My name is Joshua. I live in Salt lake city.
I havent been registered on here very long. but I figured I would share my project.
Its a 1998 e250 5.4 dedicated cng van.
I bought it at the beginning of 2011. I had nothing but issues with it when I bought it. had it parked for half the time I have owned it. Put a bit of money into it and havent had any issues for a while now.
I calculated how much money I have saved by driving it compared to driving a gas powered car. Ive put about 50k miles on since I bought it.(yes I drive a ton) At $1.49 a gallon for CNG compared to >$3.50 for gas the van has paid for itself in the gas saving and has almost paid for the repairs I had to do.
The primary reason I bought this van was to tow my car to the track and be able to lock everything up securely in it, as well as sleep in it when funds didnt permit a hotel room. It has been years since I had something I could drive offroad and I have decided that It would be very enjoyable to be able to take this camping or on adventures to wherever.
My goals with the van, as of now, are as such:
Do it as cheap as possible. without skimping on quality too much. wait on parts till I can find deals. etc.
convert to 4wd for obvious offroad use.
thinking 6 to 8in lift
37" hummer tires, cheap and effective
Make rear bumper to have a tire carrier on the outside of the van
Build a roof rack strong enough to hold a handful of adults. (for watching from at the race track)
Make a fake floor and stuff as many cng tanks under it as possible to get more range.
Make it more livable inside. maybe make cabinets and carpet etc.
Get a bench seat so more than 2 people can legally ride in it.
Get seats that have arm rests. I get alot of crap for this but, no arm rest gets very uncomfortable really fast. arm danglin and stuff.
Get out more and camp or escape the world(or enter the world, whichever way you look at it)
Explore again.
So my search began. I was looking to see how much super duty axles were. After mentioning it to a couple friends, one happens to work at a wrecking yard, he produced a crazy deal on some dually axles that had new seals and bearings(supposedly) in them. they had been sitting outside for a few months but werent rusted stuck.
I didnt notice the warn hubs until I had loaded them in the van. sweet.
Now I realize these axles are wider than the normal superduty axles. I dont mind the extra width. not what I was going for to begin with. but I am fine with it. I do not plan on running dually wheels at all. just regular single wheels. I believe I can just bolt them on. or maybe get new studs then bolt them on. Anyone know for sure?
Well I decided I needed to find seats asap. (arms tired of danglin) so I searched a bit and found some seats I couldnt pass up. Another super good deal.
haha. kinda ugly. kinda cool. still not sure. but for $25 for the pair I couldnt pass them up.
The story behind them is a lady bought these seats in the late 80s planning on putting them in her van. the next day she wrecked her van so she never installed them. she kept them in her garage loft since. the loft was finished and closed off. like a time capsule. haha. said that the seats had only been sat in when she had received them. she was moving and just didnt care for them. the seats feel and smell brand new. they even had sliders on them. even if I dont use them in the van they are easily worth $25 to me. the only thing I dont like about them is they dont recline. they are fixed backs.
I decided it would be nice to have the passengers seat be able to swivel. so I started searching for a swivel base. I found a couple sites that sell the mount new for around $150. that was too much for me. I am trying to see if I can do this whole thing for as cheap as possible.
after a bit of searching junk yards I saw an older van with captain chairs in the back. both with the swivel mounts. just so happened to be at the yard my friend works at. sweet. I didnt have tools but he offered to remove one for me in trade for some stuff. a week later I got the mount from him with the carpet from the van still on in. a little adhesive remover and the gross carpet was gone. turns out its the same thing I found online.
It bolts right up to the sliders on the "new" seats. but might be a bit too tall. not sure yet.
I was looking around for some wheels as the new axles are 8x170mm lug pattern and my current axles are 8x6.5. came across a set of 16.5x12 -51 wheels. hmmmm. cheap cheap.. I have been looking into what tires I want to run and found a bunch of hummer tires for cheap. so 16.5 didnt bother me too much. jumped on them.
pretty good looking wheel. might do them black though.
well they seemed like a good idea at the time. nice width. nice wheels. got them back to the shop and put one on the axle.... this is bolted on. the caliper doesnt sit inside the wheel.. at all.
hmm. dually axles. hmm. already super wide. hmm. haha I obviously dont know what I am getting myself into. haha.
i have estimated that the wheels on these axles will stick out ~10 inches on each side.. thats probably not that great of an idea. we will see.
umm. I also wanted to do some mall crawling in this thing. so I started making a snorkel. I was planning on using some exhaust tubing but after seeing the prices for the bends I went with pvc. I know. I know. it ugly. I hate the look of pvc junk soooooooooo much. So I cut off all the bulky pvc connections and bought a plastic welder and tried it out.
worked better than I thought it would.
I have since sanded the seams down and got the whole tube to be nice and smooth. but I didnt take pictures. I also painted it to cover up the white filler plastic I used.
I also started on the roof rack. I need something that will hold a good amount of weight. so I decided to get 3/4 tubing. run a piece all the way across the gutter to disperse the weight. then make a rack above it. hard to tell by the picture but I welded on some tabs for the clamps. I also made the frame for the rack. just need to get a bit more tubing and some mesh.
this kinda seems like I have been jumping around not finishing one thing at a time. but this all happened withing the last 2 weeks. I have also put in more than 60 hours a week at work. So I will be completing stuff as time permits, and when I can get all the materials to finish one item(if I can get off work while the stores are still open.)
So far I am into the project(minus purchase of the van and repairs) ~$700 for the axles, wheels, seats, snorkel, old light bar, roof rack, etc. I feel I am doing real well as of now.
you might be thinking "CNG? that limits your range a ton. why would anyone be dumb enough to try that on a trail rig?" well youre right. I feel super limited and fuel is a big concern. I plan on getting as many tanks as I can fit under my fake floor. it will only be about 12inches tall. And truth be told this will see mostly freeway cruising. daily driving and the occasional offroad. nothing too crazy. I have become fairly good at planning out any trips around fill stations. I can make it to vegas with the stock tanks I have right now. then make it out to california. no big deal. I have about a 220 mile range now. fully loaded pulling car and trailer. with a bunch of tanks I hope to get up to about 500 or more miles per fill. If I can get that then I will be able to drive across the country without worry. I would like to go through some old mining town parts of alaska one day. but dont know if there are any stations up that way. still very limited if I start wanting to explore further.
I was thinking of making this van a bi-fuel using propane. propane is availible everywhere. I have met a guy who has done it before on a dedicated cng van. He claims it is real easy. just need a propane tank from an rv(prefered) or forklift(smaller). get a one way pressure valve to not pressureize the propane tank with the 3600 psi cng. Get a heat exchanger to not freeze the line and run a "t" before the cng regulator. then a way to switch the tanks. the ecu and maf will do the tuning. the biggest issue is the size of the tank. rv tanks arent small and they arent made for a small area(under my fake floor) so it will be bulky and will only grant me about 200 miles a tank. so I would be stuck trying to find a fill station for propane just as much as cng. still less limiting than just cng. Does anyone have any knowledge in this field? I would like to learn more about cng/lpg bi-fuel conversions.
I hope to find a transmission and transfercase from a 4wd truck at a junkyard.
another question I have is about the steering linkage. does the pitman arm on my van bolt up to the f450(I think thats what the axles are from) linkage? or what drop pitman arm should I order?
this project, that I was planning on taking my time with, kickstarted alot faster than I was thinking it would. but the deals were too good to pass up.
hopefully I will be posting some good progress on this fairly frequent. Also if anyone has any good used parts(springs, trans, etc) for cheap please dont hesitate to let me know.
also please forgive my horrible picture taking ability. "I dont camera."
Glad to be aboard.
thanks.
I havent been registered on here very long. but I figured I would share my project.
Its a 1998 e250 5.4 dedicated cng van.
I bought it at the beginning of 2011. I had nothing but issues with it when I bought it. had it parked for half the time I have owned it. Put a bit of money into it and havent had any issues for a while now.
I calculated how much money I have saved by driving it compared to driving a gas powered car. Ive put about 50k miles on since I bought it.(yes I drive a ton) At $1.49 a gallon for CNG compared to >$3.50 for gas the van has paid for itself in the gas saving and has almost paid for the repairs I had to do.
The primary reason I bought this van was to tow my car to the track and be able to lock everything up securely in it, as well as sleep in it when funds didnt permit a hotel room. It has been years since I had something I could drive offroad and I have decided that It would be very enjoyable to be able to take this camping or on adventures to wherever.
My goals with the van, as of now, are as such:
Do it as cheap as possible. without skimping on quality too much. wait on parts till I can find deals. etc.
convert to 4wd for obvious offroad use.
thinking 6 to 8in lift
37" hummer tires, cheap and effective
Make rear bumper to have a tire carrier on the outside of the van
Build a roof rack strong enough to hold a handful of adults. (for watching from at the race track)
Make a fake floor and stuff as many cng tanks under it as possible to get more range.
Make it more livable inside. maybe make cabinets and carpet etc.
Get a bench seat so more than 2 people can legally ride in it.
Get seats that have arm rests. I get alot of crap for this but, no arm rest gets very uncomfortable really fast. arm danglin and stuff.
Get out more and camp or escape the world(or enter the world, whichever way you look at it)
Explore again.
So my search began. I was looking to see how much super duty axles were. After mentioning it to a couple friends, one happens to work at a wrecking yard, he produced a crazy deal on some dually axles that had new seals and bearings(supposedly) in them. they had been sitting outside for a few months but werent rusted stuck.
I didnt notice the warn hubs until I had loaded them in the van. sweet.
Now I realize these axles are wider than the normal superduty axles. I dont mind the extra width. not what I was going for to begin with. but I am fine with it. I do not plan on running dually wheels at all. just regular single wheels. I believe I can just bolt them on. or maybe get new studs then bolt them on. Anyone know for sure?
Well I decided I needed to find seats asap. (arms tired of danglin) so I searched a bit and found some seats I couldnt pass up. Another super good deal.
haha. kinda ugly. kinda cool. still not sure. but for $25 for the pair I couldnt pass them up.
The story behind them is a lady bought these seats in the late 80s planning on putting them in her van. the next day she wrecked her van so she never installed them. she kept them in her garage loft since. the loft was finished and closed off. like a time capsule. haha. said that the seats had only been sat in when she had received them. she was moving and just didnt care for them. the seats feel and smell brand new. they even had sliders on them. even if I dont use them in the van they are easily worth $25 to me. the only thing I dont like about them is they dont recline. they are fixed backs.
I decided it would be nice to have the passengers seat be able to swivel. so I started searching for a swivel base. I found a couple sites that sell the mount new for around $150. that was too much for me. I am trying to see if I can do this whole thing for as cheap as possible.
after a bit of searching junk yards I saw an older van with captain chairs in the back. both with the swivel mounts. just so happened to be at the yard my friend works at. sweet. I didnt have tools but he offered to remove one for me in trade for some stuff. a week later I got the mount from him with the carpet from the van still on in. a little adhesive remover and the gross carpet was gone. turns out its the same thing I found online.
It bolts right up to the sliders on the "new" seats. but might be a bit too tall. not sure yet.
I was looking around for some wheels as the new axles are 8x170mm lug pattern and my current axles are 8x6.5. came across a set of 16.5x12 -51 wheels. hmmmm. cheap cheap.. I have been looking into what tires I want to run and found a bunch of hummer tires for cheap. so 16.5 didnt bother me too much. jumped on them.
pretty good looking wheel. might do them black though.
well they seemed like a good idea at the time. nice width. nice wheels. got them back to the shop and put one on the axle.... this is bolted on. the caliper doesnt sit inside the wheel.. at all.
hmm. dually axles. hmm. already super wide. hmm. haha I obviously dont know what I am getting myself into. haha.
i have estimated that the wheels on these axles will stick out ~10 inches on each side.. thats probably not that great of an idea. we will see.
umm. I also wanted to do some mall crawling in this thing. so I started making a snorkel. I was planning on using some exhaust tubing but after seeing the prices for the bends I went with pvc. I know. I know. it ugly. I hate the look of pvc junk soooooooooo much. So I cut off all the bulky pvc connections and bought a plastic welder and tried it out.
worked better than I thought it would.
I have since sanded the seams down and got the whole tube to be nice and smooth. but I didnt take pictures. I also painted it to cover up the white filler plastic I used.
I also started on the roof rack. I need something that will hold a good amount of weight. so I decided to get 3/4 tubing. run a piece all the way across the gutter to disperse the weight. then make a rack above it. hard to tell by the picture but I welded on some tabs for the clamps. I also made the frame for the rack. just need to get a bit more tubing and some mesh.
this kinda seems like I have been jumping around not finishing one thing at a time. but this all happened withing the last 2 weeks. I have also put in more than 60 hours a week at work. So I will be completing stuff as time permits, and when I can get all the materials to finish one item(if I can get off work while the stores are still open.)
So far I am into the project(minus purchase of the van and repairs) ~$700 for the axles, wheels, seats, snorkel, old light bar, roof rack, etc. I feel I am doing real well as of now.
you might be thinking "CNG? that limits your range a ton. why would anyone be dumb enough to try that on a trail rig?" well youre right. I feel super limited and fuel is a big concern. I plan on getting as many tanks as I can fit under my fake floor. it will only be about 12inches tall. And truth be told this will see mostly freeway cruising. daily driving and the occasional offroad. nothing too crazy. I have become fairly good at planning out any trips around fill stations. I can make it to vegas with the stock tanks I have right now. then make it out to california. no big deal. I have about a 220 mile range now. fully loaded pulling car and trailer. with a bunch of tanks I hope to get up to about 500 or more miles per fill. If I can get that then I will be able to drive across the country without worry. I would like to go through some old mining town parts of alaska one day. but dont know if there are any stations up that way. still very limited if I start wanting to explore further.
I was thinking of making this van a bi-fuel using propane. propane is availible everywhere. I have met a guy who has done it before on a dedicated cng van. He claims it is real easy. just need a propane tank from an rv(prefered) or forklift(smaller). get a one way pressure valve to not pressureize the propane tank with the 3600 psi cng. Get a heat exchanger to not freeze the line and run a "t" before the cng regulator. then a way to switch the tanks. the ecu and maf will do the tuning. the biggest issue is the size of the tank. rv tanks arent small and they arent made for a small area(under my fake floor) so it will be bulky and will only grant me about 200 miles a tank. so I would be stuck trying to find a fill station for propane just as much as cng. still less limiting than just cng. Does anyone have any knowledge in this field? I would like to learn more about cng/lpg bi-fuel conversions.
I hope to find a transmission and transfercase from a 4wd truck at a junkyard.
another question I have is about the steering linkage. does the pitman arm on my van bolt up to the f450(I think thats what the axles are from) linkage? or what drop pitman arm should I order?
this project, that I was planning on taking my time with, kickstarted alot faster than I was thinking it would. but the deals were too good to pass up.
hopefully I will be posting some good progress on this fairly frequent. Also if anyone has any good used parts(springs, trans, etc) for cheap please dont hesitate to let me know.
also please forgive my horrible picture taking ability. "I dont camera."
Glad to be aboard.
thanks.
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