Clifforrd: 1998 Ford E350 7.3

bemerritt

Member
Awesome stuff going on here. Looks great!!! What are the circular things on the sides 3/4 of the way up? Some sort of vent? I'm still looking at adding some sort of fresh air vent/fan to mine somewhere.

They are 4" ports that I used for a swamp cooler inlet and exhaust. Used a 5 gallon bucke "figjam" design for burning man the last two years. Worked pretty well. Now I have a fan wired in inbetween the van wall and the plywood to blow outside air in. Pretty sure both will be getting obsoleted tho once i put rear windows in.
 

bemerritt

Member
Got my rack up yesterday, pretty happy with it overall. Huge thanks to Chris at Ujoint for the rack corners. Sourced the 80/20 locally and went with a slightly different design in terms of mounting and what brackets were used.

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and most importantly, the top still raises with no assist. I tightened the springs and the front goes up a little tilted because of the panels, but it works.

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THe rack is strong enough for me to walk on the back part. The front support is a little more towards the middle of the top due to the shape of the van, so i dont trust my weight up there. But now i am thinking of some sort of recessed wire rack/walking platform for the back area.
 
Very cool of Ujoint to sell the corners separately. I've been thinking about a bigger walking/standing platform on mine more than just the narrow aluminum ramp I have up there now. You obviously have more weight restrictions than I do trying to keep the top functioning smoothly. Looks great so far!!!
 
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chet

island Explorer
nice! you say top still goes up unassisted. What about with other gear up there? just help it up?
 

bemerritt

Member
nice! you say top still goes up unassisted. What about with other gear up there? just help it up?

havent tried that yet, im thinking some snowboards and skis no problem in winter. Some chairs and a table should be fine in summer. Definitely going to put some test weight up there and est the limits. But i think some weight in the back might actually help balance out hte load.
 

bemerritt

Member
Put 50 lbs of weight on the top towards the back and it still raised. Probably the most I would put up there though. Obviously if i need to haul heavier items they just have to come off before raising the roof.
 

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