Posted: 5/6/2016 1:27:36 PM EDT
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What do you think of this as a BOV? At least the back end mounted on a 4WD vehicle like a Tundra.
Everyone sees these everyday and ignores them, they seem to me to be the perfect grayman vehicle to get out of BUAs (Built-Up Areas). It has shitloads of lockable storage once you decide it's Fo Time. I've also seen them with windows at the top. Does anyone know where to get these? 
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Craigslist. But the donor vehicle will be beat up. Man, sisn't even think about looking on CL, thanks! I prefer beat-up, more anonymous and less tempting than "Oooh shiny!". How hard would it be to transfer the back end to another vehicle? Could a shop that specializes in truck upgrades do it? |
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Quoted:
What do you think of this as a BOV? At least the back end mounted on a 4WD vehicle like a Tundra. Everyone sees these everyday and ignores them, they seem to me to be the perfect grayman vehicle to get out of BUAs (Built-Up Areas). It has shitloads of lockable storage once you decide it's Fo Time. I've also seen them with windows at the top. Does anyone know where to get these? http://imageshack.com/a/img924/4030/1Ne8tn.jpg 
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Damn, those are awesome!!! Which is what I'm trying to avoid... 
I like those 4x4 Econoline vans but I want the body to mount on a Tundra, I'm looking for the off-the-shelf ruggedness and dependability... |
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I looked into this very idea a few years ago.
You can find the utility boxes in auto salvage yards in most any big city. They tend to stay longer than cars because the yards try to sell the boxes before crushing them. That is where I found mine, which is almost identical to the one in your photo, but has a much taller roof. If you are just using it to haul a few people and light stuff, it should do okay. If you want to haul a lot of weight, the recipient vehicle will need to be heavy duty because the steel utility box weighs quite a lot. I'd get one with a taller roof because it adds much more storage space and allows people to sit in there comfortably. You'd need to also consider noise insulation, heating and cooling for pax sitting in the box. Removing the box was easy. Eight bolts attaching the box to the chassis, and around 20 1/4” steel rivets connecting the forward side of the box to the cab. I ground off the rivet heads with two sandwiched cut-off wheels chucked into a cordless drill. I put my box on a custom trailer bed. I suspect you'd need to mount your box onto a frame like the one it came off from to avoid a lot of problems with frame mating, cab mating and wheel clearance. It might be easier, not cheaper, to keep the box on the original chassis and get a 4x4 upgrade. If your box has a lot of internal structure like shelves and cabinets and mounts, which is likely welded to the box, that is going to take a lot of work to remove. Also, the slanted upper section makes it difficult to store square items like boxes. That lockable storage will only keep out 5 year-olds in a bug out situation. Those doors are thin sheet metal and can be pried open at the edges easily, same with the rear doors. The locks on mine were easily defeated by pounding a screwdriver into them and turning it with a crescent wrench. I welded up the doors seams completely on mine and cut away the inner panels inside the box for access. I made a custom door locking system that ain't gonna be defeated without a cutting torch. This idea will take a lot of fabrication work. You should be quite skilled, have a decent shop, and have lots of extra time and money to put into it. Personally, for a BOV, I decided to get an E350 stretched van with a raised roof, and avoided all the problems associated with this utility box idea. It isn't 4x4 but it has enough clearance that I can drive over curbs no problem. It is a 1-ton, former US govt covert swat vehicle with armor plate and a 7.3l diesel and a lot of other cool 007 stuff. From the outside, it looks just like any other E350 windowed pax van. I looked at converting an ambulance as a BOV but the boxes were too small and tearing it down to a bare starting point was going to be a tremendous amount of work. Plus, ambulances typically get surplussed when they are totally worn out pieces of junk, requiring a lot of expensive parts replacement in addition to the box mods. |
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Quoted: Get this armored OP and maybe a different color. http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e241/M15A2/8afb14a9408fc7943c3844b6f04e2705_zpsvyurlo3i.jpg |
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Why is the door handle mounted so weird on the passenger door? Quoted:
Quoted:
Get this armored OP and maybe a different color. http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e241/M15A2/8afb14a9408fc7943c3844b6f04e2705_zpsvyurlo3i.jpg Sliding door, not sure it will open with those fender flares. |