I have a cargo MR. I have not installed any additional flooring other than factory mat. I installed a ceiling BETWEEN the ribs that is about an inch up from the bottom of the ribs. I'm 5'10 and can stand without hitting the ceiling. If I stand tall and up on my toes a bit I can hit my head on the ribs. If you only attach a thin panel (1/4") to the bottom of the ribs you could probably stand up just fine. Assuming you don't go crazy with a floor. If you buy a passenger van, forget about it. You already lose 2.5" because of the raised floor.

There are literally thousands of posts about insulation, and thousands of opinions. My opinion, obviously the most important one, is that people get obsessed and put in more than they need. 2" of anything is going to be GREAT in the ceiling and walls, and the floor doesn't need much at all, maybe enough to fill the valleys in the floor sheetmetal (about 1/2"). Hobos living in their vans or people camping in extreme conditions such as below zero weather might decide to go a little thicker, but a smaller heater like an ESPAR would be more practical than insulating to the point of suffocation, and one second of a door opening loses most of the heat anyway.

The width in the back is adequate for a East/West bed, depending on how you sleep. If you put your arm above your head or point your toes with your leg straight you'll probably run out of room at 5'9". A lot of people find it uncomfortable to sleep with the wall just inches from the top of their head. You should try it out by making a cardboard approximation on your bed at home, or just on the floor with the interior measurements; pull a dresser or something that distance from a wall and lay down.

 

Bill is this a medium roof? Looks like more space for the cabinets above the windows than I expected if it is!

 

I'm 5'9" and my wife is 5'1". Standing is not a problem. I've insulated the walls but have yet to tackle the ceiling. I like what Surly Bill did and will probably do something similar.

 

Be forewarned: It's a lot more time consuming and technical than just screwing a sheet of something to the ribs. There are angle rips to be made, and contour notches on some pieces. I used laminate flooring held up with ledgers attached to the sides of the ribs. The hard part was getting the nuts on the bolts inside the ribs; I used the existing holes so I had no choice on placement. Specialty tool had to be fabricated to hold them to get bolt started.

 

I am 5'8" and have a MR. Ceiling is 1/2 lower than cross ribs. Floor is 1 in above floor ribs. I stand up fine inside car, having maybe 1 in to spare. Bed is east west. Side walls are 1 1/2 in from metal skin. I sleep fine but tight. You may feel your head touching wall if you're 5'9'' but I think manageable.

 

At 6'2" with a Medium roof I have to tip my head when standing. The most significant consideration I had when deciding on Med or High was "How much time will I actually be spending standing in the van?" After giving it some thought I realized that having enough room to put on my pants was the biggest limiting factor. There was enough room for that, and, I also preferred the looks of the Med over the High roof.

Still, I built a low floor and the ceiling is 1/4" below the ribs to maximize the space. Details on the construction are in the build thread.

Read through all the build threads you can stand and you will not only get a lot of ideas, you will also discover what to avoid doing.

Best wishes on your project.

 

At 6'2" with a Medium roof I have to tip my head when standing. The most significant consideration I had when deciding on Med or High was "How much time will I actually be spending standing in the van?" After giving it some thought I realized that having enough room to put on my pants was the biggest limiting factor. There was enough room for that, and, I also preferred the looks of the Med over the High roof.

Still, I built a low floor and the ceiling is 1/4" below the ribs to maximize the space. Details on the construction are in the build thread.

Read through all the build threads you can stand and you will not only get a lot of ideas, you will also discover what to avoid doing.

Best wishes on your project.

Is your bed east/west? I'm also 6'2" and wondering if I can make it work.

 

I'm 5'10" and have a medium roof Transit. The floor is 1/2" thick plywood with vinyl flooring. No floor insulation, except Noico in the floor ridge valleys. The ceiling is .20" luan plywood attached below the roof ribs finished with indoor/outdoor carpet. 1/8" closed cell foam is between the luan plywood and the roof ribs to prevent any squeaking. Thinsulate is installed between the metal roof ribs above the ceiling luan plywood. With this setup, I just barely touch the ceiling with the top of my head wearing shoes. If the shoes are off, I can move around in the van without touching the ceiling in the center at all.

A queen size is installed sideways at the rear of the van. I find it to be long enough to sleep comfortably. The bed is made using aluminum attached to the Ford mounting holes with Plus Nuts and Ikea bed rails. An 8" thick memory foam mattress was cut shorter to fit sideways in the van. You can read more about bed installations using Ikea rails here: https://www.fordtransitusaforum.com/camper-vans-conversions/73060-wagon-platform-bed.html

 

mid roof height is 6' 3 "

High roof is 6'9"

 

I'm 6'0", and we have a MR van. I'd make the same decision again & again, especially given the points that Travlin made above.

I agree with surly Bill about minimal floor insulation, given our intended use. One space-saving method I used (discovered by accident, actually) is that I didn't use any plywood for the floor. We used the same 8mm COREtec luxury vinyl plank flooring we have in our house's kitchen. The planks are quite rigid with minimal flex, so rather than add the weight & cost of a plywood floor, we just used a combination of 1/2" XPS between the floor ribs, 1/4" XPS on top of the ribs, and a 1/4" layer of EZ Cool on top of that. I installed the COREtec directly on top of the EZ Cool. We're very pleased with the end result, and I even question whether the 1/4" of EZ Cool was needed. I have pics on Page 1 of my build thread.

Our ceiling isn't done yet, and just has 3M Thinsulate adhered to the roof at this point (we haven't even insulated the ribs yet). I do like surly Bill's head clearance-saving idea for the ceiling...quite brilliant, IMHO.

Craig

 

Love your floor. How is it holding up with no plywood and your equipment/furniture sitting on it? We’re hoping to do the same thing. THX!

 

I'm probably out of date but we always had to include the sw partnumber on the customer drawings - everytime the sw changed. Better ask Joe.

 

Oops - wrong window!

 

Hey guys, so while my wife and I are saving for our Transit we're trying to find as much info as we can between the models.

We really prefer the idea of the mid roof as there would be standing room and the vehicle would be a reasonable height. We don't care for the height of the tall roof.

That said, we're wondering if the 6 feet of interior height is still enough to stand in comfortably once the ceiling and floor is installed.

She's 5'2" and I'm 5'9", so conveniently we're not very tall people. But that leaves only 3" of room to work with before I can't stand comfortably. It's important to us to be able to stand comfortably because we will be living in the van for longer periods of time.

So, we'd like to hear from other Transit owners how you guys feel about the interior height once your ceiling and flooring has been installed. Do those of you (seems to be a majority of owners here go Med roof) with the medium roof find it's comfortable inside after installation? Do those with the tall roof feel it's worth the additional height/space?

Also, is the Transit wide enough to install a bed across the back instead of lengthwise? We're looking to conserve space as much as possible.

Thanks folks!

I am 5’9”, barely feel ceiling w shoes on
You will be fine if you keep flooring down to 1/2”

 

We converted a med roof passenger van. We retained the factory interior. The factory floor is about 2" thick to contain the seat rails and heating ducts. The factory ceiling is very thin but mounts about 3/4" below the roof beams. I'm 5'11" and I just touch the ceiling, when I stand up, wearing shoes. I have some head room when I stand under the front Maxxair fan, which is located in a convenient location for using the kitchen. I find that I can move around easily in the mid roof with the factory interior. For traveling the height is perfect, but I would want more head room if I planned to live in the van full time.