I am Nick, new to the forum and I just bought my first van:
It is a 1986 Champion Trans Van based on a Ford E350, it has a 460 and a C6, the engine has been rebuilt and is very tight, runs like a sewing machine.
I have decided to name it "Casper the Friendly Van" because I will be painting it all white and as I travel around the country I will be doing a lot of stealth camping in it as I do, so the name seemed fitting.
Currently the van needs quite a bit of work, the interior is pretty trashed and filthy, I am going to start by ripping out the carpet and the old bed, as well as the sink counter top.
One of the previous owners had installed a pretty awesome solar power system, but the batteries are mounted inside so I will be removing the stock generator that no longer works and installing them in its compartment since it is well ventilated and sealed.
I have started working on some cad of how I want the interior to be laid out:
Where the dinette used to be is where the batteries are now, I will be removing the cabinet they are in and building a lock box out of box tubing and 10 gauge steel to put all of my camera equipment in, it is the sort of mustard yellow and the two orange boxes inside are a pair of Pelican 1620 cases, and there is enough room on top of it for the case for my lap top.
The couch is going to be removed and replaced with a wooden frame that has more storage underneath and a Semi Sleeper mattress on top. It is a 32x74" mattress.
The great thing about the van is that it has a tankless water heater, a shower & toilet, and a fridge, microwave and sink in the kitchen.
I am still going to have to figure out what I am going to do for a cook top, not sure if I am going to install a gas burner or what yet, we will see.
Under the fridge (The light blue box) I am going to add a pair of drawers, the bottom is going to have to be fairly shallow because of the wheel well, but the other should be able to be about 28" long, and 6-8" deep, which will give me a great deal of storage.
In the very back on the drivers side there is a closet, right now it just has a door, but it is a fairly tall closet so I am going to build a new shorter door retaining enough height to hang clothes, but allowing me to add a pair of drawers in the bottom that will be used to store my folded clothes and towels.
Tentatively dirty laundry is going to get stored in a tote under the bed.
I still have to figure out a few storage solutions:
[list] [*]Secure storage for my guns [*]Where to put the dog bowls [*]Where to store my tools [*]What to do with the upper cabinets (they are tiny) [*]What to do with the falling head liner [*]Where to store a Honda 1000i generator [*]Where to store a barbeque pit.
Traveling with me is going to be my German Shepherd Dexter. He is 4 1/2 years old and a great dog:
The greater plan is I will be living out of the van for a year to a year and a half while I travel through Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, then up to Montana again, form there I will be punching up the Alcan to Alaska.
I am a disabled vet so fortunately that means I have my retirement to rely on. I have been doing photography as an amateur for years, I have recently decided it is what I want to do for a living and I have really been hammering on the quality of my work improving it as much as I can.
That is what this trip is mostly going to be about for me.
Here are a couple of examples of said work:
One of the great things about the van will be that I will be installing a pair of monitors on the desk with a hard mount so they will stay firmly planted, I will be able to sit there and check/edit photos while I am still on scene from shooting, so if there is something I don't like or feel the need to re-shoot it, I don't have to travel back out where I took the photos again.
Over all I am pretty stoked about the project, this comes on the heels of being in a very bad car accident two years ago that messed up my back really bad and put me out of work for a good long time.
Thus this van is a new beginning, and I am really stoked about it.
I will be looking forward to meeting you all, this is my first van and my first Ford, so I do have a ton to learn still.
I will keep you all updated as I make more progress.
SUNSHINE VANS-VAN DIEGO ADRENALIN BY THE GALLON & CHASIN RACIN ONE FOR THE DIRT & ONE FOR THE STREETS '93 CHEVY G30 454 4X4 SPORTVAN EXT 146" WB '92 CHEVY G30 454 BEAUVILLE EXT 146" WB
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I'm not a big fan of HDR (pics), but the first shot of the van seems to work very well. The ghostly appearance in the photos suits the name you've chosen for it!
Nice rig. Looking forward to seeing more photos of it.
Great pics. looking forward to seeing your progress.
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Great looking Van! to the vannin family, If you make you way over as far as Oklahoma City, I would love to meet up and can even offer a safe parking spot with hook ups for electric and water. . . . and some great stuff to photograph here on Route 66.
My van : 1989 Ford E-150 Econoline, currently named “WOLF-DEN IIâ€
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Don't really have anything photogenic tonight to post. All I have been doing is troubleshooting the van seeing what I can do to get everything going.
I got the generator to start momentarily by dumping gas down the carb, sounds like the supply pump for it is fubar.
Got power run out to it, found out the AC works, but sounds like the fridge is dead in the water, we will see, it is not making any noise, but I am going to give it 24 hours to see.
I've also been reconsidering my plans for the interior, I have a lot of options, just trying to pick the best one.
Tomorrow morning I am running to the dump with my dads trailer and dumping it, then I can start tearing out the inside. That nasty carpet has to go. Once it is out I can get to work painting the floor, scuffing the walls, and can get them covered in carpet.
Sometime in the next couple of days we are going to get the fuel filler fixed, or alteast diagnosed to see where the fuel is coming out. then I will be able to get some gas in it, get plates on it and start driving it.
Then I can get my dually sold, get this thing finished and get on the road.
Hopefully I don't have to replace the fridge, if I do getting the dually sold is going to be paramount because trying to get all of this done on my VA retirement is leaving my pocket book a bit thin as it is, especially after buying the van in the first place.
Got a lot done on the van today, got it running again and 10 gallons of fuel in it, got my hands on a shop manual for the generator, started getting the wiring on it figured out, got it started off a gas can, needs a new fuel pump. PO's dog chewed up the wiring pretty bad for the generator controls.
Kind of creating a challenge at the moment but we will see how it pans out. I may junk the generator that is in it and get a Honda 3000is and mount it on the rear bumper.
It would be nice if I could get this one working properly though and not spend that money.
The good news is the fridge started working again, so that makes me happy.
Hopefully tomorrow I will have some more good updates, going to spend most of the day messing with it.
Not really any picturesque updates yet again, got the generator running tonight, had to put a new fuel pump on it and run some wires to it and new lines. Took it into town after dumping two 5 gallon cans of gas in the tank and put another 27 Gallons in it there, so I suspect it is a 40 gallon tank.
The generator smoked like crazy when I got it fired up, but now it has slowed way down with that and I think it will clean up further, I suspect it has not been run in years. It is however not making power, Tuesday evening we are going to re-flash the exciter and see if that gets it done.
I did get the batteries all charged up and ran a load on them all day, kept a stereo playing, need to throw a couple of more things at it to see how well they are working.
The fridge is still nice and cold, so this makes me happy.
I am looking at an inverter/charger that is big enough to run the fridge and the AC off the batteries and it will regulate charging them when on shore power or the generator is running.
Tomorrow I am going to start working on the plumbing and seeing what it needs in that department, still have a lot of stuff to get done.
Also going to see about getting the interior steam cleaned tomorrow. That will be a good step in the right direction in getting the van useable.
Well been doing a lot of considering on what I want to do and where I want to go when I hit the road here, and I think this is tentatively going to be the plan for late this year/early next year.
Starting in lat November or early December I will be heading out to Illinois for my brothers boot camp graduation. On the way going to stop at my Cousin's house in Minnesota.
Coming back think I will stop through the black hills on the way back and hit Mount Rushmore. I think it would be neat to see it with some snow on it.
Then it will be back to Montana for a while, then after Christmas I am going to head on out to Seattle, then to the coast, down to Oregon, stopping off in Portland for a while, then continuing down the coast into California through the redwoods finally landing in LA.
Going to spend some time in La with my sister, going to see how many photo shoots I can do there. Then I will be heading out to Palm Springs to see some family, and the same in Parker Arizona. Then going to hit a rail road museum in Vegas before heading up to the Grand Canyon for a little while.
Then I am going to putt putt through New Mexico and see what I can find to take pictures of, I am also thinking about taking a tour of an old Atlas F missile silo.
I will probably also spend a few weeks in Texas seeing some friends there, then head back up through Kansas, Wyoming and back into Montana for a few weeks.
Then the crazy adventure begins, I will be tearing off for Alaska up the Alcan. Tentatively the plan is to head up just as winter is breaking, and spend the summer up there coming back in September before the ferry stops running for the winter.
I am sure the map will again change several times as I research what I want to do on the trip. But for the moment this is the plan, I think it is going to be a lot of fun.
A couple things to note. If each battery took a gallon of water, they will be failing soon. The exposed battery plates basically become useless when exposed to air for any duration. They do not come back after this, and usually fail shortly after being refilled. The stereo will still work down to 10.5 volts, so that is not a valid assumption. Plan on replacing the batteries soon.
The main reason for batteries getting low is the old style converters, namely a magnatec, which just boils out the batteries by keeping the voltage too high after they are fully charged. These single voltage chargers also charge the batteries slower than modern 3 or 4 stage charger/converters like Iota. Progressive dynamics and others. http://www.bestconverter.com/
Inverter chargers do exist but are more costly than having a separate converter(120vac to 13.xxvDC) and separate inverter, 12.xx vDC to 115 AC. There exist cheaper Modified sine wave inverters and more expensive true sine wave inverters. Some electronics do not like the modified square wave from the former.
Absorption/propane fridges make no noise, except for perhaps the click of the ignitor when on propane. Do keep a thermometer inside, as many complain that on hotter days they cannot keep sub 40f interior temps which is the threshold for food spoilage. Some increase ventilation and get better hot weather performance, others just get a compressor fridge. The 12 volt compressor fridge models are much much more efficient (and expensive) than the much cheaper residential dorm size fridges available in the home stores. Since you already have Solar, a compressor fridge is an easy option if you find your absorption fridge's performance less than satisfactory.
Many absorption fridges fail after sitting and being put back into use. If you smell ammonia in the box or behind the unit, it is done for. Absorption fridges do not like being run off level, and the damage is accumulative until failure.
Count on a 12v 2 cubic foot fridge consuming 24 amp hours per 24 hours and a similar size 120 volt fridge powered by an inverter to consume double that, if not much more.
The Danfoss/Secop compressors are superior to the Sawafuji compressors found on Norcold and Engel. Much quieter, slightly more efficient in my experience with both.
You will not be able to run the Air Conditioner on battery power for any length of time, If AC stands for the above, rather than alternating current.
While Inverters are the easy solution for powering household items, they are 90% efficient at best, and can be noisy, both in sound waves and radio interference. Mine knocks out weaker TV stations, and causes a 60 HZ buzz in any live speaker. Better to get 12 volt DC devices and skip the inverter whenever possible. My older laptop hated the inverter. Its power brick would get super hot, and after the laptop's battery was fully charged, the computer would slow down considerably.
Check the DOT date codes on your tires. More than 7 years old can be asking for trouble, despite the amount of tread that might be left on them.
I've got a good grasp on what can be powered with battery power and for how long as I've been living from my van for over a decade, so feel free to ask me stuff.
It is easier to use less electricity than to create it. If a big laptop computer user, the best saver of battery power is getting a car adapter that plugs into a ciggy plug outlet, rather than using an inverter to power the original power brick.
Generators are great to have when you need them, but it is better to not need them and think of them as a fail safe.
Goto amazon, type in your laptop make and model and add 'car adapter' and make sure it shows a ciggy plug. Avoid the universal models.
Mine saves 20 to 50% the power consumed compared to using an inverter to power the original power brick.
A couple things to note. If each battery took a gallon of water, they will be failing soon. The exposed battery plates basically become useless when exposed to air for any duration. They do not come back after this, and usually fail shortly after being refilled. The stereo will still work down to 10.5 volts, so that is not a valid assumption. Plan on replacing the batteries soon.
The main reason for batteries getting low is the old style converters, namely a magnatec, which just boils out the batteries by keeping the voltage too high after they are fully charged. These single voltage chargers also charge the batteries slower than modern 3 or 4 stage charger/converters like Iota. Progressive dynamics and others. http://www.bestconverter.com/
Inverter chargers do exist but are more costly than having a separate converter(120vac to 13.xxvDC) and separate inverter, 12.xx vDC to 115 AC. There exist cheaper Modified sine wave inverters and more expensive true sine wave inverters. Some electronics do not like the modified square wave from the former.
Absorption/propane fridges make no noise, except for perhaps the click of the ignitor when on propane. Do keep a thermometer inside, as many complain that on hotter days they cannot keep sub 40f interior temps which is the threshold for food spoilage. Some increase ventilation and get better hot weather performance, others just get a compressor fridge. The 12 volt compressor fridge models are much much more efficient (and expensive) than the much cheaper residential dorm size fridges available in the home stores. Since you already have Solar, a compressor fridge is an easy option if you find your absorption fridge's performance less than satisfactory.
Many absorption fridges fail after sitting and being put back into use. If you smell ammonia in the box or behind the unit, it is done for. Absorption fridges do not like being run off level, and the damage is accumulative until failure.
Count on a 12v 2 cubic foot fridge consuming 24 amp hours per 24 hours and a similar size 120 volt fridge powered by an inverter to consume double that, if not much more.
The Danfoss/Secop compressors are superior to the Sawafuji compressors found on Norcold and Engel. Much quieter, slightly more efficient in my experience with both.
You will not be able to run the Air Conditioner on battery power for any length of time, If AC stands for the above, rather than alternating current.
While Inverters are the easy solution for powering household items, they are 90% efficient at best, and can be noisy, both in sound waves and radio interference. Mine knocks out weaker TV stations, and causes a 60 HZ buzz in any live speaker. Better to get 12 volt DC devices and skip the inverter whenever possible. My older laptop hated the inverter. Its power brick would get super hot, and after the laptop's battery was fully charged, the computer would slow down considerably.
Check the DOT date codes on your tires. More than 7 years old can be asking for trouble, despite the amount of tread that might be left on them.
I've got a good grasp on what can be powered with battery power and for how long as I've been living from my van for over a decade, so feel free to ask me stuff.
It is easier to use less electricity than to create it. If a big laptop computer user, the best saver of battery power is getting a car adapter that plugs into a ciggy plug outlet, rather than using an inverter to power the original power brick.
Generators are great to have when you need them, but it is better to not need them and think of them as a fail safe.
Goto amazon, type in your laptop make and model and add 'car adapter' and make sure it shows a ciggy plug. Avoid the universal models.
Mine saves 20 to 50% the power consumed compared to using an inverter to power the original power brick.
You are pretty spot on with what you said there, this isn't my first go around with being mobile, I have over 880,000 miles of OTR trucking behind me.
The 12 volt fridge is great, I do want one but the thing is if mine is working, I am going to use it until it pukes. Right now it is keeping things nice and cold so I will keep using it until it does and then a 12v is going in to replace it.
The tires are a non issue because I am replacing all of them in the next couple of months. Then going to get the wheel wells replaced and the blow out damage fixed.
Decided other than that not going to mess with the exterior for the time being.
The 6v batteries seem to be holding out somwhat ok, been running a stereo for days off of them. tomorrow going to see if I can run the fridge on it all day. Not sure if my inverter will like doing that job though because it is fairly small.
The inverter/charger I am looking at getting is made by xantrex, they are a very awesome unit, 1800 watts, pure sine.
I do have a lap top but the computer I will be running is going to be a PC built inside of a server case with 10 hard drives set up in a RAID configuration to preserve my data.
I will be also using this work station to edit my images, going to take some serious power to run it, and I am putting it on its own battery backup system when it goes in with a surge protector and everything.
The reason I like the Xantrex setup is that it also has a generator control, so it can automatically start my generator if the batts are getting too low.
Got the interior steam cleaned today, feeling so much better now, still have a lot of cleaning to do, but the Van no longer smells like a giant dust ball. They even hit it with deodorizer, so it is really turning around. Can't wait till it is dry so I can get in there and get it finished.
Also our neighbor tore out his kitchen cabinets today, scored some really nice pieces of counter top so I am happy about that, free is good, primo quality stuff for free is even better!
Well with my dad's help we tore the counter top out, got the water line fixed, found another one broken in the bathroom, going to have to find a piece of pipe to fix it.
Also discovered a couple of very large mouse nests, so having to deal with those.
Got the mouse nests cleaned out and disinfected everything with bleach, now work can continue...
Tomorrow I should have some photos to go with the update, going to get the head liner fixed, hopefully going to get the Generator fixed too.
Yeah I have been kind of bad, been busy and haven't been taking photos of the van.
Here is one from the 5th.
Been doing a lot of work to the van, we built a new computer desk inside, haven't taken any pics of it yet, also had to install a new fridge and water heater.
The new water heater is tankless, it is awesome, the new fridge however is not working. Going to have to climb up Dometic's butt on that one come Monday.
Today I am headed down to Yellowstone Park, I will see about getting some images of all the work I have done to it when I get back next week.
Here is another one from the trip I just got back from, it was taken down in the Pryor Mountains.
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Hey BigNick, Im thinking of gettin a ford transvan, 19 footer. Could you tell me what the interior height is on yours, what your mileage has been (a 460 right?). Ever consider a 7.3 diesel install? What are your tank sizes?