Let’s say you’re Hugh Hefner. And you want to take all your girlfriends off-roading. At the same time. Plus the junior varsity. What will you do? You want to restock the bunny grotto, but snow is deeper than a dozen discarded bikinis. What will you do? You’ll take out your Quigley.
A Quigley 4×4 is a four-wheel-drive conversion of a full-size GM or Ford van with multi-passenger, go-anywhere ability unmatched by anything short of an army half-track. GM’s new all-wheel-drive big vans don’t compare, outfitted with the viscous-coupled center differential from the Astro/Safari minivans instead of Quigley’s four-wheel-drive truck two-speed transfer case.
Contemporary review/driving impressions originally published in Car and Driver in April, 2003; republished by author John Matras.
Quigley has been sliding four-wheel-drive components under big vans since 1975, building more than 10,000 for customers as diverse as Sears and the CIA – although we didn’t tell you about the latter – as well as “civilians.”
Until now, Quigley replaced an independent front suspension with a solid front axle, raising the van four inches. With the factory two-speed transfer case, manual- or auto-locking hubs, and beefed-up frame rails, Quigley 4×4’s have denim durability yet clung like chiffon to, uh, you know. And hold up to 15 passengers (a Quigley, not the chiffon).
But extra height meant Quigley 4×4’s wouldn’t fit in many home garages. For 2003 Quigley developed a four-wheel-drive conversion with an independent front suspension for GMC Savanna and Chevy Express vans that allow standard right height, lowering the center of gravity, and, with an A-arm front suspension, improves ride and handling.
It’s a straightforward job. Quigley installs its own front crossmember and then adds A-arms, torsion bars, and hubs and bearings from GM’s parts bin. The drivetrain is all GM – “as many GM components as we can possibly use,” says Mike Quigley, company president and chief engineer.
The only external indications that it’s other than a stock GMC or Chevy van are badges and decals. Inside, it’s all standard except for a telltale “4WD” indicator on the dash and the hefty transfer case lever next to the driver’s seat.
Our test Quigley 4×4 Chevy Express 2500 passenger van came equipped with the 6.0-liter LQ4 V-8 and had, from Chevy, a base price of $28,145, optioned up to $32,005. The Quigley conversion adds $8595, for a total of $41,145 –Hef’s annual cottontail budget.
The conversion adds about 425 pounds to the stock van, roughly 3.5 bunnies, for little noticeable difference in acceleration. Fuel mileage will be within a martini or two of a stock GM van’s. The Playboy penthouse seat height doesn’t change, thus still allowing you to look down on all the little people, but the seats are the same S&M units GM put in. Quigley doesn’t do seats.
The ride is no more truck-like than any other full-size van’s. Surprisingly supple, is no silk pillow, but it won’t crunch your crackers, either. Skip the test van’s running boards if you’re bound for rigorous offloading; they’ll shed like a terrycloth robe in a sauna. Road noise isn’t changed by the four-wheel-drive set up, so you can still dig Brubeck on the CD player.
Off-road, the Quigley isn’t limited much by ground clearance, there’s 8.5 inches at the rear diff, same as on a Suburban, which a Quigley beats in approach and departure angles. You’ll run out of macho before the Quigley tips over. In deep snow, our test van’s mud tires pulled until it dragged its bellybutton ring. For those who need more, Quigley still stirs up solid-front-axle vans. Either way, the transaxle’s shift-on-the-fly lever requires a manly yank to put it in four-wheel high.
Long-wheelbase Quigley 4×4 vans, designed around the factory exhaust, pass 50-state admissions regs. A fuel-tank change bans shorter wheelbase vans from California. A Quigley also has full, um, protection, with the four-wheel-drive system covered by Quigley’s three-year/36,000-mile warranty, and the GM and Ford factory warranties covering the rest. This year, only GMC trucks have Quigley four-wheel drive with the independent front suspension.
Quigley 4×4’s are available through any new-car dealership that sells factory vans. New vans go to Quigley’s facility in Manchester, Pennsylvania, for the two-week process and then are shipped to dealers for delivery.
But you’re not Hef and you likely don’t have his bimbo quota, not to mention understudies. Why should you have a Quigley? “Why would anybody spend $8000 for a four-wheel-drive van?” asks Mike Quigley. “Because they have to have it.” Girlfriends or not.
P. S.: No bunnies were harmed in the writing of this article.
Come Play With Your Quigley
With 40 percent of the Quigley Motor Company’s production going to private owners, one has to wonder what all those people are doing with four-wheel-drive full-size vans. President Mike Quigley thought not quite enough, as most owners didn’t really know what their Quigleys could do.
But one of Quigley’s customers, TrailWagons, maker of Chinook motorhomes, some of which have Quigley underpinnings, was staging a rally for its customers to take their four-wheel-drive rigs off-road. That was all the inspiration needed for Mike and the effusive Faye Quigley, company treasurer and Mike’s wife, to conduct the first “Come Play With Your Quigley” weekend.
A Saturn homecoming but dirtier, the Quigley event was meant to teach Quigley van owners about the abilities of their vehicles, plus how to go offroading safely. It was such a success the second event was planned immediately and held in October 2002 at Paragon Adventure Park, an off-road playground near Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
Set up at a nearby campground (local motels serve the less adventuresome), Come Play With Your Quigley hosted some 40 vans and their occupants this year. The event included a pig roast, children’s activities (“I’m an awesome parent”, says Faye, “so I’ll treat the kids to their own adventure”), and a Quigley photo competition. Mike and Faye wanted to make it a family event, and why not? – the vans are big enough to hold the family.
The highlights of the event were seminars, a rock-crawling demonstration, and trail driving from mild to wild on Paragon’s trails (which have names such as “”Boy Scout Lunch Trail,” “Rock Swamp Trail,” and “Impossible Hill Trail”).
Mike admits surprise at the popularity of the seminars. “We set aside an hour,” he says, “and it would run on for two.” He’s also impressed by the technical level of the questions – much more than just “how do I lock my hubs?” A seminar question about driving on sand led a Quigley event at the Assateague Island National Seashore this May.
The rock-crawling demonstration is held on Paragon’s most challenging terrain, a wash with boulders the size of Yugos but much harder. Mike drove a Chevy van originally used to prototype right-hand drive. With the stock drivetrain and only the spring rates changed in the suspension, plus a few minor body changes and giant BFGoodrich Krawlers, Mike picked his way up the granite to the delight of the partisan crowd.
Drivers were divided into two groups for the trail ride. While hard-core Quigleyites, some with trucks modified well beyond original, scrambled over Rubicon-like terrain, the less experienced took less-challenging paths. Some novices wanted more challenge, however. So with the whole family aboard and a Quigley guide pointing the way, they’d climb a steep and narrow ravine with a large rock midway up. Fiberglass running board splintered? No matter. Throw it in back. The kids were going ballistic with excitement. Even mom smiled. And this with their $40,000 ride home. No worries mechanically. A Quigley can take it, and a scrapes and dings will certainly trump the neighbor’s weekend of dandelion combat.
See you next year.
Addendum: That lead photo was taken at Paragon Adventure Park in January, well after the initial trip out to the now unfortunately defunct Pennsylvania offroad playground. Green leaves and tank tops were replaced by five degree temperature (that’s Fahrenheit) and L.L. Bean boots with wool socks. No bunnies were harmed in photographing the Quigley 4×4 that day but my shutter finger thought it would never be the same.
And speaking of photos, my original slides are somewhere safe, even from me, so I scanned my photos in the magazine. [Insert shrug emoji here]
Quigley is still at it down in Manchester. Find out more about the current state of the art at the official Quigley website. Although for a different kind of…distinctive full-size van, check out the Armed and Crazy Dodge custom van.
