97 E350 Horton Mini Mod (chapter 2?)

[truckstops]

Bought eporter's E350 Horton mini-mod a while back and am finally getting around to posting about it!

I only have a small shed (full of smelly hockey gear) and a gravel driveway to work in - so initially I was pretty conservative with my conversion. One of our neighbors has some pretty shady people coming by, so every time I stop working for the day - or even if I have to run an errand - I have to pack up all of my tools and materials and lock them up. Super annoying.


First thing I did was take out the cabinet behind the passenger seat to open things up a bit more.



Took out the bench and ended up replacing the existing insulation with rockwool (not pictured).




At this point I wasn't planning on removing the built in cabinets, so I built a pullout bed over where the bench used to sit. I basically used the plans from Van Dog Traveller since I liked that the seat lifted up independently of the extension supports.

 

[truckstops]

Put the batteries to the test by running my miter saw to help a friend build an outhouse on her property. We built most of the outhouse at home and just hauled the frame up in the ambo.

Bought an ARB 2500 awning. Also had my boyfriend build a solar shower...mostly to give him something to do while I was tearing apart the inside of the ambo.

We had some Yakima gutter mount towers and I found an extra long set of crossbars on craigslist - so we just ended up mounting the awning and the solar shower to it.


We're leaving for a long road trip (Seattle > Tahoe > Grand Tetons/Yellowstone > Spokane > Seattle) the day after labor day so I decided now would be the perfect time to tear out the absolute beast that is the built in cabinets. Again - my garage situation is less than ideal, but fortunately I found a guy with a CNC machine who will cut my cabinets for me and I'll assemble them this weekend!



To remove the backboard storage I quickly realized I had to tangle with the impossibly intimidating rats nest coming out of the battery compartment. I'm waiting until winter to cull the electrical system - I just want to be able to use the ambo this summer!


I had to unmount the inverter to get some of the wiring free. The panel that I had to remove had what seemed like an encouraging message - like they somehow knew that if I was to the point of removing said panel...I had gone to far.


ANYWAY - I still need to remove the little AC unit in the module, remove the rest of the backboard storage and install the new cabinets...in 7 days. Fortunately we have the long weekend coming up so I should make it before the big trip!

Down the road I need to pretty up the interior - but I'm not super concerned with that right now. I should remove the old floor since it's going to look pretty bad with the new cabinets since they will be narrower than the old cabinets.

To be continued!

 

[eporter]

Wow, you've been busy. Good luck with the build and that electric system...! Would've been nicer if they left a little more room in that battery box, for sure. Nice to see all that wasted space behind the backboard getting reclaimed.

Have a fun road trip and keep the pics/updates coming.

 

[eporter]

Bump for an update!