Fifty150

....not that I want to fill your head with ideas

Take it easy. You're putting to shame, all of us who have owned our vans for years, and haven't done a thing.

What are you going to do about the hole? You can simply replace the broken part. The broken part is the transmission. Get a new transmission.

That looks nice

Before I bought a van, I thought about a commercial top for the truck bed. It's a trade off. The van does not tow or haul as much weight. But gets better mileage, and I have 7 passenger seating.

Scosche and Metra make all the install gear. Start there.

You might want to renegotiate your deal. Maybe you can get a large discount if you take a car already in inventory. Then have the dealer add all the bells and whistles as part of the deal.

My insurance didn't give me any trouble. "Okay, Transit Connect. Minivan, right? With seats or without?" They asked if I was using it for a business. I said, "no". Then the girl said that if I drove an Uber, they would not cover any claims. I kind of laughed. She went on to explain about passenger carriers, special licenses for livery vehicles, and things like that. As you can guess, most people who download an app onto their phone do not have the special commercial livery permits, and are thus operating as unlicensed passenger carriers. Why would the insurance company insure or pay out claims for an "illegal" business? My insurance company told me that they will gladly insure someone who has the legal licenses to carry passengers, but cannot offer coverage to someone engaging in such activity without the license. And apparently, they tell everyone that. Even if you are insuring a Miata. They take 2 minutes to explain that if you drive an Uber or Lyft, your policy covers and will pay for nothing. Now I'm wondering what they will do if you are delivering food. I wonder if the insurance company will want a motor carrier registration. My van is insured like any other soccer mom minivan.

My truck bed was applied by a Line-X dealer. I didn't do it myself, but watched every step, while the installer explained the process. .I learned a lot. What I really learned, that was before watching them do it, I would have made mistakes. The first thing that the girl did was remove as many pieces as possible. Tailgate came off. Then she took all the bolts off and separated every piece. Then all the bed mounting bolts came off. Followed by a thorough wash. Next, she used a sander, and stripped down the surfaces. A solvent was applied. Then every piece was pressure washed, and dried. Paper and masking tape to protect from overspray. Then light, even coats. A pro shop has advantages. But nothing special. No secrets. They have shop air. Stronger compressors. Better spray application equipment. Heat lamps. A spray booth. Nothing that you can't overcome on your own. On a brand new truck, I would pay a shop. If I just spent $$$XXX on a new vehicle, then a few hundred more isn't going to kill me. If I bought a used truck, I would do it myself, now that I have a better understanding. If I am saving money by buying an older vehicle, then I might as well save more by doing myself. It's not hard. But a shop with the right tools makes the installation faster. You could easily handle the prep process if you work diligently. Without a paint booth, you worry about airborne particulate matter getting on your fresh application. Without heat lamps to expedite the drying and curing, you may need to wait a day or two. Another consideration is fumes in your home. The Rust-Oleum product is made to peel off? Is it like Plasti-Dip? A lot of options out there. Good luck with picking the right one for you. Keep us posted on how the project goes.

Jeff, the van won't replace your truck. You will find that the van can be an advantage. You can set up shelving, and keep all your tools in the van. Then use the truck for heavy loads. With the van, I use the truck a lot less.

Safelite does not have fixed pricing. Every location charges different prices for the same thing. It depends on where you are at. Just like everything else, some areas are just more expensive. In my area, independent shops charge less than Safelite, for parts and labor. But they are not paying for franchise fees.

Because it's less work. You don't have to take off the air box, fuse box, and remove the entire battery. As for grounding, you will be fine. The battery's negative post connects to the ground lug.

Nothing made for your van will be cheap. You could always find cheap. Just be ready for problems if it's not actually made for your van. You don't want a loos mat sliding on the floorboard and interfering with your pedals. If fitment or appearance isn't the issue, then anything could work. I've seen door mats placed in cars.

Hard to imagine that the rack decreased the mileage by that much. Not saying I don't believe you. It's just hard to accept that a rack effected the aerodynamics and wind flow enough to lose that much mileage.

How have the e3 spark plugs worked in your van? They are fine in my pickup. You hear a lot of people say "only use Motorcraft". There's probably some wisdom to not using really cheap spark plugs. Over the years, I've used different spark plugs without incident. Always used a more reputable brand. Denso, Autolite, et cetera.

Every once in awhile, I still keep my eyes open for this kind of stuff.

How much power can a power port draw, if nothing is plugged in? How much parasitic loss? I am installing a voltmeter gauge with a bunch of outlets in the pickup truck. Why install all of that on a 14 year old F-150? Because there is enough room on the dashboard. Now I can go nuts with charging phones, tablet computers, and my fish finder. Yes. There is a fish finder in my truck. A Lowrance brand. I use it for navigation. Maybe with all of the extra power ports, I can mount a bunch of cameras and start a youtube channel of me driving around to all the places that I go.

I have a motorcycle carrier which I use for bikes. HAUL-MASTER 400 Lb. Receiver-Mount Motorcycle Carrier (580)Write a Review This motorcycle carrier hauls heavy motorcycles safely $13999

Looking good

Technology has changed. The 5V 1A & 5V 2.1A are not enough to power modern electronics. I replaced the original unit with a USB 3.0.

For some of us, it's just to read codes and clear the Check Engine Light. For some, it's the gauges. Gauges which aren't on your dash. Sure, you get dummy gauges on the dash. But some people want to see real numbers. I've had it for years. Still playing with it. Still learning. If you search "forscan", you should get all sorts of threads on this forum which will describe all the different things people have done with it.

scfishman, It appears as if Van Kits is trying to sell van kits. Contact her.

Just by the way it looks? Or did you get oil analysis?