more common here. More companies convert or supply parts for Ford conversions although in SoCal, you have Weldtec for GM.

4x4 vans with no build out do come up for sale periodically, but one may have to travel.

There are AWD GM vans, but I don't have experience with them. They were built mostly on the 1500 chassis, but also 2500 for a few years.

 

[whith]

The GM platform will ride better onroad all things being equal, and quiet a bit so. It will also ride better on rough dirt roads forest roads etc. Its generally accepted that the straight axle on. The Ford is better for articulation in tough, technical stuff offroad. I’ve owned both and would say that’s probably true but things need to get pretty gnarly to realize that benefit.

Heres a GM for sale for reference.
2016 Chevrolet Express 2500 Cargo Van *QUIGLY 4X4 CONVERSION* 6.0L 1-O


https://bend.craigslist.org/ctd/d/portland-2016-chevrolet-express-2500/7123834658.html

 

[45Kevin]

The GM platform will ride better onroad all things being equal, and quiet a bit so. It will also ride better on rough dirt roads forest roads etc. Its generally accepted that the straight axle on. The Ford is better for articulation in tough, technical stuff offroad. I’ve owned both and would say that’s probably true but things need to get pretty gnarly to realize that benefit.

Heres a GM for sale for reference.
2016 Chevrolet Express 2500 Cargo Van *QUIGLY 4X4 CONVERSION* 6.0L 1-O


https://bend.craigslist.org/ctd/d/portland-2016-chevrolet-express-2500/7123834658.html

That is a very good value, and is most likely more capable than an Express AWD.

I traveled with a 4x4 E350 this past winter on many back roads and tracks in the Baja. I had no problems doing the same trails.
To access a few beaches we had to dive along arroyas that were strewn with boulders that my lower ground clearance didn't like.
It got done though with a bit more bobbing and weaving to avoid the larger ones.
I got about 40-50% better gas mileage as well. The E350 had the V10 and extended body.
One down side of the Express AWD is the lack of a low range. I could have used that a number times. It was taxing on the torque converter to drag my heavy ass up some of the steep trails we did.