Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 1997 Dodge Ram 2500, Vanlife Edition
During my journeys through the big self-service car graveyards of Colorado's Front Range, I find some interesting art cars and labor-of-love hand-built camping vehicles, plus lots of machines with impressively high final odometer readings. Today's Junkyard Gem is one that combines all three types in one fascinating late-20th-century package.
I shot these photos way back in December of 2019, just before the pandemic sent thousands of new adventurers pursuing #vanlife dreams on the roads of North America. This '97 Ram three-quarter-ton van is the third generation of a Chrysler van lineage stretching back to 1970. It began life as a 127" wheelbase cargo version with the Maxi stretched rear. The 2500 Maxi's total length of just over 19 feet made it a good starting point for a camper conversion. MSRP for this hauler was $19,600 when new, or about $36,505 in 2022 frogskins.
So much work went into this Ram's interior fittings and exterior paint that I knew I'd be able to find something online about its history. After a few fruitless attempts soon after I shot the photos, I back-burnered my Adventure One Van research project for a while. Then, just last weekend, success!
It turns out that this van was customized by Antonio de Irún, a multidisciplinary artist in Boulder, Colorado. He refers to this Dodge as an "Adventure Reform Van" and there's a page documenting its construction on the website of a Florida custom-van company.
Most of the nice stuff that was inside got removed before the van entered the junkyard ecosystem, but you can see the general structure of the living and storage layout.
Plenty of carpentry and upholstery work went into the Adventure Reform Van aka Adventure One.
