My 2001 Camper Conversion Van
 

For the last 20 years my wife and I have been camping in our 1990 Blazer mini-motorhome. As we got older we wanted more room so last month I replaced it with a 2001 Express van which I am modifying much like I did my Blazer. This posting shows the old Blazer while the next posting shows my van.
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Here is the 2001 Express van I replaced my old Blazer with.
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Some of the modifications I have already made follow. The first shows the wonderful storage pocket already present in the van that holds my camp chairs and camera tripod. No modification needed there.
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The next picture shows the bed frame I made from the front. I made two storage shelves under it to hold sixteen 12" x 12" x 6" and eight 12" x 6" x 6" storage boxes from Shopko. My wife loves all the storage because there are 24 boxes under the bed that she can slide out, and they only take up about half of the space under the bed. The rest becomes my "basement" accessible from the rear doors.
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The next picture shows the bed frame from the rear. I made a special shelf for our green tent, another shelf beside it for our blue rain tarp, and space underneath for three 12" x 12" x 12" Shopko canvas boxes to store more outdoor camping supplies. Behind the blue canvas boxes are two "basement" storage areas for the camp stove and other "rough" camping supplies like the ax, fire bellows, fire tongs, etc.
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My final picture shows the area to the right of the bed from the rear. I installed several sets of plastic hooks. The top set holds the telescoping poles for our blue rain tarp, and the bottom two sets of hooks hold my custom made hiking sticks.
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I am working on two more projects for the van. First one will be a custom cabinet for our porta-pottie with two side pockets for various traveling goodies and a front pocket for maps and camp ground books as well as AAA tour guides. The second is a kitchen unit with sink, water storage, pump, hotplate, and storage pockets for these as well as electrical connections for 12 volt and 120 volt outlets. I will post those pictures later as I get them finished.

We have so much more room in this van than our old Blazer even without the roof rack box. And the ride is so much smoother than the rougher suspension of the old Blazer. The van has the 5.7 Liter Vortex V8 which is the same size as the one in our old Blazer but we get better gas mileage in the van than we did in the Blazer. We consider it a win-win situation all around. The guy who bought my old Blazer likes it as much as I did when I had it.

I have made a few minor modifications to my van. One is the addition of an altimeter and a second sunglasses holder. I mounted them on the overhead console just above the driver's head. I do not like to drill holes if I don't have to so I came up with a mounting system that does not require drilling holes. I mounted a metal bracket to them, bent into an L-shape, covered it with sticky felt material and shoved it under the edge of the console. They stay there with no problem and can be removed quite easily. See pictures below. The sunglasses holder is one I got from a 2004 Chevrolet Aveo.

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I used the same method to mount battery operated magnetic LED lights all over the ceiling of the van. Got them 2 for $5 at my local tractor supply store.
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I have also added several 12 volt accessory plugs. It is rather easy because the ones that come with the van are mounted right in the center console so the wiring is easy to get at. The console is easily removed because that is the only way to access the engine cover.

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Another view showing all accessory plugs under dash on the passenger side.
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A recent upgrade to this was adding a quick-disconnect plug to them so when a mechanic has to remove my "dog house" to
work on the engine, they can quickly disconnect my accessory plugs and not have to cut wires. I show it here so you can
see it, but normally I push it behind the trim so it can not be seen.
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I love extra places to put things, especially when I am using it as a camper conversion. My wife likes to have a water handy even though she might be having a coffee or a cola. So extra cup holders were called for. I installed a fold-up type on each side of the center console. I also mounted a door pouch on each side of the console from my old 1990 Blazer Silverado. This did require some hole drilling, but as I intend to keep this van for quite some time I decided to go ahead with it. I did use oversize washers on the back of regular stove bolts for more stability.
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One addition I made to my Express van soon after I got it was a Scosche FMMODO2 FM converter as my 2001 model had no direct plug for an mp3 player. This unit connects directly to the radio's antenna so it is just about like having a wired in connection. Now I can plug my MP3 player in with a mini-plug when I want to listen to my music. I used the storage space below the radio and routed all the wires out through the back of the space's slots at the back.
This is the unit I installed:
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I like to repair parts when possible instead of replacing with new (usually expensive) parts. The console door hinges on each side of the lid were both broken on this van when I bought it, so I set about trying to fix it. Here is a picture of the finished repair.

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I repaired the hinges by cutting off the broken part from the console and epoxying a shelf bracket into its place after drilling the correct size hole in the lid hinge.

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The shelf bracket was a little short for the hinge, so I had to epoxy a small piece of wood under it to raise it up to the correct height. It is working just great and cost me practically nothing to fix it other than a little time. In this picture you can just see the edge of the wood piece and the shelf bracket sticking through the hole I drilled in the lid hinge.

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I recently repaired an AC vent that had one of the little wings with broken nubs where it was supposed to rotate inside the vent. I drilled a hole through the top and used a screw to hold it. You have to be very careful when drilling into the little wing because it is not very wide and you need to use a very small screw, but it is possible to fix and if you don't tighten the screw too much it still functions the way it is supposed to!

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Another modification I made when I had my Blazer is to the truck tire step I purchased. I used it to reach the roof rack box on my Blazer, but it wasn't high enough. I purchased another identical tire step, removed the step and bolted it on to the top of the first tire step. Now I have a two-step tire step to reach everything I needed to reach and it still folds up like the original. When I moved on to the van from the Blazer, it still comes in handy when I put it on the front wheel to clean the high windshield on the van. If I get a roof rack for the van, it will again come in handy in that respect.
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Now that the weather has turned cold, I am spending more time in my wood shop. My wife wanted a multi-function unit to place between the driver and passenger seats. She wanted something we could sit on as well as function as a short table with an raised edge so things would not roll off while we drove. I built a cedar enclosure for the Porta-pottie to fit her above requirements. She had a small pillow that fit the top as well for a seat pad that can be removed for a junk tray when we are driving. I added a couple of green "pockets" on each side for extra storage and a map pocket on the front for maps, campbooks, and AAA tour books when we vacation.

View from the back of the van:
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View showing "table" top with cushion removed:
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View from the front and side to show the green "pockets" and map pocket.
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The next project for my camper conversion van s a "kitchen" unit. Will post pictures and more as that progresses.