dieselcruiserhead
16 Years on ExPo. Whoa!!
2004.5 Ford E350 Camper Van I built myself and have had for a whopping 12 years. Must be seen in person to appreciate. It's spectacular: a powerful V8 turbo diesel engine with a massive 16K towing capacity that runs and drives awesome. The engine and mechanicals were also fully rebuilt and "bulletproofed" at 154K miles so it has zero mechanical issues and is ultra reliable. It currently has 189K miles and is "just broken in." It goes 85 mph all day long and is an amazing road trip mobile. It's been to California, Colorado, and all over the west many times.
>>> Click here to see a full gallery of pics <<<
And most importantly, it's the size of a van (fits into parking spots) but is a massive 6'6 (wide) x 10' (long) x 6'3 (tall) small hard-side apartment inside that is comfortable, aero dynamic, warm or cool (your choice) and wonderful. The queen bed inside fits sideways, which is a game changer for vans (the bed no longer clobbers the interior). It's possibly the best vehicle I've ever owned?
As it's about 15 years old, it does currently has some small wear and tear (these heavy duty 1-ton chassis go 400K miles all the time) online with cosmetics and interior. Small enough that I never bothered replacing it. So the price is $28K as is, and as seen in the pictures. Or we can replace all interior and wear items and basically make it "close to new," and possibly convert to 4WD. Your choice depending on how much you want to spend.
I am a professional-level car enthusiast with a full professional shop in Salt Lake City, and was planning a complete renovation over the next 3-6 weeks likely with a full 4WD conversion (I have all the parts already). I'm choosing to post it here, now, in case someone wants is cheaper as is before I get this stuff done, or wants to have input on how it's built and restored and designed including the interior work or possibly even participate in the renovation.
The price fully-restored and brought to true 100% mechanical refreshed with lots of cosmetic work to make it newish will be $47K with full 4WD conversion, new tires and wheels (nothing wrong with the current ones maybe 8K miles on them), any rust removed, complete cosmetic refresh (new seats, interior door panels, and interior camping area refreshed, and complete mechanic refresh: new steering box, new steering wheel with cruise control, new alternator, belts and more, an upgraded radiator, and new brake pads and fresh rotors on the new 4WD front axle). All bumpers and racks will be sand blasted and powder-coated, a new torque converter in the transmission (these transmissions themselves are bulletproof - but will be replace with a low-miles fresh 4WD transmission I already have, if 4WD is purchased), a vinyl wrap over the box part or the whole truck to make it look new on the outside (you can also have input on this), and fresh filters and fluids. The sleeping bed, a queen size, will also get a new feature that allows it to be sucked up into the ceiling so even more space when not sleeping. The interior can also be designed around this. I may also replace the rear garage door with a design to be consulted with the new buyer. The garage door is awesome but does make a little noise over bumps and such and doesn't have any insulation. So an updated two piece rear door is what I'd recommend. So it will be turnkey.
Logistically, one of the biggest strengths of this truck is that it's 6'6 wide, so the huge queen bed fits in great and doesn't clobber the interior, unlike a Sprinter or most vans. The interior also has a nice shelf / storage area above the cab and the stairs to get in and out are tucked in nicely for ground clearance but fold out nicely. The part over the van cab is awesome as it's aerodynamic and functional.
It has a Warn 12,000 lb winch (fully operational) and 33" tires that help it have awesome stability and be able to drive faster with larger tires to increase the speed of deep factory 4.10 axle gearing (that also makes it awesome off road). The engine is so powerful it doesn't notice the larger tires. It has towing mirrors and the box truck design and van chassis and heavy duty mirrors but awesome fairly soft yet great-handling suspension with Bilstein shocks make it very comfortable and you can drive very very fast on dirt roads without feeling much of anything yet it runs and tows and daily drives really well. It's also nearly unstoppable in snow even in 2WD. I think it's the weight plus the quality of the tires? All of these are why its much better than a Sprinter, in my humble opinion. It's also very easy to drive regardless of your experience mostly because it's an automatic, it's very intuitive, and is not very big. It currently has about a 2-3" 2WD lift kit with the factory I-beam front suspension. Honestly, its very good off road as is which is why I actually never bothered or got around to installing the 4WD kit. Even I was surprised by this. The big 33" tires make it very good off road. The few times I've gotten stuck (twice in 12 years, ever??) I just bust out the winch and pull myself out. No big deal. It's even fine on sand and beaches, as shown in the pics.
Mechanically the engine is a 2004.5 high output Ford Powerstroke 6.0. I mention the 04.5 as the engine was considerably updated for "2005" around some of the known Ford 6.0 issues and it is also larger output. It was fully bulletproofed at 154K miles with ARP Head Studs and new heads and head gaskets (complete documentation), new injectors, oil cooler, updated FICM (fuel injection control module), 2005 high output oil pressure pump installed onto the 2004 engine, the FCP and ICP replaced, new glow plugs, cold air intake, coolant filter, 5" cat-back exhaust, blue spring installed into engine-side fuel filter housing, complete new engine harness from Ford, and new glow plug harnesses. It also has a mild no-smoke power tune to bring it to around 350 horsepower through a SCT Tuner that is included. The tune also firmed up the shifts which is nice and noticeable. The only emissions are a factory catalectic converter and a EGR cooler that was also upgraded. It passes emissions 100% here in Salt Lake City (same standards as California, I'm told). Even without the tune it is still very powerful and the tune can be removed also in a couple minutes. At about 175K miles it received a new electric fuel pump (installed by Ford dealership - about $1600), a new turbo with a high performance compressor wheel, and a cheaper (but decent) aftermarket radiator, new main serpentine belt, and belt tensioner. Oil has been changed religiously at 3,000 miles with Chevron Delo, sometimes synthetic, and fuel filters also regularly changed. AC is ice cold. Almost all work was done by me. The engine itself was removed and installed by ARD Performance in Utah (major Land Cruiser shop) in about 2012 or so? I personally installed all the ARD head studs and bullet proof items with fresh machined heads at 154K and have the full documentation. The engine has been flawless since then nearly 40,000 miles and just starting, literally zero issues.
Currently the only mechanical items remaining are:
>>> Click here to see a full gallery of pics <<<
And most importantly, it's the size of a van (fits into parking spots) but is a massive 6'6 (wide) x 10' (long) x 6'3 (tall) small hard-side apartment inside that is comfortable, aero dynamic, warm or cool (your choice) and wonderful. The queen bed inside fits sideways, which is a game changer for vans (the bed no longer clobbers the interior). It's possibly the best vehicle I've ever owned?
As it's about 15 years old, it does currently has some small wear and tear (these heavy duty 1-ton chassis go 400K miles all the time) online with cosmetics and interior. Small enough that I never bothered replacing it. So the price is $28K as is, and as seen in the pictures. Or we can replace all interior and wear items and basically make it "close to new," and possibly convert to 4WD. Your choice depending on how much you want to spend.
I am a professional-level car enthusiast with a full professional shop in Salt Lake City, and was planning a complete renovation over the next 3-6 weeks likely with a full 4WD conversion (I have all the parts already). I'm choosing to post it here, now, in case someone wants is cheaper as is before I get this stuff done, or wants to have input on how it's built and restored and designed including the interior work or possibly even participate in the renovation.
The price fully-restored and brought to true 100% mechanical refreshed with lots of cosmetic work to make it newish will be $47K with full 4WD conversion, new tires and wheels (nothing wrong with the current ones maybe 8K miles on them), any rust removed, complete cosmetic refresh (new seats, interior door panels, and interior camping area refreshed, and complete mechanic refresh: new steering box, new steering wheel with cruise control, new alternator, belts and more, an upgraded radiator, and new brake pads and fresh rotors on the new 4WD front axle). All bumpers and racks will be sand blasted and powder-coated, a new torque converter in the transmission (these transmissions themselves are bulletproof - but will be replace with a low-miles fresh 4WD transmission I already have, if 4WD is purchased), a vinyl wrap over the box part or the whole truck to make it look new on the outside (you can also have input on this), and fresh filters and fluids. The sleeping bed, a queen size, will also get a new feature that allows it to be sucked up into the ceiling so even more space when not sleeping. The interior can also be designed around this. I may also replace the rear garage door with a design to be consulted with the new buyer. The garage door is awesome but does make a little noise over bumps and such and doesn't have any insulation. So an updated two piece rear door is what I'd recommend. So it will be turnkey.
Logistically, one of the biggest strengths of this truck is that it's 6'6 wide, so the huge queen bed fits in great and doesn't clobber the interior, unlike a Sprinter or most vans. The interior also has a nice shelf / storage area above the cab and the stairs to get in and out are tucked in nicely for ground clearance but fold out nicely. The part over the van cab is awesome as it's aerodynamic and functional.
It has a Warn 12,000 lb winch (fully operational) and 33" tires that help it have awesome stability and be able to drive faster with larger tires to increase the speed of deep factory 4.10 axle gearing (that also makes it awesome off road). The engine is so powerful it doesn't notice the larger tires. It has towing mirrors and the box truck design and van chassis and heavy duty mirrors but awesome fairly soft yet great-handling suspension with Bilstein shocks make it very comfortable and you can drive very very fast on dirt roads without feeling much of anything yet it runs and tows and daily drives really well. It's also nearly unstoppable in snow even in 2WD. I think it's the weight plus the quality of the tires? All of these are why its much better than a Sprinter, in my humble opinion. It's also very easy to drive regardless of your experience mostly because it's an automatic, it's very intuitive, and is not very big. It currently has about a 2-3" 2WD lift kit with the factory I-beam front suspension. Honestly, its very good off road as is which is why I actually never bothered or got around to installing the 4WD kit. Even I was surprised by this. The big 33" tires make it very good off road. The few times I've gotten stuck (twice in 12 years, ever??) I just bust out the winch and pull myself out. No big deal. It's even fine on sand and beaches, as shown in the pics.
Mechanically the engine is a 2004.5 high output Ford Powerstroke 6.0. I mention the 04.5 as the engine was considerably updated for "2005" around some of the known Ford 6.0 issues and it is also larger output. It was fully bulletproofed at 154K miles with ARP Head Studs and new heads and head gaskets (complete documentation), new injectors, oil cooler, updated FICM (fuel injection control module), 2005 high output oil pressure pump installed onto the 2004 engine, the FCP and ICP replaced, new glow plugs, cold air intake, coolant filter, 5" cat-back exhaust, blue spring installed into engine-side fuel filter housing, complete new engine harness from Ford, and new glow plug harnesses. It also has a mild no-smoke power tune to bring it to around 350 horsepower through a SCT Tuner that is included. The tune also firmed up the shifts which is nice and noticeable. The only emissions are a factory catalectic converter and a EGR cooler that was also upgraded. It passes emissions 100% here in Salt Lake City (same standards as California, I'm told). Even without the tune it is still very powerful and the tune can be removed also in a couple minutes. At about 175K miles it received a new electric fuel pump (installed by Ford dealership - about $1600), a new turbo with a high performance compressor wheel, and a cheaper (but decent) aftermarket radiator, new main serpentine belt, and belt tensioner. Oil has been changed religiously at 3,000 miles with Chevron Delo, sometimes synthetic, and fuel filters also regularly changed. AC is ice cold. Almost all work was done by me. The engine itself was removed and installed by ARD Performance in Utah (major Land Cruiser shop) in about 2012 or so? I personally installed all the ARD head studs and bullet proof items with fresh machined heads at 154K and have the full documentation. The engine has been flawless since then nearly 40,000 miles and just starting, literally zero issues.
Currently the only mechanical items remaining are:
- when starting cold, sometimes the alternator sometimes a blip of the throttle to about 2200 RPMs to get it to trigger. So I will replace the alternator even at the base price.
- at an upper-end price (for this and the next three items): there is minimal slop in the steering box which is common of Fords with 100K+ miles. I will replace the box with a fresh high performance one from Red Head Steering Boxes. It doesn't bother me but may bother someone else, I dunno.
- the aftermarket radiator I installed doesnt quite run as cool as the OEM. I only noticed this once while towing that massive 38" 12,000 lb trailer over the mountain passes of Idaho. You can also sometimes hear the engine fan kick in a little more in the middle of summer. So at the full price I'll install a fresh OEM or a quality ultra high-performance aftermarket radiator, then.
- Some very minimal groan from the power steering when turning. Also expected with larger tires and age. I will either put in fresh power steering fluid but likely a new power steering pump as well.
- Occasionally there are a couple small drops from the oil pan when sitting. Minimal, but this could be replaced when I do the 4WD conversion as well.
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