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Last year was all in the back of an f350 longbed - quite spacious for a pickup bed, but still cold, cramped, and not the best place to hangout.
GF and I decided we liked standing up, being warm, and cooking out of the elements sooo we bought this thing:
It's a 2001 e450, red cross disaster relief vehicle. It looked like this:
Now, it looks like this when it is clean:
But after the last 2 weeks on the road skiing out of it, it started looking more like this:
Definitely not perfect, but it's really cool to use something we built, and can continue to work on and add to. A camper on a truck would be really cool too but this has way more storage and we got to build something/learn a ton. If you're around hood you might see us, come say hi.
whitenabLast year was all in the back of an f350 longbed - quite spacious for a pickup bed, but still cold, cramped, and not the best place to hangout.
GF and I decided we liked standing up, being warm, and cooking out of the elements sooo we bought this thing:
It's a 2001 e450, red cross disaster relief vehicle. It looked like this:
Now, it looks like this when it is clean:
But after the last 2 weeks on the road skiing out of it, it started looking more like this:
Definitely not perfect, but it's really cool to use something we built, and can continue to work on and add to. A camper on a truck would be really cool too but this has way more storage and we got to build something/learn a ton. If you're around hood you might see us, come say hi.
First built I've ever done, but probably not the last. Started out with a regular Volkswagen t4, stripped it completely, cut open the roof and glued on the high top. Pretty happy with how it turned out. I don't have alot of pictures of the interior right now, but I'll edit this post with a few somewhere in the near future
First built I've ever done, but probably not the last. Started out with a regular Volkswagen t4, stripped it completely, cut open the roof and glued on the high top. Pretty happy with how it turned out. I don't have alot of pictures of the interior right now, but I'll edit this post with a few somewhere in the near future
That is way sick! I have thought about cutting the roof off an awd astro and doing something similar. Definitely want to see the inside.
Is it really just glue? What kind of glue did you use?
whitenabThat is way sick! I have thought about cutting the roof off an awd astro and doing something similar. Definitely want to see the inside.
Is it really just glue? What kind of glue did you use?
It really is nothing but glue which keeps it together. I was a bit skeptical at first as well, but when it's on its on there for good.
After cutting open the roof I reinforced the front and the back of the original roof to regain strength and stability. Afterwards degreased the roof and applied the sikaflex with a caulking gun. After that it's just as simple as lowering the new roof gently onto it. I did strap it down together with some beams while the glue was setting. If this makes sense without any visual aid.
I'll be back home on Tuesday and I'll see if I can find the hard drive with pictures of the building process.
Oh and the glue I used is called sikaflex 221
**This post was edited on Feb 29th 2020 at 8:30:07am
I’ll be in good all this week at timberline and skibowl.
is the van not being awd or 4x4 a issue?
where do you poop?
whitenabLast year was all in the back of an f350 longbed - quite spacious for a pickup bed, but still cold, cramped, and not the best place to hangout.
GF and I decided we liked standing up, being warm, and cooking out of the elements sooo we bought this thing:
It's a 2001 e450, red cross disaster relief vehicle. It looked like this:
Now, it looks like this when it is clean:
But after the last 2 weeks on the road skiing out of it, it started looking more like this:
Definitely not perfect, but it's really cool to use something we built, and can continue to work on and add to. A camper on a truck would be really cool too but this has way more storage and we got to build something/learn a ton. If you're around hood you might see us, come say hi.
ensoIt really is nothing but glue which keeps it together. I was a bit skeptical at first as well, but when it's on its on there for good.
After cutting open the roof I reinforced the front and the back of the original roof to regain strength and stability. Afterwards degreased the roof and applied the sikaflex with a caulking gun. After that it's just as simple as lowering the new roof gently onto it. I did strap it down together with some beams while the glue was setting. If this makes sense without any visual aid.
I'll be back home on Tuesday and I'll see if I can find the hard drive with pictures of the building process.
Oh and the glue I used is called sikaflex 221
**This post was edited on Feb 29th 2020 at 8:30:07am
Damn that's pretty crazy but so cool. You reinforced the frame? Like added some cross bars or ? Yeah looking forward to those pics
MXmxI’ll be in good all this week at timberline and skibowl.
is the van not being awd or 4x4 a issue?
where do you poop?
We're up at meadows for the weekend but have to work this week :(
So far no 4x4 has not been an issue. We have wintercat ssts (non studded) on all 6 tires and to this date I have not felt the rear end slip because of slick roads after driving around hood and out to Montana/Idaho. However we do get some rear float on chopped up deeper snow and deep slush. have not used chains yet.
The lodge! We don't have a composting toilet or anything at this point and it's really not hard to make it work/take advantage of bathrooms. The PNW has a bunch of sno-parks and most have pit toilets too.
We aren't in it full time at this point just weekends and long trips so we'll see how it all shakes out when we take next winter off of work and ski.
As you can tell I have 4x4 anxiety after driving wranglers and trucks. When I lived in Utah, I had a FWD Saab with Nokia’s snow tires (best tires ever) and no issues.
Ill be at lumberyard indoor BMX park Sunday in Portland then meeting up with buddies for a week of skiing before the season is over.
Hows Meadows? Seems really crowded.
whitenabWe're up at meadows for the weekend but have to work this week :(
So far no 4x4 has not been an issue. We have wintercat ssts (non studded) on all 6 tires and to this date I have not felt the rear end slip because of slick roads after driving around hood and out to Montana/Idaho. However we do get some rear float on chopped up deeper snow and deep slush. have not used chains yet.
The lodge! We don't have a composting toilet or anything at this point and it's really not hard to make it work/take advantage of bathrooms. The PNW has a bunch of sno-parks and most have pit toilets too.
We aren't in it full time at this point just weekends and long trips so we'll see how it all shakes out when we take next winter off of work and ski.
MXmxI know. That looks like a Jeep Compass or Cherokee to me.
I'm just giving you a bad time, yes it's a Cherokee and I'm 5, 9. It's fine for sleeping purpose but always wanted a suv. I wish it had more ground clearance though.
For a minute I was picturing a 7' tall dude in the lift line scoffing at someone else's skis like "huh, what are those, 193's? LoooooL"
TnskiI'm just giving you a bad time, yes it's a Cherokee and I'm 5, 9. It's fine for sleeping purpose but always wanted a suv. I wish it had more ground clearance though.
whitenabDamn that's pretty crazy but so cool. You reinforced the frame? Like added some cross bars or ? Yeah looking forward to those pics
*I can't seem to get the videos to work, they're displayed as the imgur links. They do work as a link, but I'm just not able to embed them
I wasnt able to find the right harddrive containing all the pictures of the build, I did however find a backup of an old phone of mine which contained a fair amount of pictures of the build. Not as detailed but giving you a bit of an insight in the process. The quality of the camera on that phone wasn't all that great, but it's all I have for now.
And keep in mind English isn't my first language, so my terminology might be a bit off.
So the roof I glued on top is a reimo high top called earoline for the volkswagen t4 with a short wheelbase. I couldn't order directly from reimo itself, but that turned out even better because I got a good deal from a local supplier.
This is the roof as we picked it up, basically a flimsy piece of plastic, at first i expected there to be a small lip all along the bottom edge in order to glue it to the van. To my surprise it wasn't there and itsn't supposed to be, the hardtop slides over the rounded edges of the remaining roof of the van and that's the only part that it will adhere to.
After stripping and prepping the car and protecting the windows from metal shavings it was time to cut off the roof. All the experienced camper builders told me it was easiest to use an electrical jigsaw with a blade for metal and propping the car on blocks so there could be no possible wiggle room of the suspension and wheels. Measuring a ton of times and drawing the outline on the roof of the van, it was finally time to cut open the roof.
Resulting in a weird kind of cabrio/ parade van. As you can see from the two pictures above, cutting out the roof also means that you cut out almost all of the roof trusses (not sure about the terminology here) which provide a part of the stability for the car. Reinforcement was needed to bring back a part of this stability/ firmness. Both at the edge of the cut part of the back of the car a bar was placed and in the front a frame following the contours. They're both secured by using the sikaflex 221 and pop nails so those are never coming off. I don't have solid pictures of it right now unfortunately, but this next clip shows a brief glimpse of both of them.
This also shows the roof from the inside after it was glued and fitted onto the van. As you notice its still really bare and just a plastic shell, hardly ideal for camping in the winter.
First thing we did after cutting out the roof, is cleaning all the metal shavings from the car and degreasing all the contact areas of the van and the roof to make sure the glue would adhere properly. We applied the glue to the van, placed three wooden planks along the width of the roof of the van and placed the hightop on top of the planks. So that we could line up the hightop properly with the car. Then we slowly lowered the roof into the glue while removing these planks and brought a bit of pressure to the sides where the glue should adhere as shown by the two pictures above.
We let the glue set for a couple of days inside at a nice and cozy temperature. And after that the roof is on and on there for all eternity.
As for insulation i used x-trem of 2 cm thick. along the floor walls roof and everywhere to keep the warmth inside. I applied it by using a heavy duty contact adhesive, not the most fun part of the job.
I'll cut the story a bit short now, if you guys are interested to hear more about the rest of the build let me know and I'll rustle up some more pictures of the rest of the process. Still alot that was done after the insulation, such as
-building all the furniture, closets kitchen counter
-installing a household battery and doing all the electric work
-installing a small heater working on propane (propex hs2000)
-doing all the pipework for the propane gas, heater and stove.
-and furnishing it all to make it look somewhat decent.
Which resulted in a van looking like this. (straight after the build and not having used it yet properly.)
Bringing this back for an update and to see if anyone built a setup over the summer.
We did some remodeling. A reminder of what our truck looked like:
We wanted to do some noise proof work on the cab so we tore it down to bare metal. Got rid of any rust and dirt and repainted it. Then covered it with a layer of kilmat and some vinyl sheeting I got from my works trash. It has become much quieter and more comfortable to drive.
We cut a door hole where the old serving window was, added 1 new window and upgraded the two passenger side windows.
We painted it blue and did raptor liner on the baseboard.
The complete outside with new windows, added a door, painted, upgraded side flood lights to LEDs and new headlights. "Small" but massively important was new mirrors. It has made driving at least 10x safer. We had to cut new holes in the door to mount the mirrors and it was my single worst part buying endeavor. Took me 4 times going to Ace and Lowes to get the right bolts.
Inside we added a simple foot pump water system, a new counter top, cushions, a new bucket/hamper for storage thing under the coats, and of course the new windows and doors.
Madi made a little mountain kicker board for underneath the seating. I don't think this picture does it justice. We trimmed the windows way better this time so it feels more profesh now.
A few weeks ago out at Smith.
Still lots to fix/upgrade/etc but it's moving in the right direction.
whitenabBringing this back for an update and to see if anyone built a setup over the summer.
We did some remodeling. A reminder of what our truck looked like:
We wanted to do some noise proof work on the cab so we tore it down to bare metal. Got rid of any rust and dirt and repainted it. Then covered it with a layer of kilmat and some vinyl sheeting I got from my works trash. It has become much quieter and more comfortable to drive.
We cut a door hole where the old serving window was, added 1 new window and upgraded the two passenger side windows.
We painted it blue and did raptor liner on the baseboard.
The complete outside with new windows, added a door, painted, upgraded side flood lights to LEDs and new headlights. "Small" but massively important was new mirrors. It has made driving at least 10x safer. We had to cut new holes in the door to mount the mirrors and it was my single worst part buying endeavor. Took me 4 times going to Ace and Lowes to get the right bolts.
Inside we added a simple foot pump water system, a new counter top, cushions, a new bucket/hamper for storage thing under the coats, and of course the new windows and doors.
Madi made a little mountain kicker board for underneath the seating. I don't think this picture does it justice. We trimmed the windows way better this time so it feels more profesh now.
A few weeks ago out at Smith.
Still lots to fix/upgrade/etc but it's moving in the right direction.
whitenabBringing this back for an update and to see if anyone built a setup over the summer.
We did some remodeling. A reminder of what our truck looked like:
We wanted to do some noise proof work on the cab so we tore it down to bare metal. Got rid of any rust and dirt and repainted it. Then covered it with a layer of kilmat and some vinyl sheeting I got from my works trash. It has become much quieter and more comfortable to drive.
We cut a door hole where the old serving window was, added 1 new window and upgraded the two passenger side windows.
We painted it blue and did raptor liner on the baseboard.
The complete outside with new windows, added a door, painted, upgraded side flood lights to LEDs and new headlights. "Small" but massively important was new mirrors. It has made driving at least 10x safer. We had to cut new holes in the door to mount the mirrors and it was my single worst part buying endeavor. Took me 4 times going to Ace and Lowes to get the right bolts.
Inside we added a simple foot pump water system, a new counter top, cushions, a new bucket/hamper for storage thing under the coats, and of course the new windows and doors.
Madi made a little mountain kicker board for underneath the seating. I don't think this picture does it justice. We trimmed the windows way better this time so it feels more profesh now.
A few weeks ago out at Smith.
Still lots to fix/upgrade/etc but it's moving in the right direction.
This is rad. I'm always so tempted to pull the trigger on some of the old ambulances kicking around on Craiglist, especially some of the 4x4 diesels that pop up occasionally.
SendyMcSendyfaceDude that looks wicked, great job!
Thanks man!
evo.comThis is rad. I'm always so tempted to pull the trigger on some of the old ambulances kicking around on Craiglist, especially some of the 4x4 diesels that pop up occasionally.
Yeah they definitely are tempting. Keep an eye on interior height and what kind of ambulance/rig it was. A lot of the ambos out there are started and ran hard. We definitely didn't do a good enough job vetting our truck. Even though we had a shop look at it, it was a shop we didn't really trust and we weren't local. Next time I would take more time. You should check out Expedition Portal they have a ton of ambulance resources.
4x4 would be really nice. That said there were a few things kept us away from it: ceiling height was not tall enough on any we saw. For the same price they were in worse conditions. 4x4 can cost a lot to maintain and it further reduces mpgs. Green Dream Bus that runs a shuttle in PDX was encouraging as they were running 2wd dually shuttles with some aggressive winter tires and said it had gone great so we went for it.
All of that said and as much as I love our rig when we downsize I'm pretty convinced about going truck + camper.
