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Let's talk about vans

DanielleMuscato

DanielleMuscato

Jun 19, 2004
4,782
83
42
Columbia, Missouri, USA
www.daniellemuscato.com
Disclosures
Endorsing Artist, Schroeder Cabinets
#1
What's the best gig-mobile?

I'd love to hear some good/bad experiences and personal stories and recommendations.

Currently my band uses my 2000 Honda Odyssey minivan. It has sliding doors on both sides which are automated - you can open & close them from the driver's seat using a control, or from the keychain as far as 30 feet away. VERY handy for load-in/load-out, comfortable to drive & easy to park, and decent gas mileage, but even with the rear bench and the two middle seats removed, it just doesn't have enough space to take us on the road with all of our gear, too (and we learned the hard way that it's not up to the task of towing a trailer).

Do you prefer cargo vans or conversion vans? 15-passenger with some of the benches removed? With a mattress or two? A cargo trailer? Or something else?

My band is a trio, but it's not implausible that we'd drive with a 4th person while we're out playing shows, so seating for 4 would be good. It would be ideal if there were a way for 2 out of the 3 (or 3 out of the 4) of us to lie down and rest while one person is driving, for circuit tours.

Should we just switch to the Bose L1s and leave the amps at home? We also have a Roland TD-6SXT electronic drum set, so in all seriousness, it might be more economical to switch to the Bose system and leave the acoustic drums, mains, monitors, and amps at home - we could probably fit four people, the Bose system, the elec. drums, and all of our instruments in my minivan without buying a new vehicle. I already use a Line6 bass preamp already :)

Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated.

Best,
 
#2
Chevy Astro Van, with all wheel drive. Awesome band vehicle.

When we're gigging locally, I take both benches out, and I can haul my bass gear (including the upright), the entire PA, and the guitar player's stuff ( Fender twins, plus guitars and assorted junk). Only 2 seats, but the rest of the guys drive themselves, anyway.

For travel, I put the benches back in. That gives us 8 seats, which is quite comfortable for 6. I put a U-Haul trailer on (4X8), and the Astro tows like a champ, even over all of our steep mountain passes. She's great in the snow, as well.

I love the Astro.
 
#4
1987 Chevy Conversion van, baby! Affectionately known to all as "The SKV" or the serial killer van. Soon to be parked in front of a school in you neighborhood!

Seriously, though, I've had this van for quite awhile. It's currently got 225,000 miles on it and although it's running okay it's starting to nickel and dime me a bit. Because we generally don't play to far out, everyone drives thier own gear plus a couple of us carry the PA, although I get the majority of it. As it was once a touring conversion van it is/was really nice on the inside and the drivers/front passenger area still is. I've put in everything you need for road trips; sat radio, DVD, PS2, etc. It gets crappy mileage (let's just say less than 10mpg!) the rear leaf springs slap from overloading it and the heater fan has become intemittent, but if you hit the dash in the right spot it'll come back on. But she keeps on going. I've all but out grown her and reliability is becoming an issue, although she hasn't let me down yet.

I had a large 1998 cube van, that got stolen. The insurance company really screwed me on that one. I'm looking to replace it, but it never had the character or personality that The SKV has.
 
#7
+1 on the Sprinter. The various bands I'm in make use of my Subaru Outback for gear and a second car for people hauling, though I've seriously looked into something bigger and the Sprinter seems like the ideal mix of price/mileage/functionality.

Have you actually used the Bose PA system or seen a band who used it on a gig? Or is it just one of those "this looks really cool in the magazine" things?
 
#8
Barkbuster said:
For those lacking in funds, you can get a used Ford aerostar for dirt cheap. Nobody wants to be seen in them . They are ugly , but get pretty good gas mileage and they are reliable. They are the bottom feeders...
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You won't see many Repairostars on the road in Western NY, they got chewed up by road salt along time ago.

Myself I just scored a 99 Grand Caravan for free. With some work it should make an awesome gig mobile. Curently we're using the singer's 90 Chevy G30 van.
 
#9
you can usually snag ex-utility company vans for cheap. like an old gas company or electric company van. they are usually stripped down (two front seats only) and maintained with some degree of regularity as they were fleet vehicles. a trip to the junkyard will score you whatever other kinds of seats you want, and the sky is the limit, as you are bolting whatever you want to a bare steel floor. they are also almost always full-size vans, like an econoline or ram van.

you can have a welder buddy (does everyone have one of these? i am one of them. you should get one, a great guy to have around) weld up a cage to keep your stuff locked up in, so in case someone breaks in to the van when you are sleeping in a hotel they will have a hell of a time actually stealing something. welder buddies LOVE projects like this.

most fleet type vans are at least v6 powered, most of them are v8. there is nothing easier to diagnose, work on or replace than a american made v8 motor. parts are cheap and plentiful. the drawback would of course be fuel economy. there always has to be a drawback, doesn't there?

mike watt, the man in the van with the bass in his hand, uses ford econoline vans. watt's 'boats' usually rack up a decade or more of service and i shudder to think how many miles.
 
#10
the most important member of your band.

my band has a 94 GMC Gladiator Conversion van. raised roof w/tv/vcr combo. we tow a 5x8 trailer. 9-12 mpg. i do most of the driving cause i like driving. despite other's feelings, i am very comfortable parking/backing up with the trailer, though we'll need a bigger one at some point next year. just went over 100k a couple weeks ago. will get at least another 100k out of it.

for a 3 piece, i would recommend the Astro/Safari van if it can comfortably haul a 4x6 or 5x8 trailer, which i think they should be able to with the 4.3 v6, which is what our first van had (seen below). set up with two captains chairs, one bench and a futon mattress in the back.

also pictured, our current van broken down in florida.
 

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#12
you're thinking small. get a chevy express 3500 (it's a one ton get ya up the hills), it's a 15 passenger, has a slightly wider wheel base than a ford so a bit more stable. Mine gets about 15 miles a gallon. Those Dodge Sprinters i think are basically the same as the Mercedes van that most the bands use in Europe which i've been in. The advantage is you can stand up in it which is nice to stretch on the 6 hour travel days.
 
#13
i vote 15 passenger van for the sheer aspect of expandability should you need it. and the more successful the band, the more room you're gonna want. with a 15 passenger, you can take out the back two rows of seats for gear and still have room for two people to lay down and two people up in front. (just for the record, i highly recommend two people staying awake together for those all night drives. safety first.) then later when you need it, the van can easily haul a trailer. you can put the seats back in the back and have more room for people or whatever. once you get used to it, driving and parking a trailer aren't too big a deal. i'm only 24 and i do all the driving for my band's 29 ft. rv with a 20 ft. trailer. which reminds me, once you have a trailer, you can upgrade from a van to an rv. it sounds weird i know, but for the independent touring band it makes more sense than you might think. you can haul everything, beds are built in, and you can save a ton of money by staying in rv parks as opposed to hotels
 
#14
We use my boss's diesel Dodge Sprinter if the band travels to Vegas or Denver.

One word: KILLER!

It's got more power than we ever would need, gets pretty good mileage because of the diesel gas, fits all our gear (for a three-piece band, and my drummer has a pretty big kit), and has 4-wheel drive for the snow.
 
#17
msquared said:
+1 on the Sprinter. The various bands I'm in make use of my Subaru Outback for gear and a second car for people hauling, though I've seriously looked into something bigger and the Sprinter seems like the ideal mix of price/mileage/functionality.

Have you actually used the Bose PA system or seen a band who used it on a gig? Or is it just one of those "this looks really cool in the magazine" things?
Click to expand...

We rented some studio space to rehearse after H. Katrina and we had nowhere to practice. They had them setup in the rehearsal room (one per bandmember). I was not impressed as I could only hear the two on my side. I couldn't hear our lead singer or the other guitarist at all.
 
#18
markjazzbassist said:
why are you carrying a house rig with you guys? don't you use the venue's mains and monitors? losing that would proably free up all the space you need.
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Depends on where we play. Some places don't have PAs, so we bring our JBL Eon 15s (as mains) and Mackie VLZ-1604 mixer, along with our in-ears for monitors, to those gigs. We also have a JBL Eon 10 that we use as an extra monitor if needed for those gigs. If the venue has mains but insufficient monitoring, we each get our own Eon as monitor (we're a trio). We don't own a sub but rent them from time-to-time. Usually, our backline is all we need, but right now, we are in the position that if we're playing a venue without a PA, we have to take two vehicles, and we can't even rent a trailer if we want to take only one, since the Odyssey can't haul it. And even considering the backline-only gigs, we often take two vehicles, because with all but the driver & front passenger seats removed, we can barely fit our drummer's 6-piece kit, my bass rig, and the guitarist/singer's rig into the van... leaving one of us without a seat! :help:

Back when we had the Astro, we could fit backline gear & the drum kit/instruments into the van, while still leaving 3 seats for the 3 of us. If we needed the PA, we'd hook up the trailer and bring that, too. I'd like to be able to do that again, or alternatively, have some sort of set-up where we could fit everything we needed (including the three of us) into my current Odyssey minivan. Ideally, we could also fit a fourth person if we wanted to bring along a soundman/roadie/guitar-tech/merch-guy/mgr.
 
#20
We play the original circuit in the big northeast cities, so we generally don't need to bring a PA. Our mini-SUV and a small 4x6 trailer fits the bill just fine and fits 4/5 people, 5 piece drums w/hardware, Ampeg bass rig, VHT half stack, luggage. Before, I had a four door Toyota Tacoma with hard top on the back, and that was close to ideal.

Other benefits are that it's a mountain goat in the snow, gets decent gas mileage, and I can unhook the trailer and the LR2 itself is shorter than a Toyota Camry!
 

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