Motovan--2000 Ford E350 ex-wheelchair van

petegossett wrote: In reply to beanco: Offroading through the empty fields of IL just isn't quite as cool, is it?

If you like stinky mud and skeeters, Illinois is for you! I question daily why I still live here after being out west.

"This is my favorite build on GRM"..... Thanks Bottlecaps, you're a true friend.

Sorry for the highjack, we are all enjoying this build and following along with your adventures.

I'm from Wisconsin. I'll never move back there.

Petrolburner wrote: I'm from Wisconsin. I'll never move back there.

We were just in Door County this summer hiking--pretty cool there...

Billy_Bottle_Caps wrote:

Petrolburner wrote: I'm from Wisconsin. I'll never move back there.

We were just in Door County this summer hiking--pretty cool there...

In general, the Northwoods, the Door Peninsula, and the Mississippi river valley areas are cool. I just prefer the weather of the high desert. Warm and dry summers and mild winters. If I want tons of snow, it's a 45 minute drive from my house. I rarely ever shovel snow. Win-win.

Petrolburner wrote: I might just make a shelf for the fridge that's tall enough that I can bolt down one of my latest Motovan goodies. It's really heavy and needs to be anchored well.

When I went to the Baja 1000 last year, one of the guys there had an aluminum floor jack from Harbor Freight with a cool aluminum skid plate on it so it would work in the dirt. I thought this was a great idea, and it would probably be a lot more stable than my factory jack.

http://dmzfab.com/product/jack-skid-plate-for-harbor-freight-2-ton-racing-jack/

I figured that I could make one that would still keep the wheels, so I could use it on a hard surface still. Now that my friend has a plasma cutter, TIG welder, and I have some thick sheets of aluminum from the wheelchair lift, why not?

This is how I left it. There's a metal bender in my hangar at work, so I figured I'd just use that to make the front and rear tip up. Stupid. It's a sheet metal bender, and that aluminum is 5/16" thick. Even if I had the right bender with enough power, it would have just cracked anyway. Stupid. Two weeks later and I had a day off, so back to Matt's shop.

Cut most of the way through the plate, use two crescent wrenches for leverage and bend until it nearly snaps off. Just enough of a shred of metal hanging on that it stayed in place and didn't need a tack.

Now, I've gained another floor jack that works on or off pavement. Next up will be the mount. I'm leaning towards a shelf for the fridge, and mount this underneath using one of the original seat mount bolt holes.

Also, we went camping on the Deschutes.

I did get stuck trying a u turn while pulling the camper. Not quite enough room to make the turn, popped the front wheel up over a stump and one rear wheel was on top of a root and just spun. Disconnected the trailer and still couldn't go forward or backwards. Hooked the winch to a tree and I was free. I'm glad I finally had it wired up or I'd have had to dig or get my traction boards out.

I also stopped by Cascadia Vehicle Tents in Bend to check out one of their awnings. I asked if they could make them any bigger, as I'd prefer one about 12-13 feet wide instead of the common ~8 foot awning. They did say that they had some that the manufacturers had screwed up and made 99" by 99" instead of whatever they are supposed to be. He wasn't sure how much they wanted for them, but they would probably be discounted. That's what I'll likely go with.

Another cool floor jack trick (that takes up more space) is to replace the hard wheels with big soft pneumatic tires that hold the jack 1/2-1 inch off the ground. You can roll it around on the dirt easily and when you jack something up the tires squish and the plate rests on the ground nice and stable.
Still love the van.

Cool idea on the jack, and mazdeuce I like your thoughts as well.

mazdeuce wrote: Another cool floor jack trick (that takes up more space) is to replace the hard wheels with big soft pneumatic tires that hold the jack 1/2-1 inch off the ground. You can roll it around on the dirt easily and when you jack something up the tires squish and the plate rests on the ground nice and stable. Still love the van.

Not a bad idea. For the most part though, unless you're working a pit with multiple trucks, you're just going to toss it under the truck once and not really roll it around.

Some people might ask why not use a Hi-Lift jack? Well, I'd need bumpers and sliders to do that. Also, I lifted my old '86 Bronco with one and they're scary. It fell sideways and got up against my spare tire, under tension. I gave it a tug so it could unload and it slapped to the ground really hard. I wouldn't want to use one on a rig heavier than 4 or 5 thousand pounds.

Can two people sleep on a 4' x 6' sheet of plywood supported by just the long edges? How thick?

Basically the same as my current loft, but full width, supported just along the edges of the van. I could make a removable pillar to run from the floor to the bottom of the plywood for sleeping to combat the sag. I could maybe also make some ribs width wise.

3/4" with ribs would be fine IMO. Crossbanded will help as well. 3/4x3/4 angle iron or similar would make good ribs.

java230 wrote: 3/4" with ribs would be fine IMO. Crossbanded will help as well. 3/4x3/4 angle iron or similar would make good ribs.

Seems like overkill with a center pillar. Combined weight less than 300 pounds.

150 watt kit from Overland Solar.

Charging my two 6 volt golf cart batteries from Costco that I had to steal out of my Aliner camper. I bought a factory Ford battery box to mount on the passenger side frame rail, but my automatic step is right in the middle of the availalbe space, so I don't have enough room to mount it on either side. The driver's side frame rail has the parking brake cable running through there so I don't have room for it on that side either. Good news is that I don't have to buy an extra battery and I can just use these two, which have much more capacity anyway. The downside is that they're stealing floor space, they're heavy, and they're not mounted as low as they would be on the frame rail. I also had to buy another battery box

I'm going to go out to the van and do some blueprint style sketches to get some feedback from the engineering types in here regarding version 2 of the sleeping loft.

Oh, and this is the cabinet I got for food and clothes storage, to be mounted on top of the right rear wheel well and next to the wall.

Ah sorry I was thinking no center support. Just 3/4" would be more than fine then.

Here's what I'm thinking.

The notches in the sides are where it's going to go around the carpeted steel cage. I'm not sure if I'll be able to fully assemble the thing and then drop it into place. It may be too wide to pivot it. If that's the case I'll have to bolt it all together and disassemble if I want to remove it.

That will hold.

java230 wrote: That will hold.

Yeah, it seems like overkill. I think I could use thinner plywood given the 2x4s across the ends. I actually think that with the 2x4s on the ends, and maybe run pull length 1x1s for the channel to locate the floating post, I could skip the other side pieces and lose some of the weight and complexity.

Want to sell me the frame box(s)? I need one or two for my van.

Seems plausible, if you go 1/2 or 5/8 you can always add more bracing if it's needed.

Get crossbanded if you can!

java230 wrote: Seems plausible, if you go 1/2 or 5/8 you can always add more bracing if it's needed. Get crossbanded if you can!

Cross what?

Cross banded Plywood, often sold as "cabinet ply" (but cabinet ply can also just be 9 layer solid) they rotate the grain with each layer, makes it much less flexible

java230 wrote: Cross banded Plywood, often sold as "cabinet ply" (but cabinet ply can also just be 9 layer solid) they rotate the grain with each layer, makes it much less flexible

Great idea, thanks. I never knew.

this build is inspiring me on my 03 E350sd project. what sort of mpgs are you getting?

In reply to tdrrally:

Very poor, as described early in regards to my Five Star Tuning saga. I got nearly 14 on the highway stock, and only 11 with the tune. I get about 10 in town. They made me a new tune but I haven't had the time off to test it.

Are you ready for some proooooooooggggggggrrrrreeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssss?!?!?!?!

So when I last visited WeldTec Designs in April, I bought my bumper, steering stabilizer and their 2nd add a leaf to their now two piece set. I took care of the bumper and steering damper already, last night I did the add a leaf.

I was present when Jeremy at WTD did my first add a leaf. I paid attention. I thought I remembered how to do everything, and now that I have two floor jacks, I thought I had all the tools necessary.

I recall needing to get the van up in the air really high, because the axle needs to drop pretty low to get the center pin of the leaf pack out. I have normal sized jack stands. Jeremy had awesome jack stands that he made, because, you know, he owned a fabrication shop. I can also fabricate stuff. With wood.

As soon as I undid the U-bolts and dropped the axle down, and it pivoted and rolled forward a bit, I felt like I was going to be in over my head.

At this point I was confused as to how I would have the room to actually drop the center pins from the spring packs. I was already at the limit of the brake hose. I had to resort to the ultimate tool for the inept mechanic.

Youtube.

I learned two things. I needed to put a jackstand under the opposite side from the one I was working on, to get the necesary clearance. Additionally, I needed to use a floor jack and a block of wood to flex the spring up enough to get clearance. This also put the spring pack together enough to get the bolt through. Somewhere around here I also wished I had taken a "before" height measurement. Too late.

When looking at the center pin with the leaf pack together, I could see enough threads were there to accommodate the additional leaf. But would there be enough sticking through to thread the nut on and pull the pack together? I should go get a back up bolt while Lowe's is still open. Glad I pulled the Corvette out of the garage before I made the Motovan into a barricade.

I closed the garage door and turned the lights off. I walked towards the Corvette and looked at all the tools I had lying next to the Motovan. I decided to not pick everything up and throw it securely in the garage. Instead, I opened the garage door back up, turned the lights and radio back on. Now it just looked like I was inside grabbing a beer instead of away at the hardware store.

Lowe's did not have the hardware I needed. I needed a 3.5" bolt with an Allen socket head. I opted for a 3.5" grade 8 bolt and new nuts. Just in case the ones I had weren't long enough. They were already longer than stock from the first add a leaf. So it wasn't totally naive.

I put the old center pin in and compressed the leaf pack. There were a couple threads sticking out. I threaded the nut on and tightened it up. The bolt almost made it all the way through the nut. Check the grade 8 bolt I bought for fitment into the axle perch. No, of course it doesn't fit. To the belt sander. I knocked some material off each point of the hex. It fit. I assembled.

I managed to move the axle back far enough to be in position and raise it up into the leaf spring. U bolts on, loosely.

Next side. I was damn near tempted to crack my first beer at this point since I figured I had the procedure down. I didn't. Just in case.

I needn't have worried. It went together pretty smoothly, now that I knew vaguely what I was doing.

Before:

After:

I gotta admit. I have a lot of respect for the people that do real work like this for a living. I was sore by the end of this. I wish I hadn't worked quite so hard in the weight room earlier that day.