Extending your Roof
 

I cannot imagine it would be too difficult to pick a roof up out of a wrecker or elsewhere and mount it. It would be a lot of labour, but I cannot imagine it being too difficult. I wonder if I would enjoy something like this more. Headroom vs. Parking which I cannot do anyways. In the end it's just appearance.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/chevrol...79a5dd4d5b.jpg

i think they are bolted with self tappers and glued on.....shouldnt be too hard but may be too big to remove by yourself...

I would do it at the wreckers. Pull up to the donor, disengage the fibreglass roof, get it up on 2x4s running sideways across the van, check measurements, cut hole, slide new roof over by means of the 2x4s, reattach. The floor in that van has been dropped 2 inches from the back of the front seats to roughly where the rear axle is located.

How do you drop the floor when it is sitting on the frame?

I guess you might get two inches. Seems like a lot of work for the gain. I am glad that you shared that however.

I owned a '96 Express conversion van with the hi-top for 16 years. The increased head room is a really nice feature, but it comes with a huge price....you need a minimum of 8+ft clearance to park the vehicle under cover. That seriously limits your parking options in covered parking lots, like at airports and downtown parking garages, etc. And forget about ever taking it through an automatic carwash. In the event you forget about the required roof clearance and scrape the top of the hi-top roof, the clearcoat will be compromised and it is only a matter of time before the clearcoat on the roof starts peeling/separating from the paint. The only fix is a repaint job of the hi-top. Been there, seen it and done it.

When I replaced the van, I specifically chose a conversion that did NOT have the hi-top, for all the reasons mentioned above. After owning the replacement van for 18 months now, I have to admit that I miss the increased headroom of the hi-top. So, it is a tough call whether to go for a hi-top, or not.

Peter

I don't think I will go this route for the increased weight (fuel loss), aesthetics (I like not giving away any individual identity/personality/usage) and it's too much work. I think I posted this more for the mental exercise. It is possible to do, what would it take?

As it is, I cannot and do not even attempt to park anywhere under 8ft. The 3500's sit higher and need more clearance.

The floor may have been a passenger one, and removing the seat rails may give it 2 more inches.

I just looked my '16, and the 3500 is shorter than the 2500, 84.1" vs 84.3" for the 155". The 135" is similar, 84.5" vs84.6". Odd.

I haven't figured out how they did the floor drop on the Chevy yet.

With the Dodges, they dropped the floor between the quasi-frame rails as they are actually uni-body's. They literally just cut out the floor and re-hung it with angle iron.

I can see cab-mounts in the front wheel wells of the Chevy so it is a body on frame. The drop includes reducing the height of the step on the side door opening so maybe they did a body lift before they chopped it? I'll get under there to figure it out eventually.

I am kicking around the idea of doing a 2.5" lift on the van so I need to figure out what kind of modifications it has undergone. Dry weight is 7500 pounds and mainly down low so I think it should be OK with a lift. The ground effects are too low to the ground and the wheel base is long so it drags its belly. I need more height like the Dodge. Roadtrek was quite chop-happy with the Dodge, they cut a hole in the floor to access the coach batteries, dropped the floor, and put in a trunk.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/chevrol...0c0cce90bf.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/chevrol...67fc90045e.jpg

They look cool beside eachother like that. Kind of fleetish. Especially with the same roof line. I was thinking of a hole in the floor for something. Oh yeah, the multi-axis and roll sensor. Why GM didn't cut a hole and drop those I do not know. Now you have me thinking about chopping up the floor and lowering. More ideas...