Ford E450 4x4 build revival

[xracer144]

I was somewhat worried about the weight of the body and the overall weight of the camper in general pushing the maximum GVW. Good news today at the scale. We weighed in 500lbs lighter than the original estimated weight. That made my night! I finished the temporary stereo hookups today. Pioneer deck, Kenwood amps, JL door speakers and a massive JL W6 sub. It sounds pretty good. Eventually I'll swap out the deck for a Kenwood. I got the Pioneer bundled in with some stuff for one of the work vans. Spent a couple hours vacuuming little chunks of foam up that didn't get cleaned up after scarfing. Went for an hour cruise. More foam pellets fell from the roof and walls. Looks like i'll be vacuuming again tomorrow. It sure is tight with that foam in there!

 

[sojourner]

Looks great, do people ask, "what is that?"
What will the interior layout look like?

 

[java]

Looks great! Any plans for windows? What did it weigh in at?

 

[xracer144]

The Rv as it sits weighed in at 9160. There will be windows going in sometime down the road once the floorplan has been finalized. We have pretty much agreed on our floor plan and that's how we were able to place the door where we did. What we have to do now is make sure that nothing conflicts with any of the floor members. My wife is drawing out and taping the floor plan to exact size right now. Once she's done that I will make a 1x2 wood full scale mock up of the rear bedroom/dinette and bathroom areas. Those are really our only areas that may be a bit on the tight side.

It drives pretty much like my E350 service van just taller. It's about 6' shorter in length than our current rv and not quite as tall with the reduced interior height (6'7" compared to 6'10") and no rooftop a/c unit. It feels like a sports car comparatively speaking and pretty zippy with the V-10 and 4.56 gears

 

[java]

The Rv as it sits weighed in at 9160. There will be windows going in sometime down the road once the floorplan has been finalized. We have pretty much agreed on our floor plan and that's how we were able to place the door where we did. What we have to do now is make sure that nothing conflicts with any of the floor members. My wife is drawing out and taping the floor plan to exact size right now. Once she's done that I will make a 1x2 wood full scale mock up of the rear bedroom/dinette and bathroom areas. Those are really our only areas that may be a bit on the tight side.

It drives pretty much like my E350 service van just taller. It's about 6' shorter in length than our current rv and not quite as tall with the reduced interior height (6'7" compared to 6'10") and no rooftop a/c unit. It feels like a sports car comparatively speaking and pretty zippy with the V-10 and 4.56 gears

Very cool, I need to get mine weighed, it says 11,400 on the title.

 

[xracer144]

My estimated empty weight at completion is now 10,666 according to my build spread sheet. (with 1/4 tank of fuel).

 

[xracer144]

This is what the entire construction is composed of. It's thick wall aluminum panels that snap together to form a rigid structure.

 

[java]

View attachment 244024
This is what the entire construction is composed of. It's thick wall aluminum panels that snap together to form a rigid structure.

Very interesting, I have never seen a body built like that. How big is each panel?

 

[xracer144]

The panel width is 12". I'm not sure how long the panels come, but I have seen some greenhouse cube vans running this type of body. Their walls look to be 10' or taller for carrying trees.

 

[java]

Saw a truck drive by my office built with panels like that. They stopped a block away so I had to go stock it. Looks REALLY solid. Theirs was done in Ferndale WA, built on a sprinter 3500 cut away.

 

[Gemini]

The panel width is 12". I'm not sure how long the panels come, but I have seen some greenhouse cube vans running this type of body. Their walls look to be 10' or taller for carrying trees.

Who was the panel manufacturer? Is it ITB?

 

[guidolyons]

View attachment 244024
This is what the entire construction is composed of. It's thick wall aluminum panels that snap together to form a rigid structure.

Very interesting, I have never seen a body built like that.

I was confused by the 1x2 lumber at first also, but now it makes sense for the spray foam. Those interlocking panels are pretty slick, I have not seen a truck box made like that. It looks like it would be very rigid and the spray foam probably helped stiffen it up (as well as reduce noise), too.


What's the ballpark cost on that box, say compared to swiping the box off the back of a U-haul?

 

[xracer144]

Hey Guys, it's been a while since my last update. Things have been pretty slow moving on my end, but I'm finally getting some stuff done. The spray foam is just about smooth enough now to accept the interior panels that I picked up. That job took forever as the foam applicators made a pretty big mess of the job. Once i have everything scarfed smooth, I'll have to go back and fill all the voids and air pockets in the foam by hand with a hand application. I installed the in line engine heater for cold starting days as well as a huge school bus heater in the back for cold driving days. It took me a long time to get that figured out and operational as the system just didn't want to bleed the air out. I also mounted a couple LED light bars that I have had sitting on the shelf for a while. The biggest obstacle I'm facing right now is that the Quigley chassis has a wicked death wobble . I've gone over everything on the Quigley checklist 3 times and added a new dual steering stabilizer as well even though there was nothing wrong with the original single shock unit. The only thing left to do now that may correct the problem is a front end alignment but I don't want to do that till I have more of the interior work done and add weight to the rear end.

 

[thethePete]

Probably just needs an alignment. With a lift on this type of front end you lose caster. When you lose caster you lose directional stability. When you add big, heavy tires, it compounds the issue.

Once it's aligned, if they can get it back into spec, you will be much happier with the drivability.

 

[xracer144]

What's the ballpark cost on that box, say compared to swiping the box off the back of a U-haul?

The cost of the camper body was just over $25,000 built, installed on my chassis and insulated.