[Mark Bird]

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.

 

[Mark Bird]

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.

 

[Mark Bird]

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).

 

[Mark Bird]

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.

 

[Mark Bird]

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.

 

[Mark Bird]

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.

 

[Mark Bird]

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.

 

[Mark Bird]

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.

 

[OldChubbyKnuckle]

Nice work! What are the power lines running on the right side of the drivers seat that appear to run down into the flooring?

 

[Mark Bird]

Nice work! What are the power lines running on the right side of the drivers seat that appear to run down into the flooring?

That's my next step to document since the floor finish was posted out of order. I added aftermarket seat heaters, so that's 12VDC power daisy chained from the source (Ford CCP1 12 VDC passed through a relay to disable the heaters when RUN is deasserted) to the driver then passenger seat. I also ran house AC power to the passenger seat. I left a few inches of birch protruding past the polyiso to leave a channel for cabling, so the power cable isn't buried under the floor but just hidden under the lip.

 

[OldChubbyKnuckle]

Makes sense - I've never seen wires run off the right side of the pedestal before and was stumped.

 

[Mark Bird]

Makes sense - I've never seen wires run off the right side of the pedestal before and was stumped.

My inverter, CCP2 fuse, grounding point, and CCP1 & C33-E vehicle interface connector circuits are immediately behind the driver's seat. I figured it was going to get crowded on the side of the pedestal near the CCPs, so I separated the seat heater wires for convenience. The entire rear of the driver's seat is hidden by the inverter & galley anyway.

 

[Mark Bird]

I tackled modifications to the seats in the same time frame - after the birch flooring was installed but prior to adding the pretty layer of Lonseal to finish the floor.

• Wet Okole seat covers with seat heaters hardwired into my build
• Removal of Ford inverter under passenger seat and hardwiring of house AC power into passenger seat
• Addition of an AVC seatbase trim cover to utilize the area under the passenger seat for additional storage

Before I go any further, has anyone decided to move their passenger seat to this location?

/sarcasm

Adding seat covers was almost entirely driven by the desire for heated seats. This thread and this thread cover some of the possibilities, and I selected Wet Okole seat covers. I chose options including the seat heaters, lumber support and rear map pocket. I selected the charcoal interior color and black exterior color. I don't have any major issues with the seat covers. The driver lumbar adjust wheel does not have an access hole, and that's not a huge issue.

None of the neoprene colors are perfect matches to the Form trim colors, but I felt that charcoal was close enough. You can see below how the neoprene colors match against the dark palazzo gray cloth, corresponding gray Ford interior, and the Vanmade Gear olive gray window shade interior. 11 charcoal, 21 light gray, and 12 black

 

[Mark Bird]

The seat heaters were wired into my build utilizing CCP1 power interfaced via a mini relay that employs the Ford C33-E vehicle interface connector RUN signal to ensure that the seat heaters turn off when the van isn't running. I kept the inline seat heater controller but chopped off the cigarette lighter plug on the OEM cable. The controllers were wired along the plastic trim piece on the interior side of each seat, which is a fairly handy place to access the buttons while driving.

I took apart the driver's seat for no good reason other than to look at the battery compartment. I dropped one of the mounting bolts into the cavity adjacent to the batteries. Twice. Luckily the old "screwdriver with a magnet" tool came to the rescue. I lost track of how many times I needed that tool during the build.

The passenger seat actually needed to come out for a multitude of reasons. I removed the factory inverter under the seat. I searched the documentation and BCM fuse panel but could never find the correct fuse to disable the inverter. You will receive OBD warnings using FORScan with the inverter missing, however it does not propagate to any dash LEDs or warnings. After I removed the inverter, I realized that the Ford 5-15R receptacle on the side of the passenger seat pedestal does not wire the safety ground. I replaced the Ford receptacle with a black household receptacle and wallplate, then I could properly wire H-N-G back to a GFCI outlet in my galley area that is powered from my house system. I cut an access area in the rear of the seat pedestal, then I repurposed an AVC seatbase trim piece to act as a cabinet door for under the seat using piano hinge. More storage...that's a good thing.

 

[Mark Bird]

I don't even remember what I was doing at the time, aside from chopping down a bolt that was too long. But the "after" shot is pretty impressive, as I managed to get the bolt to impale into the ceiling polyiso in the process. Wear safety glasses?

 

[Mark Bird]

Having items on the dash reflecting on the windshield really bothers me, so I got distracted for a few hours and crafted some dash covers to make the Ford dash usable. The dash is curved and sloped, but I think that I was able to make tolerably nice covers using 1/4" birch wrapped in neoprene. I used 2 mm neoprene but I don't think it matters much.

I started by making templates with cardboard. I took advantage of the ribs in the bins and ended up breaking the covers into four pieces. The most forward bin that spans the whole dash used three pieces, and I made a separate cover for the center bin closest to the cabin. After sawing rough pieces of birch, I realized that I needed to add "feet" to some of the dash covers so that they would sit flush. Once satisfied with the fit, I just wrapped the birch with neoprene using 3M 90.

The covers don't rattle and don't move while driving, and I get to actually use the bins without items being in the sun or visible when parked. Also shown, OFFROAM cell phone holder.

 

[Mark Bird]

The Ford Front Overhead Shelf option is pretty terrible in my opinion. I'm glad it's there as a foundation, I suppose, but I couldn't visualize how I would use the space. I chose to add the Vancillary headliner shelf kit, but then I made a few other modifications to suit my build.

I ran 12 VDC wiring for my interior lighting (puck LEDs forward and strip LEDs aft) and awning patio LED up through the headliner shelf while I was insulating. I turned the inner bins of the overhead shelf into dimmer locations. I added the Vancillary shelf, but I upsized the front lip by several inches to provide more security for items stored on the upper shelf. I finished the overhead area with some 1/4" birch to add sides to the Front Overhead Shelf and support the wallplates for my dimmers.

I'm happy with the finished product, and it's proven to be functional for our use.

 

[Mark Bird]

What I term the galley is the lower cabinet structure immediately behind the driver's seat. A personal choice is that we wanted the refrigerator (Nova Kool R5810) accessible behind the driver's seat. Because of the constraints on CCP2 for high power alternator charging, and because my main electrical system resides near the rear passenger rear wheel well, I went with the Orton method of DC-AC-DC charging. I placed a Samlex PST-2000-12 inverter behind the driver's seat to take advantage of the lower area available due to the slope of the seat back. The primary reason I selected Samlex was because it offered remote control terminal blocks, and I wired the Ford C33-E vehicle interface connector RUN signal to manage operation of the inverter. Also in the vicinity behind the driver's seat is the remainder of electronics for interfacing to the Ford CCPs and a switch to allow easy control of power to my water heater cooling pump. CCP1 gets a fuse block for distributing 12V for monitoring by a Victron SmartShunt (secondary battery monitor), powering the water heater cooling pump, powering the seat heaters, and receiving trickle charge power from roof mounted 60 W of solar via a Victron BlueSolar 75/10 MPPT charge controller. A busbar for grounding also ended up in that location.

I elected to build my cabinet structures out of aluminum extrusions, which I'll refer to as 80/20 for ease of writing. You can devote lots of time to selecting your structural approach or which size & fastener for 80/20, including this thread or this thread and many more available via search. I opted for 10 series and SAE 1/4-20 fasteners throughout my build, except where I couldn't. In places like the bed frame that required more horizontal rigidity, I just upped to 1020. My cabinet frames are ultimately interconnected such that the entire driver's and passenger sides are tied together. I bolted the cabinet frames to the van walls using rivnuts. I bolted the cabinet frame bottoms into the birch flooring using T-Nuts. I also through-bolted the cabinet frames to the van floor at two places on each side.

Around this time I also decided on my cabinet facing approach, which I'll declare as aesthetically tolerable. I went with 1/4" birch affixed to the outside of the 80/20 with flanged button head cap screws painted to match. I went through a lot of semigloss white during the build.

The galley frame started with a small box for the inverter as far forward as feasible. Working rearward, I allocated space for the refrigerator then remaining space (leaving room for the shoilet just in front of the rear wheel well) for drawers & cabinet storage. Before final install, I added a layer of Low-E as a thermal break. Because the refrigerator flange protrudes slightly below the refrigerator base, I made a small shim out of 1/4" birch with the forward face painted silverish to match.

I added a column to the frame just aft of the B pillar to hold my CCP electronics. I also replaced and relocated the refrigerator fan with a quieter fan and to provide a hot air outlet outside (towards the window) of the galley which is eventually enclosed.

Because of the inverter location, I ended up with nice short cables from CCP2. I was able to place a Blue Sea 285-Series circuit breaker in a Far Out Ride enclosure behind the Ford connection point on my cabinet frame. Here is also a view of the column and switch for the coolant pump behind the driver's seat.

One day I was out and stopped for groceries. At that point I realized that I should put the refrigerator in. What do you know, it fit!

I dragged my feet for a while on finishing some cabinet facing or starting on drawers & cabinets. Here you can see a few more front faces were done, but I had a ways to go. Also visible is my CO2 monitor just above the inverter.

 

[Mark Bird]

Handy tip of the day, a cardboard wine shipping insert makes a perfect stand for painting screw heads. Drink more wine! Paint more screws.

 

[Mark Bird]

The "island" is the lower cabinet structure on the passenger side that spans from the rear wheel well forward to a 24" entry in front of the slider. The key features of the island (back to front) were the undermount sink, several cabinets, two interior drawers, a fold-down table to serve as a patio table when the slider is opened, a two-way drawer that slides interior or exterior, and a fold-up table as a workspace for the passenger seat when reversed. The island also houses the Espar heater vent into the cabin, several GFCI and AC/USB outlets, and a repurposed Ford LED. Later on in the build, I decided to incorporate a trash bag cavity, adjustable storage organizers, and most importantly some wine bottle storage inside the cabinets.

The two-way drawer took a few iterations. This was an early attempt using 80/20 to accept linear bearing pads as the guides. This approach allowed the drawer to slide out nearly 100%, but that let too much torque get applied to the bearing pads and allowed the drawer to tip and/or break the epoxy applied between the birch and pads.

I also staged the fold-up/down tables to make sure that I could tolerate the shelf bracket approach to hold tabletops. The first pic was NOT the final table size, but it's still probably larger than the seat tray on an Allegiant flight.

I could/should have left a slightly bigger notch in the flooring where the island overhangs the slider step. I ended up backfilling that small area with birch & a floor patch. On the other hand, I got to use concrete to help my build.

I spent quite a bit of design effort recessing the fold-up tabletop facing the passenger seat so that the entryway was wide enough to be comfortable. This image also gives a better feel (than earlier pics) of my cabinet facing approach.

These steps below will get a bit ahead of the next build steps, but for completeness I slowly iterated the two-way drawer design. For the two way drawer I ended up with the 80/20 design below, then I added stops underneath the drawer such that the drawer catches at 50% open in both directions. The drawer is deep enough to allow access to the entire contents when opened that far. Also, this pic shows the solenoid that I mounted under the drawer to serve as an automated drawer lock based on the Ford C33-E vehicle interface connector RUN signal. For all other cabinets & drawers in my build, I went with slam latches.