Prior to deciding on a van or a floor plan, we rented a Hymer Sunlight and a Winnebago Revel. The Hymer was enjoyable, but the rear bathroom & mid bed were a tradeoff that we voted against in our van. The Hymer also seemed decidedly cheap inside, and the equipment was fussy or in need of improvement. The Revel was okay, but a full sized bed is a non-starter for us. Overall, the Revel was just too small for extended travel in our case.

After ruling out ProMasters for 2WD and Mercedes for maintenance costs, an AWD Transit was our only choice. The High Roof and Extended body options were preferred, as we wanted space and don't expect any significant offroading.

I first started researching Class B conversions in 2021. I reached out to several conversion companies and began learning about lead times (both Ford and the conversion companies) and cost. I started lurking on this forum, and I found Far Out Ride and numerous Facebook/YouTube pages. As an engineer, the idea of doing our own build started to take hold. I created numerous TinkerCAD models of the interior to help us visualize the floor plan tradeoffs. I made spreadsheets to estimate weight, power, and cost. I researched and started making preliminary equipment decisions. The modeling and equipment decisions iterated for some time...

In 2022, we placed our first Transit order for a HR EL AWD DRW (F4U). That 2022 order had the PSD option, and most of you know how that turned out. We were Balanced Out. We took a little time trying to figure out what to do, and by late 2022 we placed an order for a 2023 (with PSD). To keep the Private Offer on our 2023, we again went for a F4U. I really wish we could have changed to a 9950 GVW SRW (F8X), as by then I had decided that I wasn't excited about a DRW. Things happened, and we never got that 2023 F4U.

As we were getting impatient with the Ford production issues, I started doing daily inventory checks nationwide. I tracked down a promising dealer-ordered van within 100 miles of home. And they only wanted $11K over MSRP! (/sarcasm) Despite placing an order a year previously, at least I finally set foot inside a Transit. I kept looking, and given our desired options list I was typically finding special order vehicles. I reached out to a lot of dealers with the special orders, and of course most of the vehicles were not for sale. I finally found a suitable match for a special order that fell through, also within 100 miles of home. We made a deal remotely, and the van magically showed up in the driveway within a few days.

We bought this van, and the build could get started.

 

Just prior to buying this van, I debated on the tradeoffs of full glass.

In retrospect, I'm happy to have the windows, but I would rather have bought an unglassed cargo van and added the windows myself. I had originally planned on Arctic Tern windows, and I still believe that would've been a great approach. We seldom uncover the two driver side windows fore and aft of the C pillar due to design choices (galley and shoilet), although I left the space to reach the window covers if need be. I really, really wish we had some screened window options in the rear of the van.

FYI I purchased the full suite of Vanmade Gear window covers. We selected the olive gray interior color to match our planned white & gray interior. The color is light and matches relatively well with the Ford upholstery. I like how the covers stay permanently installed yet are quick to deploy. I have no negative comments about the covers aside from cost.

 

The very first build step I tackled was the Most Important Major Step...removing the ugly yellow dealer advertising sticker and license plate holder. Well, I removed the license plate holder, but I didn't have the patience to carefully peel off the sticker so Wifey knocked that one out.

Shortly thereafter I installed floor mats. The Ford mats come with a 5 page manual, and if that's not enough there's this thread with 132 contributions.

Gotta start somewhere...

 

I also had the van weighed. This is our weight prior to the buildout, with the only caveat is that this weight is with full gas (extended tank).

 

For some reason, I wish I had measured the distance from the trailer hitch to the ground as delivered. My 22 is same vehicle as yours and indeed had same weight. I'm suspicious that the heavy all windows option cost us load capacity.

 

The Bird Box was expected to end up over 9000 lbs fully loaded, so I went ahead and added the sway bar. I had planned on a VanCompass 2" body lift, so I wanted the sway bar in place prior to handing the van off to a lift installer. This thread covers everything needed for the sway bar, which was not a complicated install.

Since I barely drove the van prior to installing the sway bar, and since the van wasn't loaded anyways, I have no idea if the sway bar is helpful. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

I put a little bit of Dynamat Xtreme around the wheel wells and on some of the larger body panels that resonated to the knuckle test.

The Dynamat is another thing on the list of 'I have no idea if it was helpful but seemed like a good idea at the time'. It can't have hurt, but after building out the van I may or may not have saved a few dollars with this step.

 

I took a quick pass at the van with 3M rubberized undercoating. My van did not come with rear wheel well liners, and I didn't bother with trying to purchase some.

I also got annoyed at the factory white rear door hinges contrasting with the black body paneling. That bothered my CDO, so I just took a quick pass to have the hinges match.

 

I took a quick pass at the van with 3M rubberized undercoating. My van did not come with rear wheel well liners, and I didn't bother with trying to purchase some.
View attachment 217475

I also got annoyed at the factory white rear door hinges contrasting with the black body paneling. That bothered my CDO, so I just took a quick pass to have the hinges match.
View attachment 217476
View attachment 217477

You probably don't want to hear this after spraying it but I'm telling you before you spray any more of your van. I would highly suggest NOT using this product on any more of your van. I used this exact 3M product on my 2013 LX 570 in 2016 on the entire underside (wanting to protect it from rust and seeing great reviews on Amazon) after I bought it used when there wasn't as much information about it online where I looked in 2016. It will cause severe damage; it's really a product that should not even be sold by 3M, but of course they don't care. When I sold the LX 570 in 2019, the truck had a ton of rust on the frame and suspension components - luckily Carmax didn't care, but if I kept the vehicle long term it would be a major issue as someone who wants to take good care of my vehicle. It was used in the Mid Atlantic but I was very good about washing the undercarriage regularly and it still rusted out. It's a terrible product. What you want is a lanolin coating like Fluid Film or Surface Shield, they actually work. Surface Shield is the best.

 

The first hole in the van was to add a shore power inlet. I went with the Furrion 30 A inlet. I had intended to mount the inlet in the driver's rear bumper, but Ford has sensor modules mounted there in my van (which I presume are for BLIS). I'm not worried about stealth, so I picked the typical RV location just forward of the rear 270 degree door swing. There's certainly nothing complex about this install. I did add an aluminum backing plate inside the van sheet metal, just in case.

 

I used a good chunk of my Ford points to buy the Perimeter Plus kit. I only partially care about the alarm feature (I set it off fairly often banging ice & snow off the van), but the remote start feature is nice. This thread got me started. There were some issues, and I figured out some of the complications between SYNC 3 and SYNC 4. This thread documents the results.

Along the way I got to take apart the dash...three times I think, before I figured out the right parts

Beware that the passenger cup holder is strategically designed to disappear screws

Mounting the module is easy enough, presuming you can contort your hands just right to release the latch on the Gateway connector

And you get this fancy warning when it works

Also, these things are evil

 

I paid an installer to put on the Van Compass Stage 3 Topo 2.0 body lift. This modification includes the shock brackets, which reduces a little of the underhang on the van. One benefit of doing this lift early in the build sequence is it gave me a little more room for the undermount work. In particular, the gas tank removal for Espar pickup install just barely fit without the need to further jack up the van body. But, since I did the lift early I have little judgement on the positive or negative impacts on handling while driving.

A few measurements before the 2" body lift

Insert money -> receive 2" (except for the shock brackets)

 

I decided that it's okay for water inside the van to seep down and out. However, I decided that water coming in midway through the body paneling should be minimized. That was captured in this thread about lower trim leaks.

I also added an external AC receptacle to one of the Ford D pillar gasketed cutouts underneath the van. Like others on this forum, I just used a weatherproof outlet and cut off the NEMA 5-15P end when completing my wiring. I would have been happy to find the receptacle equivalent of the Furrion power inlet and mounted the outlet on the side of the van, but alas I could never find a side mount receptacle that I was satisfied with. It's kinda annoying to kneel down in the mud to plug something in when all the van doors are closed.

 

I was finally ready to make some real progress and work on the Stuff On The Roof. The roof got the following components:

• Flatline Van Co Low Pro Roof Rack & Side Ladder
• MaxxFan Deluxe Manual fan - forward location
• Nomadic Cooling X3 A/C - rear bay 3 (Hein-speak) location
• Two Newpowa 200 W solar panels - east-west mount, one forward and one aft of the A/C
• Two Newpowa 30 W solar panels (filling out open space, and used for trickle charging the Ford batteries) - driver's side of the MaxxFan
• KING OTA TV antenna - passenger side of the MaxxFan
• Peplink Mobility 42G 5G/WiFi antenna - passenger side of the MaxxFan
• Storage bin built out of aluminum extrusions - driver side of A/C
• Dometic 9500 12' awning (manual)
• SuperBrightLEDs VAL2-NW9 LED on the body underneath the awning as a patio light

I'm happy with the roof rack. I preferred a rear ladder as opposed to a side ladder. After I figured out a tolerable layout for the equipment on the rack, I didn't want a rear ladder to lead me directly to a solar panel. The side ladder is centered well enough fore-aft to allow me to reach the storage bin and get a brush to clean the solar panels.

The MaxxFan was installed using a Hein adapter in the Most Forward location along the centerline. I just followed the tribe when installing the MaxxFan. The fan makes that stupid brushed fan ticking noise after less than a year, so I occasionally send pressurized air or dry lube at it to help for a few weeks. It's pretty annoying, but it's also a known issue.

The Nomadic X3 is installed as far rear as possible in the large middle bay (rear bay 3) of an extended Transit. I bought the wiring kit and hardware kit as a bundle not long after the units were released. There is a gasket above the roofline, but it doesn't require 16 screws for the flange. Compared to the MaxxFan install, the X3 install was massively easier. There are four mounting bolts and two brackets that are installed from the interior. (Picture from a little later on in the build)

I have a few complaints about the X3:

1. It ships with serrated flanged nuts for the mounting bolts, which loosened over time. I replaced those with lock nuts
2. There is no typical thermostat hysteresis, so once the desired temperature is reached the compressor cycles often and noisily from on/off. Nomadic support says that behavior is "nothing to worry about". The remedy is to manually change the A/C operating mode at that point. Since I primarily use the A/C when trying to sleep, I'm not terribly excited about the solution.
3. The interior display screen never turns off. Also, the mode control buttons aren't backlit (but see Annoyance #2). The screen isn't overtly bright, but I would have appreciated an auto-dimming or manual brightness control since the unit resides directly above the bed.

Despite the gripes above, the unit has worked fine thus far. I normally use ECO mode, and the power consumption is as advertised.

Roof stuff partially finished

 

Two 200 W solar panels were installed to the roof rack using 10 series L brackets (8 per panel). I installed the L brackets to the panels first using lock nuts inside the panel frame. Those lock nuts become effectively blind after setting the panel down on the 10 series crossbars of the roof rack.

Two 30 W solar panels for trickle charging the Ford batteries using a separate charge controller were installed in the same fashion.

The two solar panels are Y-cabled above the roof line. Like many forum members, I used this cable gland to bring solar power inside the van.

The HDTV antenna mounting bracket was co-opted and mounted between two roof rack crossbars using more extruded aluminum pieces. The coax was brought to the interior using a Blue Sea CableClam. I'm still not sure if I mounted the antenna too low with respect to the roof rack. The fairing is plastic, but the sides are metal. I didn't want the antenna to stick out too high, both for aesthetics and drag. In the driveway, I get great TV reception (sometimes better than my home interior antenna). But everywhere I've traveled, we're intentionally nowhere near where I'd expect to receive good OTA signals thus the reception has sucked.

The 5G & WiFI antenna was mounted on yet more aluminum extrusions between roof rack cross bars. I crafted a baseplate out of HDPE to hold the antenna. (Originally I built the baseplate out of ABS, but then I figured out that ABS is a poor material choice for sun exposure.) The antenna cables use a Scanstrut multi-cable gland.

 

I chose the Dometic because I abhor side brackets and don't want to bother with anything more than the wand to deploy the awning. It was difficult to source the awning, and some installers said that they wouldn't bother with Dometic anymore because their supply chain is backed up and their shipping is terrible. I did find a wholesaler to purchase the awning, and yes indeed the shipping was terrible. There are a few mostly minor scratches & dings on the awning body and mounting bracket, but these are not noticeable after install. Both the front and back plastic caps for the awning body were destroyed during shipment. Both the wholesaler and Dometic were great about technical support though, and after some delay all parts were shipped to me free.

The Dometic 12' manual awning was installed directly to the roof rack side plates. The awning comes with a mounting plate with L channels that secure the awning in place, so the bracket gets installed to the rack then the awning pivots down to the bracket (and is finished with four little screws). Because the roof rack has mounting hardware that isn't flush, and because the roof rack has lots of predrilled holes & slots that support mounting points, I just modified the Dometic bracket to fit the application. It took a bunch of measurements, but I was able to maintain the same quantity of mounting bolts as in the factory pattern. I did choose to overhang the awning ~18" forward of the roof rack to align with the B pillar & sliding door seam.

Shortly thereafter, I added the SuperBrightLEDs LED to serve as a patio light. As reported elsewhere, the LED did eventually get water inside the housing. It still works just fine, and I haven't bothered to remedy that issue yet.

 

I decided to take advantage of some space on the driver's side of the Nomadic X3 for external storage. I built a little bin out of aluminum extrusions, and I made a cover out of stretch cord. The cover is pretty much a gill net, if that helps. I use the bin for firewood if I'm staying local & only a few days. The bin also helps for muddy stuff that I don't want inside, like fishing waders.

Since I placed the Dometic awning a little bit forward on the rack, I decided to put an external security camera on the outside. Wifey wants to see if a bear is outside before opening the slider. I took a simple approach, just a Blink outdoor camera and a ballhead tripod mount (this one, I think) affixed directly to the roof rack. It's been through 8000 miles and not budged.

After those steps, the roof looks like this

 

Hi, I'm looking for a solid mount for blink4 outdoor cameras to a FVC low pro rack, just like you did! I like what you came up with! My Blink cameras do not have a threaded hole to screw the tripod mount into. My cameras just have a large screw on the back to open up the camera for battery changes. This screw cant be fully removed.

Is that a case for the Blink camera that you used to then thread the tripod mount into and if so, could you please reply with a link?

Thanks so much!!

 

Keep the pics coming, nice build!

 

Keeping with the plan of outside -> inside, I installed all of the undermount items after finishing the roof rack items.

• Espar heater gasoline fuel pickup modifications
• Espar M2-B4L gasoline heater - aft of passenger rear wheel well
• Class A Customs UM-2000 20 gallon gray water tank - forward of driver rear wheel well
• IsoTemp Slim 25 hot water heater - rear, just forward of spare tire
• Heat exchanger and cooling pump to support engine cooling of hot water
• Various cable glands and gray water drain holes, including heating wiring for gray water tank & plumbing lines

Dropping the fuel tank and installing the Espar standpipe is well documented on the interwebs. @gregoryx has a few threads (this one and that one) that cover the topic well. I did a pretty good job getting the fuel out before I finished this task. If you can see the ribs on the bottom of the tank, you're almost there...

Because of numerous compromises and priorities discussed here and elsewhere in this forum, I ended up mounting the Espar unit aft of the passenger wheel well. The Espar fuel pump is mounted aft of the gas tank on the driver's side, and the pump fuel outlet & wiring is routed across the underbody to the heater location. The Espar exhaust exits the vehicle just at the leading edge of the bumper to maximize distance from the slider. The intake & exhaust can be routed to easily meet the mounting requirements in this rear location.

 

The Class A Customs 20 gallon undermount tank is used as my gray water storage. I selected the driver's side for the tank, and it's located midway between far forward and far aft in the undermount channel. The location is a compromise to: leave some space forward (near the gasoline fill plumbing) to mount the coolant loop pump & expansion tank; leave some space rearward (but forward of the rear wheel well) for the roof rack ladder and a gray water dump valve; accommodate the shoilet drain near the tank drain plumbing while avoiding the van body pillars.

I crafted a frame structure for the tank using angle iron. The structure uses aluminum sheet to provide a layer of protection from road debris. The tank was affixed to the van using rivnuts into the van body and threaded rod to the lower braces of the tank frame.

The shoilet drain is immediately above the gray tank drain. The shoilet drain gets a HepvO trap horizontally then transitions to vinyl tubing before transitioning back to stainless steel. The sink drain is on the passenger side aft of the slider opening, and it uses a vertical HepvO in the van's interior. The sink drain penetrates the underbody directly below the sink, then I ran the sink drain in vinyl tubing across the underbody to my gray tank plumbing area. The drains are covered in foam insulation, and the sink drain had to be covered in heat shroud to pass over the exhaust area heat shields. The drain plumbing also had water pipe heating cable wrapped along the lengths of tube to prevent freeze damage.

The shoilet drain, sink drain, and tank drain all tee together and use a simple ball valve with hose adapter. I chose stainless steel because this plumbing underhangs the tank by an inch or so...just enough to allow easy access to reach the ball valve handle. Since the plumbing could be exposed to road debris, metal seemed like a sturdier option than PVC. Since the metal is modestly heavy, I used a metal pipe clamp to affix the plumbing to the tank frame and alleviate any flex or stress on the tank fittings.

 

The IsoTemp Slim 25 hot water heater was mounted underneath the van just forward of the spare tire. In an extended van, the cavity just forward of the spare tire is a perfect fit for the hot water heater. Similarly to the gray tank, I crafted a frame structure using angle iron and aluminum sheet for protection, and the structure was mounted to the van using rivnuts and threaded rod.

The cold and hot water plumbing was completed using PEX A and expansion fittings. The plumbing was finished with water pipe heating cable and foam insulation.

The IsoTemp manual clearly states that you should test the unit and fittings prior to final installation. Unfortunately, rigging a temporary pressurized water system and cooling system is (well, would have been) a giant PITA. However, a pre-test is sage advice, because my unit leaked terribly. Both compression fittings between the tank and mixing/dump valves leaked. Somehow the short braided stainless steel hose between the valves leaked too. IndelWebasto customer service was very good, and they shipped out replacements quickly and free. Getting the unit working right prior to installation would've been really nice though.

 

The IsoTemp water heater was integrated with the van's radiator coolant loop, but I took a slightly different approach than most.

• Heat exchanger - mounted in engine bay
• Coolant pump and expansion tank - mounted on driver's side in B pillar vicinity
• IsoTemp heater kit
• And I still needed a few more elbows and size adapters to finish the connections

I used a piece of steel sheet to create a mounting plate for the heat exchanger. I through-bolted the mounting plate to the frame just forward of and into the passenger front wheel well...picking bolt locations where I could readily get tools in place to finish the connections. This location minimizes any change to the Ford coolant volume & flow, and it allows easy access to the heater core outlet to make the modifications.

I picked appropriate elbows and 'S' tubes to match the connection diameters and route the coolant lines down through the engine bay behind the passenger wheel well, across to the driver's side, meet up with my coolant pump & expansion tank near the driver's side B pillar, then all the way aft of the driver's rear wheel well where the hot water tank fittings reside. I added heat shroud on top of the coolant lines in appropriate locations as another layer of protection. I also added a radiator fill tee near the heat exchanger as the system came together, primarily to create an easy method to fill & finish the coolant.

Because I inserted a heat exchanger, I need to use a coolant pump for the water heater loop. The pump was mounted in some free space under the driver's door step. I struggled to find a decent expansion tank, so I bought an Amazonian tank with the right fitting diameters to minimize adapter hardware. The expansion tank is at the cold "end" of the coolant loop just before the coolant pump intake. I mounted the expansion tank as high as possible underneath the van to help with pump priming.

The coolant lines snake between the undermount gray tank and the gas tank, and this shows the finished product.

After all the above nonsense, I could finally test my setup. If there's any picture in my van build album that screams DIY, this is it. I had to jankily break the coolant loop between the pump intake and expansion tank outlet to prime the system. But it worked, so no lesson learned (except perhaps adding the radiator fill tee to help top off later).

 

A little out of order, but in conjunction with the undermount installations I had to make final placement decisions on plumbing and wire transitions from underneath to the interior. I used quite a few Ancor wire seals in various flavors for the electrical connections (tank sensor, water pipe heating cable power, AC power for backup water tank heating, coolant pump power, etc.). For the cold & hot water passthroughs, I transitioned from PEX A to these bulkhead fittings. For the gray water drains, I transitioned from 1" vinyl tub to these bulkhead fittings.

 

It must have been sometime in the fall, because my front windshield drain was clogged with leaves. I just took the easy route, knocking out the plastic crosses in the drain holes and adding some spare tubing underneath to route the water away from any important looking Ford modules.

 

Having completed the roof and undermount installs, it was time to start on the interior. By this point, I had committed to a floorplan, although the final details of physical location (especially the electronics area) were yet to be determined. I kept the main Ford wire harness on the upper driver's side in place with minor adjustments to routing as slack allowed. I started roughing in some wiring in parallel with flooring and insulation.

I went with the following flooring stackup. You can look here, here, here, here, or use search and spend all day debating flooring approach. I think that Far Out Ride does a good job laying out the approach too. I was concerned about squeaking, but that didn't happen. I planned for using the van in cold weather, and I planned to affix my cabinet structures (aluminum extrusions) to the floor (and walls).

• .40" Minicell
• 3M Thinsulate TAI
• 1/2" Thermax sheathing
• 1/2" Baltic birch
• Great Stuff

The Minicell, TAI, and Thermax were affixed using 3M 90. I used Great Stuff between the Thermax and birch even though it's held in place by my cabinet structures. In four places (front and back of each side), I opted to through-bolt the cabinet & floor through the van floor as well.

I didn't do anything ground breaking with the floor, but here are some pics anyways.

Thermax coming home - you can feel the insulation working already

Minicell, cutting the strips isn't as tedious as I feared

A TV knife is the perfect tool for polyiso

Here you can see the shoilet area. I measured the shower pan and had planned for a low profile drain & vinyl tubing to the shower drain bulkhead through the van floor. In addition, I brought a hot & cold PEX line across the van underneath the birch flooring to reach the island & kitchen sink.

After the birch was cut and ready to be affixed

Things I forgot: I had the Thermax & birch ready for install before I realized that had intended to put down one layer of TAI; not a big deal aside from having to carefully pull up the pieces one more time. I remembered that I needed a good grounding point for the inverter after my flooring was affixed; that was a PITA but I was able to uncover the B pillar ground point. Also, at several iterations during the flooring I temporarily forgot to keep my 'no drill zone' for the PEX plumbing under the floor well marked.

At this point, I worked further on the ceiling and wall insulation to minimize messes on the Lonseal flooring. Skipping ahead, I installed Lonseal Lonwood Natural Topseal. Appropriately, we selected the Singing Birds color. I chose to affix the Lonseal to the birch with Roberts adhesive; maybe time will tell, but thus far I've had no issues with the flooring. I did rent a heavy duty flooring roller for a half-day to ensure that the flooring adhesive was well applied.

 

I finished the flooring with vinyl stair nose in the cargo area, aluminum stair edge in the slider step, aluminum angle at the transition from flooring to cab, and silicone around bulkhead voids & van seams. I made a small plug out of spare Lonseal for the spare tire access point.

 

Stepping back a little bit, I finished a majority of the van's insulation after the birch flooring was installed but prior to adding the pretty layer of Lonseal to finish the floor. In large cavities, I used 1" Thermax affixed with Great Stuff. Everywhere else I used 3M Thinsulate affixed with 3M 90. Polyiso installation is well covered, and Far Out Ride has great tips on accessing the overhead shelf, slider, and doors for Thinsulate installation. As in the flooring, I didn't get too creative with insulation.

Here is a mid-install ceiling view. I built some Monkey Sticks (aka chimp tools) to help keep the Thermax conformed to the ceiling until dry. I also used a shower curtain rod, a ladder & spare wood scraps...pretty much anything handy to help a one-person crew to get the insulation up faster.

Shoving Thinsulate anywhere feasible

The wall cavities had one or two layers of Thermax & Great Stuff, but then I added Thinsulate to fill up any remaining space...because why not.