White Turtle III - Ford Transit - The build and adventure!

Well life got busy for a while and long trips were put on hold but have been able to do some shorter trips.


This was from last weekend, cooler weather but a warm van as the base camp for some short day hikes and photography


https://www.firstchoicephoto.ca/writing-on-stone-2/

WritingonStone20180922I062c.jpg
 
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So took the Turtle to the mountains yesterday, amazing day, very little snow. Went down a road that is not plowed or maintained in the winter and it was mostly clear to the pavement. Came to a point that it was REALLY icey and the road started to go downhill so I decided to turn around. I know better from years of off road driving BUT did the turn and had to back up to finish the turn and my rear tires ran up on some ice. With the tilt of the road and the ice I was stuck BIG TIME!!!! Funny how you get use to driving something and when you are in another vehicle you forget. I was thinking in the back of my head of all the front wheel drive units that I have so I made sure the front wheels stayed on the dry part - WRONG!!!!!! That was a BIG learning experience. Really missed my old 4x4 truck and camper as a pull of the lever and I would have been out. But I have also gotten the 4x4 stuck in a similar situation soooo.

Managed to get myself moving again after about ten minutes of saying but it has been years since I made such a rookie mistake!!!

I think part of the issue is also how light my van is. So I need to go out and find a couple bags of sand for the weight and also for traction if I need it. I also have to remember it is rear wheel drive!

The good part is that it was early in the day so if I could not get unstuck I am sure someone would have come along and seeing I was blocking the entire road they would have had to help to get past :-)
 
So this weeks project was to get some weight in the back of the van. Found a guy selling some sand bags for $5 each, said they were 75lbs. Went out and was going to get 3. When we tried to lift them they felt closer to 100lbs each so I got two. On the way there I took a couple detours to drive on snowy and icey roads, the van slipped bad. Loaded the sand bags and my MPG dropped but my traction went up. Did a couple hills covered in snow and stopped the van then tried starting going uphill. Not even a slip, very happy!!!! Tried a couple snow covered roads and have a lot less fishtailing. Well worth the $10 investment.

Ready to head out shooting some more!!!

Frost20190116I104c-768x512.jpg
 
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Nice pic.
The recent cold and moist air has made for some Kodak moments for sure.
I'm surprised the extra 200#s made a difference in your mpg.
 
45Kevin said:
Nice pic.
The recent cold and moist air has made for some Kodak moments for sure.
I'm surprised the extra 200#s made a difference in your mpg.
Click to expand...

Well I am a picky person so I reset the van computer once I had them on and compared to the previous reading I got it was down but not a lot. Overall I don't expect it to be much but do expect to see some drop overall. On my truck camper and motor home I noticed the difference with water and supplies on board vs empty.
 
Well it has been so cold that I have not gotten out a lot lately with the Turtle II or III. Good news is that I have been updating my website and added a section on the Turtles. Here is a little about how the Turtles came about. Will add more as I have time.

https://www.firstchoicephoto.ca/exploring/
 
Your cabinets look great. I would like to do a build very similar to this - just the basics, not even sure I will go with the toilet. I might have more of a layout challenge as I am 6'3" and can't sleep sideways! I have been shopping for a van just like this. Can't find an ecoboost in my price range at the moment.

Do you know what axle you have in it? (Inside door jam, manufacturing plate with axle code will let you know)

Any concerns with the batteries outgassing? I have read different things, but most say that venting them is best practice.

What did you do for storage under the bed?
 
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