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CJM1973 - You're a legend for this detail!
I am a fellow Express 3500 LWB for towing an RV, and it is a great unit. Have had Suburbans in the past but the van delivers more smiles per mile for a lot less money.
CJM1973 - You're a legend for this detail!
I am a fellow Express 3500 LWB for towing an RV, and it is a great unit. Have had Suburbans in the past but the van delivers more smiles per mile for a lot less money.
How did the shocks work out?
So far, excellent. Much more compliant ride. Build quality is night and day over the KYBs. Should last much longer. Alaska is on our RV travel radar next summer. That trip will be the ultimate test.
I owned a Yukon XL Denali about 5 years ago towing same trailer I pull with my Savana. The van's interior room can't be matched by any other passenger vehicle. That was the primary reason i bought it. 2nd reason was its 3000# payload capacity.
Enjoy these vans while you can. They're meeting their demise in a few short years. GM will be introducing a much less "tow capable" Transit equivalent.
Thats so sad. These vans are one of the best values out there and they can do almost anything. I hope they produce long enough to get a good number of 6.6L passenger vans circulating the used market before they go the way of the ugly and less capable Ford and Dodge vans.
I realize this thread went cold almost a year ago, but I'm sure there are still more of us considering this upgrade.
I've been debating whether to replace or augment the factory trans cooler for a few years now. I recently bought the Haden 679 and noticed that it's inlet/outlet ports align almost perfectly with the factory lines. Hayden Rapid-Cool 679
However, we have a 5000 mile trip through the Appalachians and Adirondacks this summer (gas prices are going to hurt!), and I chose to augment the factory cooler instead of replacing it. The 679 is a large radiator, so finding a place to mount it took a little trial and error.
I was able to use some spacers on the back of the factory cooler mount to secure the driver's-side of the new cooler, and I attached custom brackets (made from galvanized straps) with fender washers to the plastic shroud on the left. I also used the Hayden 397 to connect the rubber hoses to the factor cooler (it's not necessary if I was going to remove the factor cooler and only use the 679).
After adding a few hose clamps and zip ties to keep the lines in place and protected from vibration and wind, the install is complete. The reason I chose the mounting position is because (it fit there, and) I wanted the hottest fluid to pass through the new cooler first (I'm sure it doesn't matter). So in case anyone else cares, I added red and blue arrows to show flow direction.
Looks like a good setup. I did basically the same, maintaining the stock cooler as well. The setup, dropped our temps down about 20-30 degrees depending on grade etc. For reference, we have a 4500 chassis class C rv towing a 4600# Jeep.
I was wondering how your auxiliary transmission cooler is holding up? Was it difficult taking the front end off and adding the auxiliary cooler?
Did y'all ever get around to your Alaska trip? How did that go?
I just bought a 2017 Express 3500 passenger van at auction with 64k miles on it. I'm wondering what are the necessary steps I should do to it out the gates to get it prepped to pull a 7500# trailer.
I live in the Phoenix AZ area, and battle the heat and large inclines into the mountains to escape the heat.
Thats so sad. These vans are one of the best values out there and they can do almost anything. I hope they produce long enough to get a good number of 6.6L passenger vans circulating the used market before they go the way of the ugly and less capable Ford and Dodge vans.
Last September I tried to buy a new van with the 6.6L engine, and was told by both Chevy and GMC that GM wasn't taking orders for that engine in the vans (although they still showed as optional on their websites). The best we could figure was that due to supply issues the 6.6L was in short supply and were being allocated to the much more profitable pickup trucks, they didn't know when or even if they would ever become available so I started looking for a used van.
My criteria was pretty simple: full-size GM van (I previously owned a G20 Beauville for 20 years and don't like the way Ford's drive, I'm not a fan of Dodge either), standard-wheelbase (fits in my garage - barely), passenger van (I want an interior with windows, not bare walls), with big V8 (I was planning to pull a big trailer and the smaller V8s weren't rated to tow as much). Any other items (tow package, limited slip, comfort and convenience stuff) I could add myself. What I found was the majority of used vans were either bare cargo vans, or 15 passenger, long-wheelbase "shuttle" vans. More often than not, they didn't have the big V8. After looking for many months, I found a 2014 12-passenger standard-wheelbase Chevy with the 6.0 V8 with only 45,000 miles that had previously belonged to some government agency in San Diego, CA. Super clean, rust-free, and the interior looked like it had hardly been used. I picked it up for 1/2 the price of a new van (after all, it was 5 years old).
So, long story short, I wouldn't hold my breath that there's going to be many (or any) used vans with the 6.6 engine on the used market.
August 27th, 2021, 3:28 PM
