I am new to this forum and am looking at buying Atria Turbo efi deck van! I know very little about these units . My plans are to put a 2" lift , two sets of tires (on and offroad), paint, bumpers and a winch! How are the turbo efi's for reliability and maintenance. Would you stay away from one with a cosmic roof? The truck will be used for on and offroad! What kind of horsepower for the turbo units? Living in Alberta these are street legal, so are they daily drivers? Sorry for all the questions. I'm thinking that this would be a fun build for myself and my boy's......
My only reservations would be in having the "cosmic roof" in an off road vehicle..chassis flex or an errant branch could leave you with an impossible to replace glass roof...well maybe not impossible to replace but surely expensive and tough to find.....the turbo puts out around 20hp more than the nat. aspirated engine,for a total of around 64hp...if the deck van is full time awd it will not have a low range and may not be suitable for serious offroading...depends on the type of off roading as well..lightly used on trails..prob. ok...climbing steep hills ,water crossings(with a red hot turbo suddenly getting dunked)...I would shy away...Deck vans are cool as hell,and a turbo with cosmic roof and AWD is even better..but I think it's best place is on the street....my opinion only...and an opinion isn't a diploma
Would you rather have a fuel injected or carbed truck? The van says 4wd on the side but maybe is allwheel? Would you be leary to buy a turbo? More power is always better...
check for a 4wd high low 2wd selector between the seats...if it has no selector it is full time 4wd .....not optimum for heavy duty off roading,but for light trail rides and hills it wouldn't be a problem.....the Atrai was designed as an all weather people mover not a serious off roader..... then again none of the mini trucks wee designed as off roaders persay,just all weather commercial vehicles..unlike the AWD vans though ..the simplicity of the part time 4wd and low range on the truck versions makes them more suited for off road use...again not trying to dissuade you..just help with your question......Injection is always superior to carbs....Turbos are great for power,but the issue I see for off road use is higher throttle openings at lower speeds and higher revs equals a heavy load on a turbo...it will get much hotter than it would on the highway with less cooling air flowing over it... the turbos on these vehicles are set very low to the ground,add the higher heat and the possibility of water crossings and I wouldn't be surprised to see cracked exhaust manifolds,and turbine housings...I suppose if you always waited a few minutes at idle to cool the turbo before hitting water it would be fine.....
Atrai Hey the Atrai is cool you and the kids will love it , Doug would not sell you a piece of crap !!!!
Thanks for the reply. I'm just not to sure about the roof on that van. Everything else seems fine but having all that glass sitting on top of me in an off road vehicle doesn't really appeal to me
Personally I would stick with a solid roof for a vehicle that is intended to do some off road service. fupa brings up a good point regarding the turbo. z
