I've owned 6 or 7 Chevy Astro vans going back to '88, all were AWD except for 2. They are one of the best vehicles Gm has ever made. Oil change, grease job and plugs on a regular basis, you will get over 300k and up to 450k on them, with little to no rust issues. Put an Overland 2 -3" lift kit on a '99 Astro, the kit included torsion keys, 2" spacers, 1 heavy duty leaf spring for each side, shackle mounts and bumper relocation brackets. I think I ended up with 32" tires on it after cutting the corners of the bumper. I'm driving a 04 Safari now. Knowing what I know now, if I wanted to convert to go full on 4x4 and lifted I would look at just putting the Safari body on a S-10 frame.
Have to say… That undercarriage looking pretty good🤩… it’s making the muffler look like an eyesore maybe “We” 😜 need to wipe that out and re-form it to fit in nicer sometime soon. 🤔
If it doesn't rub much you could throw wheel spacers on, I know theres a little stigma about them but I've been running a pretty generic set of wheel spacer on the rear of my bronco for about 6 years now and havent had any issues. One time I came off a dune that looked flatter than it was and the rear axle went full slam into the bump stops, it also had at least 500 lbs of camping gear in the back too so it really took a hit and the wheel spacers were fine
@@AstroVanTribe oh yea I forgot about that, hack and burn it is then! I dont know much about frame notching but I'd want to make sure that the area its notched at is extra beefy, like weld an extra plate around the notch area, not overkill but just for peace of mind. Worse comes to worse at least it's not hard to get another subframe (it would still be a bitch for sure) if yours turns into a taco
@@codybrady6637 I'm thinking now about torching it enough in that area to make it Marianne enough to hammer into shape - won't lose any strength that way and it's easier
Nice diff cover bro
I've owned 6 or 7 Chevy Astro vans going back to '88, all were AWD except for 2. They are one of the best vehicles Gm has ever made. Oil change, grease job and plugs on a regular basis, you will get over 300k and up to 450k on them, with little to no rust issues. Put an Overland 2 -3" lift kit on a '99 Astro, the kit included torsion keys, 2" spacers, 1 heavy duty leaf spring for each side, shackle mounts and bumper relocation brackets. I think I ended up with 32" tires on it after cutting the corners of the bumper.
I'm driving a 04 Safari now. Knowing what I know now, if I wanted to convert to go full on 4x4 and lifted I would look at just putting the Safari body on a S-10 frame.
That would be neat
Rear cover looks good and clean and easy to maintain
Have to say… That undercarriage looking pretty good🤩… it’s making the muffler look like an eyesore maybe “We” 😜 need to wipe that out and re-form it to fit in nicer sometime soon. 🤔
New muffler is in the works... the front driveshaft I ordered got here today and is an in h too short....
your tires look great, I'm looking for a new set on my Honda Ridgeline Black edition
So much cleaner than my astro. But why would larger wheels increase your MPG? Or did I hear that wrong?
It's an RPM at speed thing - I got better MPG's with 30" tires than I was getting with smaller tires and the 3.42 gears
If it doesn't rub much you could throw wheel spacers on, I know theres a little stigma about them but I've been running a pretty generic set of wheel spacer on the rear of my bronco for about 6 years now and havent had any issues. One time I came off a dune that looked flatter than it was and the rear axle went full slam into the bump stops, it also had at least 500 lbs of camping gear in the back too so it really took a hit and the wheel spacers were fine
no I can't because of my driveway
@@AstroVanTribe oh yea I forgot about that, hack and burn it is then!
I dont know much about frame notching but I'd want to make sure that the area its notched at is extra beefy, like weld an extra plate around the notch area, not overkill but just for peace of mind. Worse comes to worse at least it's not hard to get another subframe (it would still be a bitch for sure) if yours turns into a taco
@@codybrady6637 I'm thinking now about torching it enough in that area to make it Marianne enough to hammer into shape - won't lose any strength that way and it's easier
@@AstroVanTribe I guess it depends on how much clearance you need
☕ 👋
Love your content but, No bikini 👙 please 😅