This is a quick photoshop rendering I created to show the proposed look of the Weather Warrior Chase Intercept Vehicle in complete formation.

The vehicle is currently "in the shop" being worked on with new equipment being added.  The photoshop rendering above is still somewhat correct.  However, instead of orange strips, I'm going with dark blue strips and reflectors.  The roof rack was originally going to be custom built, but after a failed attempt at that project, I decided to go with Yakima brand rack and added a Coleman Safari Cargo Roof rack.  To that I will add the weather station, field lights, antennas, etc.   I have abandoned the satellite dish idea, not worth doing.  I still plan on added SUV sized tires and wheel spacers which will likely mean I need to get fender extensions.  I've been looking around for forever, and the only match is lifting some from a 2002 Nissan Frontier 4 door.  But no one, except the dealer carries them, and they want $350 for the set.

Check out the pictures below of the inside and outside of the van from last years upgrades. From time to time I will upgrade the van and try to take pictures as well as add technical and other data. I also will have a gas log to log accuate gas mpg (est. 17 city 22 hwy). At the moment, I've been averaging 18mpg on a city/hwy mix.

Interior Layout as of May 2006

-Sirius Satellite Radio          for endless good music - Garmin GPS GT-20 USB - Icom IC-2720 Dual Band ham radio          for daily contact with other chasers, and          emergency notification to NWS, and local          jurisdictions - Dell 5160 Laptop - Jenko laptop desk mounted to finished plywood          rather than to vehicle floor - 400 watt DC to AC Power Inverter ------------------------------------------------ This is the basic set-up for chasing tornado alley. Each year additional equipment, and better installation will be performed.   Hurricane season set-up is slightly different.

Another look at the front interior	This is one of the extension speakers mounted just above the front seat driver	10 Dialysis boxes of the total 13 that will travel with me to the Plains this year.

Outside the only Change is the addition of the Yakima Roof Rack System.	Inside, the addition of an aluminum rack system for equipment.	2 mtr. Ham radio is already installed, DVD and other equipment to follow.

January 2008, a year after the last update.  Since then I've made following changes and updates to the van.  First, I changed the PVC pipe crossbars to the stock Yakima matal bars.  This was required when I purchased a Kayak rack and the PVC were not strong enough.   To the roof rack I've also recently added a Coleman Safari Cargo basket.  I mounted first to the factory roof rack, but is is a tight squeeze between the Yakima system and so I've moved it up to be mounted on the Yakima rack.  Soon I'll be adding mounting points for the field lights, weather station, and antennas.  Lastly, the exterior will soon be getting the graphic strips like in the photoshop rendering above.  However, to keep it a little more low key, I've gone with solid dark blue strips with 1" reflective blue strip.  Before winter is over, I hope to have the tires upgraded and the fender extensions added (if needed).

Interior wise, it's mostly wiring which isn't seen.  I have revised the lower center board (now a console), which originally was just a mounting point for the Jenko Computer desk.  Now it will be the mounting point for the 2-meter radio chassis, power inverter, battery charger, and other accessories, and a channel at the bottom to hide all the wires.

Here I am (with my trusty sidekick "Twinky") working with the Dremel tool to cut the steel clamp of the newly aquired light bar mount. I wish I could take my dog storm chasing with me.	This is what I was cutting, the metal braket of the light bar, which was designed for a VW (orig.) Beetle.  This cut had to be made to fit the Caravan's slot in the factory roof rail.	This is the light bar in it's final position.  I like the stepped shape, which was because this was originally for a VW (orig.) beetle with the very rounded roof.  Eventually, four field lights will be installed (two 55w, two 100w)
Here you can see the cargo basket and light bar mount installed. Also, the first layer of undercoat has been applied, there will be somewhere between 4 or 5 layers added to keep rust and other road damaging item from the lower portion of the body.  It's starting to look close to the original scheme (see top of page)	Another item installed is the Davis weather station.  Inside the electrical box is a well protected temperature/dew point sensor.  No water gets in there even at 100mph + (as tested with a power washer)	The updated interior shot of just the center upper console.  I've relocated the ham radio a little to the right, added the Sirius Satellite radio to the left, added the Davis Weather station on top the newly installed cloth cover.(wish it came in black for glare/reflection reduction).  Last, I updated the radio to a double-din CD player.

Early February 2008
Ongoing good weather has permitted me to get ahead of schedule on the upgrades for the Caravan.  I thought I would have a very busy April building the van.  Each time the weather is clear and temperatures rise above 55 degrees I'm working on the van.  Inside the van is a wreck with all the loose wires and such.  The outside isn't complete, with such things as wheels and tires to be upgraded, push bar installed, and I'm still debating on whether to build and install hail grill protection for the windows and lights.  I also need to complete the cargo basket modifications to allow for amateur radio antennas, field lights, and some off-road tools (shovel, etc.).  Inside, most everything is mapped out, but the wiring is only about 20% complete.  The front console is complete, but how all that stuff gets powered is far from complete.  And I still don't know if I'm going to use a laptop, or put my mini-tower CPU in there.

Late May 2008
As you can see from the images below, the van is no longer.  After some preliminary local chases, I was starting to get all the pieces of equipment wired in, and completed.  However, one item I rushed to do.  So when the chance came to go for a semi-local chase (out to eastern Maryland and Delaware), with the capability of streaming live video, I jumped on it.  This also meant the use of my apprentice's laptop.  That laptop drew a lot of power, typically using up the gel-cell battery in a matter of two to three hours.  We would be chasing for nearly 12 hours that day (including time to and from the target).  So I needed to have a continous power source....the car's main battery.  This was the plan all along.  In fact, I had just finished pulling the heavy guage wire through the vehicle from the front of the car (near the car's battery), to the rear, were I had located the gel-cell.  From there I had routed the wire upto the inverter.  But I had not connected anything yet.  I wanted to use the proper connectors, and fuses at all the necessary and safe points.  However, on the day we wanted to chase, I had not done so yet.  So I simply connected the wires without the connectors and fuses.

Well after the chase was over and  about two days later, I was rolling up I-270 from my work in Bethesda, MD.  I started to notice an electrical burning smell.  Immediately suspecting the inverter (had bad inverters before), and then noticed the postive and negative wires had come loose and were crossed.  this meant a lot of overheating of all that wire I ran earlier.  And what I suspect happened, is at the point were I had a transition from the heavy gage wire and the smaller gage to power the inverter, that point heated to the point of either burning the carpet, or overheating the gel-cell (which was close, but not connected).  So below is the end result. 

click on image to view full size
This is the van when it was on fire, during the afternoon rush hour which shutdow I-270 in Rockville, MD....huge delays	The Van in the junk yard, engine perfectly good...should have kept it, and bought cheap van with bad engine, and swapped	What's left of the dash board, here is were a lot of the cost was put into the van, which I cannot recover.  Lots of time and expense here.

Luckily I got out just fine.  In fact, the fire spread rather slowly.  I had time to get a few critical things out of the van.  I wasn't even sure if there was a fire at first.  When I pulled over, there was just a lot of smoke, but I think I may have actually made it worse.  I started opening up all the doors and windows to air out the smoke, but that in turn may have provided the necessary oxygen to spread the fire.  Once I opened the rear tailgate, after about a minute, that's when the first flames were noticed.   Unfortunately, there was a still a lot of loss, and being an older van I had not insured the van itself.  So that's the end of this chase vehicle.  Wonder what the next one will be?

Early April 2009
A few clarifications since this page has been getting a lot of attention (which is great actually, love those page hits).

First, I did have insurance as required by Maryland Law.  I decided not to get collision or comprehensive coverage because the cost of such per year was about the same as the cost of the van.  It was not a good value.   The equipment within the van that was lost was not that bad....it was a loss, but wasn't bad.   The biggest loss was the time put into installation, design, and planning.  Insurance would not have covered that anyway.

Second, the point of posting this was to point out that even the best make mistakes, as I did, and you just can't be impatient, do it right, NO SHORT CUTS!   I did and that's what happened, and hopefully make sure others don't make the same mistake.

Non-Weathervine Vehicles
Robert Gillespie's (WB5KJE)
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