Van budget... How much?

[digitaldervish]

I've been reading all I can and dreaming about what I would want in a van for full timing. I figure I can put together a budget of about 20k if necessary. But I'm wondering what is a realistic budget for a van. Someone posted a link to an article where someone built out a Sprinter for 15k, but that sounds impossible to me. I think the lowest prices sprinter I've come across was around 18k. 

It seems like an early 2000s, big 3 van can be found for around 5k. But since I have the budget, would it be worth it to go newer?

 

[Wanderer]

Going "newer" may not be a bad thing, but just be careful of what you buy.

Find what you like, get it checked and then start living the dream.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

I'm not sure where you're based.  The key thing is to get a van that's as rust free as possible.  If you're somewhere where they salt the roads heavily in the winter, you either need to buy the newest van you can swing, or spend part of your budget to travel somewhere where they DON'T have to salt the roads to shop for your van.

Anything mechanical can be fixed, as long as the frame is solid.  And in point of fact, you should try to hold on to as much of your budget as you can as an emergency fund to cover an engine or transmission failure on a used vehicle.  Shit happens when you buy a used vehicle!

Regards
John

 

[digitaldervish]

I'm not sure where you're based.  

Based in Southern California. Good news I guess that vans here won't likely have rust problems. Bad news is that vans seem to be priced about double blue book value

 

[akrvbob]

I'd look at middle 2000s Chevy Express/Savanah with the 5.3 with less than 100,000 miles. That's about as good as it gets and best bang for the buck.
Bob

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

I sometimes wonder where Blue Book comes up with their numbers.

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you might research van prices in Nevada and Arizona.  Might be worth your while to take a week's "vacation" and go shopping in one of those states.

As far as Southern CA goes, there can still be rust problems on an older vehicle if someone spent too much time on or near a beach . . .

Regards
John

 

[Konaexpress]

Based in Southern California. Good news I guess that vans here won't likely have rust problems. Bad news is that vans seem to be priced about double blue book value

NorCal too! People are insane for what they want and don't even try and buy a VW bus of any kind. 10k + for those! Might see if my step dad still has his.

John

 

[TequilaSunSet]

LULZ... so true since I am from here... wanna buy a vanagon with a 1.8T in it?

 

[Konaexpress]

LULZ... so true since I am from here... wanna buy a vanagon with a 1.8T in it?

Fuuuuuunny!

Is that the air cooled or the Subaru retrofit?

John

 

[idn88]

I think it would depend a lot on how many miles you plan to put on it each year. If your not going to drive a ton of miles each year, newer makes no sense. Probably 8 years old / 100K or just over seems to be the sweet spot. However I would agree rust free is well worth the effort. Most Southeastern states are good places to look as well, but you need to run the history as a lot of used car dealers will buy them cheap up north and ship them down (or at least they used to)

 

[darude]

I think that I would buy a decent used van and and have it gone over by a skilled mech and keep what you have left out of your savings. don't forget you'll have to do things like insulate the van also so there goes some more of your $$$$ out the door!!

 

[cortttt]

I think that I would buy a decent used van and and have it gone over by a skilled mech and keep what you have left out of your savings. don't forget you'll have to do things like insulate the van also so there goes some more of your $$$$ out the door!!

I would check out Penske. I just bought a 2010 GMC Savanna 3500 extended van (63K) for about 15K. Van appears to be in excellent shape. I flew up to Portland to get it and drove it down to Las Vegas.

Penske sells quite a few vans in Torrance but they tend a bit more expensive.

If you can get 2010 or later you can get the 6spd tranny mated with the 4.8 or 5.3L engine. It's a nice combination. I got 18 MPG coming back.

You can spend about 20K to get an almost new (@ 10K) GMC Savanna 2500 (not extended) that Uhaul sells to used car dealers after a year or so....

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Enterprise also sells used vans.

https://www.enterprisetrucks.com/truckrental/en_US/buyatruck.html

Budget used to, but right now it looks like they only have box trucks for sale.

https://www.budgettruck.com/buytrucks

Regards
John

 

[digitaldervish]

I would check out Penske. I just bought a 2010 GMC Savanna 3500 extended van (63K) for about 15K. Van appears to be in excellent shape. I flew up to Portland to get it and drove it down to Las Vegas.

Penske sells quite a few vans in Torrance but they tend a bit more expensive.

If you can get 2010 or later you can get the 6spd tranny mated with the 4.8 or 5.3L engine. It's a nice combination. I got 18 MPG coming back.

You can spend about 20K to get an almost new (@ 10K) GMC Savanna 2500 (not extended) that Uhaul sells to used car dealers after a year or so....

Cortttt... thanks for the advice. Penske is something I haven't thought of. Was the van you bought painted that Penske orange? Are you planning to paint it? I am wanting a white van to help with heat, so looks like I may need to factor in getting it repainted. Also, did you negotiate or is the price online the final price?

 

[cortttt]

Cortttt... thanks for the advice. Penske is something I haven't thought of. Was the van you bought painted that Penske orange? Are you planning to paint it? I am wanting a white van to help with heat, so looks like I may need to factor in getting it repainted. Also, did you negotiate or is the price online the final price?

I got the Penske yellow - which is actually what I wanted :. I wanted that yellow color ...Penske does offer a painting service I believe - might want to check them out.

I went with them after another number of the Forum (29Chico) had a good experience with them. They do regular maintenance on their vans - a big plus for me and they give a 3-month 3,000 mile warranty after purchase. The purchase experience was good as well.

The van I got so far is dynamite. There's one issue I will get taken care of - some vibration in the steering wheel at highway speed - that I will have them pay for.

Most of the Penske vans are extended vans - I think that's good. I kind of worried about driving this huge van around but honestly the GMC's drive really easily. If you want an extended van look for any one that ends in ...705...; the 23705's are 3/4 ton and the 33705 are 1-ton's; the 405's are normal size vans. Since I'm getting good MPG from the 1 ton I'm happy I took that one - it feels a bit solider with less sway than the 3/4 ton I rented out.

I negotiated - they're definitely willing to go down - they even say they will. I got them down from 16.5 to 15K - about 10% - which is what I wanted to get.

 

[cortttt]

Enterprise also sells used vans.

https://www.enterprisetrucks.com/truckrental/en_US/buyatruck.html

Budget used to, but right now it looks like they only have box trucks for sale.

https://www.budgettruck.com/buytrucks

Regards
John

Enterprise might be a good choice. When I looked at their vans they were typically about a year old with about 20,000 miles on them and they were selling for about 20 grand. I had the feeling they were taking care of them....

That's a third off the sticker price of a new van...Pretty good deal really if you can afford it.

 

[cortttt]

I think that I would buy a decent used van and and have it gone over by a skilled mech and keep what you have left out of your savings. don't forget you'll have to do things like insulate the van also so there goes some more of your $$$$ out the door!!

That's a good point. I'm starting to get things for the van and man the money is adding up.

 

[accrete]

just a ramble and a different perspective.

My wife and I bought new back in 2010.
I searched for and found a Chevy RB AWD Cargo van. We wanted the AWD as we'd had Volvo xc awd wagons for years and liked the idea of awd on the soggy roads of our native PNW. We no longer wanted to bother with a dedicated 4x4 but still wanted to be able to go places off the beaten path. As an aside, every where we've gone could have been in 2wd, the awd is for the wet/snow/ice we have...not rock crawling : )

We had funds set aside to pay cash for the build (the van was gotten new for ~25K at zero% 60mo GMAC loan).

First on the list was having van specialties put on the fiberine top to give us ~6ft of interior head room (~5'10" after the drop headliner with insulation above.)
Fiama awning and roof fan, interior cabinetry, platform bed, more goodies.... ~15K

Larger wheels/tires/lift/Rhino Lining rockers/wells... ~3K

Aluminess bumpers/galley box ... ~7K

misc _gear_ for camp.... ~2k

We didn't mind going this route as all was paid in cash from a fun-fund we draw from for stuff like this.

Our hope, now that I've got the ford transit bug out of my system, is that our current van will be available to us for many years to come.

YMMV,
Thom

 

[cortttt]

just a ramble and a different perspective.

My wife and I bought new back in 2010.
I searched for and found a Chevy RB AWD Cargo van. We wanted the AWD as we'd had Volvo xc awd wagons for years and liked the idea of awd on the soggy roads of our native PNW. We no longer wanted to bother with a dedicated 4x4 but still wanted to be able to go places off the beaten path. As an aside, every where we've gone could have been in 2wd, the awd is for the wet/snow/ice we have...not rock crawling : )

We had funds set aside to pay cash for the build (the van was gotten new for ~25K at zero% 60mo GMAC loan).

First on the list was having van specialties put on the fiberine top to give us ~6ft of interior head room (~5'10" after the drop headliner with insulation above.)
Fiama awning and roof fan, interior cabinetry, platform bed, more goodies.... ~15K

Larger wheels/tires/lift/Rhino Lining rockers/wells... ~3K

Aluminess bumpers/galley box ... ~7K

misc _gear_ for camp.... ~2k

We didn't mind going this route as all was paid in cash from a fun-fund we draw from for stuff like this.

Our hope, now that I've got the ford transit bug out of my system, is that our current van will be available to us for many years to come.

YMMV,
Thom

Sweet van Thom...Can you say more about how you did this?

For winter 2016 we are having Aluminess fabricate both front & rear bumpers with a galley box and jerry can box.

 

[accrete]

Sweet van Thom...Can you say more about how you did this?

For winter 2016 we are having Aluminess fabricate both front & rear bumpers with a galley box and jerry can box.

THX so much for the van-kudos, it has been a 5 year labor of luv for my wife and I.

On the bumpers/galley box : ) Some may remember I was seriously thinking of selling the van and getting something larger such as a Ford Transit, as the extra four or so feet on the floor behind the seats we believed to be one way to address some ongoing issues/desires we had on setting camp. Deciding to get back to basics and go back to a van only, rather than towing a small trailer behind van, we wanted to be able to have a simpler galley set up. We'd been hauling out all sorts of kitchen tables, chuck boxes and gear. During some research I saw a setup on a sportsmobile utilizing a bumper mounted swing-away box they had placed their kitchen gear into. I showed Cari and after more research, many emails to/from Aluminess, we decided to place an order.

Sooooo....what we will have is the typical Aluminum rear bumper with two swing away boxes (they can swing ~100 degrees outward-away from the locked position). Both are ~20"h x ~18"w x ~15"deep. The street side box will store 3 Five gallon water jerry cans from Frontrunner and look like this:

On the curb side will be the galley box that has a drop down lockable door:

I can't really find a good picture of the whole thing on the back of a van the way ours will be set up, but from the volley of emails with the Aluminess crew I'm believing it will breathe new life into the van and meet our desire to have an easy galley set up.

On the front bumper, it will be your basic aluminum buck-stop style bumper. It will actually weigh a wee bit less than the stock steel bumper. Our daily commute goes past a large 60+ elk herd. As much as we would hate to do any damage to one of those beauties, the idea of crunching the front of the van is even more painful ; )

: ) Thom