I had 2 conversion vans in the 80's/90's. Wore both out going coast to coast more than once. Now I am finding myself possibly in the market again.

Any place in BCS have any? Dallas would be my backup. Any advice appreciated, as usual.

www.sportsmobile.com

These guys will custom build a conversion van/camper and have an Austin location. My dad bought a Ford 1 ton van with a 7.5 V8 from them in the 90s when he retired and we borrowed it often for travel in the 2000s. They are great travel vehicles.

His had a flush toilet, and that was SO convenient on road trips not having to look for a bathroom and not even having to stop unless the driver had the need. In addition, a microwave on an inverter meant hot meals on the road if wanted. The van fits in a standard parking place and doesn't look like a camper/RV for when dealing with nosey HOAs. In my dads van, the windows were placed such that blind spots were minimal when driving, so with planning, you can avoid that issue

Sportsmobile converts Fords, GMs, and Ram. Personally, i think the old school GM is the way to go with the big V8 and likely more reliable than the others.

Thank you.

I drove a conversion van wen I met my wife.




I will say this. Test drive the one you are looking at. I have been behind the wheel of quite a few vans and the one thing I can't figure out is why they have such a cramped driver's cockpit. Now to be fair I mostly have driven 15 passenger or cargo vans, but they are essentially the same things, just with cheaper interiors. I am also 6'4" and "cuddly". My knees are shoved uncomfortably into the dash and I can't physically move the seat back far enough to get the shoulders-to-wheel and hips-to-pedal ratios just right to get comfortable.

Vans are huge. It wouldn't hurt anyone to move the driver's seat 3 inches back and 2 inches to the right. But for some reason all the modern vans I've driven have the driver's seat crammed up too close to the dash and too far to the left.



My 83 E150 was legit though. Even my Wife liked it.

Mannnn. Eyes now open to the conversion van world.

Any place that rents these so a family could get an idea of how well they fit ? Like do a week long TX to CO to TX trip