A couple of years ago I converted a Plymouth Grand Voyager minivan into a campervan which I drove across Canada.

After being Astro-inspired by some friends I recently bought a 1997 GMC Safari (also known as a Chevrolet Astro van) while on a trip to Victoria. The plan is to leave it in Victoria til the spring, when I will fly down, spend around a week converting it to a camper, and then drive it up to the Yukon. This way I don’t have to worry about winterising it (winter tyres/engine block heater), and we can take our time road tripping/camping up north when the weather is a little warmer.

This means I am not going to have access to the van while I ponder a new design. Because of this, before I departed I took loads of weird and wonderful measurements which I hope will cover most bases when putting a design together. Because I struggled finding measurements online for the dimensions important to those converting vans, I decided to put my measurements up here for all to see.

This is not a complete list of every possible measurement, but I hope that if you are considering converting a Astro van or Safari that you may find them useful.

Note: these measurements should be considered ‘quick and dirty’. I would not recommend anyone building anything using these measurements alone! I am also not a car expert, so some of the measurement use arbitrary descriptions. I hope the photos combined with descriptions will be enough to work it out.

Floor to bottom of rear seat: 17.5cm / 6.9 inches

Rear door to rear seat bottom bracket: 71cm / 27.9 inches

Rear door to rear seat bottom cushion: 63.5cm / 25 inches

Rear door to rear seat top: 43cm / 16.9 inches

Ceiling to rear seat top: 38cm / 19.9 inches

Ceiling to rear seat headrest: 20cm / 7.9 inches

Ceiling to rear seat folded top: 72.5cm / 28.5 inches

Floor to rear seat folded back: 46cm / 18.5 inches

Rear seat side to wall: 10.5cm / 4.1 inches

Floor to rear seat folded front: 49.5cm / 19.5 inches

Rear door to rear seat folded top: 114cm / 44.9 inches

Rear door to rear seat folded headrest: 126cm / 49.6 inches

Rear door to middle seat bottom bracket: 154cm / 60.6 inches

Rear door to middle seat bottom cushion: 151cm / 59.4 inches

Rear door to middle seat top: 126cm / 49.6 inches

Floor to middle seat folded back: 45.5cm / 17.9 inches

Floor to middle seat folded front: 48.5cm / 19.1 inches

Middle seat cushion to front seat: 26.5cm / 10.4 in

Middle seat headrest to front seat: 14.5cm / 5.7 inches

Middle seat folded top to front seat: 28.0cm / 11 inches

Door to middle row bottom bracket: 56cm / 22 inches

Door to middle row bottom: 38cm / 15 inches

Door to middle row seat cushion: 32cm / 12.6 inches

Door to middle row arm rest: 26cm / 10.2 inches

Window to middle row top: 40.5cm / 16 inches

Rear width bottom: 142cm / 55.9 inches

Rear width middle: 137cm / 53.9 inches

Rear width top: 122cm / 48 inches

Rear wheel wall to wall bottom: 142cm / 55.9 inches

Rear wheel wall to wall middle: 142cm / 55.9 inches

Rear wheel arch to arch: 127cm / 50 inches

Rear window to window: 172.5cm / 67.9 inches

Middle window to window: 174cm / 68.5 inches

Side door to wall top: 172cm / 67.7 inches

Side door to wall middle: 165.5cm / 65.1 inches

Side door to wall bottom: 145cm / 57 inches

Front width top: 130cm / 51.2 inches

Front width middle: 156cm / 61.4 inches

Front width bottom: 145cm / 57 inches

Armrest to armrest: 34cm / 13.4 inches

Seat to seat bottom: 42cm / 16.5 inches

Rear door to front seat bracket: 247cm / 97.2 inches

Floor to ceiling rear door at side: 108cm / 42.5 inches

Floor to ceiling back at side: 117.5cm / 46.3 inches

Floor to ceiling middle at side: 120cm / 47.2 inches

Floor to ceiling front at side: 116cm / 45.7 inches

Floor to ceiling rear door at middle: 109cm / 42.9 inches

Floor to ceiling back at middle: 119cm / 46.9 inches

Floor to ceiling middle at middle: 120cm / 47.2 inches

Floor to light middle at middle: 115.5cm / 45.5 inches

Floor to ceiling front at middle: 121cm / 47.6 inches

Floor to rear wheel arch top: 28.5cm / 11.2 inches