Herbie, I have been thinking about this same problem a lot this year. I even had a friend who works for a local wrecking yard drop off a complete swing out tire carrier from a blazer. What I can tell you about the blazer swing out is the body brackets will not work. The length also puts the catch ri...

Wow, really? I can see why you said "real headache". Did you just drill the holes from above, then push the bolts into the tubes and pull 'em up with a magnet, or what? I Marked out my seat location and drilled from above. Then used long magnets to get the bolts up to the holes. Looking m...

I Decided to use the holes I drilled into the frame area and fish bolts with washers threw the uni- frame(lots of access holes). I welded them from the top, like the front seat mounting. My thought was this was probably the strongest part of the floor. I believe Gabe's solution was similar to what y...

Treadwrights are what is being planned for both my wife's Jeep and for when I get around to lifting Grumpy. http://www.treadwright.com/ The only suitable ones they have in my size are the Puma's which look like knock-off Pro Comp ATs, only with very poor siping. These look like they will suck on sn...

How close are the dimensions of the westy roof line to the Astro roof line? Just wondering if the westy pop top could be used on an Astro.

gabequest wrote:I've got to get more pics up, but currently spending too much time redoing the interior around my "new to me" westafalia kitchen....almost done!

Got any pics of this yet?

I am very curious on how the curtains are setup on the GTRV Astro. When you get around to taking pictures, could you take some of the curtain setup? This looks like a really fun project!

I have always been able to get hog rings for free from the upholstery shops in my area, as long as its only a hand full(more then enough to do all the seats. You can also use normal ol' pliers if you don't have access to hog ring pliers.

Congratulations on the new addition! This looks like a great little trip to take. What route did you take to cross the mountains? My wife has family in Winthrop and this looks like it could make a nice detour. Great pictures too.

The guys at DiscountTire love it when I come in. Since I took the rear wheels off to do the lift, I went in for some air up and had them torque the lug nuts. I've been eyeing some 235/75 BFGoodrich A/Ts. This is what I want to put on Grumpy after its 2" lift is installed. Pocketbook and enviro...

dunedog wrote: I have a similar setup for my work and use a couple of morter tubs to hold tools. They are light weight and work as well as any drawer setup.

That's actually a great idea! Ill have to pick up a few before the weekend.

Looks fantastic!! The sewing on my factory seats is bad enough that your sewing looks plenty "stock" to me. How long is your bed overall? I'm just about to start drilling the holes for my conversion bed but I'm going back and forth on final bed length vs. cargo room, etc. I'm 5'6", s...

I thought I would share some pictures of my Astro camper I have been working on. The van is lifted with a 3.5" - 4" homemade lift. I'm also running Treadwright 225/75R16 PUMA A/T (E) (for the price you cant beat them). http://i676.photobucket.com/albums/vv122/kevinquistorff/2003%20Astro%20...

Anchors didn't get added until '02-03. The points are an anchor bar under each front seat for a rear facing child seat strap. The middle bench seat also has anchor points front and rear for baby seats.

Hope that helps.

When I had the stock seat configuration I could fit my Igloo 72 behind the drivers seat (side to side).I don't loose any seating space because car seat also is behind the drivers seat. With my new bench installed between the 2nd and 3rd row the Igloo fits front to back behind the drivers seat. I thi...