My festival rig
I picked up this 1991 Vandura Sportsmobile earlier this year and I absolutely am in love. Here are some photos from its first festival!
It’s almost all original except for the floor. I wanted something that I could take to moderate Overland trails as well as music festivals and not have to pay for RV. It’s only 18 1/2 feet long so it gets in anywhere.
The countertops are crumbling because they’re particleboard and the moisture wasn’t nice to them. All the door seals are bad so water leaks into the step but I plan to replace those with remanufactured ones soon. Fortunately, the top does not leak at least nothing that I saw. The vinyl windows on the top are all cracked, but I plan to take it to my buddies shop who sews Tactical load carriage and sew an entirely new one out of a waterproof cordura (neoprene backed) material. The windows zipper on three sides and the fourth side is sewn in permanently. When I rebuild it, I’ll make the zipper go all the way around so that the vinyl windows can be removed for storage and or replaced easily with a pattern that I’ll save.
I just put a new lithium phosphate 100Ah battery and new MPPT as the lead acid battery that came with it was swollen and the controller was old school. It only has a 100w panel but that powered all my lights three USB fans and a 750w inverter for the whole 5 day festival. We only had one overcast day and the battery got down to about 25%. Eventually, I will put linear actuators on the top and then move to a 4-600 W solar system.
Next, I’ll get a 270 awning and build a custom roof rack. On the driver side I’ll put a rack, mounted shower tent and have quick disconnect to the water lines so I can be up and going super fast.
The van has a suburban propane heater, onboard propane tank, propane two burner gas stove, and a propane gas water heater. I haven’t troubleshoot the water heater yet but it doesn’t work. I really haven’t needed hot water anyway so no rush there. Everything else works.
The original motor was swapped for a 5.7 but it has the original transmission that seems to be working decently. I think the engine might have a small misfire, but for the most part, it runs good. I probably need to swap plugs and plug wires along with maybe a new distributor.
The van came with a 14 bolt GM rear end and a GM Dana 60 axles along with a 4wd transfer case.
I plan to put all that under it, but I’m gonna switch the transfer case for a NP205 and probably swap the trans for a 4L80. I really want to do 37’s but we’ll see. For now I’m really enjoying it as is in all its retro goodness!