Ford Build Thread: FrED the Ford. '98 E350 7.3 4x4 The More We Explore's Adventure Van

[mbryson]

Holy cow, I leave RME for one year and come back to find you in a van looks killer !

can you post pics of your Taco or is that considered some kind of intellectual property or something? (Just got done watching some bearded dude swear about putting together a Caddy grille)

 

[Panos]

can you post pics of your Taco or is that considered some kind of intellectual property or something? (Just got done watching some bearded dude swear about putting together a Caddy grille)

haha, that grille sucked! yeah I plan to post my taco up as soon as I do something worthy of posting. However, I am starting a business that is relevant to the off-road world and will be sharing here on RME very soon !

 

[Bart]

Good to see you back here Panos.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Holy cow, I leave RME for one year and come back to find you in a van looks killer !

Thanks. Yeah, this place just went downhill after you left. Here I am in a domestic full-size.

I actually LOVE the van. I still miss my runner, but this van is the right vehicle for my life right now.

 

[Greg]

Forward the comments to the owner and tell him the same thing you just shared...

 

[sixstringsteve]

I left a voicemail with that exact info, in a very respectful tone. Just in case I'm wrong and I'm making an assumption, I'll withold judgement for now.

 

[sixstringsteve]

lately I've been working on a drawer system in the back. In hindsight, I should have just purchased a set of Outback drawers from cruiser outfitters, but hindsight is 20/20.

For years I've been drooling over this drawer setup I saw on ExPo. I'll pretty much be copying his setup, with one or two tweaks.


http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/47516-LATEST-PROJECT-Truck-Drawers-Sleeping-Platform




First I needed to copy this:

 

[sixstringsteve]

I'm filming all of this, but here are a few pics on the status.

I sold my table saw a while back, and it's the only piece I'm missing for this project. Moab_CJ5 was SUPER helpful and helped me build the majority of this.

This is what it looked like bringing it home from his house:

 

[sixstringsteve]

Last night I got one of the top drawer slides working. It's slowly coming together. This thing is STURDY with the slide all the way out.

 

[sixstringsteve]

It may not look like it, but I made a lot of progress today. I don't have time to build the drawers before our moab trip, but it should be fairly functional for the trip.










In addition to this project, magnum energy hooked us up with a great csw2012 inverter for the van (and a msh 3012 for the airstream! ). Thanks magnum!

 

[airmanwilliams]

What do you think about using some door pop switches I have and some led strips for your drawers so when you open them they light up?

Sorry I forgot about that seat photo, I'll try to get one in a few hours before I head to work.


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[sixstringsteve]

Lit drawers would be really
nice. I'll have to think about whether it'd be worth the hassle of running wires everywhere. I'd be more likely to just put them on a regular rocker switch

I found a set of split seats from a tracker, so I'm good on the seat situation. Thanks though.

 

[smartass_kid]

Are you going to use the platform for sleeping or bike storage?

 

[sixstringsteve]

Bike storage on the driver's side, sleeping platform on the pass side. I'll be adding another layer above the wide portion, then sleeping on top of that. I've got to fit all my toys in here: bike, tents, sleeping bags, boats, paddles, recovery gear, etc.

I may have to do some more downsizing and get rid of some of my stuff.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Fred gets an inverter.

[video=youtube;PFXYLEfxsKo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFXYLEfxsKo[/video]

 

[sixstringsteve]

No rack for us. I'm too short to reach anything on top of the van. I will keep 2 electric guitars in my mom's attic, and I'll bring my carbon fiber acoustic on the road. It's full-size though, and I'd love to get a smaller one that takes up less space. Carbon is appealing because it can handle huge temperature swings without ruining it.

We'll be bringing our little packrafts with us and an inflatable SUP or two.

 

[sixstringsteve]

She's more of a minimalist than I am. She wants to leave her sewing machine home, but i hope she takes it. She doesn't have any frivilous items left; she has gotten rid of almost everything. She's really attached to her bikes though, I don't see her ever giving that up (for which I'm grateful).

I'll probably have double the stuff she has (tools, guitar, little things). We'll see how it all plays out, but we've been gearing up for this and evaluating this for over a year now, so we've evaluated every item we own and we've done a pretty good job paring down. We'll see what happens when we actually load the Airstream up. I have a feeling it's going to fill up fast.

 

[sixstringsteve]

I surfed a bit as a teen. It's tough!

 

[sixstringsteve]

The stupid plastic ignition actuator broke on Fred today, leaving me stranded. I got a ride home to grab my tools, and I've been here for 4 hours trying to get this fixed before dark. Not gonna happen.

So far, I'm not in love with Fords. I'm definitely a toyota/honda guy. Why would a ford design an ignition piece this deep in the steering column out of plastic?

 

[moab_cj5]

That sucks bro. Do you need any help?


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