Here's Storm, a 2001 Chevy Astro who does 40-50 nights a year of camping, split pretty evenly between chasing snow and dirt.
Basic info:
- 160k miles. ish.
- AWD.
- 2.5" lift in the front (Torsion key + small spacer), 3" lift in back (coilover springs)
- Swivel front seats
- Seats 5 (legally, in its normal configuration. 8 with seat popped back in which takes 5min.)
- Sleeps 2 + dog.
- Not pictured: Thule cargo box. Rear bike rack. Thule is now on there all the time, bike rack is on there all summer.
The "vanbox" packed for the weekend. This box has a lot of purposes: it stores our cooler, bedding, and other odds and ends. It's a table either lengthwise (as pictured) or turned 90-degrees between the two seats. It's also the last 2' of our bed platform (as seen below)
Breakfast (coffee, oatmeal, fruit) before my first powder day at Steamboat with
@Ron
The first 2' of our bed platform are another table built in the back. This is easily pulled out when we want a little table at camp, but mostly lives in the van. It's useful for putting groceries on, keeping wet and dry stuff seperate, or extra prep space while cooking.
A general idea of the bed laid out.
Out back we've got a small pop-up table on the door. This is used mostly for cooking, or holding beers. It's covered by the rear hatch so ain't a bad place to cook in light rain or snow.
Other fancy modifications include an interior hatch release for opening the rear in the morning without getting out of bed.
And a walmart special $14 awning made from a tarp, two extendable painters sticks, and some cord. Photo from outside Jackson where we were staying for a black tie wedding.
This will be the van (assuming it makes it!) for my little gemsinavan project this upcoming winter. I'll need to take current pics and do a walk through of how we make it all work for pretty comfy winter camping in the near future.
Here she is as of last weekend on a little bike adventure.
It looks beautiful !!
