BobChicagoland

Greetings all,

I am new to this forum. Considering purchase of an Explorer conversion van on 2011 Express 1500 chassis. Specs on Chevy's website indicate this van is 83.7 inches tall. The height of the 2011 Chevy Express 1500 is just shy of my 7 foot garage opening. Will this van fit in my garage?

I appreciate any input.

RacerX

There are 12 inches in a foot. 83.7 inches rounded up gives us 84 inches divided 12in/ft =??????????? feet.

vantasy1

No garage, just a driveway in front of my house, I have a length problem, my 95 Chevy G-20(15.1ft(L) fits inside my driveway(18ft(L) X8IMG_0004.jpg?t=1289523603ft(W) with a few feet to spare from the front gate, where as a late model Express 1500 Cargo van has a minimum length of 224.10 inches--a difference of a tad under 1 ft.

Parking it an angle(diagonal) would be a challenge, can't obstruct the sidewalk by even just a few inches as they will issue you a summons. Only option is to rent a driveway near me for $125.00 a month, can't park a van like that on the street overnight in NYC because you will get a ticket by the police just because they have to meet their quota. I don't want or need an Express passenger van.

RacerX

you have commercial plates on this car on a residential block. what you have to do is park the car on a commercial or mixed use block overnight or do like me, with a 12 seat G20 Sport Van, I use passenger car plates. I dont know where you live but for instance where I live, if I were you I would have to park the car about 9 blocks away from where I live to be on a totally commercial/slight residential block.

vantasy1

I have regular plates, when I bought the van it was commercial, but I had the dealer put in a porthole window on the side and remove a cage right behind the front seats, and installed a bench seat(one row).

However a few years later I removed that bench seat, and have a single bucket seat facing sideways behind the drivers seat. So when a cop looks inside he thinks that I have an improperly registered van because it needs to have fixed seats. When I am walking around my neighborhood in Queens I come across a lot of vans that look like they are commercial from the outside but aren't.

I mean when you go to the DMV to register the van and get your plates they don't know how the inside of the van looks like.

RacerX

You should challenge those tickets because he cant prove a van is passenger or commercial soley by the amount of seats it has. I have 3 benches. I can remove ALL the benches and be in the same situation as you or remove just a few.

The only thing the DMV knows is based on the VIN how the car was built. But it could have been modified before or after delivery by any fabricator or coach builder in the world. My van is a base G20 Sportvan, but the build codes in the VIN say it is actually a 1-ton G30 bus(12 seats). So it was probably a dealer ordered product for a specific client or one of them GM assembly line things Frankensteins they do sometimes. Additionally, most of that commercial/passenger plate jazz is really about weight, GVW, not capacity. Its like, in NY, a commercial vehicle weighs at least 8,000 lbs and up.

Ron6519

You can register a van and get passenger plates if it fits a certain criterior.
There needs to be at least one side window behind the driver AND there needs to be a seat or seat fittings behind the driver.
Or
There needs to be a bed, refrigerator or stove, permanantly mounted in the van.
You can check this by looking into Part 106.4 Section (e) of the NY Vehicle and Traffic laws.
Ron

vantasy1

I sold the van last year for $750.00, the rust issue was getting out of hand.
It ran great though, but I felt it was time. Ironically enough the guy who bought it told me that he is going to use it to collect scrap metal, I had considered scraping it, but they weren't going to pay me more then $300.00
at the time.