Well, it looks like I'll be keeping the work van for quite some time, with the price of gas, and it's paid off factored in, it just makes more sense. It's 8 years old, with 95K miles on it, and has been maintained with the idea that I'd be shooting for 200K miles out of it when I bought it.

I've had a somewhat temporary laptop setup for years, shown in the pic below. I had rigged up a mount out of 4" PVC and a laptop cooler base a year or two after getting the van, since I didn't have the coin to buy a fancy premade one at the time. It's actually worked out well enough that I hadn't bothered doing anything else since. But now I find myself getting a little more cramped in there with the laptop on it's stand, and was toying with the idea of mounting a 17" lcd somewhere on the headliner, hinged so it would fold up when not it use, and dropped down when in use.

I run a 7db external antenna, magnetic mount on the ladder rack, and an Ornico Gold b card on the Compaq AMD XP2500 laptop, 768 ram and a new 80GB 5400 rpm hdd. It's old, but had seen little use when I bought it for $100, someone thought it was dead, but the adapter was shot. I may have to upgrade it or possibly toying with the idea of a Atom setup, that would be sweet.

Has anyone seen such a setup, know where to look for parts to do such a thing, or have any ideas? I really don't care what it looks like, functionality weighs much more than looks.

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Co-owner, the Group of 10 100 200 300

Thanks! I do have to carry tons of stuff, but I should have cleaned it up some before taking the pic. Took it when I was taking pictures of the radiator replacement a few months ago I did. You ought to like the picture below of the back of the van... I just looked through the pic of the cab, and can't see anything I don't use most every day in there. There's a pad on the dash, 12V laptop adapter hanging on a hook, 3 pen drives hanging from the rearview mirror, the blue cups hold small items like paper clips, keys from jobs, etc. Open glove box holds receipts, toothpaste, lighters, and other junk. Console has a file cabinet in the rear, on top are 2 trays, one holds digicam, architects ruler, deposit slips, vitamins, ibuprofen, scissors/pen/pencil/utility knives, plastic forks and spoons etc. The box on pass. seat holds files from jobs, and other paperwork. utility bag there holds a usb floppy, usb cdrom and a dozen or so coputer diagnotic/OS etc. discs. I do need a new set of seat covers, I've worn out the drivers side.

Ideally, I'd like it to flip down from the roof when in use, but secured when not in use. I don't use it while driving at all, so it wouldn't be flopping around at any time.

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Co-owner, the Group of 10 100 200 300

Paul, did you get your van into the reality show "Unpimp My Ride"?

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Gary
You can't fix dead.

      

Those are paint can openers....

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Co-owner, the Group of 10 100 200 300