Hello,
So this is gonna be fun. I plan on building a full RV style van from scratch, but I have 0 experience with anything.
OK, so I've done some basic woodworking and insulation/home repairs, so this should be a breeze, right?
Well since I have no experience, I figured the first step was to buy the darn thing and get the pricey part out of the way.
Done.>
Got my Transit a month or two ago (ordered Dec 1-- HR 3.5 EB Cargo with bigger alternator + extra battery/uppfitter switches); liking it quite a bit (it is my DD, not expecting to complete the build for ~12 months+). Fun experience buying/ordering it, but I'll save those details for another post at another time....
So my next step: decided to start with the roof!
going to have 2x 100W Renogy Solar panels, 2 MaxxAir fan vents, and a storage area to (hopefully) fit 2 big longboards. Did some minor sketching and dimensioning, and looking like a tight fit up there, (maxvents in the middle, solar panels long wise on passenger side, surfboard storage on driver side. The "tight fit" is because I plan on doing the maxAirs in the center between those two middle roof channels and this may interfere with the width of the surfboards..may be able to put in the vents off-center, but then I run into issues making it flush to the top of the roof; other option is have the boards hang over the side by a few inches)....... Since its a close fit, I decided to get the key parts first and play around with the positioning up top.
Solar Panels and Roof vent hath been bought!>>>>
Gosh its fun to throw invisible money at the internet and have things show up at my doorstep (thank you Amazon Prime).
Measuring will be done this weekend.....
In the meantime, two very important questions I have if anyone can help:
1) is there any book/guide I can purchase that shows where the "no drill" / "no cut" zones are on the transit (I'm assuming there's such areas you absolutely never want to mess with?)? Don't plan on getting too carried away with the jigsaw, but would like to be sure I'm not an idiot before cutting into something important.
2) To attach everything up top I'm now pondering two options:
a) custom rack from Aluminess (I'm based in San Diego, so would be nice to have them install and build to my specs, but gosh they're pricey!)
or
b) install factory roof rack cross bars myself, and fabricate some sort of mounting system up top (way cheaper, but way more work on my end! and taller vs. Aluminess' low profile options)
The option of factory cross bars with a thule/rhino rack is almost out of the running as I really want to incorporate a "EZ-Low" drop down roof holder on one side that I want to convert for the longboards (an EZ-Lo is basically a ladder holder that rests on the roof rack, but has a lever that makes the ladder holder articulate down to the side of the van for easy loading/unloading). This eliminates the need for a ladder, which is great since I want to put two storage boxes on the back of the doors and don't want anything on the side (is it illegal to have a side ladder???)
The question is:anyone have any good ideas for best way to fabricate a storage box up top? (will sit on the EZ low). I'm assuming must be light for the size given don't want to increase tip-over risk anymore than it currently is.
Thanks for the feedback, and I hope you will enjoy my hilarious mess ups in my build as I undoubtedly cut holes wrong, mcguiver a few things back together, and use excessive amounts of VHB.
So this is gonna be fun. I plan on building a full RV style van from scratch, but I have 0 experience with anything.
OK, so I've done some basic woodworking and insulation/home repairs, so this should be a breeze, right?
Well since I have no experience, I figured the first step was to buy the darn thing and get the pricey part out of the way.
Done.>
Got my Transit a month or two ago (ordered Dec 1-- HR 3.5 EB Cargo with bigger alternator + extra battery/uppfitter switches); liking it quite a bit (it is my DD, not expecting to complete the build for ~12 months+). Fun experience buying/ordering it, but I'll save those details for another post at another time....
So my next step: decided to start with the roof!
going to have 2x 100W Renogy Solar panels, 2 MaxxAir fan vents, and a storage area to (hopefully) fit 2 big longboards. Did some minor sketching and dimensioning, and looking like a tight fit up there, (maxvents in the middle, solar panels long wise on passenger side, surfboard storage on driver side. The "tight fit" is because I plan on doing the maxAirs in the center between those two middle roof channels and this may interfere with the width of the surfboards..may be able to put in the vents off-center, but then I run into issues making it flush to the top of the roof; other option is have the boards hang over the side by a few inches)....... Since its a close fit, I decided to get the key parts first and play around with the positioning up top.
Solar Panels and Roof vent hath been bought!>
>>>Gosh its fun to throw invisible money at the internet and have things show up at my doorstep (thank you Amazon Prime).
Measuring will be done this weekend.....
In the meantime, two very important questions I have if anyone can help:
1) is there any book/guide I can purchase that shows where the "no drill" / "no cut" zones are on the transit (I'm assuming there's such areas you absolutely never want to mess with?)? Don't plan on getting too carried away with the jigsaw, but would like to be sure I'm not an idiot before cutting into something important.
2) To attach everything up top I'm now pondering two options:
a) custom rack from Aluminess (I'm based in San Diego, so would be nice to have them install and build to my specs, but gosh they're pricey!)
or
b) install factory roof rack cross bars myself, and fabricate some sort of mounting system up top (way cheaper, but way more work on my end! and taller vs. Aluminess' low profile options)
The option of factory cross bars with a thule/rhino rack is almost out of the running as I really want to incorporate a "EZ-Low" drop down roof holder on one side that I want to convert for the longboards (an EZ-Lo is basically a ladder holder that rests on the roof rack, but has a lever that makes the ladder holder articulate down to the side of the van for easy loading/unloading). This eliminates the need for a ladder, which is great since I want to put two storage boxes on the back of the doors and don't want anything on the side (is it illegal to have a side ladder???)
The question is:anyone have any good ideas for best way to fabricate a storage box up top? (will sit on the EZ low). I'm assuming must be light for the size given don't want to increase tip-over risk anymore than it currently is.
Thanks for the feedback, and I hope you will enjoy my hilarious mess ups in my build as I undoubtedly cut holes wrong, mcguiver a few things back together, and use excessive amounts of VHB.
