Old Van Gets Converted Into An Adventuremobile (61 pics)
- Category: Cars |
- 1 Jul, 2016 |
- Views: 8190 |
|
At first this old van wasn't much to look at. However, an Imgur user decided to dedicate his time to renovating it and after four months he turned it into the perfect adventuremobile.
"I spent the last 4 months building an adventuremobile on the weekends and evenings after work. Building this van was at times overwhelming, but always exciting. The experience has taught me many things and I am excited for the adventures to come. I hope you enjoy this tour. -Evan"
"The finished van/tiny home. It weighs in at 6,600 lbs. Well under the GVWR of 8,600 lbs. The total build added 1,300 lbs."
"Cleared out and ready to get started. It took a day to rip out all the factory trim and riveted cargo rails. I made a dump run to get rid of it."
"The day I bought a 2006 Ford E250 off Craigslist. Blank slate!"
"OSB floor complete. It flexed a lot because the metal floor was uneven had been dented from use as a cargo van. I eventually drilled a bunch of holes in the OSB to fill the underneath with great stuff foam. That took care of the flex."
"This is the giant hole cut I cut out of the van to access the propane tank. I'll be honest, this was terrifying. I wasn't 100% sure the propane tank I bought off amazon would fit in the space, with the brackets I had fashioned out of L brackets and sheet metal. I hadn't ever used a jig saw on metal before, and I wasn't really sure what I was doing. I just went for it and it worked out pretty well."
"10 gallon propane tank installed! It fits!"
"I used 30 cans of great stuff foam to fill the cavities. I vastly overestimated the amount of space that one can was useful for, and ended up making like 4 home depot runs by the end of this day. It took a while, but in the end it was a relatively cheap and easy way to insulate the dead space between the inner and outer sheet metal layers."
"Insulating the walls. For all the window wells, I put up two layers of reflectix with an airtight gap of a few inches between them. Seems to work well enough. The second layer is visible in the later photos. I held it in place with high strength metallic HVAC tape."
"Cutting a hole in the brand new roof to install the maxxfan. A little unnerving, but this was pretty straightforward compared to the propane access panel."
"Installing the flooring. I used spraylock 3100 to bond the floor to the OSB."
"Luan plywood with a light stain for the walls and doors. I used water based 2 in 1 poly stain on all of the plywood in the van."
"Batteries sitting inside the bed frame and secured in place with 3/8" bolts through the van body. The batteries total ~200lbs, so I wanted those very well secured."
"300 amp hours AGM deep cycle batteries with a 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter. Powers a blender or microwave without any trouble."
"Carpet and 1/4 plywood walls going in. I bonded lightweight carpet to the hightop with 3M high strength 90 spray glue."
"Building the galley from a re-purposed kitchen cabinet, free off craigslist. These are built out of particle board, so I hacked it apart and reinforced it with hard wood."
"Testing the freezer, with the bear necessities. The fridge draws 3.1 amps when it cycles on. I estimate is draws around 35 amp hours a day. 200 watts of solar panels fully recharges the batteries by sometime in the afternoon when it is sunny out."
"Water jug, and storage held in place with bungee straps. I replaced this cheap water jug with LCI water jugs that are built for military use. They are much beefier, and I am confident that they will never leak. They are 5 gallon and I have two of them. I can drain to the street or into another jug."
