Very hard to load and unload with our gear and not secure for thousands of dollars worth of gear. But thanks! I had said “no pickups”, but I just added “no camper shells” either.
Thanks Nevada! Yep, I agree! Will check out that NV 200! I appreciate your extra effort with the actual measurements!
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My pleasure. Good luck with your selection process.
Unibody vehicles can easily carry that weight.
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Many light truck chassis are unibody construction. The Dodge Ram van is a unibody starting in 1971. A truck chassis is not defined as body-on-frame.
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I think your best bet is a used cargo van. this link is from 2019 but gives you an idea of size and weight capabilities.
We don’t know the size of your garage. Standard size doesn’t explain it. We have a wide minivan((Odyssey) that just barely fits in our garage width-wise, yet our previous two vans fit easily. All that is words, not measurements. Give us some garage measurements and maybe we can help. We could use Astrovan measurements, but we are trying to fit another van in your garage, not match your Astrovan measurements. BTW, you can easily figure out what fits by measuring the size of your garage space and compare it to the outside dimensions of available vans. We can’t do this as well as you can. Also, parking your van on the driveway might not be a bad idea. You can’t leave the equipment in the van if you need to practice. This way you can focus on price and not on size.
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Chevy dealers sold the NV200 as the City Express but only for a couple years, same van just badged as a Chevy.
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The Astro and the Aerostar are unibody designs, too, like the old Dodge van. Nothing wrong with that.
Considering an Astro is the cockroach of vans… can’t kill them except with rust…If rust is not a problem, a new engine and transmission are cheaper than even a used van.
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My question is this:. “How heavy is the P.A. equipment that you load into your van, and how do you get the equipment in and out of the van?”
Thanks for your info, and the very heavy P.A. gear stays in the van until we go to a gig a few times a week. You have given me some ideas, and I thank you for your time!
Ideas ? It seems like you could have at least narrowed your choices to a few likely vehicles by now.
Yes, I’ve narrowed my choices. I appreciate everyone’s help. And it turns out the tranny blew afer I posted my notice, we had it repaired so now I’m keeping this old clunker until the engine blows.
What about a mobile advertising van? There’s room inside the cargo compartment for all of your equipment and you can advertise your band and the gigs you will perform at. If you want to make extra money you can put other ads on the scroll.
Hi Delene. If you need a keyboard player id be happy to apply.
The 1969 Chevy Van Sportvan is what you want! It’s the kind where your feet are less than a foot behind the bumper. It’s nearly 16 long, and you have nearly 11 feet of cargo space behind the front seats and the engine, which is between the seats. But nothing like this exists in the North American market today. Here is the literature from 1969: https://www.xr793.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/1969-Chevy-Van-and-Sportvan.pdf
It suffers from the same issue that your current van does. It fails crash tests with the driver positioned too close to the front.
The newer models put the driver maybe 6" to a foot farther back. This means that all current models have either 6" to a foot less cargo space, or they are 6" to 1 foot longer.
There is no solution to your situation if the vehicle is to pass current safety standards. How close does the Chevy Express van come? What about Nissan NV?
No expert here, my guess safety inspection is limited to what applied at date of manufacture.
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Except the Ford “E” series vans and the Dodge “B”series vans. And both were offered in at least 2 different length cargo areas. And for all intents and purposes the 1969 Chevy van is nonexistent in the market also.
Give it a break you bombastic bloviating blowhard. They all passed the safety standards of the day and if properly maintained still do. Every vehicle built will not pass all the standards next time the standards are revised anyways.
Remember safety first, always buckle up in that lazy-boy, and don’t fart without a fully inspected and certified respirator on!
I take it the \\\SNOWMAN///// still coming up with nonsense. 
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I just call ‘em the way way I see ‘em. 
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