GrayWhale said:
You just need to get some Reflectix and cut them out to the shape of the windows. They plop right on and off pretty easily. They are silver in color so I spray painted one side black and now it's kind of like limo tint unless someone is right next to the van. You can selectively peel small corners off to peek out too. People on here say that they feel safer with being able to see outside vs. being in a fully enclosed van.
Then there's the great option of being able to have a view, especially if you plan on going camping. There's so much debate on which is more stealthier though. Like a no windows, white cargo van would freak out most people if you parked it near their single home, house at night. But a passenger or conversion van would look like a neighbor's out of town guest. While a conversion van in a commercial area would resemble someone living in it. People are bound to see you getting in and out of a white cargo van, not looking like a contractor. Enjoying hours at a park and regularly, would be difficult too.
There are a number of really good points in this thread to keep in mind; not the least of which is that white commercial-looking high-top cargo vans are about as stealthy as a marked S.W.A.T. tactical van or a fire truck. They're fine during the day in a parking lot or on the street. At night, though... why would one be parked anywhere at 3 am but outside the business that it advertises on the side? They look suspicious to anyone who is looking for things out of the ordinary... exactly the opposite of what the folks who have them want to be. Factory-looking camper vans and window vans, OTOH, are everywhere and no one seems to give them a second look. I used to feel conspicuous in mine until I'd had it and used it for a while... and began to recognize that it's just about invisible in a parking lot or on the street.
As GrayWhale says, windows are not a bad thing. Even in most service vans, you'll at least have a windshield and side door windows anyway... the addition of a window or two (mine has one) on the driver's side and back door windows allows for a 360* view of your surroundings... and that's really nice if you're someplace that you want to see the view... or, more importantly from a tactical and safety perspective, when you ought to know what's going on outside around you, without having to go outside to find out. And with tinted windows and curtains and shades, you can make your van interior as private as you want, and not feel like you're staying in a fishbowl.
From a gas mileage/power perspective, it takes X amount of energy to move X amount of weight X distance. Smaller engines in big vans use the same or even more gas as a bigger engine in the same van, they're just under-powered and have to work harder. The biggest engines just take a lot of fuel to run... and really don't care how much load they tow. My '06 32' Born Free Kodiak chassis Super C motorhome has an 8.1L Chevy engine that gets 7-9 mpg and it doesn't care whether or not I'm towing my Jeep behind it. I had the 460 in a '94 E350 Airstream B190 van that got 9mpg. My current van is a '95 Coachmen on an E250 chassis with the 351W and E40D trans and I average about 13-14mpg and still has plenty of power. The van conversion in the Coachmen is much lighter than the Airstream conversion was. I, too, am not a fan of the Triton engines, but I've had three of them in various vehicles and not had problems with any of them. The best mileage I got out of Triton V-10 was about 15mpg in a Y2K Excursion that I had for several years.
I was pleased when I found this '95 E250 Coachmen with the injected 351 Windsor, though, especially with such a low-mileage drivetrain. I run Mobil 1 engine oil and Ford synthetics for all the other lubricants, and I expect this 351W drivetrain to last many, many miles. The failures I've had so far have been mainly age-related; for example the fuel regulator diaphragm started leaking causing a rich mixture. But those things are easy fixes... and for the $120k I saved over buying a brand new B-van, or the $50k I saved over buying a ten year old one... I can do a LOT of maintenance and repairs.
BTW, older factory camper van conversions can be found under $10k if you're patient and willing to travel. Mine was an exceptionally good buy, and it took a year and a half of looking to find it, but it only had 26k miles on it and I bought it for $5k. I have another $4k in it in service and repairs ($1,000 of that was tires, $300 was a new water heater to replace the factory heater that had burst from freezing, $200 was a trailer hitch, and another $1k was a fuel pump and carburetor for the Onana Microlite 2800 genset.) The generator only had 16 hours on it... the WORST thing you can do to a generator in an RV is to let it sit without exercising it. Mine came equipped with all the amenities one would expect in a high-end motorhome including the generator, roof a/c, three way fridge, plumbed RV toilet, propane stove and furnace, microwave, water systems, etc. etc. etc. I don't think it's possible to be more comfortable, either running errands during the day, or for extended trips in the van which I do regularly with my two Cavalier King Charles spaniels. I'll be taking them on a day trip today as a matter of fact... and a week-long trip on the 30th... and then a six-week trip to the left coast and back starting the second week in January.
Anyway, its just food for thought... I admire those folks who've bought a bare cargo van and converted it to their liking, but for me, it's all about traveling in comfort without a lot of work to do it... and an inexpensive, factory-built B-van suits me just fine in every way. My signature has a link to photos of my van if you're curious about it.
