lowspeedpursuit

On the backup camera, did you already have a video head unit, or are you using an aftermarket monitor? I'm not sure if the 2011+ vans come with screens even without the camera option, but mine just has a normal radio. Mounting aftermarket stuff on my dash isn't really my thing, and I can't imaging getting a double-DIN screen that cheap.

The huge variability in junkyard pricing is both confusing and frustrating. For example, I can see right now that if I was willing to drive 4hrs away, I could have glass doors today for $125/ea. Like I said above, if I just wait a bit, I might find them less than an hour away for $100. Knowing that, I would set my personal max price for doors at ~200/ea. That's the price here for an entire straight axle at the full-service yard, so it seems more than fair. But, then I just got off the phone with a guy ~2hrs away who told me he wants $500/ea. I didn't mean to be rude, but I couldn't help but laugh. That price is total insanity. Not to get too far off-topic, but I'm only driving this van because parts for my actual truck are on what feels like perpetual backorder. Work was going to scrap it, but it was just super dirty and had a bad battery, so I took it off their hands. So, it has very little value to me, and I can't justify dumping any more money into it than is absolutely necessary. EDIT: Yard just over 2 hours away has glass doors for $200/ea. But, the guy on the phone was fairly insistent I "would probably want to look somewhere else" since while they have both doors, but they're "mismatched from different vans". Maybe they're beat to pieces, or maybe only one has a wiper or something; I don't know.

So to update, the top contenders from my cursory searching are as follows: RecPro RV Entry Door Window w/ Internal Shade - $92.95 "Premium" 15 x 30 x 1.5" RV Teardrop Window - $94.49 To explain more about the budget, I arrived at $100/ea. because my U-Pull-It charges $100-130 for a whole door, and actually has first-gen Transit Connects not-too-irregularly, but none right now have back glass. I can also see other yards on car-part.com listing back doors with glass for $99, there are just none near me. Given that swapping a door is stupid easy, whereas installing a camper window requires cutting, then fabricating a frame to take up the extra thickness, it seems smarter just to wait and hope the parts to show up in an accessible, affordable junkyard than to pay substantially more money to also give myself more work. For the $150 windows I linked above, it takes 30 seconds to find a ton of sliders on Amazon between $100-150. Sliders have more utility in opening and screens, which makes $150 for a window with less utility seem overpriced. But, the sliders aren't useful to me because the center frame reduces visibility. Thanks again to the guys who responded last night, and if anybody else has any more ideas, they're always welcome!

That's my bad, I was trying to get everything typed up before heading out of the house and didn't end up being super clear. I'm not opposed to camper windows on principle or anything. Those round-cornered windows in SKIZO's gallery seem like they'd work great; certainly better than nothing. As somebody who's only concerned with budget and not quality, longevity, packaging, or ease of installation, what I'm really looking for is the absolute cheapest possible source for something like that. Every time I find a discussion it's either "check out camper windows" (no links) or the links provided are either dead, stupid expensive, or usually sliders, which I don't need. On a quick google, I can turn up something like this, so the question is: 1: Is $150 the best I can do? 2: I hadn't even considered this before, but is 1-1/2" thick appropriate? Or should I target a different thickness if I can? EDIT: I'm also turning up examples like this, which is dirt-cheap, but it's frosted privacy glass, so it's no good for visibility. But, it does make me think "I should be able to come up with what I want for pretty cheap, my google-fu is just too weak to find it." I'm hoping that maybe somebody else has been in my shoes before, and found the answer I'm looking for. I had also considered backup cameras, and I think that even a few years later they were an option on the windowless vans! But, my goal is to be able to see behind me while driving forward, not just while parking/in reverse. Retaining a company to customize something is certainly an option, but it doesn't seem like it would be the cheapest, which is really the hardest requirement of the project. If I reached out to a "local" company, for example, I live in what's become a stupidly-high-COL area. They would absolutely take me to the cleaners.

EDIT: Consolidating other work I've done outside this thread into one place, for future reference purposes: Disable TPMS with Forscan Rear Carpet in Cargo Van ----- Original Message: I have a 2010 Transit Connect with rear glass only in the right slider. Left slider, rear side panels, and back doors are all solid metal. I don't really care about the left slider and panels, but I need to be able to see straight out the back, and unfortunately the budget is dirt-cheap. Like, if I wasn't worried it would just vibrate itself apart, I would seriously consider going home depot, buying a $50 sheet of lexan, cutting it in half, and gluing it in there in place of the metal. No junkyards within 2 hours of me have back doors with glass, and some of the ones further out are listing completely beat doors for $300/ea. I've seen people talk about adding small universal camper windows with rubber seals, which I could do with very little trouble. But, discussion trends towards "vanlife": budget is no object, and they insist the windows open, have screens and shades, etc. Products discussed are either miniscule (venting only, no focus on visibility), broken links, or $500+/ea. What is the absolute cheapest, simplest, bargain-basement window I can slap in these back doors? It doesn't need to open. It doesn't need a screen, a shade, or even tint. It doesn't need to be remotely designed to fit the Transit Connect. It literally just needs to be available for purchase today and max $100/ea. Thanks in advance for any ideas.