Hi from the San Jose, CA area

[HarryN]

Hi, I am joining to learn more about the explorer.

Hopefully soon will be in the market for a replacement vehicle for my minivan that was crunched.

Most likely will get an older vehicle.

I build van electrical systems for vacations and work use, so most likely will be looking to mount something like that in it.

Perhaps beef up the alternator capability as well - depending on what is possible.

Thanks

Harry N

 

[Rick]

Welcome to the forum. There is a ton of info here for projects like yours

 

[HarryN]

Welcome to the forum. There is a ton of info here for projects like yours

Thanks - yes I am already eyeballs deep into reading Explorer alternator threads. Definitely will keep me busy for a while.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! What kind of minivan did you have?

 

[HarryN]

Welcome to this forum! What kind of minivan did you have?

Thanks for the welcome.

It was a 2000 dodge minivan - the longer version with 4 captains chairs and a 2 seat bench in the back.

Purchased it in 2007 with 70K miles for $7k and just kept it going by babying it up to 180K miles.

When the kids all grew up, removed all of the back seats and used it sort of like an enclosed pick up of sorts.

My van electrical shop is off grid, so I mounted 300 watts of solar panels on it along with one of the systems that I build with batteries and a 2 kW inverter and ran the shop off of it for the past 5 years. It also served as a test bed to try things out along with my 2 test stands.

Anyway - exactly 30 days ago I was driving home from the shop and a pick up truck ran a red light at ~ 50 mph and took it out. Of course he had no insurance or drivers license. I am still recovering but getting better and hope to be back at it soon vs the 6 hrs a week now.

Really was hoping for my next vehicle to be a Transit or similar but that is out of reach right now.

Might have an opportunity to purchase a gen 2 or gen 3 explorer that is in reasonable condition so doing some homework on it.

Studying if the solar panels and power system can be mounted on it without doing anything too crazy and perhaps upgrading the alternator for more charging power. The solar panels work well 8 - 9 months a year, but during fire season there is a lot of smoke and Jan / Feb are pretty overcast so it isn't quite enough to run the heat gun, power saw, drill press, etc all day like I do other times.

 

[HarryN]

Photo that my wife took of the aftermath. Kind of spooked her a bit. It is actually even worse in real life than the photo. The van did it's job and dissipated a lot of the energy by crunching, spinning around and being carried across a few lanes. A 1/2 second difference would have been pretty bad so I am very lucky.

 

[Mike65]

Welcome Harry. Glad everyone was OK after that wreck.

 

[HarryN]

Welcome Harry. Glad everyone was OK after that wreck.

Thanks. I was the only one in the van and am still recovering, but getting there. Currently working at my business 6 hrs / week instead of 60 so output is sharply reduced for a while.