Grumman the Backcountry Box Van____1997 Ford E450 7.3l Power Stroke diesel

[Petrolburner]

She said she'd install this fan for me.
Untitled by Petrolburner, on Flickr
Some interior brain storming.

Untitled by Petrolburner, on Flickr

Untitled by Petrolburner, on Flickr

Here's the proposed layout for the hydronic heated floor.

Untitled by Petrolburner, on Flickr

 

[Petrolburner]

My next step is to make my window frame spacers. I need to make mounts that are as thick as my walls will be minus the interior paneling, about 1 3/4" thick. Any opinions on whether I should make them from plywood or 2x4s? If I use plywood, it will be a one piece surround around the window, if I use sticks of wood it will be 4 pieces stuck together. I'm guessing it won't make any difference but I'm leaning towards plywood. I would use two sheets of 7/8" glued together I think.

 

[eporter]

I’d go with plywood. My old chinook had that around the windows. Find a decent exterior grade glue type ply, or paint all the cut edges real well. Windows love to sweat and create moisture and leak and generally try to ruin wood.

 

[java]

I'd do ply as well. Coat in thinned epoxy.

Here is how much mine fog up, even with the fan on.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

 

[Petrolburner]

Grumman is back to the top of my list of priorities. I’ve spent many nights and many miles with it in a temporary setup. Planning to go do a month in Baja so I guess 4 years is long enough to let the Arctic Tern Wild Lands door and Happijac bed lift sit on the shelf collecting dust.

So to get caught up, I’ve been using the Thetford cassette toilet, love it. I can dump it in any regular toilet or outhouse. Usually I use the guest bathroom at my house when I get home. I built and electrical system, Victron MultiPlus 3000 watt inverter, battery monitor, Lynx distribution bar, Orion DC-DC charger and I have a Victron 100-50 solar charge controller waiting to go in with three 210 watt solar panels. I used some junk plywood on top of the nice white plywood for a temporary floor so I could run screws into it and strap a rolling toolbox in for temporary kitchen cabinets. I strapped the big Isotherm fridge and freezer to the floor as well.

 

[Petrolburner]

I reinforced the wall for the door and cut a hole. I patched the gash in the aluminum skin that was there when I bought it using a piece of aluminum from the door cutout. I but some spacers and mounted the stairs with big tee-nuts through the floor so if the stairs get bent they can be unbolted and replaced. I made a shield from steel sheet and sprayed it in rubberized under coating. The door and stair placement were a delicate balance, trying to be far enough ahead of the rear wheels, leaving the forward vertical rib in place and not eating up the counter space on the passenger side ahead of the side door.

 

[Petrolburner]

I want some place to store all the dirty, bulky, heavy stuff. Air compressor, floor jack, tie downs and recovery gear etc. This tool box is surprisingly nice, lightweight aluminum, weatherproof, 18” tall by 24” deep and 60” long. I decided to fabricate my own brackets instead of buying them. In hindsight it would have been much faster to just buy them, but when you’ve got all the fabrication tools to make stuff like this you just have to use them.

 

[Petrolburner]

Air compressor needed a slight modification to fit through the door. It’ll pretty much stay there forever. It’s AC powered but the Victron multi plus can run it. I’ll put an outdoor outlet on each side of the van under the floor so I’ll just need to plug in the compressor and Bob’s your uncle.

 

[Petrolburner]

I painted the roof white in preparation for the solar panels. I had always thought I needed to reinforce the roof to use the back part as a patio for the beach or racetrack or whatever. But it seems strong enough so I just threw some sand into the second coat of paint while it was wet and sealed it in with another coat of paint. The sand works as traction and it holds up surprisingly well. It’s also super easy to touch up if you need to. This is what I have done in my enclosed trailer and it’s great and costs very little.

 

[Petrolburner]

The van is at the Torque Factory in Redmond Oregon right now. It developed an exhaust leak, one of the exhaust studs broke. I bought new manifolds, cleaned up the ports with a variety of die grinders, sanding wheels and a band file sander. Then they got ceramic coated. Also ceramic coated the new bellowed up pipes, new EBPV delete turbo pedestal, I have a KC turbos balanced turbine assembly going in for a full turbo rebuild. It’s also getting and Edge CTS3 monitor, Hydra tuner and custom tuning. I need to verify the current gearing and axle spline count to order new gears and an Auburn electronic locker. 2294 RPM at 63 MPH is a little high but the turbo is sure ready to spool when you need power.

 

[Petrolburner]

I’ve ordered the Auburn electronic locker and 4.10 gears. I’ll do all new bearings and seals while we’re at it. I had the driveshaft rebuilt earlier this year as it had thrown its balance weights off and the bearings stayed to fall apart.