Need advice about Ford vans

[BRush]

My trusty '82 Ford cargo van is coming to the end of it's days. I've got a line on a nice used '94 E350 XLT passenger van. It's the standard length with quad captain's chairs and one bench seat. My dilemma concerns the rear air option and it's effect on the vertical clearance needed for the bikes. The rear air duct work runs down the center of the roof to what looks like a plenum that occupies the space just above the rear doors. Without the duct hump, my bike should fit fine. The carpet-to-hump distance is 50" inches (in contrast, my E100 cargo van has a 53.5" floor-to-ceiling distance) and I'm concerned that both the plenum and the duct are going to be a problem. My bike is just a bit over 50 inches at the bars. I don't want to make an offer on the van until I sort out what I want to do about this.

One thought is to use tie downs to compress the forks, but that seems like a pain in the rear if you have to do it on a regular basis. The other thought is to remove the ceiling headliner and air ducting for the last two thirds of the van. Is that difficult to do, or is it a bad move. Would it be better to keep looking until I find one without the rear air option? I can't be the first to confront this problem, so I'm turning to you, my DRN brethren, for advice and comment.

Thanks.

 

[Highbeam]

That's a tough one. Do yuo think the carpet can be removed below the bike area? If you only need a half inch...

How wide is the rear plenum? My thought being you could load to the side.

Are you sure that only ductwork goes to the rear? Some systems use another evaporator. You have no need for rear A/C if the van is a hauler so the third option is to remove it. I would try to slice it out of the headliner and mount it farther forward so there is still some A/C duct that will function. I would then attach some hard material to the ceiling beams that would cover the removed duct area and offer support for the sides of the headliner that were connected to the old duct hump.

You could always cut a hole in the floor and weld in a bowl for your front tire.

 

[BRush]

I don't know anything about the system, so I can't say whether there's another evaporator. That would complicate things. Maybe someone here who has one of these can tell me. The rear plenum is about six to eight inches wide. I was planning to cover the carpet with a rubber mat, but I suppose it could come up if that would buy me something.

 

[gasgasman]

The headliner can be removed without and problems.
All the A/C stuff is in the left rear corner of the van.
There's a duct that runs up the side of the van that can be left in place when the headliner is removed. It will still be functional and all you would have to do is make a deflector to direct the cold air back to the passenger compartment.

The dealership I work at has on a regular basis, '02 E350 Extended 15 pass. vans. With less than 30k miles for around $15,000.

 

[Bazooka Joe]

Don't sweat it, it'll work just fine as it is. I have the same van ('93) and our bikes (RM's) fit just fine. The left side of the van will be a little tighter for vertical room than the right, but it'll work anyways.

If you still have the the stock rear bench seat brackets, they will be little bumps, but we've left ours in w/o trouble.

I have mine set up to hold two bikes with a home-brewed front tire stop bracket, which couples into the bench seat brackets.

BTW, We really like the van. It has worked out very well, and I'd have a tough time going back to a pickup again. Also, the Ford vans seem to run forever. Ours has 218k and most of them at the races have even higher miles.

Good luck with it!

 

[BRush]

Thanks guys. Unfortunately, the owner had a change of heart at the last minute and pulled the van off the market (I think a relative decided he wanted it). That's the way it goes sometimes. I'm back at square one and looking at want ads.