Any contractors out there who have downsized their work vans from full size to more economy sized vans? My DH is considering this. He is not that tall 5' 8" but he is very stocky/wide shouldered.

He went from a Chevy Express van to a semi modified Dodge Caravan when the B regime came into power, knowing that gas prices would skyrocket. As a reminder, he does HVAC.

Caravan is now getting long in the tooth. We usually buy used vehicles. Our accounting basis is cash, not accrual.

Any thoughts/advice/reviews?

We are on our second Nissan NV. It is the ONLY small van out there (researched and measured) that will carry a full sheet of plywood upright. The other would have lasted for many more years but we sold it and bought another using the Section 179 deduction.

I'd upsized, downsized and learned a few mistakes/issues in doing so. When I had a half ton van, I'd burn out a transmission every 18 months. I was at my weight limit and driving in traffic going into the hills once a week put a strain on my drive train. A transmission on a half ton was only $900 to rebuild.

Then I upsized to a 1 ton van. I purchased it used and rebuilt the engine and transmission. Engine $3,500, Transmission $3,200. Now that I was way under weight with this higher rated van, so far I've never had to rebuild the engine or transmission.

So taking this forward, if your DH downsizes, he will have to reduce his abuse to the vehicle. Will he tow trailers?

Will he still keep a large inventory of parts and tools on this vehicle/van?

My mileage for a a 1/2 ton in the olden days was only 17 miles per gallon with a regular van. With my 1 ton van with a 460 monster engine, I am lucky to get 8 to 10 miles per gallon.

I am thinking of buying myself a new van. They make the tall and skinny so I can stand up and fit thru driveways. Fuel injected and over 24 miles per gallon.

Nissan stopped the NV summer of 2021. Maybe you can find an old new stock sitting around somewhere.

Why did Nissan stop making NV passenger?

In order to focus on core products, the company will end production of its NV Cargo, Passenger and NV200 vans in the summer of 2021, and concentrate on Nissan Business Advantage to provide more choices to commercial vehicle customers

I have "The Beast," an F250 with a utility bed and ladder rack. Basic white service truck with a 1,300lb lift gate. I got it about 18 months ago after a lifetime of digging around in the back seat or bed box of my pickups for a tool. Before that I was using my fancy new (to me) F150 with all the gizmos and was constantly terrified of scratching it.

My F250 is a 2002, with the dinosaur 7.3 diesel. It gets about 12 mpg on a good day, vs my 2.7L F150 that averages 21 and I've hit 25.6 on a trip. But I can dump gravel in the back and not worry about getting my pickup's shiney bed liner dirty, and my tools are (finally) easily accessible and organized by locker. It hauls a Bobcat easily, my F150 can barely haul my jeep.

My AC contractor friend uses both utility trucks and vans. I saw he has a couple of new Sprinter vans. He has all his rigs wrapped for advertising, the Sprinters are like rolling billboards. So that's a consideration.

In addition to the Dodge caravan, we have a full/long bed silverado, my rav4, a smaller trailer we traded for a big tex and a full sized construction trailer. We also have a rennovated 1985 dump truck C30. Everything is paid for (no loans)

We did our own swap out engine and tranny thing for the original chevy express, but we are getting older so playing mechanic (other than restoring an old '48 pickup truck) is getting less attractive.

Depends on your business size and model...

For several years I have used a big SUV and trailer for HVAC. A bigger company in town uses trucks with enclosed trailers. They have their own sheet metal shop and make jobs in advance. The empty trailer is loaded while the install crew is doing another job with another trailer.

Oh man did not know that about NV discontinuance.