Race Support Vehicle - 2002 e350 box truck

Anyone who has raced for awhile knows that the race car is around 25% of motorsport. That isn't to say that the car doesn't matter ... I'm simply stating that there's a lot more involved in having a decent event. As I grew more serious about hillclimb racing, I started to accept that eventually I'm going to install a tree or rock in the car and not be able to drive it home.

A year ago, I had been looking at e350 cargo vans. They're really common, pretty well outfitted as haulers, and reasonably priced in decent condition. I wasn't in any kind of a rush, so I just kept looking for the right deal. That came along when Roy, another hillclimber, posted his e350 dually 7.3liter turbodiesel box truck for $2600. It had 109,000 miles on it and needed a modest amount of work to be a perfect hauler. My understanding was that the later 7.3liter turbodiesels were known for their simplicity, reliability, and longevity. They make enough torque that towing a race car won't ever be a real problem, and I hopped on the deal.

I drove a few hours into Vermont to pick it up (sight unseen), and it was both much better and much worse than I was expecting. It fired right up and ran without any leaks or rattles or smoke.

I couldn't start the drive right away, since the rear door had rotted and the latch had broken off. Some string and some zip ties ... sort of worked for the drive home.

It required a few adjustments throughout the drive, but generally worked.

I ran into the second problem when I stopped to fill up the diesel tank. The hose clamps on the filler had cut through it, and I ended up taping it together to get enough diesel in it to get home. 

The last thing that made the drive really ... interesting ... was the lack of any kind of working mirrors. Both side mirrors were broken, one was secured by a single bolt, and the rear-view mirror is worthless in a box truck. I hadn't really thought about it before, but when your vehicle takes up the whole lane, it's nice to know what might be behind you. I didn't get that luxury for this drive.

Fast-forward to last month, and we finally used it as a race support vehicle! It took a fair amount of maintenance, and this was essentially a dry-run without hauling a car/trailer behind it ... but it was a huge success. Having a dedicated space where tools and spares live is absolutely amazing.

I no longer need to unpack the race car, or pull the trailer off it. It's still very flawed, but we're bringing it out again this coming weekend for Ascutney 2. After the event, I'll go over the changes we've made thus far and what we still need to change. I'm definitely interested in seeing what other folks are doing for support vehicles, and what modifications have been the most useful. It doesn't seem to be a very popular topic, for some reason.

So is the Miata small enough to haul in the box?

Man seems like a lot of truck for little money. Good buy.

Yes mirrors are good :D

That looks like a great buy. 

Small generator, welder, AC and compressor sound nice for a rolling shop.

trigun7469 said:

So is the Miata small enough to haul in the box?

Funny you mention that. The first job this truck did for me was hauling the Datsun off to the Makerspace to start on the tube frame.

Shortly after that, Dave (https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-threads-and-project-cars/rx7-hillclimber-build-thread/52684/page1/) gave me his tired open trailer. It still needs a little bit of love, but holds cars, has working lights, and working brakes.

As a temporary fix for the rear door latch, we cut some particle board down to size, and promptly broke both securing cables that make the door lift-able.

Now it requires 2 (or more) people to open or close the rear door. I've finished building the frame for swing-out doors, but I'm waiting for some more materials before I can finish them up. Overhead doors are nice if you want to be able to back in to a loading dock then open the door, rather than having to stop, open the door, then back into a loading dock. I don't really care about loading docks, so I don't need all that added complexity. Swing-out doors are simpler and more rigid, and I call that a big win. Hopefully I'll have that project wrapped up next month for the last hillclimb of the season.

Inside the box, I added some LED strip lights. For around $25, I've made the box brighter than my workshop (you can see the inside of the shop through the window on the left). It needs a bit of refinement, but doesn't everything?

Right now, there are just two etrack straps along the floor, and I popped a (free) rolling toolbox, 700w generator, and a pair of cheapo alu ramps in it. For events, the floor is littered with spare parts and camping gear. Shelves would be a great idea (coming soon!)

Don't mind the murder-victim paint job in the back. This used to be a roofing truck, and it looks like a pressurized container of roofing tar had a tantrum at some point.

Finally, I got a (free, again) canopy from another hillclimb friend who was tearing apart an old RV. The canvas was in horrific condition, so I'm in the middle of cleaning the hardware up and replacing the canvas with some used billboard vinyl. That's probably going to be a 2018 project, since I'll want to add plenty of lighting to it as well.

I normally don't say this to other guys but... Nice box.

We had a 7.3 E450 as a racecar hauler for a little while. It broke on all but one journey to a track.. Injector once, alternator twice, CPS once and I think one more thing. Also it let the smoke out of the dash one day. And, being a bus, it's hard as hell to work on. Why can't box trucks be truck based?

Towed like a champ. 8mph at 85mph in a 22passenger bus towing ~5000lbs of trailer/car/tools. Can't even tell the trailer is back there. The chip really makes it feel better too. It gained about 1mpg and a lot of mph with a chip.

I just drove down to Mass to pick up a tool (from the same Dave that gave me the trailer) and the HVAC fan scared the half-digested tacos out of me. I was just driving on the highway pretty happily, when all of a sudden I heard a blowout. It didn't feel weird or scary though, and I pulled over ... and the blowout noise didn't stop. I assumed I had blown my engine, or lost a bearing, or ... something.

As it turned out, my squirrel-trebuchet had tossed its last squirrel nest. Horrifying noise, but not a real problem.

Im interested in the GRM awning! Billboard vinyl?? Hmmm I need an odd size and no one makes it, the tube seems easy to shorten and the arms bolt back on, so just need fabric/vinyl.

I watched a Youtube video recently about billboard vinyl - there are places that take old billboards and sell off the stuff in various sizes for use as tarps.  The stuff is a lot stronger and more UV-resistant than the typical blue tarp you get at the big box store.  The fun part is you end up with some random piece of artwork on the face of it.  The billboard vinyl is near the end of the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Z1BQf4R_o

Our RV had a "cover" which was actually the vinyl from an old Nissan billboard.  It did the job, but was also very heavy.

I picked up a 16' x 17' Reused Billboard - No Pipe Sleeves - 15-17 mil for a grand total of $59.87 USD including shipping. It's oversized, so I just need to cut it down with a razor blade. After that, I need to sew/tape in a couple of pipe sleeves (to attach to the roller and to the body of the box truck). This stuff really is heavy, but it seems really durable so far. I'm not sure if I'll cut the tube down yet or not, but it's all held together by rivets and seems pretty modular so it'd be easy enough to do.

It doesn't look like I'll have time to make any progress on this before leaving for Ascutney tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll have some excitement to mention about the event!

drivendaily said:

7.3liter turbodiesels were known for their simplicity, reliability, and longevity. 

 

You got two out of three right.  There's nothing simple about them.  Especially when compared to their contemporary competition the 6BT.  They have a lot of sensors that can fail and leave you stranded--but they usually don't.  I'm a big fan.  I would recommend spending 4 or 500 dollars and getting a custom tune done for it.  People hear the word "tune" and shut down.  Don't be like them. I'm not talking about some drag racing, tractor pulling, coal rolling tune.  I'm talking about one set up for exactly how you intend to use it.  I got mine from DP and it's set to maximize fuel economy --which it does.  It also makes the truck a complete joy to drive.  The throttle response went from being lazy to quite amazing.  Just be careful and monitor your trans temp and EGT (another few hundred for a gauge pod) and you should get another 400k out of that rig provided the tin worm doesn't eat it first.

I have seriously thought about buying one of these and making the front 1/2 RV like Java and keeping back 1/2 Rally support rig and tow pig.

That would let me register it as an RV and avoid accommodation costs while running rallies.

NGTD said:

I have seriously thought about buying one of these and making the front 1/2 RV like Java and keeping back 1/2 Rally support rig and tow pig.

That would let me register it as an RV and avoid accommodation costs while running rallies.

 My registration fee is $95/year for this. It's just an e350, as far as NH is concerned. If you have any build threads to reference, I'm definitely interested in seeing it.

A 401 CJ said:

You got two out of three right.  There's nothing simple about them.  Especially when compared to their contemporary competition the 6BT.  They have a lot of sensors that can fail and leave you stranded--but they usually don't.  I'm a big fan.  I would recommend spending 4 or 500 dollars and getting a custom tune done for it.  People hear the word "tune" and shut down.  Don't be like them. I'm not talking about some drag racing, tractor pulling, coal rolling tune.  I'm talking about one set up for exactly how you intend to use it.  I got mine from DP and it's set to maximize fuel economy --which it does.  It also makes the truck a complete joy to drive.  The throttle response went from being lazy to quite amazing.  Just be careful and monitor your trans temp and EGT (another few hundred for a gauge pod) and you should get another 400k out of that rig provided the tin worm doesn't eat it first.

That makes more sense to me. I've done some cursory "tune/chip" research, but everything I've come up with has been piggyback things with a dial that ranges from "OEM" to "DRAG RACE BRUH!" ... and that just sounds sketchy to me. It looks like the DP F5 is probably what I'd want? It looks like an economy tune, tow tune, and decel program is probably a good idea? All told, that'd be around $400 plus shipping.

For once, I'd rather just drop this thing off with a pile of cash and pick it up a few weeks later. I don't particularly want to learn the entire diesel world, I already have enough projects to keep myself busy.

I've heard that it's easy to overload the gearboxes in these, but haven't done anything to protect it. I have a few spare large oil coolers that I could pretty easily plumb up once I start pulling the car/trailer behind it.

Trans cooler never hurts, it may already have one though.

I'll follow along on tuner opinions, I have a 7.3 dump truck. Has larger downpipe and a CA from the PO

17 pages of straight out drool-fest courtesy of java230

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/ski-bum-truck-v20-f450-rough-road-rv/124133/page1/

NGTD said:

I have seriously thought about buying one of these and making the front 1/2 RV like Java and keeping back 1/2 Rally support rig and tow pig.

That would let me register it as an RV and avoid accommodation costs while running rallies.

On craigslist near me!  Do you need me to look at it for you?

In reply to drivendaily :

I haven't been on DP's website for about 5 years when I ordered mine so I don't know what the latest offerings are.  I know that they have "live" tuning capability but I personally wouldn't pay extra for that.  That just lets them change your tunes remotely so you don't have to pull the ECM every time you add a tune.  I run what they call the 80 Economy.  I have a handful of others loaded too but I never use them and wouldn't buy them again.  80 Economy is not aggressive at all but totally transforms how the truck (F350 dually 4x2 in my case) drives.  The shifts are improved and even the cruise control works better.  There are folks on the forums with a half million miles on the 80 Econ and it never hurt the truck.  You do need to keep an eye on your trans temps and your EGT if towing heavy.  The 4R100 is an adequate transmission but the coolers on 7.3 trucks are inadequate.  The hot setup in the pickup truck world is to swap a trans cooler from a 6.0.  The 6.0 cooler is about twice the size.  

Check out PowerStrokehelp channel on YouTube.  Bill is a bit of a snake oil salesman but he does have a wealth of info on the 7.3 as well as the 6.0, 6.4, and 6.7.  

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

NGTD said:

I have seriously thought about buying one of these and making the front 1/2 RV like Java and keeping back 1/2 Rally support rig and tow pig.

That would let me register it as an RV and avoid accommodation costs while running rallies.

On craigslist near me!  Do you need me to look at it for you?

That looks like a deal!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

NGTD said:

I have seriously thought about buying one of these and making the front 1/2 RV like Java and keeping back 1/2 Rally support rig and tow pig.

That would let me register it as an RV and avoid accommodation costs while running rallies.

On craigslist near me!  Do you need me to look at it for you?

That is seriously cool. Thanks for the offer, but I have to wait for the separation agreement to go through before I can buy anything and Philly is still a long way from me (I'm in Canada).

I'm also thinking that I'd like to build my own.

I could put a bike in the back and drive it to you for the cost of fuel... but at this point I'm pretty sure I'm just coming up with excuses to go drive it 

I'm looking at the TS piggyback now. Easy to install, and it seems to be well liked for the money (around $250 new). Sometime over the winter, I'll make some time to go through all the maintenance items.

I don't have any photos, but last night I finished up the second door frame. All told, I think the swing-out doors are going to cost me around $300 and around 10 hours of work. I need to do a little mockup of where I want the hinges I bought and how far open they can swing.

Another related problem is the canopy. I won't be able to open the door all the way on the side of the canopy, which is an inconvenience. It'll work as a wind/rain stop, but that's still not perfect.

Finally, my crew chief (friend who helps me with building the car and running hillclimb events) and I wired up the lights correctly. Instead of our previous solution of wrapping the light wires around the terminals of an 18aH 12v battery that lived inside the box (and didn't quite last through an entire event), we wired the lights in to the aux battery of the box truck. While we were in there, we added a relay and fuse box, and tossed a toggle switch on the relay. It's all pretty crude right now, with wires hanging all over the box, but once we've secured the wires, I think we'll be in great shape.

I think this way, I can plug my generator's 12vDC output directly to the aux battery and keep that topped off throughout the event. I think it's possible to overcharge it, but that seems unlikely. Does anyone have input on that?

Try a solar panel tied into your "house" battery.  Stick it on the roof and free power for those small things without having to listen to the drone of a generator.

That's my plan for maintenance charges, but it won't do much for race events. For one thing, we have a lot of trees in VT State Parks, so getting any kind of direct sunlight is near-impossible. The more pressing problem is that even in direct sunlight, even a large solar panel won't generate sufficient power to run all my lights and chargers. This little 700w generator is so quiet you almost don't know it's running, so I don't mind running it intermittently throughout the event. I just want to make sure I'm not doing something dangerous.