Ford E450 4x4 build revival

[xracer144]

A couple years ago I purchased this E450 4x4 with the intent of building an all weather, back roads camper. Some of you may remember the thread I had going back then with my ideas. Life in general got in the way and the project was put on the back burner. Things have finally settled down and we will be proceeding to build our camper this summer. We decided to go with a 17' aluminum body that will be have a 42" overcab sleeper (just like a class c). It will manufactured by International Truck Body (ITB) up here in Winnipeg. Our current fiberglass class c motorhome is beginning to shake apart, much like its predecessors did. Plus it lacks 4 wheel drive. So the time is now. Wish me luck.

 

[Guri]

Good luck and I'll keep an eye in your progress!

 

[CLynn85]

Awesome platform, any sketches of the design?

 

[xracer144]

I should have some drawings back from the builder next week. I'll post them up as soon as I get them.

 

[cjken]

Good luck.
Excited to see the progress.
What yr is the cab and chassis?
158 wheelbase??

 

[xracer144]

It's a 2008 I bought in California with about 800 miles on it. 176" wheelbase.

 

[java]

Watching closely!

 

[xracer144]

Once I got it home from California (which was quite the adventure itself) I took the interior out completely. I installed Dynamat on the floor, doors, and roof. I also cut up a water heater blanket to fit the headliner of the cab for insulation. I was going to spray foam but I thought that down the road mods would be a lot more difficult if I had to chisel out foam. I layered the blanket so it's about an inch thick and used spray adhesive to hold the layers together. It all fit together nicely and I can remove it in a couple minutes if I want to run wires or something like that.

 

[xracer144]

Kinda jumping around here in the build sequence but oh well. We did some cold weather testing on the lights i want to install on the camper. I hooked up 2 100w HID lights as well as a 240 watt 2 row 20" light bar. They were cycled off and on hundreds of times over the winter (which was our coldest in 120 yrs). We had a stretch of over 30 days where the daytime temps didn't go above -25 C. Lots of car washes, blizzards, road salt, and sprayed gravel. The LED light bar worked excellent. The HID lights worked ok as well. I love the instant on of the LED and will ultimately install these on the camper and leave the HID's off.

 

[xracer144]

Last look at the bare chassis. Off to the fabricator today.

 

[java]

Sweet! That 'i think' is the same wheelbase as mine. Maybe a bit longer, since I have a rather large overhang. My box is 17' also.

 

[xracer144]

My wheelbase is 176" I should end up with about a 5' overhang.

 

[java]

Measured mine just for fun. 158"WB, 8' overhang.

 

[xracer144]

Here is a preview of the proposed body configuration. Pretty basic I guess. I can't believe it took us this long to only get this far.

 

[java]

Still excited to see this come together.