WHY THIS OLD VAN ACTUALLY IS A WISE CHOICE FOR OVERLANDING

Not pretty..... and that's a GOOD thing.

Our 1988 GMC one ton van is not a head turner and that's the way we like it. It's got a cracked windshield, a flat baby blue paint job that someone appears to have put on with spray cans, and faded white steel sport wheels. No air conditioning, having lived most of its life on the pacific northwest. The all season tires are a bit over sized. Kinda sexy, oddly, if you will.... but then I am a bit of a motorhead at heart.

 

Mexican cops in some of the towns we've blundered through seem to notice we're a bit white in the face AFTER we're past them usually. The van just looks like any other mexican vehicle. There's no flashy cargo box on top, just a mash of goods that don't attract the eye too badly. That's Ts catamaran kayak up there, some disassembled bikes, a spare tire, and a roll of sail fabric. All on a sturdy rack we bought from Home Depot for 99 bucks and a few 2X4s to link it together.

 

We bought this van a few months ago from a mechanic friend who had used it as his work truck. He has a astounding mechanical ability and takes pride in his personal gear being well maintained. He sold it to us, with a good tune-up, for $1000. As he put it: "a smoking deal". We'd met Lloyd a few months prior when he bailed our sorry butts out by repairing a lemon bus we'd bought on the internet from our Alaskan remove (which we finally sold since it wasn't going to do our latin relocation chores for tons of reasons). We paid him fairly for his time and he actually became a friend of ours in the process. So, in his own way, knowing what we wanted to do and that we'd gotten so jacked up with the bus, I think he felt sorry for us and made us this killer deal.

 

The old faithful and well proven 350 V8.

We get pretty crappy gas mileage at 11 MPG, the valve seals being a bit leaky and just being a 350 V8 one ton cargo hauler anyway. It has solid automatic transmission and cruises at fairly low rpm at 55. But it is rock solid and has performed well so far. Mexican mechanics apparently know the old 350 V8s pretty well so we felt good about any breakdowns being able to be addressed. Unlike in the USA these mecanicos will work all day for $100 or a bit more and are used to cobbling together older vehicles to keep them running. Parts for the 350 are still readily available since GM made a ton of them over the years.

 

Yeah.... that's duct tape on the drivers seat.....

This van is so old the seats do not even have headrests. I had to scrape about 20 years worth of dried spilled working mans cokes off the floor between the seats. And in the mexican heat I sweat so much it feels like I am wearing a 4 day old Depends diaper all day. The windows are manual rolling. The door latch is busted and has to be reset each time you get in or out. Once again..... not pretty..... but well workable.

"Pilot Bear" stares out of what was the radio space.....

That's one hot floor at mid-day, bud!! Nothing I can't delude myself into accepting though. The vents do work with a strong fan trying valiantly to bail us out at mid-day in mid 90s torpor. No tachometer but good oil and ammeter guages. The tranny is rock solid so far and uses no fluid.

Solidly packed up to bed level.....

The bed I built in as a single, out of 2X2s and 3/8th plywood. The one on the right side is atop a series of plastic bins with a thin sheet of ply on top of them. Actually big enough for T and I to spread out in the heat. We bought a 12 volt 10" fan that runs off the cig lighter hole and it's saved our bacon in some stultifying sleeping situations so far. We have a fair amount of headroom but you cannot sit up all the way. Bug nets can be pinned around the sliding side cargo door and over the back and side doors if need be (and it has been needed!). 

 

One could come down in a newer model car but we've heard reports of these type folks getting shaken down for the constabulary love bite here and there. Better to use a somewhat nondescript, but rock solid mechanically, older and proven piece of machinery. This one could give up the ghost this week, but I suspect not. And a zealous official might ruin our day but..... it continues to cruise smoothly with plenty of power for pulling hills or passing some farm truck that's going 15 MPH on a narrow road with no shoulders. It absorbs the sharp impacts of speed bumps coming out of nowhere with its tough cargo suspension and high ground clearance.

All in all..... a good 2nd and third world overlander.