Gat
Member
I've always liked the idea of a moto hauler/ minimal camper van and it's slowly becoming reality.
I've usually had a station wagon or some type of van in my vehicle lineup but this is the first full size van. Here's my old GMC Safari which had the Overland 2” lift on it and 235/75/15 on Caprice 9C1 rims :
I picked up this E250 from work when its life as a service van was complete. It's a rust free 2002 E250 with the 5.4 with about 194K on it. It had a full shelf/ drawer setup and a cage with door behind the front seats. I sold the shelving set up which helped to cover the cost of accessories for the van.
So far I've upgraded the stereo and speakers, installed a hitch, vent visors, tinted the rear windows and added USB charger in the dash. I've also blacked out the bumpers and grill, changed out the turn signals and added some Hella FF50 driving lights. Here's how she sits now.
Here are a few pictures of it in dirt bike hauling mode.
The rear rail is from Harbor Freight and works great for my XR400R.
Over the past few months we've gotten the bug to add some seats so we can family camp and only take one vehicle (5 kids and all the gear/ bikes can be a lot. Here we are after arriving at our site last week :
We looked at the different options to add seating to a cargo van. Originally we were looking for Sprinter seats but nothing was available locally so we started collecting parts to add OEM Econoline seats/ mounts and belts. This turned out to be more of a pain than we originally thought so I made some calls to upfitters in the area and found some 2015 Ford Transit seats and rails. We purchased 2 doubles and one single to get the required 7 person capacity.
Below are the pictures of the install. The row of doubles can be mounted forward or rear facing. We started by mounting the rails to the floor/ sub structure of the van. We used grade 5 and 8 hardware and made sure the bolts went through the cross members of the body. Once the rails were down we covered the floor with Harbor Freight anti-fatigue mats and then cut 3/4” plywood to fit around the rails. On top of the wood we've cut outdoor carpeting to fit the area and now only the mount bars show, the rest of the rails are below the floor surface.
The next step will be to do some interior cleanup which has started with interior door panels :
We plan to add some additional LED interior lights and USB power sockets in the rear. We're also designing a quick knock down bed when it's just the two of us travelling.
Updates to follow but they may be slow as life is busy!
I've usually had a station wagon or some type of van in my vehicle lineup but this is the first full size van. Here's my old GMC Safari which had the Overland 2” lift on it and 235/75/15 on Caprice 9C1 rims :
I picked up this E250 from work when its life as a service van was complete. It's a rust free 2002 E250 with the 5.4 with about 194K on it. It had a full shelf/ drawer setup and a cage with door behind the front seats. I sold the shelving set up which helped to cover the cost of accessories for the van.
So far I've upgraded the stereo and speakers, installed a hitch, vent visors, tinted the rear windows and added USB charger in the dash. I've also blacked out the bumpers and grill, changed out the turn signals and added some Hella FF50 driving lights. Here's how she sits now.
Here are a few pictures of it in dirt bike hauling mode.
The rear rail is from Harbor Freight and works great for my XR400R.
Over the past few months we've gotten the bug to add some seats so we can family camp and only take one vehicle (5 kids and all the gear/ bikes can be a lot. Here we are after arriving at our site last week :
We looked at the different options to add seating to a cargo van. Originally we were looking for Sprinter seats but nothing was available locally so we started collecting parts to add OEM Econoline seats/ mounts and belts. This turned out to be more of a pain than we originally thought so I made some calls to upfitters in the area and found some 2015 Ford Transit seats and rails. We purchased 2 doubles and one single to get the required 7 person capacity.
Below are the pictures of the install. The row of doubles can be mounted forward or rear facing. We started by mounting the rails to the floor/ sub structure of the van. We used grade 5 and 8 hardware and made sure the bolts went through the cross members of the body. Once the rails were down we covered the floor with Harbor Freight anti-fatigue mats and then cut 3/4” plywood to fit around the rails. On top of the wood we've cut outdoor carpeting to fit the area and now only the mount bars show, the rest of the rails are below the floor surface.
The next step will be to do some interior cleanup which has started with interior door panels :
We plan to add some additional LED interior lights and USB power sockets in the rear. We're also designing a quick knock down bed when it's just the two of us travelling.
Updates to follow but they may be slow as life is busy!
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