2008 E350 Turtletop VanTerra

[vanman95]

Hi guys. I’m new to the forum! I joined when I found that others have converted a vanterra to a camper. Me and my lady are going to build out some sort of shuttle bus this year.

Basically I was wondering who else has converted a VanTerra? We have the opportunity to buy one local (10 mins from our home). It’s only got 47k miles! The only issue we’ve noticed is the steel cross members for the floor has a couple rusted out spots. Other than that it’s a steal.

I’m not worried about the rust. We live in the Midwest so everything has rust! It comes with the area unfortunately. I am an automotive technician and have a shop/welder/tools galore at my disposal. I’m curious of others conversions and if they wished they went bigger?

Anybody have photos of their VanTerra conversions? We want to buy the one we’re looking at but need convincing that we will have the room to live comfortably. We’re going to live in it full time. Solar, propane for cooking and hot water, water storage, etc is our plan. Thank you for any advice, stories, opinions or “two cents”!

-S&B

 

[Cummins_expo]

Awesome platform to build- You Tube has some great builds

 

[vanman95]

Awesome platform to build- You Tube has some great builds

I’m having trouble finding any good conversion videos. I found a couple but they’re basically just the initial “I bought this to convert” “stay tuned for more”, unfortunately haven’t found any fully converted ones

 

[Cummins_expo]

I have seen a few down the Youtube rabbit hole. Focus on shuttle bus conversions very similar working situation

 

[vanman95]

I have seen a few down the Youtube rabbit hole. Focus on shuttle bus conversions very similar working situation

Ahhh yes the YouTube rabbit holes. I’m slowly finding videos lol have you seen builds on this forum with the VanTerra platform?

 

[nyyankees588]

I've seen a few conversions of those - like the other guy said, schoolies and box truck conversions are going to be more common (but similar). There was a sweet turtle top that was converted to 4x4 that went up at one of the auction sites a year or two back that was rad.

Space wise, they offer a lot more spacing and, crucially, you can usually stand up fully inside (aka 6' +/-). The biggest downside that i always go back to with similar rigs is the fact that they have so many single pain windows. They're a pain to remove + cover up and if you do any camping in hot or cold weather, they are absolutely awful for insulation and especially building up condensation. The curved walls are also annoying.

All that said, i still think they can be great setups. Especially if it's a good deal.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[vanman95]

I've seen a few conversions of those - like the other guy said, schoolies and box truck conversions are going to be more common (but similar). There was a sweet turtle top that was converted to 4x4 that went up at one of the auction sites a year or two back that was rad.

Space wise, they offer a lot more spacing and, crucially, you can usually stand up fully inside (aka 6' +/-). The biggest downside that i always go back to with similar rigs is the fact that they have so many single pain windows. They're a pain to remove + cover up and if you do any camping in hot or cold weather, they are absolutely awful for insulation and especially building up condensation. The curved walls are also annoying.

All that said, i still think they can be great setups. Especially if it's a good deal.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the info! So far we’re into the removal of the shuttle interior. Next step is exterior sealing! The windows will be very interesting. We’re debating on replacing a couple of windows with double pain aluminum sheets and insulation. Or keeping windows in, sealing which ones that will be covered by walls and insulating heavily. This is such an adventure building a camper ourselves but loving every minute