2022 Ford F550 - DIY - Adventure Expedition Vehicle Build Thread

[Vance Vanz]

Heating System & Auxiliary Alternator

Not the most exciting stuff, but all of the items that just consume a lot of time on the build.

I needed to finalize how I was going to route and support the ¾” x two coolant hoses from the engine compartment to the very back of the camper (for the Rixen System). Not too difficult running down the chassis frame, but in the engine compartment was a different story. I wanted the runs as short as possible and the lines out of the way as much as possible (so servicing anything/everything in the engine compartment didn’t become a problem as a result of the lines being in the way/needing to be drained and removed). The simplest and cleanest way (I decided), was across the top of the firewall. I will also be routing all of the electrical for the aftermarket items/upfitter switches along this same path.

Rather than try and hang everything off of the factory plastic, I decided to use some of the existing studs on the fire wall and add two more mounting points. Everything will be thoroughly supported/hard-ish mounted to the fire wall.


I had to pull up the factory plastic (below the windshield/above the firewall) to make sure the rivnuts would not interfere with the wipers. Plenty of room back there, but getting a rivnut tool to fit required some disassembly of the air intake fittings/lines.


Dry fitting the hoses across and squeezing in one last (soon to be fabricated) bracket so the lines avoid: all of the steering, exhaust, suspension and route cleanly toward the chassis frame and under the cab. (I know that this is a large nut, for a few threads on the steering housing, but this is a dry fit for templating purposes. I'll have more threads for the nut when everything gets installed 😁).


Getting the angle juuuuuust right on the bracket, and to fit/lock against the housing (anti-rotational lock) took a couple of tries.


Here is the SS iso valve I will install in the engine to plate exchanger loop. I will wire it to one of my upfitter switches (NO valve). It will allow me to stop flow to/in the loop during the winter, when it is super cold. This way all of the factory engine loop heat stays in the factory loop when I energize the valve. After the truck has warmed up and it is toasty in the cab/windows defrosted, I can de-energize the valve and allow the Rixen/Free heat loop to flow.


Not a huge issue/deal, but in my campervan I hated getting in the truck after a cold day of skiing/mountaineering and it taking forever for the cab to get warm because all of my heat was getting lost in the loop all the way to the back of the van 🥶.

Part of the jumping around process on all of these various random projects included accounting for everything that will need to be mounted in, and/or ran through, the engine compartment and cab. I wanted to account for every aftermarket item and system that enters/exits the engine compartment and cab, so I could consolidate all of my lines and wiring. I want everything to route together and to do it in one shot. This is why there is a lot of random dryfitting and jumping around. The final install will be clean and cohesive. The dry fit everything and put it back on the shelf process is getting old though 😵‍💫...............

In addition to the process above, I'm also accounting for all of my electrical runs and needed terminals, so I can size all of my wire and make, hopefully, just ONE purchase. Saving some cash on ordering all of my wire and terminals, in one shot, is going to be needed as this beast of a build is getting beastly expensive.

Last shake down on the layout, mounting, routing and wiring before everything gets installed for the auxiliary alternator. Making sure I have EVERYTHING I need.

 

[Vance Vanz]

Slide Out Solar Panel Rack/Arrays

I was originally super excited about this project, in the beginning of the build 😄🥰🤗. BUUUUT….., now that we are (I am) years deep into this project, I have been contemplating whether to scrap the stacking solar panel slide out racks altogether.

I had to go back to my question, “At the end of the build would you regret not doing it?" Ahhhhhhhhhh SH(😳😕🥺)IT, this is going to take some time and energy I really don’t have right now. Head down, one foot in front of the other and I’ll eventually figure it out and make it to the finish line.

Here we go………

After many hours of sourcing SS slides, linear actuators and making sure everything is going to preliminarily fit-ish in the tight spaces I have on the roof, I got down to the hard math/the real design process.

Step 1 sorting out the layout of the SS slides and mounting feet


Step 2 where and how to mount the linear actuators


Originally, I was going to keep it simple and do a manual slide out rack, one I would manually lock/unlock and slide out from the roof. The reality of that design, designs I was coming up with, were not going to work. It would have been unsafe to try and lock, unlock and slide the racks given the tight space I have on the roof. Also, the arrays are pretty big, so it would have been a cumbersome process with one person, even if I was able to find a safe way to make it all happen.

So, I had to make it a bit more expensive and involved and go with electric linear actuators. No pneumatics for me, thank you very much, too much maintenance and noise.

Pulling things apart to get the body brackets on



Playing with different ideas on how to mount the actuators


I will have two stacked solar panel array racks on each side of the roof. A two solar panel stacked array for the drivers side (D.S.) and a three panel stacked array for the passenger side (P.S.). The bottom racks will slide and the tops will be fixed. 10 panels total, at 215 watts a piece. Overkill? Maybe to some. For me, I don't ever want to have to stress about power/running the AC if we are parked at an off grid epic surf/adventure spot for 3-4 days at a time. Power and water won't be stressors for this build.

Since I have a few things to work around on the roof (A/C, vent fan, skylight, surfboard rack......), I had to get creative on orienting and mounting the actuators. All four of them could not be mounted in the same orientation. Not that big of a deal, but just more design time and head scratching.

Two of the actuators on opposing racks were close enough to the L track that will be used to mount the surfboard rack, so I just decided to mount everything on one piece of L track that will span the entire width of the roof. This simplified things in some ways, but also added to the design time/re-work time.


It's going to be tight, but it will just fit with about an inch to spare



I haven't had to cross between/try and combine using L track and T slot before. At first, I wasn't sure how I was going to mount the surf board racks to L track in a simple/low profile way, considering the provided mounting hardware was designed for T slot. My brain just latched onto, I have to somehow make an L track stud work, or make some custom mount myself. It wasn't until I picked up the provided T slot hardware/mount, while thinking I may be able to grind it down in some way, that I actually tried to slide it in the L track from the side. What DAAAH you know, it slid right in . Silly me!


I can't tell you how stoked I was about that; it saved me hours of time not having to reinvent the wheel.

 

[Vance Vanz]

Slide Out Solar Panel Rack/Arrays - Continued......

Going with the lockable surfboard racks vs cross bars reduced my walkway to get to the boards pretty significantly. In addition, one of the actuators had to be mounted across this path, so I wanted to lay out something to scale. I needed to know what it was going to be like stepping over the actuator in a narrow path and whether a vertical or horizontal actuator mount would be best.



All the details that just eat up time, but are super important. These are the design decisions you don't want to screw up.

Now that the lower slide racks were structurally designed, along with the actuator placements, I had to move onto the hardest part of the design. Figuring out how to secure and run the PV wires was a task I was dreading. My PV wires can't be sealed to the roof (LINE-X is plastic), so I need to mount/secure them to the solar panel racks. My PV wires will also need to be ran and stay under the solar panel array foot print, as every space adjacent to the panels is either the side of the camper, or a usable space/walkway. This may sound simple, but trust me it is not. Every sliding rack design I have seen allows for the wires and/or entry glands to extend outside the footprint, or run above the solar panels.

I also wanted to make sure my PV wires were secured in a a track or raceway, so they would not be flopping/whipping around on the roof (making noise and/or creating some wonderful wear marks on the roof) .

Playing with the low profile roof entry glands and how to route the PV wires under the panels.


Cable chain track. I tried everything to avoid using this stuff, as a means to keep it simple and less expensive. In the end, it was the only way that made sense (would prevent the issues I noted above). The good stuff is not cheap.

Getting my needed length dialed in.


Getting my height dialed in


Once the cable chain track was all dialed in, the height of the lower racks changed as a result, so I had to go through everything again and re-adjust/re-design many things.

I then had to design a custom fabricated bracket to: support the PV wires as they come out of the roof entry gland and also to provide a mount and support for the cable chain track. I guess you could call this single bracket my PV wire and cable chain track management bracket. It is one of the most time consuming single fabricated brackets/items that I have had to design on the build so far. The amount of design hours that culminate into this one bracket is nauseating 😳🤯🤢 to think about.

Somehow I don't have a pic of this thing. I will snap one this week and insert it below on the next round of posts.

(INSERT PICTURE HERE 🤓 PLEASE)


Next up was finishing the layout/design of the upper panels and getting the needed spacers and cover caps all sorted. Figuring out how to structurally tie the lower sliding solar panels together, while keeping everything clean and simple looking, also took some time, Custom brackets/hardware to attach the linear actuators to the solar panel/frames also took some time.

The pics don't really do it justice. It was about Five 12 hour days just for the design of the two arrays. Another 1/2 to 3/4's of a day to complete the drawings for fabrication of items. That's not including the time to research and source all of the parts, aluminum material and mounting hardware. Not to mention I still need to build, dry fit and install this thing. My guess is it will have taken about 3-3.5 weeks total/minimum to complete both sliding arrays when they are finally finished 🤨.

I also had one of the solar panel aluminum frames start to separate from the panel a bit. It looked like the MFG's seal/pooky job was not all that great, so I took the time to 3M 4000 UV re-seal all of the bottom edges on all 10 panels. Not so fun cleaning up somebody else's mess, but that seams to be the story of the build.


I'm also going to install aluminum angle cross supports at the center of the panels to help stiffen them up, since my mounting feet for the panels will be on the ends of the panels. This was unavoidable given my design (the solar panels needing to be able to slide out towards the side of the panels). Although the seal job was not so bueno on these panels, the frames are super thick and stout. Once my cross supports are installed, these things will be bomber.

Most of this will make a lot more sense as soon as I get the final install pics posted.

 

[Vance Vanz]

Sealing Items to the Camper

I'm going stir crazy over here 🤪! Finally a break from designing and time to get stuff mounted.

Trying to perfect straight, clean and crisp cut lines on LINE-X 🤨. This is crucial, because I'm mounting/sealing everything on the outside of the camper with Black 3M UV Marine 4000 and the camper is light grey, so there is no hiding poopy cut lines. It's a make or break it kinda thing.


First official thing mounted to the camper (pass through flange). Not earth shattering, but a mini-milestone nonetheless 🥳.


Let's not stop here. I need more room in the shop. Start the Pooky-Mounting-Madness 😄........



Pulling the lid off


I wish other shops would take the time to do this (so they quit losing parts and hardware!)


Making sure everything is dialed in. No winging it here.


Where she will sit; final resting place


One of those moments when you suddenly pause............... and start to imagine what it will be like on the top of your rig from this view............ when you are sipping on some good-morning-espresso as the sun rises, while you are also checking out the surf break 35 yards away, in another country 😇!


Prepping for the pooky

 

[Vance Vanz]

Sealing Items to the Camper - Continued ......

Cut lines dialed in



Quick test of the AC before it heads to the roof and finds a new home


My new shop manager (Erin) giving the green light. What a Nerdy Birdy ☺️😍😘


Getting prepped for the pook


Getting there



All sealed and ready for the solar panel array(s)........



The two sealers I'm primarily using on the build (except for a few items on the inside). 4000 for the outside and 5200 for the inside/when I don't want the item/part to ever come off. Wilds gets the credit for this, I'm just the messenger 😄.