[MI_Ghost]

I haven't done my body lift yet. I assumed the spacers went on top of the existing rubber mounts?

Correct, The spacer pucks go between the body and mount cushions.

 

[AstroWill]

You could feel EVERYTHING, the road, motor vibration and made the interior of the van a speaker box for the motor noise. Worst mistake i've made on the van. I would whole heartedly recommend the rubber bushings as the only way to go...

I'm going to remove mine and go back to rubber as well.

 

[Rod's Trucks]

I left my van in the neighbors garage, where a wet carpet is slowly drying out with the help of a couple of fans. ... It would not happen outdoors, due to some very unusual weather in the Seattle area...mid teens and 20's continuously for several days in not common here.
Rod J

 

[tom0826]

Hella 550 fog lamps installed for travel to snowy destinations.

 

[Leeann_93]

Drove mine to and from work in almost white-out conditions. It was almost like being back home!

The ‘05 didn’t care that the plows hadn’t touched the road on the way in or on the way back, despite living on a state route. They also hadn’t touched the overpass and hadn’t done any pre-treating.

My husband hadn’t put the plow on the Cub Cadet yet. So we’ve got about 8” in the driveway (on top of the freezing rain that fell first), plus the plow crap from 3 lanes at the bottom. The Astro didn’t care at all.

You should have seen all the morons in their 4x4s sliding all over the place. Does no one teach how to drive in snow? I mean, I learned to drive in snow, getting my license in April in New England.

One of my favorite driving ‘lessons’ with my brother was going to the unplowed high school parking lot after getting 6” on a weekend. He turned up the music, leaned back the seat, and said “have fun.” I did all kinds of stupid crap (it was a huge, flat parking lot so plenty of room to be dumb), but it taught me how vehicles react when you do certain things in snow. After I did a bunch of dumb shit, he gave me the benefit of his 5 years’ experience driving in snow and I learned a few more things - and then practiced them to make them my default, no matter what.

Sorry; rant off

 

[AstroWill]

One of my favorite driving ‘lessons’ with my brother was going to the unplowed high school parking lot after getting 6” on a weekend. He turned up the music, leaned back the seat, and said “have fun.” I did all kinds of stupid crap (it was a huge, flat parking lot so plenty of room to be dumb), but it taught me how vehicles react when you do certain things in snow. After I did a bunch of dumb shit, he gave me the benefit of his 5 years’ experience driving in snow and I learned a few more things - and then practiced them to make them my default, no matter what.

Brings back memories of when I learned to drive as well. I used to go out all the time in the middle of the night on empty roads and to empty parking lots. Tons of sliding, doughnuts, spinning out, ending up the the school lawn a couple of times, hitting icy bridges and doing 360s. They were valuable, life long lessons on how vehicles react in those situations.
So many out there are like, my 4x4 can get going, but they forget that it won't stop and doesn't handle like it's on wet/dry pavement.
Guess it keeps the body shops busy

 

[Leeann_93]

The body shop across the parking lot from us has so many vehicles at the moment, that they have to park a bunch of them on the circle at the end of the road. When the trash truck comes, they have to pull ~10 vehicles out of their lot so the guy can get to the dumpster.

The LKQ truck is there every day, along with several other suppliers. Right now, it doesn’t look like they’re going to catch up any time soon. Most of that is deer damage, but a bunch more came to get fixed after Monday’s ice/snow event.

 

[Mmusicman]

Two years later.. brakes pads are holding up great! Still like new!

 

[The shaggonwaggon]

Today I put on 2 light bars and new starter

 

[Lowcountry]

Finally got around to installing a Hellwig 7534 rear sway bar on one of my ‘03 AWDs. I had to fabricate endlinks as others have mentioned. “Bolt” was 7/16x14-9.5” threaded rod, which is the same size as provided bolts, and spacer was 5-inches of Sch. 30 black galvanized pipe. I had to to do some slight rearranging of the brake lines, which I’m considering coming back later with new lines for a cleaner look and to increase clearances. I did add a 3/4-inch spacer to move the emergency brake cable out some.

 

[Leeann_93]

I might be a bit 🤢…and not ‘cause I need to puke...

 

[Mmusicman]

This day in South Florida history...Jan 19, 1977
We celebrate it like it's a holiday! ... LOL

What your northerners may never have heard of.. is "FALLING IGUANAS".
It's a REAL condition... I got them in my yard and trees where I live.
When temps drop below 50.. they freeze, and fall out of trees.
They can become extremely large and heavy too.
Don't park under coconuts... or iguanas! LOL

The struggle here in the South Florida tropics is real...

Here's some comedy (from our local News station)

What does any of this have to do with my van?

Well it hasn't actually got below 50 here yet. I wear shorts every day to work and still haven't worn a jacket yet this winter. Heat has been disconnected in my van (still running A/C) after it warms up.. and haven't been hit by any falling iguanas... yet.

Here's one by my van...

That's all I got for now... CHEERS!

 

[Mmusicman]

Finally got our first decent cold front here in South Florida.
For the 1st time temps last night dipped down into the 40's
(60's & 70's during the day).. finally got to wear a jacket.
No heat though.

MORE IGUANAS:
Thankfully the local TV news stations are keeping up with the ALERTS!

"Remember, they are still alive".
Nice to finally shut off the A/C.

Did an oil change this weekend... all good.

I'd sure love to see some of those VAN SNOW PICS!

 

[Bikley]

Finally got our first decent cold front here in South Florida.
For the 1st time temps last night dipped down into the 40's
(60's & 70's during the day).. finally got to wear a jacket.
No heat though.

MORE IGUANAS:
Thankfully the local TV news stations are keeping up with the ALERTS!
View attachment 282512
"Remember, they are still alive".
Nice to finally shut off the A/C.

Did an oil change this weekend... all good.

I'd sure love to see some of those VAN SNOW PICS!

I finally got to my oil change today. I was going to do it when we did the transmission but my drain pan was full of tranny fluid. That and the weather. On the days since, it was either snowing or my wife had the van at work.

When noting the millage I realized we have put almost 70,000 miles on it since we bought it for $200 in 2016. Aside from the transmission issues which are now fixed, it is still going strong at 183,000 miles.

Here it is last spring when we got about 12" of Snow.

 

[Bikley]

We took it for emissions today and it passed. I asked the guy about the engine swap and he told me the only thing they care about is the gas cap, the check engine light and what comes out of the tailpipe.

 

[M_a_t_t]

I bought an 85 shorty. 4 cyl 5 spd. It's also got a lund sun visor, phantom grill and a spoiler. Unfortunately there is no engine. It came with a 327 though. Im gonna put the 4 cyl back in the van though. It was also a D.A.R.E. van when you look at it in the right light you can see the outline of the lettering. Custom paint job. Almost rust free. There are a few blemishes here and there, but no through holes or anything. Now I just need to sell the 04 AWD van...

(will take more/better pics tomorrow in the daylight)

 

[MI_Ghost]

Look at that thing just begging for that 327!

 

[Mmusicman]

327's are cute.. but real torque starts with a 350

 

[WoodButcher]

Finally got our first decent cold front here,
I'd sure love to see some of those VAN SNOW PICS!

Well, I washed her off and moved to a sunny spot.
Sort of,
fact is the rinse water won't thaw.
Wife's birthday tonight and she deserves a clean chariot to ride in. In any case this will give you some idea what yours might look like up here were yours allowed to get dirty.
I really admire your cleanliness, I never have been able to keep after it myself.
Only 3-4" in my yard because of the wind but I still use the snowblower to clean a trail for my pup

 

[backinabox]

We were in the 18" band but it's hard to tell because the wind (30-40mph) spread it out...it still took almost three hours to clean up running two snowblowers in unison

the hill that's visible behind my van in the first photo rises up about 50 feet and there is an old growth forest on top rising up another 70 feet which all makes a good buffer for us, the wind in those trees was deafening