'Custom removable folding bed/box' - how about a few photos? Thanks.

Of course. I have to stick to the party line - "Always follow the manufacturer's recommendation for loading your truck, lest you find you and your family and friends and luggage sitting in a puddle of molten metal, smoking rubber and plastic and burning fuel before you even leave your driveway....

...and what would you expect to happen at a load of 1201 pounds?

"1/2 ton" is a rough classification of the payload - the curb weight of an Astro is something like 4900 lbs, and its GVW is 6100 lbs (from memory), so 1200 pounds is more like a half ton than a full ton. Oh, the 4.3L V6 lives on as the base engine for the Savana & Express. The switch t...

Here is a nice Delco summary of the GM truck product nomenclature and timelines... http://www.acdelco.com/pdf/appcat_buyers/Truck_Identification.pdf The full size vans were unibody until the GMT600 was introduced in 1996, when it went to body-on-frame. This was done in part to make the product more ...

The GMT610 - current full size GM van - has little in common with the late M/L product. The 1500 light duty series (7200lb GVW I think) has, for example, rack and pinion steering, and a four-joint steering intermediate shaft, so the front subframes are not simple transplants.

The GMT800 full-size-truck brakes were added in 2003 for MVSS compliance. The M/L was scheduled for termination in 2003, and received a two year stay. The offset barrier results were never very good on the M/L, look at some of the videos out there. I am not an airbag-supplemental restraint engineer,...

Well, I have often said the M/L van was the best product GM ever turned its back on. When I was inside, my few suggestions were not met with enthusiasm, and working on any van was not a not a glamour assignment (still isn't!), so the Astro/Safari received little respect. It was a uniquely sized prod...

Nice Nice Nice! Any work-in-progress photos? What have you done for house battery, cooling/refrigeration, cooktop, front curtains??

Thanks for the seat swivel work, Herbie. I did not realize the racks had an arc as well as an incline. I missed that meeting. I need to get my garage insulated & finished before I kick off my project. Hopefully I can get it far enough along before the weather shuts me down here in 48116.

One more thing - fire egress. Has anyone added a mechanical rear hatch interior release for a Dutch door M/L van? If fire starts in the middle of the night, I have had a hammer nearby to shatter a tempered glass side window. It would be nice to have a bail out ring to open the rear hatch in a, uh, t...

One of my self imposed constraints is the ability to park the finished result in my ordinary garage. I must confess to garage envy for t low's brother-in-law's "three bears garage" - baby bear, momma bear & pappa bear doors. Very cool. Has anyone tried these? http://www.discountvantruc...

Great drawings, J Henry, inspirational, even! Has anyone had a better idea for propane and house battery location? I have been leaning towards a barn-door vehicle, with the spare mounted outside on the door. This frees up some room where the spare used to be, for a house battery or two, and a propan...

That is very, very nice, Peter, hide the structure inside the door and go directly to the hinges, and don't load the sheet metal much. Might try it on a dutch door, which I hear have the same hinges as the barn doors. I'd like to use the under floor space now occupied by the spare for a house batter...

When I bought my 2003 AWD Astro in February, 2009, it had a set of Winterforce in the stock size, 215/70R16. I was quite impressed with everything except the noise, which was not as bad as I expected, but still present. I just put on a new set of Michelin 215/70R16 M+S tires, and in the dry, the noi...