The gas mileage is 12mpg. They chew up ball joints pretty frequently. Hard on brakes. If you can find an E250 or 350 they are much better units for racking up trouble free miles. Chevys 1/2 tons eat brakes and transmissions like crazy. Don't know a thing about dodges except the starters sound weird and they are the #1 choice of creepers, unless said creeper is gnome-like, then it's Astro all the way. The beds in most conversions I believe are typically bolted in. I may be wrong as most of my experience is with cargos. The bike should fit no problem. My buddy used to haul his super chicken to mi and back in an astro with bins by folding up the mirrors and pulling the windshield. I hauled a katana in a ford cargo and don't think I took the windshield off. They are a bitch to work on. Hope that helps.