[GizzyAWD]

A new build has begun!

My wife and I ordered a 2020 350 AWD HR EL back at the end of July and we just picked it up last week!

I haven't had a chance to take it "off-road" or travel very far, but it is super fun to drive and I have no regrets so far.

I'll paste the list of mods we anticipate (from my intro page -- has a bit more info):

2020 350 AWD HR 148” EL Conversion

Hey Transit Peeps, My wife and I ordered a 2020 350 AWD HR 148” EL Transit back in July and are expecting a mid-September build date. You all have already been super helpful and we don’t even have the van yet! I’ll try to post a bunch of stuff as I go along, but I’ll give a brief run down of...

www.fordtransitusaforum.com

• Ventilation
  • maxxair fan deluxe
  • most forward fan adapter
  • miscellaneous windows with some sliders
• Insulation
  • havelock wool (2x 48lb bags)
• Heating
  • propane-powered propex
• Cooking
  • (trending towards not doing this) campchef outdoor oven deluxe
• Fresh water
  • 24 gal wheel-well molded tank (expensive but potentially worth the space efficiency)
• Grey water
  • TBD but likely 7 gallon water jug stored inside
• Hot water
  • propane water heater (to be stored near propane tank and sliding door - used outside)
• Propane source
  • 20 lb tank in vented locker (closely following faroutride)
• Solar
  • 2x 200W newapower panels
  • explorist 200Ah/400W package
    • 2x 100Ah battleborns
    • 150/35 MPPT
    • 2000W inverter/charger
    • sterling batt/batt charger
    • other doodads
• Layout
  • tentative: hybrid bench and platform bed
    • elevated bench to allow for small garage
• 2” van compass lift with ~31 in the tires (max recommended by van compass)
  • Front Red Coils
  • Rear mini spring pack
  • Shock mount extensions
• (probable) DIY Al roof rack

 

[GizzyAWD]

Day 1: Sound Deadening: Kilmat

• First van mods!
• About 50% done.
  • Need to do ceiling, behind panels, and where windows won't be installed.

 

[nvydvrdude]

GizzyAWD,
Can you share the out the door cost of the van? Does it have the EB engine?

 

[GizzyAWD]

GizzyAWD,
Can you share the out the door cost of the van? Does it have the EB engine?

$53942 before taxes and fees. With EB engine, pretty much all the driver assist functions, and swivel seats.

 

[GizzyAWD]

Exciting update for iPad Pro / iPhone 12 owners. “3D Scanner App” made some updates to their app that allow high resolution scanning and measurements. I plan on making some 3D printed parts using some scan data. Check out the example below.

 

[GizzyAWD]

Lot’s build updates, although it still seems like nothing has changed all that much....

1. Some Havelock wool insulation in the ribs and doors.
* Pro-tips:
* Get some good scissors.
* Send your fish tape down through the rib to the entry point where you will stuff the wool, attach fish tape to wool, and pull through (rather than push).

2. Subfloor

3. Engineered vinyl floors
* Sealed the openings with aluminum angle, silicone caulk, Fuze-it, neoprene strips, and rubber sealant.

5. Roof Fan (Most-Forward Adapter)

6. Wheel well box

7. 90% of power equipment connections

 

[njvagabond]

@GizzyAWD
Cool use of the scan to create the drawing for wheel well enclosure. After your post about this feature I was disappointed to find out that my new SE2020 (~iPhone 11) was a no go. My wife is going to get a new android phone soon. I see Samsung now has 3D scan on there high end phones. Maybe I should buy her a nice "gift"

How did you mount the enclosure to the van? Nice packaging with the placement of the Sterling.

 

[GizzyAWD]

@GizzyAWD
Cool use of the scan to create the drawing for wheel well enclosure. After your post about this feature I was disappointed to find out that my new SE2020 (~iPhone 11) was a no go. My wife is going to get a new android phone soon. I see Samsung now has 3D scan on there high end phones. Maybe I should buy her a nice "gift"

How did you mount the enclosure to the van? Nice packaging with the placement of the Sterling.

Thanks! I’ve been loving the iPad Pro for designing stuff for the van. I can definitely recommend getting a device with one of those scanners.

I have yet to attached the wheel well box but will use pocket screws to attached to another piece of plywood/furring strips that is mounted to the wall via cross nuts / bolts.

 

[PNW_Camper]

Really clean looking Gizz! Going to mention this just because you clearly have high attention to detail (no intention of being critical) but you might consider rotating your MPPT controller 90 degrees. That unit and many others (like B2Bs) call for the wires to be exiting downward during installation. For optimal cooling, the heatsink fins should run vertical to prevent overheating which will result in reduced output and possible early failure.

 

[GizzyAWD]

Really clean looking Gizz! Going to mention this just because you clearly have high attention to detail (no intention of being critical) but you might consider rotating your MPPT controller 90 degrees. That unit and many others (like B2Bs) call for the wires to be exiting downward during installation. For optimal cooling, the heatsink fins should run vertical to prevent overheating which will result in reduced output and possible early failure.

Thanks a lot! Also thanks for the heads up. I will be the first to admit I am not going through the manuals a well I as should. I am considering adding some small PC fans to this area (which I think will eventually be enclosed) to keep the air cool in this region, so I imagine that may be enough to make up for the 90 deg fin offset. I’ll see if I can scratch my head and think of an easy way to rotate and mount otherwise.

 

[GizzyAWD]

Thanks a lot! Also thanks for the heads up. I will be the first to admit I am not going through the manuals a well I as should. I am considering adding some small PC fans to this area (which I think will eventually be enclosed) to keep the air cool in this region, so I imagine that may be enough to make up for the 90 deg fin offset. I’ll see if I can scratch my head and think of an easy way to rotate and mount otherwise.

FYI: This thread seems to confirm your advice, but also suggests that an additional fan should be ok.

Can I mount the MPPT and Multiplus horizontally? - Victron Community

community.victronenergy.com

 

[GizzyAWD]

Roof Rack:

So I went through the trouble of CAD’ing up a roof rack inspired by the design here:

Question about roof rack designs/solar configuration for...

Hey everyone. I hope this is the right forum section for this question. I'm preparing on purchasing an extended highroof transit in the near future, and have started thinking about solar panel mountings. I currently have 600W of panels plus a Maxxair fan on my T1N 158" wheelbase sprinter, and I...

www.fordtransitusaforum.com

I’m sure there are ways to cut down the cost further, but, in the end, once I tallied the 8020 cost with the parts I felt would produce the results I was looking for it was around ~1200$. I tried changing from black anodized to “clear“ and that got me down to about ~1000$.

I found Flatline Van Co. rack, which seemed relatively affordable compared to other companies (Aluminess, etc). It seemed like paying 300$ extra bucks for something well engineered (and better looking) would be worth it. Plus, I’m not even sure how structurally sound and frustration-free my design would have been anyway.

Transit 148" High Roof Extended Low Pro Roof Rack

Affordable, Adjustable, and Low Profile. The Transit 148 HR EXT Roof Rack is the best-selling Transit rack on the market. Fast & free shipping.

flatlinevanco.com

Here are a bunch of pictures from the CAD design with the 8020 part number in the layer name in case anyone is interested in pursuing that route.

Full transparency: Getting all the parts from FVC was a bit of a saga. First they forgot the sealing washers, which they proactively sent an email saying to wait to install. Once I received those, I opened the other two packages I received only to realize I was missing joining plates, fasteners, and feet gaskets. Once I told them that, I got the hardware but no side rail joining plates... They were then able to overnight the plates which I received ahead of schedule. So...with that said: they have been super responsive to all communication and very apologetic. They sent all sorts of free FVC swag and gave me a discount code. So, overall, it has been a positive experience, but I would just suggest to maintain a tight communication with the staff there and check all your boxes as they arrive. I think the end product looks pretty great (see below). I’ll mounting solar panels and a roof deck soon.

Some notes on install (in no particular order): there were a few slightly different bolts (ones with “teeth” on the underside of the head and ones without). The teeth bolts definitely stayed more tight than the others. It wasn’t super clear to me which side the washers needed to go on (side rail to mounting feet — seems like I should know this, but in the end google told me on the nut side). It seems like some of these bolts should have some loctite on them, but that is not called out by FVC as far as I can tell. I used Goo Gone (and alcohol) to and a plastic razor blade to get the glue off the roof bolt holes. Once I had the side rails and 4 cross bars installed, I tightened down the feet to the roof. I used some flex seal around the edge of the mounting foot because the neoprene gasket didn’t seem crazy robust from moisture getting in. It actually just dumped some rain in LA and it is still dry inside.

Here is the FVC rack install Timelapse.

Here is the FVC rack installed (I still need to install 3 more cross bars that comes with it):

 

[njvagabond]

Looks like you might have a rust issue.
Impressive work.

 

[Janus9]

What’s nice about that rack is a Fiamma awning will bolt right on.

 

[GizzyAWD]

What’s nice about that rack is a Fiamma awning will bolt right on.

Yea I might have get one of those...

 

[palmer1991]

Hi. The floor looks great. I watched your video, and had a couple questions on how you did it. What material did you use for the grid under the subfloor/plywood? Did you attach the grid to the metal van floor, or is the entire floor floating? Is that plywood painted white or another type of material? If all material used is wood and it's all floating, are you concerned about the wood warping? Why did you seal the perimeter? Seems like it would be better not to seal it so it can breath. Thanks, Ryan

 

[GizzyAWD]

Hi. The floor looks great. I watched your video, and had a couple questions on how you did it. What material did you use for the grid under the subfloor/plywood? Did you attach the grid to the metal van floor, or is the entire floor floating? Is that plywood painted white or another type of material? If all material used is wood and it's all floating, are you concerned about the wood warping? Why did you seal the perimeter? Seems like it would be better not to seal it so it can breath. Thanks, Ryan

Hey, thanks Ryan! Here is the run down on the subfloor/floor:

• 1x2 pine furring strips
  • Kilz mold and mildew primed
  • fuze it construction adhesive from furring strip to van floor.
• 1/2” sande plywood
  • Kilz mold and mildew primed
  • wood screw from plywood to furring strips (a lot of screws)
  • pocket screw from plywood to plywood (for alignment and shrinking the gap between plywood pieces)
• engineered vinyl floor on top of plywood
  • floating except for a section of double sided tape stuff near the door and e brake sections.
  • white silicone caulk around the edges
    • Hopefully this is “squishy” enough to account for some expansion in the vinyl.
• The floor isn’t totally sealed.
  • The back of the floor is pretty sealed
    • The floor edge is covered in aluminum angle
    • the gap is taken up by 3 neoprene strips i had and then sealed with flex seal.
  • The front by the e-brake is “sealed” with a bunch of butyl tape.
    • It took a long time to crap that in by hand since I didn’t account for not being able to reach it with a caulk gun.
  • The side door does breath.
    • The aluminum angle over hangs a bit and allows for some vented area.
    • I put a bug screen in between to prevent critters from getting in.

I’m not too worried about the floor warping as this is probably 99% of the subfloor materials I have seen used before. Also, I think it is secure enough (even before other structures on top) that it wont move too much.

I‘m not sure if this is enough ventilation for the floor or not. I wanted to err on the side of preventing a large amount of liquids from getting in from the back and front (i intend on having wet stuff in the back and maybe a spill in the front at some point). I am curious to hear your thoughts or if you found any other good resources on how much is a good amount of ventilation.

Here is a cartoon of the side step finish.

Here is a cartoon of the front floor finish (it says plumbers putty but i use butyl tape).

Here is a cartoon of the rear floor finish (it says silicone caulk on the floor to neoprene but i used flex seal - two coats).

Here are a series of pics for the rear finish.

Here is a zoom in of the butyl tape crammed in the front.

Two pics shows the side step finish and the bug screen (not super informative sorry).

 

[palmer1991]

Thanks for the reply. I think you are good on the ventilation, but everyone will have an opinion on that so just take mine with a grain of salt. Where did you buy your lumber? It's like looking thru hockey sticks at any home improvement store I go to for lumber.

 

[GizzyAWD]

Thanks for the reply. I think you are good on the ventilation, but everyone will have an opinion on that so just take mine with a grain of salt. Where did you buy your lumber? It's like looking thru hockey sticks at any home improvement store I go to for lumber.

Yea, unfortunately I just took what I could get at home depot. I basically took all off the furring strips they had and got some Sande plywood (they didn’t have Baltic birch and from what I read sande is better for moist environments — I’m sure there is a whole thread on that topic).

 

[GapRunr]

Here is the FVC rack installed (I still need to install 3 more cross bars that comes with it):
View attachment 145887

I watched the time lapse of your rack install and see the picture of the final product, and I have to admit I am confused about one thing. Do you have bird bones? If I crouched around on the roof like you did at the end of the video my roof would be littered with dents and creases.