Baby steps: Starting with a small van.

[Phreedom]

Good for you! I've considered many vans and TC would fit best for my lifestyle. Since I'll be living and working in the same geographic area, stealth is a high priority for me. In my opinion, it is one of the stealthiest vans because it can blend in just about anywhere. Granted it is smaller and if I were traveling a lot, I'd probably go for something bigger like a full size Transit or Sprinter.

You can get them for a good price used and given their mechanical simplicity, less prone to expensive breakdowns. For a little more $$, one can get a certified pre-owned with a warranty.

 

[BigT]

I've considered many vans and TC would fit best for my lifestyle. Since I'll be living and working in the same geographic area, stealth is a high priority for me. In my opinion, it is one of the stealthiest vans because it can blend in just about anywhere. Granted it is smaller and if I were traveling a lot, I'd probably go for something bigger like a full size Transit or Sprinter.

You can get them for a good price used.
For a little more $$, one can get a certified pre-owned with a warranty.

Yup. Those are all things I took into consideration when I chose this newer, smaller model. I'll be keeping my job, and the storage place is less than a mile from work, so I won't need to store much in the vehicle, making it possible to get away with less living space.

The neighborhood around my work is industrial and I see a few regular van-dwellers and RV'ers parked on the surrounding streets, so I know it won't be a problem with my little van. I can even park in the driveway at work, just outside the security gates, so I have the option to park off-street on private property where the cops can't give me a hard time (were they even to want to).

Certified pre-owned with a warranty is just what I got, with low miles and for half what I would have paid new OTD..

I did a little quick math (all ballpark figures) and it looks like I could save upwards of $14,000 a year simply by removing rent and utilities from my monthly expenses. Two or threes years of that and I could put the savings towards a newer van, maybe even a brand new one.

I'm liking this idea more and more.

 

[RVTravel]

You can get a new transit connect with a 2.5 liter 4 cyl engine cant you? I'd imagine those will go just fine.

 

[akrvbob]

BigT, I don't want to hijack your thread, I love what you did with yours! But I would like folks to see a Tansit in a full conversion. I have a friend who has a small Transit and takes it on trips and he says he regularly gets 28 mpg on the freeway. I'm not sure why the difference.

If you're interested in a more elaborate conversion, take a look at these posts:
http://www.cheaprvliving.com/blog/converting-a-ford-transit-connect/
http://www.cheaprvliving.com/blog/update-ford-transit-connect-ftc/

Here are some pics of his rig

 

[BigT]

Thanks, Bob, I've been in touch with that guy before when I had a different account on this site (Timbo).
That's a great looking rig and something I seriously considered when I was first planning my camper kit.
The expense and the weight stopped me once I found out I wasn't getting the mpg I was hoping for.

I did a little research, and it seems different years of the TC are rated at various mpg. I was hoping for 28. No luck. :/

 

[RVTravel]

2010 Ford Transit Connect mpg

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=26462

 

[BigT]

Yeah, that sounds about right. I've never owned a car that got exactly as advertised, though, so 20mpg doesn't surprise me.

 

[BigT]

The latest addition (a work in progress):  Battery box/toilet mount.  

I love having a toilet in the van for those trips to crowded places, like music festivals with a line to the bathroom or super-hot pit toilets full of flies and bees.  
The only problem is that my "camp-crapper" is a wee bit top heavy and tends to fall over or slide around if I take a sharp turn.  

I'm hoping this box will help keep it from tipping over.  The battery box is fastened to the same piece of plywood, so I figure extra weight will ensure that it's not going anywhere.  
An added benefit of this system is that when/if I remove the toilet, the box pulls double-duty as a place to set things (bags of groceries, etc.) to keep them in place.    

 

[Almost There]

You can make the toilet less top heavy by not filling the clean water reservoir too full. In all my years using a porta pottie I don't think I ever used all the clean water before the black water tank needed to be empty. Usually I ended up with a 2:1 ratio....empty the black tank for every time I had to fill the clean water IIRC.

Is that base board mounted on something. The pic shows it sitting on top of something nice and shiny and red. The reason I ask is if it's not screwed or latched down to something that won't ever move, an accident or a sudden stop would have the whole thing become a projectile...not something you ever want a porta pottie nor a battery ever to become.

 

[BigT]

It's sitting on my bed in that picture. I haven't attached it to the van yet.
The van has a carpeted plywood floor, so the plan is to sink wood screws down through the carpet to the wood to secure it.

I'm not sure how much water is in the top tank but I know it's never full, still, with a carpet floor, it likes to slide around.
I try to use it as little as possible so there's no need for the full 3 gallons in the top tank.

 

[SoulRaven]

Is that base board mounted on something. The pic shows it sitting on top of something nice and shiny and red. The reason I ask is if it's not screwed or latched down to something that won't ever move, an accident or a sudden stop would have the whole thing become a projectile...not something you ever want a porta pottie nor a battery ever to become.

If you've ever seen any RV wrecks, one thing that really sticks in your mind is all the flying sharp shards of wood from stuff being ripped from the walls and floor.  They disintegrate inside, and all that stuff being bolted down didn't help.

If a collision is bad enough for stuff to go flying, I'm not sure there is a solution.

 

[Almost There]

If you've ever seen any RV wrecks, one thing that really sticks in your mind is all the flying sharp shards of wood from stuff being ripped from the walls and floor.  They disintegrate inside, and all that stuff being bolted down didn't help.

If a collision is bad enough for stuff to go flying, I'm not sure there is a solution.

Actually I did - my mobile stained glass studio got rolled in an accident.

Other than a couple of overhead cabinets that came off the wall and the ceiling when the roof got ripped off at the seams,  my cabinets survived intact.

The 'flying sharp shards' were all glass!!

And the tire tracks on the ceiling were from the loose spare that was laying on the floor.

It was certainly a picture to behold but the mess wasn't from the cabinetry.

BTW, it was a Wells Cargo trailer which is one of the reasons I recommend them so heartily!

 

[BigT]

I did a diff vers of  the rear tables in my Ford over here. Made them two units, one folding down to each door.

The kayak trick, . . . that you're going to have to show me  

I'm about to do the same thing with my large/wide rear table.  I think two smaller tables that fold down against each door will be a better idea.
One advantage of doing it that way, for me, will be that I won't have to store the larger table under the bed and can add some sliding, wire drawers to the underside of the bed instead.  It would also be nice to be able to get in and out of the rear of the van with one or both of the tables deployed.  Something I can't do with that huge "kitchen counter" back there.  

As for using the awning bar to load the kayak onto the saddles: Here's how I do it (sorry it took me so long to take the photos). 
The hull of the kayak slides smoothly across the bar.