New(er) Work Truck

I really wish I could have gotten another year out of my old one. It served me well for twenty-one years and nearly 200,000 miles. A fuel pump, distributor and pulley bearing were the only repairs it took in all that time.

The frame and body panels were shot from PA road calcium. It would have taken several thousand to make it ready for inspection.

Two different garages wouldn't inspect it. I had five days to find a replacement. The new truck market is insane, the used market not much better with folks charging new truck prices if you can even find them. I spent an entire day talking to car dealers and searching online.

The new one is a 2014 Chevy Express, it's the same model as my old GMC Savana, same wheelbase, 8,600 lb GVW, etc. I found it reasonably priced (for this market) on a small lot about ninety minutes north of me and jumped on it. It's got shelving units and ladder racks like my old one so the transition should be as seamless as possible, should be able to transfer all my tools and be back at work on Monday.

I like it!

Looks real nice, hope it serves you well.

Candy van? LOL

you got your moneys worth out of that one

Fun fact.
80%+ of new cargo vans are painted white. Not passenger vans . Cargo vans.

Why? Because they make excellent billboards for graphics for business lettering. Don't believe me? Go out to the road and look for yourself.

Those are good vans. They'll go forever. What engine?

I like it.

4.8L

That is smaller than the 5.7 in the old truck but, surprisingly, it actually makes about 30 more horsepower. Less torque though I’ll have to see if it can get out of its own way once I get all my tools transferred over. I’m in the process of doing that now.

The old van:






I got everything out.



I was going to use the existing shelving in the new van but it just wouldn’t work out.



I custom built the old shelving system 20 years ago. It worked really well, all my tools and equipment had a home and I knew where everything was. It looks like it should be a direct swap, they haven’t changed the body styles at all as far as I can see. So I went ahead and removed the custom shelving system, will remove the steel shelving system in the new van and put the old one in there after I spruce it up a bit.

I see a lot of vehicles on the road here that look way worse than your old van

The frame is shot. Too much driving through liquid calcium.