In your opinion, how simple would it be to add some spacers where the body bolts to the chassis?

I presume that one would need some minor modifications to the fan shroud, and offset the bumper a bit.

 

It depends on how thick the spacers would be. If you stay with something less than 1" then all you would need to do is modify the lower half of the fan shroud and decide if you can live with the extra Gap at the bumpers. The nice thing about a small body lift like this is that you wouldn't have to replace the body mount bolts as there is plenty of length.
Once you step up to 1.25" or more the fuel fill hose has to be extended , the body mount bolts have to be replaced and the bumper Gap is bad enough that you have to address it ...moving the front bumper up is more involved than the rear because of the way it index's to the frame attachment so I just cut and shifted the frame attachment, this has the side benefit of being able to use the bumpers as they come in stock configuration.

 

Thank you! Very helpful.

Do you think the steering linkage will reach? What about the firewall mounted stuff like brake and power steering reservoirs... do those have some give?

And nice work. What is the receiver in the front going to be for?

 

steering linkage will support up to about 1.5", power steering and coolant tank hose will take no more than 1" without having to be extended.

 

 

Impressive!

 

I love this project. I have not read all the way through, but I love seeing the progress.

I have to ask. How tall is your van? What is the complete height?

 

What did you use for the spacers?

 

it will be real close to 10ft tall

 

Nevermind. Found it in the dieselplace thread: 3.5" dia x 1.25" 6000series aluminum pucks