goneagain they are OEM boxes, on ebay.com if you search for "Ford Diesel Van Battery box" they pop up often. On my E-350 even the safety wire holes were in place. A nice part of the IEM box is that the one frame mount hole acts as a swivel for lifting the battery box in place.
Ford E350
- Thread starter dar395
- Start date
that's my bad, the correct link is www.Discountvantruck.com
thankyou sir. I found some one ebay this AM actually. Mine is a diesel van, so it already has one on the frame rail. I think I can fit one fore and aft of the oem location for house batteries.
Corneilius
Adventurer
Cool build, good work
Adding on the winch gives it just a little beef, after traveling for the past 3.5 years by van we have found this is a great cheap insurance if your gon'a leave the black top for the fire roads:safari-rig:
We have always maintained that for our type of traveling we can go most places we want in 2wd, and after using the winch to get back out we feel better gas mileage, lower cost allows us to go further and more often.
Adding a dining table
In our travels we ran another van traveler with a build in table that was kind enough to share his idea. I've seen many builds on the web but to me his was not only very useable but in terms of cost just pennies, Here's the table build!
Ours being just 1/2 plywood with oak trimming around the three sides, the oak board is a slider.
I'm mounting the slider to the table top with some fasteners I picked up out of Ikea's spare parts bins, these worked well with a low profile.
Than completing the process is mounting the top and bottom slide rails to the cabinet walls, I used 5/4 pine for the top rail and a harder 3/4 board for the bottom one.
You will see that I found some smaller fastners at Ikea to mount through my wall panels as well, the small L-bracket is mounted on both the right and left side rails to stop the table from going to far back into the slide.
In our travels we ran another van traveler with a build in table that was kind enough to share his idea. I've seen many builds on the web but to me his was not only very useable but in terms of cost just pennies, Here's the table build!
Ours being just 1/2 plywood with oak trimming around the three sides, the oak board is a slider.
I'm mounting the slider to the table top with some fasteners I picked up out of Ikea's spare parts bins, these worked well with a low profile.
Than completing the process is mounting the top and bottom slide rails to the cabinet walls, I used 5/4 pine for the top rail and a harder 3/4 board for the bottom one.
You will see that I found some smaller fastners at Ikea to mount through my wall panels as well, the small L-bracket is mounted on both the right and left side rails to stop the table from going to far back into the slide.
Table 2nd part
The bottom framing mount shown here is again 5/4 this is the support when the table is extended, top 1/2 plywood is what stops the table from being pulled to far out.
Waxing the slide rails and slider end makes it all work very smooth.
In the end a great place to enjoy a rainy day or an early morning breakfast on a chilly morning.
The bottom framing mount shown here is again 5/4 this is the support when the table is extended, top 1/2 plywood is what stops the table from being pulled to far out.
Waxing the slide rails and slider end makes it all work very smooth.
In the end a great place to enjoy a rainy day or an early morning breakfast on a chilly morning.
We have the van done for the most part and just returned from a 11 day shake down, all has went as planned with very little needed improvements/changes, I'll try to complete the build here as time permits.
Adding a little value to the rear storage space, this is where we will fill our 37 gallon water tank as well as have access to our shower with the rear doors open and a shower curtain hanging. Use of bargains allow for the placement of items such as cords, tow strap, water fill hose and much more at the rear doors.
Adding a little value to the rear storage space, this is where we will fill our 37 gallon water tank as well as have access to our shower with the rear doors open and a shower curtain hanging. Use of bargains allow for the placement of items such as cords, tow strap, water fill hose and much more at the rear doors.
:sunny::sunny::sunny::sunny:
In the first photo you can see the supports (3/4 x 3/4) in the corners and along the bottoms on the floor where it mounts, this was done to all of the cabinets for traveling, it was done with board reclaimed from a bunk bed that I found and cut down for this purpose, the wood grade was clear with no knots and worked out well and the cost was $0 which helped in keep the budget in line, starting to place the electric needs together, this process has been in the works so that all wiring could be in place as the build proceeded, this RV switch will control overhead lights, water pump and vent fab. A raised wood frame of oak in being used if you look closely at photo 2. As I install I'm also taking care of insulation needs with this closed cell type, high R value and a gift from a friend, again budget helper in photo 4. Mounting of appliance's is a task being taken care of as the build is in process, here in photo 5 to assure being able to handle road traveling. Photo 3 just a simple door panel with pull strap.
In the first photo you can see the supports (3/4 x 3/4) in the corners and along the bottoms on the floor where it mounts, this was done to all of the cabinets for traveling, it was done with board reclaimed from a bunk bed that I found and cut down for this purpose, the wood grade was clear with no knots and worked out well and the cost was $0 which helped in keep the budget in line, starting to place the electric needs together, this process has been in the works so that all wiring could be in place as the build proceeded, this RV switch will control overhead lights, water pump and vent fab. A raised wood frame of oak in being used if you look closely at photo 2. As I install I'm also taking care of insulation needs with this closed cell type, high R value and a gift from a friend, again budget helper in photo 4. Mounting of appliance's is a task being taken care of as the build is in process, here in photo 5 to assure being able to handle road traveling. Photo 3 just a simple door panel with pull strap.
In building our 1st van (GMC) I vowed when I started this one is that I would only put one hole in the van body and here it is! The holes that you place in the body create wind noise, cause water to enter and really can make the van hard on the eyes. On the GMC I tried to make my cuts and placements to be easy on the eye, but in the end it never was an accepted idea by me, I now feel that almost no holes should be placed in the body except here!
The hole for the vent fan is being placed just behind the front seats and at the foot of the bed area, this area has been chosen to try and keep the wind noise down while driving and the fan noise away from our heads. I did not take the headliner down before cutting I just used a short jig saw blade and then cut the head lined with bare hack saw blade as shown worked well. The wires that control the rear area over head lighting is in this area and can be cut into to place on a switch and the house battery for use.
:Wow1:
During the build I can truly state time never stands still, I have not added up the hours but I sure take my hat off to the owners that go all the way with DIY 4wd and such!
But every once in a while some grandchild comes along and remind us of what life really is "The total Journey!":smiley_drive:
During the build I can truly state time never stands still, I have not added up the hours but I sure take my hat off to the owners that go all the way with DIY 4wd and such!
But every once in a while some grandchild comes along and remind us of what life really is "The total Journey!":smiley_drive:
