Do you think a front cargo rack is too dangerous?

I would not disregard the reports of the engine running hotter with an obstruction in front of the radiator. You will lose some cooling capacity. Will it be enough to put your engine in danger of overheating?

No one here can offer anything but a guess as no one knows what van or how much of the radiator is occluded by the potential front storage box, the particular aerodynamics, and the state of health of your existing cooling system.

So if you find the temperature needle reading higher, whats the plan?

It's a distinct possibility. A bigger thicker radiator. A heavier duty fan clutch. Potential extra electric fans. Thicker engine oil. All of these might be enough. Or might not.
Overheating is not just stop and let it cool or simply slow down. It can crack or warp the heads, blow head gaskets, crack the block.

Dont assume or wishhope the only issue is stability of the front storage box. A hd truck might very well be able to handle the partially blocked airflow. A van never intended for a raised roof or loaded to the gills is likely lacking in cooling capacity to begin with.

I'd say at the minimum to get some powerful electric pusher fans mounted in front or puller fans mounted behind radiator , that kick on at 200f especially summer driving out west.

the transmission cooler in the radiator and airflow.over the potential additional cOoler need to be considered too. A transmission running 20f hotter will not be happy.

The storage box out front might be a solution for storage issues, but help to destroy the drivetrain.

I would personally find a different storage solution, and i have additional temp sensors on the vitals, and additional coolers and know the health of my cooling system.

Naio wrote:
I've had a basket type one on my van for a while, but it has seen very, very little freeway speed driving. Mostly slow roads.

An engineer friend saw it yesterday and said he thought it was extremely dangerous, because at freeway speed it could potentially set up a wobble, twist itself off, and end up underneath the front of the van. And, as he pointed out, that would be much worse than a rear rack coming off and dragging.

Well, I found this image terrifying. But then I thought I should consult you all :-).

(My rack plus contents ways maybe a hundred pounds, but one of the problems he pointed out is that the weight is necessarily evenly distributed. It's not possible to consolidate it in the center. This was why he was concerned about wobble at speed.)

Just an engineer overthinking things and being overly cautious. My buddy has one on his class C to transport his firewood, another guy I know has one with his dirt bike on it. 250+ lbs

I wouldn't worry about un-even weight on the front. Does that mean you can't drive without someone in the passenger seat?

You can secure the load somewhat, keeping it from rolling back and forth I assume.

You could put your spare tire up there instead, like lots of trucks do, which would be in the middle and not move, but not sure how that works with the radiator. Must work with all those trucks that do that.

With the spare up front, you have more weight allowance on the back for a cargo carrier if that is the plan.

We carried a heavy box on the back of the truck with the receiver, but added two more receivers on the back belly bar each side so the box used three receivers to keep it steady. (Box held a Honda 3000--you knew it was there!)

You can do the math for weight on the front using the guide for snow plows on a truck. Leverage makes it more than actual weight. Same on the back, do the math. Trucks (don't know about vans) have less margin to carry the extra weight up front than out the back (engine is already there), so you have to have a sharp pencil doing the math.

People carry too much ****. :)

I’d bet my load of **** weighs less than your load of **** though. :)

All of my **** has a place to be carried, and all of my **** carrying places are filled to 75-80%. I could actually squeeze in (out?) a little more **** if I wanted, but after years of carrying **** around the country, I’ve got my **** pared down to just the **** I need to not have a *****y time camping.

I see the load of **** other RV’ers carry in their **** carrying places, and I can guarantee that if you put all of my **** in a pile next to a pile of all of their ****, my pile would be the smaller, lighter (in weight, not color) pile of ****.

We also travel with three mini **** production units who’s job is to slowly turn about 5 lbs of perfectly good cat food a week into **** that we then disperse around wherever we are, like a trail of bread crumbs. So we’re constantly shedding **** everywhere we go, making my total load of **** progressively lighter. Theoretically, if this went on long enough we’d eventually just disappear.

So who’s carrying too much ****, BUDDY?

:):)