Sadly my 2007 Chrysler Town and country is now north of the 300,000 milestone mark and they keep having irritating electrical problems so I think it is time to look for another vehicle. My question is have any of you guys here owned a Chevrolet express 15 25 or 3500 Express ? From everything I can see they are pretty reliable vehicles and they are easy to work on with plenty of parts. For those who may not be familiar it is a full size cargo van. I want something that I can put a motorcycle in or go camping in and you never know when you rent..... Worst case scenario you can always go live in a van down by the river ! Nice to know you have a place to lay no matter what happens. I'm seeing plenty of them on the used market for roughly $5000 with maybe 150,000 and say model year 2012 or thereabouts So has anyone owned one and what was your opinion of it?
I have a big family (9 people) and we got the Chevy Express 3500 which sat 12. It was an older one from 2006, but it was very reliable. The only time is broke down is when a fan belt broke (and easy and cheap fix). The only other real problem it had was the paint. For some reason, all the white chevy's from that era had crappy paint the peeled off in huge sheets. He finally sold it this year because we barely used it anymore, since several of our kids have cars of their own and my mother-in-law couldn't climb into it any more (it is quite tall).
Huh.... I had heard about the paint. I believe I heard there may have been a recall about it back in those days. Quite a beast of a vehicle and very heavy. But you can definitely tow a lot with that 3500 and even the 2500. Probably the only thing I would ever tell would be a Jon boat or possibly a small camper or small utility trailer Do you remember what the mileage was when y'all finally got rid of it?
Putting this video here for later reference. A stealth camper van that actually looks like one instead of being painfully obvious. I like the wood that he put on top to hide the solar panels. I would also get some random number and letter stickers to put on it to make it look like some sort of company vehicle.
Putting this here for reference, might have found the vehicle I am buying tomorrow https://www.flhsmv.gov/safety-center/consumer-education/buying-vehicle-florida/buying-private-sale/
@DarkDaimon So I went and did it. I found a 2007 Express 2500 with the 6.0 motor I did some research and people that have owned the same van with the 4.8 and the 6.0 said that they wished they had just gone with the 6.0 to begin with. That 6.0 will make the tires break loose pretty easy. You're really not burning that much more gas but you have a lot more power. Change the oil over this ditch today and even put my vanity plate on.
Id take it ! Pulled up the factory black stock rubber mat and noticed some rust here and there where someone had spilled something in the back and it sat under the insulation.... So I stripped it all off with a sander ( at least all of the rust and roughed up the rest of the paint ) treated the rust with phosphoric acid and wiped it down with mineral oil and primed it with Rust-Oleum Rusty paint primer which is the brown that you see.... And next there will be two coats of Rust-Oleum oil-based enamel white paint. And then I will be covering it back up with the stock factory black rubber mat never to be seen again..... But at least I know that the rust has been stopped. That was really the only significant rust for a 2007, the bottom of the vehicle and the engine bay are clean as can be.
Had to add springs to the headlights that were missing because they were pointing up in the trees. What a pain in the ass that is. You have to remove the entire plastic grill to get to the lights.
Well the headlights themselves are held into the bucket by a square Chrome ring with four screws. You can get the headlight itself out without removing the grill but if you need to replace the bucket or the spring it requires the removal of the grill. It really is a pain in the ass. Those are the traditional 5x7 sealed beam glass headlamps that must be replaced entirely if they burn out instead of just a bulb on most newer models. I actually ordered some led upgrades which should land on my porch tomorrow. I also got a backup camera on Amazon for $38 which comes with its own screen and everything already wired, all you have to do is plug the on/off switch into your 12 volt cigarette lighter socket and mount the camera and screen. I also have the annoying super loud backup beeper on the van but I am going to leave it on there because when you hear that beep.... I'm coming backwards and I might not be able to see very well. Hopefully the camera goes a long way towards helping that
I have some decent tires on the van but there are about halfway to worn It just rained a bit recently and from a dead stop, you stomp on the gas and this 6.0 will definitely make those tires break Free and squeal and squeal. Lol ...... I'm about ready to get new tires so I'm going to burn the hell out of these. Let no pair of old tires go to the landfill without damn near being blown out from doing burnouts. You might as well because you're getting ready to replace them anyway. Of course the caveat is to do this on Backcountry highways and not in city traffic like an idiot
$38 for a backup camera on Amazon. It's not the wireless type but it is very easy to hook up. You can either hardwire directly to your reverse light power lead so it only activates when reversing.... Or there is an on off switch that plugs directly into your 12 volt cigarette lighter. I like that option the best because there might be a time when I want to see what some a****** is up to behind me. You're literally just plug a few wires together that already have fittings and mount the camera and mount the monitor and you're in business. It's so cheap there really is no reason not to have one in a big vehicle like this. Plus if you were in the business of hooking up trailers all the time, just point the camera at the hitch and get it on the first try with no one there guiding you.