Got me a van. 2001 ford e250 cargo van.

[Coachtone]

Been reading, researching and lurking on this website for a bit. I finally got a van so I thought I would share my story to see if I could help others in their attempts to become a campervan owner.

After looking on craiglist and ebay for about 5 months I found a van that had what I was looking for to become a sutiable campervan conversion for my family of 4.

Here are pics from the criagslist ad:




It was from the original owner, who had turned it into a mobile office for his home inspection business. With a few modifications I could pull out what I didn't want and add what I would like.

The inside was basically finished, which was a huge plus point for me. I had been looking for a cargo van, more stealthy, check!
The condition of the van was immaculate, the hardest part of finding a decent van is finding one that hasnt been driven into the ground.

The van had more miles than I would typically want at 291k, but it was clean, ran good, oils where clean, and the price was good. The only thing it didn't have on my list was cruise control, I could add that later if I wanted.

I will add some more posts to this thread on my progress. I'm excited to be part of the campervan family!

 

[Heloflyboy]

Congrats on van. I have been using mine as a stealth camper in the bay area for the last couple months and it works great.

 

[Coachtone]

Once I got the van home I went ahead and removed the desk, swivel chair, bench and back wall. P.S. I still have the swivel chair and bench if anyone is interested in them.


Office furniture, gone!



Back wall removed. I debated with myself for a while on wether I was going to leave the back wall in for privicey but ended up pulling it out so that I would have more cargo space and visibility out the back of the van. It is a bit tough navigating these vans with just side mirrors.

Kids love this thing!


Once I had the entire inside of the office gutted and cleaned I decided to bring the outside into this decade.

 

[Coachtone]

Thanks, Man! Got any picks?

 

[Coachtone]

Amazing what a couple cans of black rustoleum and a little bit of elbow grease can do to re-engergize these vans.

off with the stock hub caps and on with some black paint, after and before:





Some paint to the front bumper and grill, before and after:



All this work has been over the last month but I'm just now getting time to upload some pics and post. I tried a few times to do one long post but kept getting booted off.

 

[Coachtone]

Next it was time to put in a bed and cargo space.

I had decided to have this van be a double duty van, semi work van and campervan. If need be I wanted the opportunity for the van to be able to haul cargo fairly easy along with being able to go on long trips with the family.

I found a great post where somebody had built the bed so that it was split in half and each half folded up against the each wall so that they could get bikes into the van. When the bikes where out of the van the pieces folded down to sleep on one or both to utilize the entire width of the van.

I had originally thought that I would sleep all four of us width wise amongst 80" of bed. As I was building the bed my daughter liked the fact that she could crawl underneath the bed and wanted to sleep under the main bed, on the floor, in her "turtle hole". Well okay then kid. Sleep on the floor bunk bed style then.

pics to follow.

 

[tincanExpress]

Good looking van!
I built mine to be dual purpose as well. Looking forward to more interior pics !

 

[Coachtone]

Here are a few more pics of the interior thus far.

As mentioned above I wanted my bed to be able to fold up out of the way to carry cargo if needed.

This is looking from the rear of the van at the bed:



Looking at rear with one side of bed up against wall:





I used 1/2" pine sanded plywood.

I glued and screwed together some 2x4's to make the frame for the beds. I used standard door hinges to attach the plywood to the 2x4 frame. I routed about 1/4" on each, the plywood and frame to absorb the thickness of the hinges allowing the plywood to lay flat into the down position.

The 2x4 frame is screwed to the metal ribbing of the van wall currently. When I'm sure that this is gonna work as I want, I will attach it permently to the floor.

I also attached a standard metal type D ring to the bottom of the plywood and corner of the roof support, this allows me to use a carabiner to look both "D rings" together and securely hold the plywood up when needed.

The middle support is affixed to the right piece of plywood via a 4 foot piano hinge. The right side plywood also folds flat against the wall, with the support folding flat against the bottom of the plywood and secured using the same "D rings". I use a bungee cord from the top of the frame to the roof to secure the right side.

 

[Coachtone]

Now to tackle the biggest problem. Making my van safe to carry my two children somewhere. The van came with a small bench that was out of an old RV, both my kids would fit but there are no seat belts.

After much research and investigating I decided the best route would be finding some seats that have intergrated seat belts.
Choices: Chevy Tahoe, Silverado, Sierra, Yukon, from 1999-2005 I believe.
Ford F150 & F250 varing years depending on model but 2005-2009ish.
I was talking it over with my neighbor and he said his parents had a toyota previa with swivel seats and intergrated belts.
I also read somewhere that chrysler sebring had some integrated belts but never came across those.

I hit the scrap yard last weekend and found these:


Out of a toyota Previa. Not sure what year it was. I looked at 6-8 in the yard and there where others with buckets in the second row, but only the swivel model has built in lap belt. Of which you have to pull the seat belt all the way out for it to lock. It will not catch like a shoulder belt does, by pulling quickly.

I went origanlly trying to score a set of tahoe, yukon seats due to the shoulder belt. Ended up going with these previa seats due to ability to swivel and still have a lap belt. My kids are young and will be ridding in care seats for at least the next 5 years, 5 point harness. Works for my situation. Plus the two seats where $85 from pick and pull, score. And these things are solid, the swivel is no joke in these the must weigh 75-80lbs a piece.

Seats installed in the van:


Rear facing:




As far as attaching. I looked at the bottoms of some passenger vans and how my front seats where attached, along with what I could find on the internet (not much). I put together all my research and attached them the safiest why I thought.

I used grade 5 bolts. There are 4 attachement points for each seat, 2 in the front and 2 in the rear. With seats facing forward : Rear two holes are attached throught the flange of the cross bracing in the floor, while the other 2 forward holes are drilled through the floor. I used a 1/2" J-Bolts flange under neath the fronts with a lock washer and nut. For the rear two I placed as large of a washer I could get on the rib flange, lock washer and nut.

The last thing I have to do it attach child restrant hooks to the floor.

 

[dcguillory]

I cant view any of these attachments . . .

 

[Coachtone]

reposted the pics, hopefully viewable now.

 

[Petrolburner]

Those seats look awesome and I'm jealous of the price you paid. I paid $150 for two Flexsteel chairs out of a Ford conversion van. The bolt pattern didn't match my Ford and I had to drill some new holes in the floor anyway

 

[dcguillory]

Wow that turned out great! I would be happy with that upgrade.

 

[Coachtone]

I had to empty out the back of the van to go pick up some sod today, so I snapped a couple more pics of the bed in the up position.

Driver side. This is the easier of the two to bring up since it doesn't have the support attached. When I need to throw in a bike or something like that, I can quickly put up this side.


Both sides in the up position:


Passenger side. At the moment I just use a bungee cord to secure that side. I haven't come up with a way to secure the support and board yet.

 

[Coachtone]

Maxx Air Fan

I have been considering ditching my roof top A/C unit and replacing it with a Maxx Air fan. I was originally stocked on the roof top A/C but I don't have a generator and I can't use the A/C while driving. Any thoughts?