I'm (almost) officially a (step)vandweller again!!

[Willy]

 Just bought myself an '85 Grumman Kurbmaster (14' box) running on propane. 350 Chev w. TH400 tranny and dual 100L switchable propane tanks and rear barn doors. It's a BEAST!! Only pics I have, so far, are from the ad, but more to come. Gonna be one bizzy puppy soon. ..Willy.

 

[my_vantasy]

Wow--look at all of that space. Can't wait to see what you do with it. Congratulations!

 

[Willy]

Thanx! Gonna load ALL my stuff, most of which is stored at my parents' place, then drive it to the Okanagan to kit it out. It was just too good of a deal to pass up.. basically $1600 and with a buncha brand new parts. ..Willy.

 

[cdiggy]

Sweet! I have an 83 Kurbmaster with a 12' box. Think I like yours better! Congrats!

 

[Willy]

I prefer the 12' box myself, but here we're talking hen's teeth. Still, the extra 2' will be put to good use. At least I'll FINALLY be able to haul along all my tools. ..Willy.

 

[BC Guy]

And it was only posted yesterday. You are quick.

 

[Willy]

Yeah but, talking to buddy, he got a lotta 'flakes' contacting him and few where willing to head out into the stix to check it out. There is/was a mini schoolbus for sale here in Abbotsford, for something like $2500 (4 sp E4OD tranny & 7.3 L diesel) that I almost checked out.. but figure that a stepvan is more inconspicuous and propane way cheaper. I figure if I can get anything close to 8-10 mpg, then that would be the equivalent of my truck/canopy setup gettin 13-15 mpg. ..Willy.

 

[cdiggy]

Willy, are you keeping the 3 speed tranny? My gas 350 chews up fuel like no tomorrow. I just recently bought an 89 suburban in great mech shape to replace the tired 350 and 3 speed to fuel injected 4 speed. Anything over 55 mph and the motor screams. The overdrive I am hoping will help.

 

[Willy]

I'm thinking that it might be easier to drop in another ring/pinion into the rear. Not gonna be hauling as much weight, so can get by with a lower ration in the rear. Propane will nix the need for FI, and no accelerator pump like in a carb. ..Willy.

 

[cdiggy]

I'm thinking that it might be easier to drop in another ring/pinion into the rear.

It would but at a cost.. Slower acceleration and being a slug when hauling weight is the cost. Also climbing steeper grades will be more of a problem because you would be downshifting to a lower gear that is even lower due to the ring/pinion. I enjoy the acceleration of my three gears the way they are I just don't like the engine steaming at highway speeds. When I do the switch I will likely put on either a 4L80 or, more likely, a 4L85. Also less strain on the 350 motor (less load). As you can probably tell I have been thinking a lot about this.

 

[Willy]

Is the 4 spd auto compatible with the speedometer in your rig? When it comes to speed, I generally won't do more than 100 k anyway and, if given the opportunity, will try for 90 k. I've got PLENTY of time to get where I'm going, and fuel economy is my main concern. ..Willy.

 

[cdiggy]

yes. Everything is the same. I would love a 5 or six speed but those trans are completely different the 4L80 and 85 are based off of the turbo 400. The newer ones have electronic everything on them. Pretty common upgrade actually. And the turbo 400 is a sought after trans for race applications so it is easily sold to help with the cost of the swap. I had one guy offer to do the swap for free to get my trans but it was a weaker 4 speed.

 

[cdiggy]

Btw my Kurbmaster is an 83. Not much older then yours.

 

[Willy]

I've been waffling for the last decade or so re. getting another stepvan and figured that, now I'm all crippled up, I ain't about to head into really nasty 4x4 country. In that case, I might as well make my digs as cush as possible. My F-250 w. camper/canopy just wasn't cuttin' it. Any thing decent to stick on the back cut too much off the load carrying capacity whereas, with the stepvan, I can haul a whole pile of stuff and still have excess capacity. ..Willy.

 

[cdiggy]

I hear ya! That truck will go almost anywhere with. Full load on it. Mine is an old Atlantic city bus a friend converted to a make shift camper for backpacking. It has been everywhere you can imagine and never got stuck. As long as there is room to maneuver you are golden. Obviously 4wd roads are out but anything else goes!

 

[Willy]

It's too bad that, due to injury, I've gotta stay away from standard trannies, cuz a 4 spd stick would really rock. I've never really liked the stock shiftpoints of automatics. 'Course, I could always throw in a stage 2 or 3 shift kit, but it's not the same. ..Willy.

 

[cdiggy]

Right? I thought of getting a manual trans but thought the conversion would be a lot to deal with. The new auto 6 speeds are really cool I just don't see it being any less then a major pain in the a$$ to do.

 

[Willy]

There are quite a few stepvans w. 4spd stickshifts at wreckers around the lower mainland/Fraser valley. My first stepvan was a 4spd. It was a Chev 30 all rusted to shit (steel box..BOO! HISSS!) which, after I'd torn most of the box off and rebuilt with wood and vinyl siding, I took treeplanting around Vanderhoof and then Barrier. It originally had a 14' box and did surprisingly well on the logging roads.
One of the oh so beautiful things about stepvans is the ability to work on the engine/tranny in situ, by pulling the huge doghouse and unbolting the floor plates, which also makes it far easier to do a tranny swap to stick. I had to replace the clutch plate on my first stepvan and rigged up a hoist in the cab, which made it soooo damned easy.
Another pretty cool thing buddy showed me was that, just by removing a few bolts, the whole rad w. frame assembly could pivot forward, allowing for easy access to the front of the engine. ..Willy.

 

[cdiggy]

One of the beauties of a stepper

 

[akrvbob]

You can buy a drop-in kit that will turn the 4L80 into a mechanical 6 speed, but they are expensive.
Bob