Ford E450 4x4 build revival

[xracer144]

Racer, what is the height on the inside from the wheel arches to the insulated ceiling? How much insulation do you have on the floor in the photos?
Ward

Floor to ceiling is about 6'7". The wheel wells take up 2-3". I wanted to go slightly lower, but my son is 6'5". The sleeper height its about 27" without a mattress. It all worked out ok. I wanted to keep the overall height right around 10' as my shop door is 10'4". I roughed in a couple places for roof air, but I really don't want to cut a hole on a perfect aluminum roof. I doubt we will install one. I might try a dog house AC unit in one of the underbody cabinets once we figure everything out. The floor, walls and ceiling have 2" 2lb medium density closed cell spf. 3" is what we use in attics and it works like a charm. I think 2" will be fine for an rv. there is a pan on the bottom of the frame so the foam is not exposed any more than where the body mounts are. I'll make sure to seal everything up once we finish cutting everything in.

 

[Healeyjet]

Thanks Racer. I am just about the same size as your son so I will probably want to increase headroom almost a foot. I want to stay under about 11' 6" overall.

Now that you have driven it a few times with the body on can I get some feedback?

Does the body twist independent of the cab or is the frame very stiff?
Is the cab to body connection secure or is it with a gasket of some kind so the body can move? I am worrying about the whole unit flexing when off-road.

Ward

 

[xracer144]

Thanks Racer. I am just about the same size as your son so I will probably want to increase headroom almost a foot. I want to stay under about 11' 6" overall.

Now that you have driven it a few times with the body on can I get some feedback?

Does the body twist independent of the cab or is the frame very stiff?
Is the cab to body connection secure or is it with a gasket of some kind so the body can move? I am worrying about the whole unit flexing when off-road.

Ward

The body is mounted to the cutaway part of the cab via bolts and some type of polyurethane sealant that when smoothed resembles a factory looking gasket. The entire unit is very stiff. If it flexed off road then you would have problems. That's not really what mine was designed for. Ours was designed to give us piece of mind when accessing remote riding areas and for cold weather travels. Often we have woken up to find 6 or 8" of fresh snow covering the trail and hills out of our spot. It would be nice to be able to just crawl out rather than having to blast out. It's hard on the equipment and makes everyone including the dog nervous.

 

[xracer144]

We have been so crazy busy at work I haven't even looked at the RV for almost a couple months now. I took last Sunday off to go out and do a little dirt biking. It was super windy out but it handled at least as well as our old RV did in a 70 kmh cross wind. It dropped out of overdrive a couple times in the wind gusts but for the most part it cruised at 100 KMH no problem.

 

[Healeyjet]

Looks great all hooked up and ready to go.
Ward

 

[pappawheely]

Very nice set-up. Looks stealthy too.

 

[GNTY]

I've enjoyed reading your thread! Great build in creating exactly what you want.
These 4x4 RV's make great dirt biking rigs, i do the same with mine

 

[mezmochill]

Nice!

 

[xracer144]

I spent a couple hours on the RV today. Ran the wires for the LED interior lights.

Test fit a couple FRP wall panels. I might install them horizontal. I dunno yet

 

[java]

Walnut look FRP? Interesting.

 

[xracer144]

It's actually this stuff here. https://www.panolam.com/brands/frl

 

[david506th]

How thick are the FRL panels? Does it require a backer?

 

[xracer144]

1/16" thick and pretty floppy to work with. Very tough surface and next to impossible to break without really trying to do it on purpose. It will require some type of backing board. I think the foam insulation will do the trick for me. I'll be fastening it mechanically rather than with an adhesive. The cabinets, window frames and interior walls will also help to hold it in place. There shouldn't really be too many sq ft of panel that are not supported or anchored by something.

 

[pappawheely]

1/16" thick and pretty floppy to work with. Very tough surface and next to impossible to break without really trying to do it on purpose. It will require some type of backing board. I think the foam insulation will do the trick for me. I'll be fastening it mechanically rather than with an adhesive. The cabinets, window frames and interior walls will also help to hold it in place. There shouldn't really be too many sq ft of panel that are not supported or anchored by something.

Thanks for the link. I was looking for something to put up in my bathroom area. I think I will use the same type material.

 

[xracer144]

I've been doing a lot of cold weather testing (and goofing around) with our camper. Pretty much using it daily in our lousy winter cold and snow. The school bus heater in the back is performing really well. I hope to finally get it into the shop in March to do some interior work. I have a concern about the amount of thermal bridging on the camper walls and ceiling I have seen on really cold days. The wall temperature can be as much as 8degrees C warmer than where the firring strips are on the aluminum wall and ceiling studs. Last night we had -35 windchill. The foam insulation temperature was 22c where the firring strips were 14c. To me that is not really acceptable but my wife thinks we are already 10 times better than our old class C. No way we could ever get the interior that warm even at 0c. Any opinions?