And now the moment you didn't know you've been waiting for...Atl-Atl's 4x4 Ford E350 RV documentation thread!!

Atl-atl

Adventurer
If you come through Durango before the 28th, we are around with our Sportsmobile. After that, off to CH.
We will be in Durango Aug 20-23. Ive also got my Blazer in tow behind the RV. Plan is to have a basecamp with the RV and use the Blazer for cruising around. Wife will be working so Ill probably just be riding my mountain bike all week.
 

Bigly

Wannabe
Oh you poor guy. We have so much good mountain biking around here. I'm off to do one right now before the rain comes. Do you know where you are going to stay/camp yet?
 

Atl-atl

Adventurer
Oh you poor guy. We have so much good mountain biking around here. I'm off to do one right now before the rain comes. Do you know where you are going to stay/camp yet?
Ha I know. We will be at United Campground. Not our typical choice but the wife needs wifi for work and the starlink is just not reliable enough to be out in the middle of nowhere. Hit me up if you want to ride.
 

Atl-atl

Adventurer
Put together a flat tow setup to see if the RV will be able to tow the Blazer. Spent ten days driving from Flagstaff to Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Telluride and back to Flagstaff using the RV as a home base either parked at an RV park or wild camped and then used the Blazer to drive around town, go on adventures etc. Pretty stoked about this new setup. Going up the higher passes gets pretty slow at times ~30mph for the steepest grades above 10k feet but highway and normal two lane driving 65mph is easy. The attention it gets is off the charts. Individually these rigs are eye-catching but towing a camper with a camper is a whole new level. Driving across the reservation from Cortez CO to Kayenta AZ there were gnarly storms and a 30-40mph headwind. Hand calculated MPG over the 120 mile stretch was 4.13!! Thats a new record!! :LOL:
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Here is a picture of the setup. Tow bar is a Roadmaster Flacon 2. This is a cool tow bar because it doesnt use a standard hitch with a ball. It directly mounts inside your receiver and has a pivot and swivel to get the flexibility it needs. This is essential for the type of offroad driving I do when seeking out remote camp spots etc. The only downside to this setup is all of the pieces involved have play and when you add up the drop receiver, brake, tow bar and d-ring adaptors there is enough play that the towed vehicle moves around quite a bit.
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Roadmaster Falcon swivel.
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For brakes I went with a Readybrake system from NSA RV. Its 100% mechanical and there are very minimal failure possibilities. There is spring loaded mechanism inside the silver sleeve that pushes forward when the towing vehicles momentum slows enough for the towed vehicle to push forward. This mechanism pushes the black lever on top which tugs on a cable that is attached to the towed vehicles brake pedal. My blazer happened to already have a hole in the firewall immediately behind the brake pedal so running the cable/housing to the front of the truck was super easy. The whole system is incredibly basic and just works. Its so much better than the alternatives like a huge box that you put in front of the drivers seat that pushes on the brake pedal, needs to be moved/stored every time you want to drive the towed vehicle, needs power to run and relies on sensors inside the box to know when to push on the pedal.
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I used a basic set of magnetic tail/brake lights that plug into the 4 pin harness on the RV and stuck them on the back bumper of the Blazer.
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If I decide to tow the Blazer more frequently I will definitely make some changes to this setup so the towed vehicle settles down. Ill swap the tow bar for one from NSA that has their ReadyBrake integrated. This will eliminate one link in the chain that causes sway. Also whenever I get around to building the front bumper for the Blazer Im going to integrate D-ring mounts that are high enough so I can ditch the 4" drop receiver. This will eliminate another link in the chain. Lastly I want to figure out how to wire the stock Blazer tail/brake lights so I can plug them into the 4 pin of the RV so I can ditch the magnetic trailer lights. In the end our trip was a success and I couldnt be happier about being able to bring both rigs on the same trip without the hassle of a trailer.
 
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PaddyPlatanos

New member
So I spent a couple days getting familiar with the roof. Turns out there is a mini solar panel up there which is cool. Theres a light on the control panel that has a label that says "solar charging when lit" but I missed the panel last time I was up there since its about 12" x 18" and stuck to the top of the AC unit. I cant imagine it does much but its better than nothing.

Also the two vents are enclosed in these massive boxes that are meant to allow the vents to be open during any weather. Thats great and all except they render the vents nearly useless. When wide open they have almost no air flow. So I ripped out the one above the bed in favor of a powered fan. Super pumped about this one. I happened to have the exact fan new in the box because I was going to install it in my Go Fast Camper but never got around to it.

Old vent box
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Old vent
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The name of the game on RV roofs is GOOP and lots of it. What a pain in the ass to remove, especially since the roof is thin rubber. Best tool I found was this fiber strand removal wheel. Too much force and it will go through the rubber but it did a great job.
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New fan
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Next up I cut the opening for the new range hood. This one actually vents to the exterior unlike the old one that did nothing.
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Installed some fake subway tile as the backsplash.
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Also installed a new tinted operable window with a screen. Its a slightly smaller size than the one I removed which is not great. It also uses a slightly different mounting flange that Im not happy with. Looks great but its not sealed correctly and Im kinda stuck about what to do. Just waiting on the new faucet to arrive so I can finish putting the kitchen back together.
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I am in the process of buying a 19G, and may be following you down this path albeit at a SLOW pace and with more outsourcing as I am 100% new to this world. Your work is incredible. Quick question: was there electric wiring for the roof vent fans already running to the cutouts, or did you have to run it yourself? I couldn't tell here.
 

Atl-atl

Adventurer
I am in the process of buying a 19G, and may be following you down this path albeit at a SLOW pace and with more outsourcing as I am 100% new to this world. Your work is incredible. Quick question: was there electric wiring for the roof vent fans already running to the cutouts, or did you have to run it yourself? I couldn't tell here.
Thanks! Have fun with yours. There was no wiring because it had a vent in both spots. There was wiring to a light in the ceiling above the bed so I ran wires from that, about 2 feet away. Unfortunately the way the ceiling/roof is constructed there is no easy way to get wires into that area. I was fortunate in that I installed new paneling on the ceiling so I was able to simply run the wires above that before installing it. If you are planning to keep the factory ceiling it will be very difficult to run wires.
 

PaddyPlatanos

New member
Thanks! Have fun with yours. There was no wiring because it had a vent in both spots. There was wiring to a light in the ceiling above the bed so I ran wires from that, about 2 feet away. Unfortunately the way the ceiling/roof is constructed there is no easy way to get wires into that area. I was fortunate in that I installed new paneling on the ceiling so I was able to simply run the wires above that before installing it. If you are planning to keep the factory ceiling it will be very difficult to run wires.
OK, that’s what I figured considering how bare bones they try to keep these things for Cruise America. I might end up doing some kind of peel and stick finish on the ceiling, so I’ll keep that in mind.

Having rented this unit a few times before, fully aware that the stock range is pretty much useless for anything beyond boiling water, so that is going to be the first upgrade, I think we’re going to skip the oven as we don’t even use an oven all that much at home.

Might attempt the soundproofing a little earlier in my upgrade process as my wife and kid tend to sit in the dinette and the noise is definitely intrusive. Really appreciate all of your step-by-step photos here.
 

Atl-atl

Adventurer
Well, still have the RV. Guess we're keeping it! Ive got some upgrades coming soon now that its cooling off in Phoenix and I can finally work on it in my shop again.

I decided to start a Youtube channel for Darlington Adventures. Im going to chronicle the restoration of the 2nd Blazer camper I bought this summer as well as document any adventures we go on. This is my first attempt at editing videos ever so go easy on me hahaha. Please like, subscribe, all that crap.
 

Atl-atl

Adventurer
Ive finally gotten around to getting Starlink hooked back up. When I got wind of the new(V3) dish essentially being flat, and "allowing" in motion use, and only costing $299 I decided to spring for it. I also decided to splurge on some aftermarket stuff to make the setup a little more modular. I was never able to get anywhere with the company that made the failed flatmount that fried my previous (V2) dish because they make a terrible product, have terrible(read: no) customer service and don't stand behind their products. That guys company is called Starmount Systems. I cant recommend them to anyone, their products are crap and they have no warranty whatsoever.

Anyway, the new mount I decided to go with is from a small outfit in Canada called Trio. They are much better to work with. I got their Starlink V3 flatmount and 12v conversion. When it showed up one of the pieces was broken in the box and they shipped a new piece immediately, no questions asked. Already better than the last guy. Nearly everything they make is 3D printed. The piece that was broken had cracked right along a print line, only time will tell how long this mount lasts. At least I didnt have to cut open the dish to make it work.

The coolest (and most expensive) part about this setup is the 12v all in one setup. It has an integrated router so you can run the flatmount/router as one complete unit and easily move it from vehicle to vehicle or to your house, or set it on the ground to get open sky etc. Thankfully the V3 dish uses standard ethernet cables now. (Im genuinely surprised Elon did this, knowing how he behaves.) Since the router is integrated all you have to do is wire up the 12v converter to your vehicle and run a power cable to it. Trio sells converters in various styles so you can hardwire it or just plug it into a cigarette lighter. I bought a couple hardwired converters, one for the RV and one for the Blazer and then a cigarette lighter version for whatever else we might want to use it on.

Trio sells a variety of mounts so you can make it work for any vehicle. There are also bolt holes in the corners so you can literally just bolt it onto something if you want. I chose magnetic feet that bolt to the flat mount which makes swapping the dish between vehicles super simple. The magnets are super strong and they even sell matching magnetic discs with 3M UHB tape in case you dont have a steel roof to mount the dish.

The flat mount is simply 4 pieces of plastic that form a square you bolt around the dish. You can leave the factory "kickstand" in place if you want, even when using the all in one 12v/router system, which is pretty slick. All the connections are IP67 sealed and standard ethernet ports.

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The magnetic feet have a threaded bung in the center so you can bolt them to the flat mount. When using the all in one setup you bolt the router in place using two of the magnetic feet. I loctite'd them for obvious reasons. The system is very well thought out and really compact. The whole thing is less than 2" tall.

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Here is the RV roof setup. I removed the old Starlink cable and ran the new 12v power cable through the same marine cable pass through. I simply cleaned the roof with alcohol and stuck the magnetic pads down. 3M tape is unbelievably strong. I had to use a large flat object to pry up the dish to remove it after the test fit.

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Here I tested the dish with the cigarette lighter. Works like a charm. Only thing it cant do is power the snowmelt feature because a cigarette lighter does not have enough amperage. I got an extra 40' cable so the dish can be put just about anywhere to get a signal.

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Quite happy with the results. Cant wait to try it in motion.

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