Big fan of the minivan!

Just picked a ford Aerostar a couple of weeks go. It's old, but I happen to like that particular model.

Used to have a Chevy Venture extended. Could fit two Bally late model Bingos, or a NIB Stern, orfour or more Bally slots etc.

I have used the town And country several times. I just need to inflate the tires when I do.

Hauled every pin i have in the back of a town and country thousands of miles

Honda Odyssey checking in. It's very nice, don't have to take the second row out for one game

How does a Subaru Outback hold a pinball machine?

I was thinking about getting something like this as my next rig. To save gas on long trips rather than using my truck. Also it is the NW much nicer than tarps on a rainy day.

Honda Odyssey worked great. I was able to fit my first pin in the back and didn't have to leave my kids at the guys house b/c of space problems in the van. Then a month later I took the second row of seats out and came home with 2 pins in the back.

I love theToyota Sienna...it's a mean pinball hauling machine!!!

Just packed a surf champ in my outback, it fit, no problem. That is if you're cool with taking the head off.

Minivan rocks in the rainy PNW. Fairly low to the ground, makes it easy to get pins in and out. Honda Odyssey here.

Minivans get a bad rap. They are the best people/stuff haulers around. Wife drives a Chrysler T&C. She knows it's bad news when I call and ask "May I borrow the van tomorrow?"

I'll take a van over a mini van anyday of the week

Really? One pin is like two people roughly. Maybe even lighter. You gotta snag some new tires!

For the cost of a topper and some LED's I hear Les Schwab can hook you up =)

Pretty much! I have a 93 jeep grand cherokee for snagging pins. Lower than most jeeps so that helps. Rain and pins together suck!

To heck with a minivan. I can carry 15 passengers, or remove the seats and carry a fleet of pins. As you can see here, also useful for other things.

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+1 for the Minivan. It is just so useful. It is a great tool for moving stuff and people around. Also makes for great road trips.

What kind of fuel economy do you get? My Venture got 20 in the city and 30 on the highway.

I hate minivans and every girlie man that drives one. Big bloated bodies with those horrible little wheels. Be a man and set your minivan on fire. Salvation is a match away. Minivans are your wives subconscious desires to shrivel up your wiener. I hate it when I see some poor guy slowly driving one of those wobbly $hitboxes. You can move a pinball with a pickup or an SUV. Or a skateboard. Anything but a minivan.

Lol

I bought my wife an Odyssey, because ill just take it when I need it. I ain't driving a minivan every day, lol.

Something around 12 city, maybe 18-20 highway. This one has the Vortec V8. In the pic we did a 2000 mile round trip from Ohio to the Minnesota boundary waters.

You can actually squeeze 3 pins in a Sienna but unless I was going through pins a lot then I will just stick to borrowing my brother inlaws SUV or mini van

Mini-vans schmini-vans! Here's my van!

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An '02 Honda Odyssey is my main transportation. It will haul two pins, I can fit all my repair stuff in it and still haul around the kids. Great gas mileage, cheap insurance, low property taxes, tires are inexpensive compared to other trucks/SUVs, plus it doesn't break. It has 143k miles on it and when it is time to replace it I'll get another. I see no reason to drive an SUV that costs more and does less simply because of ego. I guess I'm comfortable enough with myself, or I just don't give a damn what anyone thinks about me driving a minivan. It is hands down the best vehicle I've ever owned.

I've been eyeing the Toyota Sienna as my next vehicle. The 4-Runner is great for 1 pin, but it sucks having to rent a trailer for 2. Plus the Sienna has that nice low back for loading.

I'm coming up on my fifties soon, so I don't gotta be manly anymore.

I think I could get three pins in my Grand Caravan. But this time all I could get was...Black Knight, A sofa, A pub table and 4 stools, 3 carseats and my wife...texting...Still had room for a couple pachinko machines...

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I love my town and country. i can bring 2 deheadable games and a WPC strapped on a dolly easily anywhere. i bet it won't see 100k miles since the engine is a pile of junk but man it's nice to move games in . i can fit 4 adults and a WPC game strapped in the middle.

-c

Impressive!

I know!!! I'm sure she was texting her friends about the new addition to our pin lineup-----or maybe her new table and orange sofa...Probably the BK though.

We call them dork vans, thankfully my daughter is old enough that we don't have to have one anymore. They are great for so many things but your not gonna look cool driving one

about 9-10 years ago this guy at the gym we called Hugo-mongo walked into the locker room and said with a very loud voice something to the effect -'anyone who drives a mini van is a little girlly girl' and started laughing weird-scary weird.
It got very quiet after that.....

We call them dork vans, thankfully my daughter is old enough that we don't have to have one anymore. They are great for so many things but your not gonna look cool driving one

Pffftt......says you.

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I know it's not a Winnebago, but it reminded me of: "King Roland to Lone Star, come in please."

I've had 3 in my Venture (extended) on several occasions...

One folded between the sliders
One folded and one body between the wheel wells.
One head removed and either riding shotgun, or behind the other two next to the tailgate.

I'm on my 2nd Venture... first one ran great, but the undercarriage rusted out after 185k due to years of street parking and road salt.

Does that fly? Imagine how much further you would go to pick up a pin?

that is the greatest pinball hauler i've ever seen.

2 in a minivan? that's small time. I had 4 in my regular caravan. 2 DMD's and 2 early SS. I have a grand caravan now, so now I don't have to put the seats up as far as they go, to get that many in. And I still get 26 mpg. Which is pretty good. I would like one of those with the extended roof, so I can stand them on end and fit 6.

Draggin' ass all the way home!

I have to admit I did like using my dads '05 Grand Caravan SXT last summer on a little pin trip with my son. The stowaway seating is nice as I easily slipped the pin in the back and left one front seat up so my son could watch a movie on the flip down lcd screen with the surround sound cranking. Had a cooler with food and drinks over the other stowed-away front seat. Good father-son time even with a mini-van! Couldn't care less about looking cool that day.

I was a fabricator/installer and later the design engineer at Sportsmobile West. We built these:

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So....you could run over anyone trying to snake that craigslist deal?

Wouldn't this van be cooler though?

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Shoot_again...yes a subaru outback will fit a wpc. I had a 1995 legacy for a long time and it was a great pin hauler. It's a close call but it does fit. As for minivan crowd, I'm a proud member, 2003 AWD Chevy Astro. There is an episode of the American version of TopGear where they take minivans over the continental divide and the AWD astro winds up pushing the Ford and Chrysler up the last few miles of the climb.

Mini Vans are for house wives and men who have lost their wills and reasons to live.
Work Vans or Utility vans are for men who have shit to get done.

P.S...
There is No Such THING as a CrossOVER, it is still a mini van.

Powervan!

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So....you could run over anyone trying to snake that craigslist deal?

Wouldn't this van be cooler though?

Pretty much! Actually, we built those with serious, serious offroading in mind. The front end, with sway bar detached, has a 27" articulation. If you go to their site, there's some really good pics of the amount of articulation we'd get with those things. Extremely impressive for a van! On the inside, they're fully decked out RV's with fridges, microwaves, gas range, fold out beds(the roof pops up into another bed), shower, etc....whatever you wanted to option in, we'd put it in. One of the more famous ones we built was for Jimmy Buffett(see pictures).

And for the record, we did try to get one of our vans to be the new A-Team van for the movie. We felt it was a no-brainer, but nobody ever got back to us. We even offered to paint it like it's supposed to be, from the TV series. My guess is GM "sponsored" that movie and didn't want a Ford product as the star.

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Nah, they are for men who like to piss money away on gas. My minivan hauls just as much if not more, except I get double the gas mileage. Drove to st.louis on one tank of gas. That's 5 1/2 hours for me. 11 hour drive cost me $120 in gas to go pick up a game. Try that with Utility anything that can haul 4 pins in it. You can keep your overpriced gas guzzler. i'll take a fuel econo minivan anyday for hauling pins.

The last car I bought before the minivan was a 2000 Toyota Landcruiser. I loved it, and it was fun to drive and was great off road. I bought a Sienna and never looked back. I can also fit three people and two machines, four people and one machine, and I'm pretty sure two people and three machines but I haven't tried it yet. The amount of space in a minivan is ridiculous. I doubt there's a better vehicle to fit four adults in comfortably, and still have room for a pinball machine. And if you're driving more than 200 miles, a minivan is much more comfortable than a pickup or an SUV.

Aside from all of that, I'm not ashamed at all to say that my family is more important to me than what kind of car I drive. And carrying my family and a game at the same time is a bonus.