E-350 Cutaway with Total Composites Box

[CalgaryMcLean]

My project is slowly progressing and I am hoping to have it mostly completed for this spring.
The camper will be a 3200 long x 2010 high x 2145 wide Total Composites box mounted on a 4wd E-350 cutaway chassis.

The original concept:

 

[CalgaryMcLean]

2022 Ford E-350 cutaway chassis converted to 4wd by Clydesdale Vans in Kamloops.




Size, compared to a Sprinter

 

[CalgaryMcLean]

Flexy frame

 

[CalgaryMcLean]

Aluminum subframe and tool boxes.
The subframe is mounted using the stock Ford mounting bushings and is fixed at the front/cab and pivots at the rear.



Assembly to be mounted on the rear of the camper box. Storage boxes and part of the spare tire carrier.

 

[CalgaryMcLean]

Beauty.

Clydesdale doing the sub frame and boxes ?

Boxes and subframe by 5052 Custom Fab in Calgary.

Design by me.

So all the good stuff is due to them and all the bad ideas are due to me. ?

 

[greg.potter]

Aluminum subframe and tool boxes.
The subframe is mounted using the stock Ford mounting bushings and is fixed at the front/cab and pivots at the rear.

View attachment 760711

This is looking very nice - I'm going to be following this with much interest!
So a three point mounting arrangement with a rear pivot point. The rear cross member and bearing / busing must be a monster!

 

[geoffff]

This is looking amazing!

How did you decide to go fully custom with the Total Composites rather than working with a cube van like Spartan Supreme?

 

[trackhead]

Sweet! Looking forward to the build process

 

[WanderingBison]

Hell yeah!!! Love where you’re going with this


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[cabnetguy]

frame

I have a question regarding the frame. Did you happen to notice if you're frame was flexing the most
where front half is bolted to the back the half? When I checked mine the first time the box was installed and the frame seemed like it was flexing there at the joint. I'll have to look again with the box off. Are you going to mount the box directly to the cab or put accordian seal between?

 

[Jonnyo]

awesome project! looking forward to follow this one!

 

[CalgaryMcLean]

This is looking very nice - I'm going to be following this with much interest!
So a three point mounting arrangement with a rear pivot point. The rear cross member and bearing / busing must be a monster!

Correct, 3-point mount with the pivot at the rear.
The pivot incorporates a bushing from a semi-trailer equalizer beam, so fairly substantial for this application.

The crossmember utilizes a couple pieces of steel c-channel and is bolted to the frame, just aft of the fuel tank.
Vertically, the pivot is located at the mid point of the frame.

Relatively speaking, this camper will be on the lighter side of builds.
Subframe and tool boxes are all aluminum.
No cabover.
Simple interior: minimal (for me) amount of onboard water (70 L), grey water (approx. 15 L) and batteries (2x100 Amp-hr lithium), no camper A/C, no microwave. No toilet, no black water storage.

 

[CalgaryMcLean]

This is looking amazing!

How did you decide to go fully custom with the Total Composites rather than working with a cube van like Spartan Supreme?

A few reasons I guess, some more logical than others.

As a personal preference, I don't really like the look of the add-on wind deflectors.
Instead I wanted the front of the camper angled back to help with the wind.

Harder to incorporate underbody tool boxes.

I am lazy and not great at finishing work so I didn't want to deal with eliminating the rear door plus insulating and finishing the interior walls, ceiling and floor. With the Total Composites panels, once the camper is assembled the interior walls are done: straight, smooth, seamless and insulated.

I wanted to minimize the overall dimensions while still being able to incorporate all my wants.

The length is as short as I could go while still leaving room behind the fuel tank for the 3-point pivot. 138" wheelbase plus I trimmed 18" or so off the rear frame rails to keep things short. For reference, this wheelbase is just a bit shorter than that of the very popular Toyota Tacoma 4-door with a 6' box.

The width is just what I need to sleep across the width while leaving room for the raising bed to clear the window frames.

There are always compromises, and going with a stock cube van would have added a few more that I was able to avoid.

 

[CalgaryMcLean]

I have a question regarding the frame. Did you happen to notice if you're frame was flexing the most
where front half is bolted to the back the half? When I checked mine the first time the box was installed and the frame seemed like it was flexing there at the joint. I'll have to look again with the box off. Are you going to mount the box directly to the cab or put accordian seal between?

Didn't notice any specific point with more or less flex.
Right at the rear of the cab, the frame and cab stayed relatively parallel and then the frame seemed to flex evenly all the way back to the suspension.

The subframe/toolboxes and camper box will be mounted directly to the back of the cab.

 

[Pinnacle Campers]

Any flexing pics with just the subframe?
What steps are you using?

I day dream about a similar (E-series with composite box) rig all the time so subscribed for more pics, details, and updates, great work so far!