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Totally on the same page with you! Five in car seats or boosters in my family, and the NV made things a dream. Took the whole family and the in-laws out to look at Christmas lights and it's so nice not to be crowded or tight...even with the third row in the van. (Which we normally don't keep in the van). Merry Christmas all!!!

555 ft. Lbs. of torque before ECM tune still isn't bad. After a tuner, and/or a couple more psi of boost it would be pretty sweet! Stacks out the top of the hood?

Just get one of these!

7.3 PS is one of my favorite motors of all time! They pull like a freight train! You can tow 15K lbs. and almost not even feel it. The NV will be completely different in regards to towing. What is the weight of your toy hauler? I'm guessing the other items aren't going to be that heavy, (under 5K lbs.) but toyhaulers can get up there.

Mgmoore7, as a salesman myself I appreciate your logic and fairness. I rent and sell equipment, and spend a lot of time with customers helping them on everything from pipelines to cell towers. Nice to hear about fair deals and win/win situations

Camera was a kit that I pulled power from the fuse box when key is on. Same thing for reverse trigger also. I don't believe the tire combo made it shorter. 285/55/20 is still pretty close to what is stock, or within 1/2". Step bars are Aluminess Ford E-350 nerf bars that I dabbed up to put on the NV.

My guess is the loss in power is due to them pulling a few degrees out of the timing. With a heavy fleet vehicle offered with a warranty, I'd pull timing out also!!!

I have to say it's the best vehicle we've had also! With 5 little ones (6,4,2,2,1) we needed the space and flexibility for sure. View is great, stance and handling is great for its size, ride is comfortable, and utility to boot. Also, it's the only newer van that can tow anything.

White can look good, right? New and current:

I was in the same spot you were, and I also only buy used vehicles. I kept my eye on all the sites like Autotrader and ended up finding my white SL with only 22K miles. Miles don't bother me one bit... but the condition of the interior does. You can spot a worn out motor pretty easy on a cold start, and today's engines don't wear out like old carbeurated motors did with loose tolerances etc. Why we judge vehicles on such outdated mileage standards boggles me. Anyhow, just keep looking and you'll find one that fits the bill. I drove 5 hours to San Diego to get mine from a dealer that was a trade in. I didn't originally want white, but I'm really glad I got it now. Even with just tinting the windows makes it look completely different. Add wheels and tires and it's a beast

I priced those from Advanced also, and they were ridiculous, about $900 for the nerf bars and another $300 for shipping. They're nice, but I'm happy with my Aluminess ones... once I get them powder coated.

Ya, they do look good! You could even rhino line them if you wanted to a flat color or add texture to them

Ya, I got the same impression when buying parts from them. Fleet guys are their bread & butter.

Mine has had issues with "blueing" from jeans when getting in and out. I spray on the Meguires leather cleaner and conditioner that keeps the leather slick so everything slides better and doesn't grab/abrade

Yes, I bought Ford E350 ones and welded some tubing/angle iron to mount them. I still need to have them powder coated black to match the tinting and emblems etc.

Our vans look a lot like trucks, and I thought the NV3500 would look pretty neat on the front doors just like they have on trucks, so I added them. I also plasti-dipped them black while I was at it.

Yours looks awesome BTW !!! Here's mine after the lift and the aluminess nerf bars:

I had to shim my door with my 285's... how did you shim yours? Add stud extenders to the door?

Yes, I did the tires and wheels first. Then I lifted it.

I have had two Yukon Denali's with the 6.2 liter motors that I moved! Each one had cold start piston slap that was noisy on start up. It's super common on those and posed no issue for me. As long as it goes away upon warm up, then you're fine. Are you sure it's not a cracked manifold? I work in the equipment business and we deal with a ton of fleet issues of all kinds, and cracked manifolds are common, especially in larger service body chassis where the exhaust is hung differently.... kind of similar to our NV's. Sometimes a synthetic 10/40 oil can help if it is in fact piston slap. I went through a phase some years ago and went crazy on oil analysis going on bobistheoilguy.com and learned a lot there too

Ya, the rear blocks were Ford parts from an F-350, but they were wide for our 3.5" springs etc. so I was OK paying for them... Advanced did all the work to find them to see what would work. The van looks awesome now with the lift, and I banged out the rear myself in an hour :)

It makes backing up a breeze huh?

Not really, it's reflective when I turn it off, so it can still be used as a rear view mirror if need be. Our windshields are huge, so I could even attach a small mirror under the monitor if I wanted to.

I have a rear view systems camera that replaces the brake light, and the monitor is a replacement rear view mirror. It works great, and would be unbearable to drive without it. It has been a great upgrade and has helped my wife avoid an accident already from a dangerous driver.

I don't like how they look now, but they are a huge help when it comes to comfort getting in and out. Hopefully I like the way they look when they're black