2004 E350 pop top campervan build

[kbeefy]

Sold my Syncro, time for another van build.

Meet name TBD 2004 E350, 6.0 diesel w/ 91k.



Had shelving inside that I removed and sold. Otherwise an empty base model work van.
I like doors with windows so I managed to get some side and rear barn doors with windows.
So much brighter inside!



I got kinda spoiled with a pop top on the syncro, so I set about finding one for this van. Found a 'Chef's Camper' top on Market place.

Some chopping and fiddling, and it's about installed.



Thats pretty much where I'm at today. I'm laying down a run of butyl tomorrow and screwing the thing down.

I have amassed a pretty good pile of parts for the camper part...
12v:
200ah LiPo, 400w Solar, MPPT controller, 40A DC-DC, 75A 110v charger, 2000w inverter
Appliances:
5cu ft 12v fridge/freezer, convection oven/microwave, 25x19 kitchen sink, H20 Pump & accumulator, 6g calorifier style water heater, Diesel coolant heater (for hot water and heat)

I also have a RV bench/bed, captains chairs with swivel bases, Fiama Awning, and a Maxxair Fan.

 

[iggi]

Nice! Have you had a 6.0 before? FORscan can save you a lot of heartache and headache in diagnosis and monitoring.

 

[kbeefy]

Nice! Have you had a 6.0 before? FORscan can save you a lot of heartache and headache in diagnosis and monitoring.

Yeah, I actually have 4 6.0 right now, and a 7.3. I'm getting pretty good at fixing 6.0 stuff, but this is my first van.
I have forscan and a snap on Verus scan tool.

I tried enabling cruise control with forscan, but I guess this van is too old. Hopefully I can talk someone at the Ford dealer into trying.

 

[iggi]

Sweet, I'll pick your brains when I run into trouble on mine.

 

[kbeefy]

Had to massage the floor a bit...

Poly Iso...

plywood

Modify seat bases to fit the wrong van....

Yay! Swivel captains chairs!

 

[kbeefy]

Got the subfloor painted and everything glued down.
I was originally going to use joining biscuits to help keep everything aligned/flat, but due to the way I cut all the pieces it would be impossible to use half the biscuits, so I bagged the whole idea. I just layed everything down and weighted it in an attempt to make everything flat. Due to the waviness of my floor, it's not perfect but it's pretty close and will suffice for me.
Oh look, most of the easily moveable heavy things in my shop...

It's pre-mature, but I was just excited to have the floor in so I decided to do a mock up placement of the big chunks. The couch is a bit larger than ideal, and the fridge wound up being bigger than expected as well. I'll have to shave a bit off a few other areas to make everything work, but I don't think anyone ever complained about having too big of a fridge or bed.

I wanted the fridge under the pop-top, but the size of the couch and the room required to swivel the drivers seat pushes the fridge back to the edge of the roof cutout. It still works, but I lost almost a foot from my original idea. I'm not sure how useful the drivers swivel will be with this floorplan, you can spin it 180 as it actualy goes under the bench, but you cant sit in it that way. At least it provides a little 'elbow room'.

I wanted to keep the bay doors clear of furniture, so I think the sink will land at the threshold. The cardboard box represents the countertop and drawers.

Since I lost some length due to the bench/swivel seat and fridge, I'm still up in the air for the rest of the drivers side. I want the microwave as high as possible, and the electrical bay on the floor. I'll see where I wind up, I suspect there will be a few cabinets in this area.

The cardboard 'countertop' will actually stop about 18" short of the box in this picture. Our portable toilet will live it that area, with a tip up countertop to cover it when not in use.

 

[kbeefy]

A couple days after that last post I got a job in Alaska for the summer. Had to put the van on hold.
Got back in August and have been working on it... I'll try to copy my build thread from SMB over here....

Water tank mount and sound deadening

Firing out the walls...

Insulation...

Mocking up the galley

shore power

Electrical wizardy...

Also got most of the electrical installed after this pic... 2 x 200aH of LiPo, 2000w inverter, solar charge controller, DC-DC charger, Shore power charger, Automatic transfer switch, battery buss bars and shunt, switches for the shore power charger and 110v element in hot water heater.

 

[kbeefy]

Took an impromptu camping trip and discovered the turbo vanes were intermittently sticking (classic 6.0 issue) and the alternator was barely keeping up (classic ford issue).

Turbo comes off...

Cleaned soot, cleaned corrosion, lubed and reassembled.
Since it was out I installed this Coolant filter manifold...

270a Alternator...

Turbo back on.

Deleted Intake horn throttle body. It was only on 04 vans and sometimes fails and causes problems.

Opened a can of worms during a gauge and radio install...

Installed EGT, Coolant and fuel pressure gauges

Dropped the fuel tank to get the diesel coolant heater fuel line hooked up.

It already had a 'spare' pickup line, I probably (maybe) could have hooked it up without dropping the tank. Tank is super easy to drop on this thing, thats nice.

I extended the fuel pickup line to about 2" from the bottom of the tank. Originally it was 4.5" from the bottom.

Tank back in.

I installed Sullastic shackles.

Ant a receiver hitch...

 

[kbeefy]

Dash is almost done.

Galley plumbing is done

Coolant filter and diesel coolant heater install is about done....

 

[kbeefy]

Lets see here.... what has been going on.

Figured out how to make cruise control work on a non-cruise equipped van, that was cool. Just installed the missing parts and it started working.

Built some drawers...

Got some lights...

Sparky bits

Built a outdoor shower panel

Grey tank hanger

looks like this under the van

tore the suspension off...

made this mess

starting to put some stuff back on, not done yet

 

[kbeefy]

More or less finished, just need to do trim and pretty things up.

Didn't really take time to take any pictures the last couple weeks of work, I was to far behind.



We did 8000 miles in 45 days, van worked pretty well. I have a few bugs to work out before our trip to AK in April.

 

[fritz]

Nice work on your van.

Is that the Weldtec suspension? If so is it the 3" or 5"? How do you like it?

Do you notice a difference with the Silastic shackles?

Looking forward to more updates

 

[kbeefy]

Nice work on your van.

Is that the Weldtec suspension? If so is it the 3" or 5"? How do you like it?

Do you notice a difference with the Silastic shackles?

Looking forward to more updates

Thanks!

Yes, 5" 'Baja Grocery getter' w/ new rear springs and the king shocks.

I only had the sulastic shackles on for a couple days. I'd like to say I noticed a difference but now I can't be sure.
There was a bigger difference with the progresive rear springs for sure.

The van interior is gutted right now, its donating the electrical setup to my car hauler for the next couple weeks, we're headed to KOH.
It will be put back together by April, we're taking it to Alaska for the summer.