Since I don't know anything about the maintenance schedule this van followed I want to drain and fill the tranny fluid. It's a good sign that the fluid is red but when checking the level it is reading quite a bit above the hatch area for the HOT check on the stick, at least by an amount equal to the hatch area above the hatch area. I drove the van for 5-10 minutes around the neighborhood, parked it on the most level area I have on my property which is very close to level, and with the engine running went thru the gears and then put it in park. Left it running and checked the level. So my plan was to drain it and add back what came out but now that it seems to be overfilled that plan doesn't work. So how much fluid should be added? I can't find a definitive answer online, the owner's manual says to take it to the dealer. In the meantime I'm going to use the new Ego battery chainsaw I bought, lots of dead ash trees on my property that need attention.

Make sure its fully warmed up, go thru the procedure for fill checking

if its more than full you want to take the extra fluid out.
It can cause all sorts of problems.

So the procedure I used sounds correct? Is there a way to remove fluid thru the fill tube that's convenient or should I do my best with the drain plug? That will be a mess. Do you know approximately how much fluid the hatched area on the stick indicates?

Careful of the dipstick. Many of them will read higher on one side than the other because of the insertion angle. The lowest level on either side is the actual level.

Went out for another warm up ride, the level is definitely high on the stick. I'm going to drain it, measure what comes out and then add less. How much less is my question?

The "cold" line is generally spec'd at room temperature. Unless you're in the Yukon, let it cool completely off and then top it to the cold mark.

There is only a HOT marking on one side of the stick. There are 2 half circle nicks at the lower end of the stick and then the hashed area farther up. I assume the nicks are upper and lower cold limits and the hashed area the hot upper and lower limits. I have a pic that I can't get loaded. So when cold top up to near upper tick mark?

On that type of stick, the "hot side" hashes indicate the hot fill range, the notches indicate the cold fill range. If you're at room temp you want to be center between the two notches.