Chris’s van is really awesome. I had a chance to check it out at Pismo last year.
The HiAce is a fantastic van as well. My parents had a '78 model while we lived in the Philippines. It was a stripped down model with the 4 cylinder gas motor (18r?) and manual trans. They hauled about a ton worth of equipment up and down the mountains, and the van never gave them any problems. There were a few moments where they though they would lose the van in the ocean while driving over planks and onto ferries, but that's a whole other story.
HiAces are all over Mexico, as well as the Nissan vans (forgot what they were called). Some folks on expeditionportal also use the VW Syncro (iirc, that's what it is called), although I don't know much about their reliability.
Anyways, just my $.02.