I recently moved to TN and have been a long time follower and fan of yours. I'd love to start bringing my vehicles to you for maintenance not sure how I can schedule that with you.

If you want to make an appointment with Scotty, email him and put in title Car appointment. Right now he's in Rhode Island visiting family.

1. I'm considering purchasing a small compact cargo van. I'm considering a 2019 and newer Nissan NV200 or a 2019 and newer Ford Transit Connect. Although I'm a loyal Toyota and Honda fan, my options are very limited and these small cargo vans are great for my needs despite their reliability is so poor. I plan on bringing any vehicle I find to you to be inspected and maintained. Do you feel both are poor considerations and which of the 2 have a more reliable engine and transmission?

I would look at something else. If you had to chose between the two, I would go with Ford.

2. I'd love to purchase a 2021+ Toyota Sienna however the price is way too much for Sienna's and their ground clearance is too low. I've found many people lift these vans for light offroading in they use Journey Off-road lift kits. Does lifting this van cause a reduction in reliability? Many like myself have this question about lifting a sienna as there are no other AWD van options out there.

I would not buy any of those Sienna's because although the new design has been out for a year and there are no major issues on it right now, I still want to see how it does when they are 5+ years old. As far as AWD minivans go, there's always the Chrysler Pacifica. Although you may want to call it a money pit, I've driven the newer Pacifica's and they are smooth down the road. Test drive one and see if you like it.

3. Are there any maintenance tips you'd suggest for people like me that run their vehicles overnight while camping for AC or heat other than the traditional vehicle maintenance?

When it comes to running AC/heat overnight, I would not have it run off of the main vehicle.

4. Would idling a vehicle overnight for AC or heat be better or worse mechanically on a hybrid vs non-hybrid vehicle? Which would offer better reliability given thus type of use?

Do not idle a vehicle overnight regardless if it's a regular petrol/gas or hybrid vehicle. You'll have no power when you leave and you'll be stranded with no gas.

Welcome!  Glad to have you join us.

First of all, ditto what @kp says above.

on this forum, you’ll get very good advice about drivetrain, chassis, vehicle related stuff.  But I don’t know that this is the richest source regarding van life-specific stuff like HVAC.  There’s plenty of better places to ask questions about that stuff.

My one suggestion would be to go look up a youtuber who goes by Foresty Forest.  Canadian guy, but he’s alright anyway.  Specifically, look at his older videos where he was full-timing in a Chevy Uplander (by no means a Kilmer-approved choice 😉  ); shows how to start with a mediocre platform and make it work.

I guess I have another suggestion, which would be to find a completed Van life rig.  Maybe someone who has had enough and is going back to “regular” life.  See what works and what doesn’t, then build your own.

Good luck!

Posted by: @jack2022car

how I can schedule that with you.

Does lifting this van cause a reduction in reliability?

it depends on the specifics, but generally speaking, any deviation from factory design means your taking the vehicle outside of it's "performance envelope", and it's not going to behave as expected.  Especially, Sienna Minivans were NOT designed with off-road use in mind. They were not built to handle it, and you should expect big trade-offs in reliability.

  lifting a sienna as there are no other AWD van options out there.

Then you haven't done your research.

Chev Astro/GMC Safari, Mazda MPV, Ford Transit, Chev Express/GMC Savana, Mercedes Sprinter... just to name a few. Not even getting into imports.

3. Are there any maintenance tips you'd suggest for people like me that run their vehicles overnight while camping for AC or heat other than the traditional vehicle maintenance?

Really, with these gas prices?  there are far more efficient ways to heat small spaces.

4. Would idling a vehicle overnight for AC or heat be better or worse mechanically on a hybrid vs non-hybrid vehicle? Which would offer better reliability given thus type of use?

Smaller combustion engines burn less fuel.

Aren't you better off buying an RV?

3)

Get a generator & mount it to one of those trailer hitch cargo racks. Just use oddball fasteners & put a couple tack welds down to keep it from growing legs. 

From there use a standalone heater/cooler unit, they're small when you're dealing spaces that tiny.

Idling like that overnight is going to kill the engine. When I was homeless I just started the car before bed to keep the battery alive & get the engine up to temp for a couple mins then shut it down. Saved gas & sometimes I could get to sleep prior to the freezing feeling returning😄

There's a couple types on amazon that are rechargeable and/or evaporative (you need ice or an ice pack) for about $30 but I have no experience with those. I do imagine they would have worked well in my Camaro but in a van, maybe too small since they're only as big as a 12pk cooler. A heater of that size or less on the other hand, I used a 6" cube ceramic to heat my bedroom, only 300watts & when my defroster died I ran it to a cig lighter power inverter.

As for being stealthy, you can make a much better muffler for the genny, it'll just be big. I made one once from a 3-4" diameter /24" or longer cherry bomb muffler(can't recall exact dimension so 3" dia. & 24" length are min.) by welding caps on each end then taking then taking a stock briggs & stratton muffler & dissembling down to the fitting, then I made a custom neck out of 1" steel pipe/elbows (h.d. plumbing aisle) which ran to the cherry bomb.

On one end of the now capped cherry bomb, drill a 1" hole for your inlet. On the other start with a 1/4" drill bit & work your way up until the engine doesn't choke out under full load.

The length & diameter of the glass pack muffler are what allow you to use such a small exit hole. More length = more dwell space to prevent choke out, that fiberglass packing combined with being capped will absorb a ton of noise on a small engine if set-up like that.

I always parked in busy areas, esp by highways because state cops pull in alot. Places like streets or smaller towns invite cops who will charge you with vagrancy & impound your vehicle no matter how stealthy you are when they do their code 3's checking with search lights. The ambient noise was enough to where only light would draw attention to me & my car was LOUD. I wish I had known about Wal-Mart's overnight policy back then, the one up the street has a few grumman truck type campers which haven't moved in well over a year but every night they have a big genny running. Pretty much a permanent residence as they have a car as well.

This type will run on a small generator no problem & you just run the duct out of your window. There are smaller ones (about half the size or less) but this is small enough to sit on your front seat when sleeping then stow it in the rear when you're not back there....using one of those racks out back use can also store it in a locked box:

  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DQVNSP8/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_WTT14K6T4BC3S1C7CBGJ

This is the heater type I was talking about, mine was much smaller & 100w less, that was in the Wal-Mart discount aisle for $7. No clue if they still have em:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y37VTKR/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_0C6ATTEKMF71JB3JNGA5

Evap a/c, this is just a couple random ones to give you an idea:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096TPL8PS/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_MCFHKVQZ7WWE7FJ0F7BH

  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094FB32L3/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_3X1Y5S3XZY5HX9EQBWDF