Astro or Safari Van Owners

[Popups4Rent]

I am a guy that will tow almost anything with an Astro. It gets from 9.5 mpg towing a @ 5000 lb Keystone to 21 mpg highway not towing. If you get the correct rear end you can tow up to 6100 lbs with RWD, AWD is less. I have done fine when I go visit winter. We took it skiing last year. I was too lazy and cheap to put on the chains. With 7 people in the van, the Subaru in front of me kept getting in the way. I have 150,000 miles now, and have had some problems, mostly the electrical doo dads. ABS computer and fuel gauge sending unit are currently non-responsive, have been for over 18 months. They are expensive items to fix. I think I am in the process of losing my torque converter, but since I have over 50,000 miles towing I am not complaining. The Astro has far outperformed in reliability compared to our Caravan with 80K miles.
 
Construction - Behind the rear wheels is unibody construction. Forward has an S-10/Blazer/Astro frame running under the truck. Notice the old Astros (still running around, ugly things never die) that end at the rear wheels? That is where the frame ends. The extension is unibody.
 
The only thing I would trade for that can haul people and trailers would be a Diesel Excursion.
 
BTW - With the lower rear end and the heavy conversion package on the van, I would expect the average Astro to getter better MPG than mine and have a higher top speed.
 
Hey Kelly!

[Kelly]

Hey Kelly!

Hey Scott!   :W  

Glad to see you're still around and camping!     Don't tell anybody, but you're one of the big () reasons I bought the Astro .... thanks!

[lushy]

We had our '95 Astro in our "pre-pop up days" .....but I wish I had it now!  :mad:  

We had good luck with it, only minor mechanical repairs. I loved the 4.3L Vortec engine power. I would usually get around 20-22 MPG highway/city mixed, not towing. As mentioned it is bigger than the other mini-vans and that is one thing that drew us to it. It's big enough without being "HUGE". We loved the cargo space...boy do I miss that! Take out all the rear seats and you basically have a pickup truck bed with a cover! With all the rear seats in, the cargo space in the rear was still more than enough for everyday life as well as family trips. The front captain chairs were the most comfortable seats I have every had in a vehicle??!!

The things we didn't like was that it didn't have a rear sliding door on the driver's side, we had the 2 swing out back doors and the middle "bar" between the 2 back windows created an obstuction when looking out the rear-view mirror, the leg room in the front seats was uncomfortable due to the front wheel wells which was probably my biggest complaint because I am tall.

It was time for a new vehicle and I wanted the Astro again  :U   but the DW wanted a "change" and being that it would be the vehicle she was going to drive, I wanted her to have what she wanted. We do miss the Astro now! It would be great to have for towing the PU!

Good luck with your choice. Hope my 2 cents help!

[GatorBait]

We traded our Astro in for the Express conversion van.  The ride is much smoother and the gas mileage is not much different.  There is a lot more room inside the vehicle (which only leads to BRINGING MORE STUFF).

At times we miss the Astro when Not camping because the Conversion Van is a much larger vehicle when running around town and parking in "tight" lots.

When pulling the PU with Four bikes on top of it as well, it is a lot less stressful than the Astro pulling the PU.

Good Luck,

Mike

[flyfisherman]

I was swayed over to pick'em-up trucks so long ago I'm afraid I'd have to re-learn how to drive a van!  So I'm hovering around zero for van advice, but let me echo some remarks about that 4.3 V-6. Every now and again G.M. does something right, and that's exactly what they done with that 4.3 - that was what I had in my previous pick-up and I ran that truck down some serious road with out any engine or tranny difficulty at all. That engine runs quiet and smooth and gets it's torque at a low rpm. I loved pulling the popup through the mountains in western North Carolina on the secondary roads ... it would just walk right up the hill!  Now with my present truck I went to the 4.8 V-8, thinking I was planning to pull the camper west through the Rockies (a trip I've yet to make, by the way), and Mr. GoodWrench says for every 1,000 feet of elevation it will subtract about 4% of the engine's performance. Since I'm at sea level, when I get to Denver's Mile High Stadium, it will reduce the engine 20%. I hear tell there are some places out there that I want to go to and they are even higher!

Driving around here locally (not towing or carrying any heavy loads), the V-6 would get anywhere from 2 to 4 more miles per gallon. Surprisingly, the V-8 gets better mileage towing the camper by a mile or two per gallon, and that's got to be the horse power delivering the goods. But pulling the camper up the same roads, you can hear the V-8 coming because it is a-roaring. Both trucks had/have the same rear end ratio (3.42), but the 4.3 torque is at 260@2800, while the 4.8 V-8 torque is at 285@4000.

If I had my overs, for what I do, I would have went with the 4.3 again. I really liked that engine.


F;ly

[phrog]

Just a note or two on Astros I have owned 2 a 93 AWD and currently a 99 (supposedly AWD).  The older AWDs pre 95 were Viscous coupled full time 35f-65r AWD very durable system.  The New style are an on demand electro coupled AWD system which tends to blow the electric motor that activiates the front drive. The gang on Astrosafari.com HOT setup is to put in the 236 2 speed case out of a s-10 blazer with the 3 button dash control.   As for towing most astros have 3.42 ratio rearends, but a few have a 3.73 set up little less mileage but v8 spunk.
I also have a 2002 full size ford (more power better gas mileage than 99 Astro and close to 7000 lb tow capacity) New full size Chevys are junk IMHO 327 engine less performance than 4.3 in astro, terrible handling but great gas mileage wouldn't pull popup in mountains without constantly shifting even using tow/haul tranny