Conversion time line

[mothercoder]

I'm trying to pull together a time line for the things I need to do (apply for SS, give notice on the apartment, get rid of stuff, give notice at work) and part of that is figuring out a drop dead date to find my van.  I will likely be hiring someone to do the insulation and finishing the walls and floor.  After that I will take over on the build. 

About how long should I estimate for having any mechanical work done, the insulation/walls/floor done and then finishing the build?  I do work full-time so I will only be able to devote nights and weekends to the build once the other stuff is done. 

Once I have an estimate for how long that will take, I can work backwards to dates for everything else. 

TIA!

 

[WalkaboutTed]

Well,
Hub and I are retired. We bought our van mid August. We took one month off for travel, but without that, Hub's been pretty much working about twenty five hours a week. I've done a little bit, but my job has mostly been moron support. Now, our's is a complicated build because we know exactly what we want, as we've camped probably two to three years, if you put all of our trips together, in the last twenty plus years. And that includes van dwelling in our old Nissan Quest.

Also, it's going slow because this is a "fly by the seats of our pants" project and we don't have a lot of wood working skills. And, since Hub doesn't want to spend money on tools that will just go into storage for however long, the only power tools he's used are an electric drill, a jigsaw and an angle grinder (that was only used on cutting steel for the Fantastic Vent fan in the roof and windows in the van doors, nothing else).

We expect to be on the road in about a month. We still have to put on the roof rack, the solar, finish the electric and other multiple modifications. It's been excruciatingly slow, but things are finally coming together enough that we can see blue sky.

So, what I'm saying is that your job will expand into whatever time you give it. And it's better, if you don't have much experience living simply and off the grid, under do your work, so you don't have to do it over again when you change your mind.

Good luck,
Ted

 

[TrainChaser]

"Moron support"?

That phrase opens the door to LOTS of intrepretation! Was it just a typo or a Freudian slip?

 

[WalkaboutTed]

You interpreted correctly. You should hear some of my idiotic ideas!

 

[Joseph_Grey]

I am a little confused by your question. As I read it, you are going to hire the insulation, walls and floor. If that is the case, a shop is going to want to turn that around pretty quick and get it out the door. I would be surprised if it took them more than three days. Maybe only two.

--joe

 

[mothercoder]

I am a little confused by your question.   As I read it, you are going to hire the insulation, walls and floor.   If that is the case, a shop is going to want to turn that around pretty quick and get it out the door.   I would be surprised if it took them more than three days.   Maybe only two.  

--joe

Hi Joe.  Sensible question. I won't be taking it to a shop.  I have connected with someone who I believe works some hours in a shop and then moonlights.  Or maybe he just freelances all his jobs.  In any case, I figure it will take him a bit longer than a shop might so I'd rather over-estimate the time it will take for him to complete the insulation and finishing.

 

[Gary68]

basic van,insulation,walls,2x4 bed, have all the supplies ready and an afternoon at rtr

me and my rv resto,probably a couple years the way i'm going

 

[mothercoder]

basic van,insulation,walls,2x4 bed, have all the supplies ready and an afternoon at rtr

me and my rv resto,probably a couple years the way i'm going

Would be great to do the conversion at the RTR or van build party but that's a touch hard to do when you live and work on the east coast. 

 

[TooManyDogs]

It'll depend on your vision of your build (if you have one) and your skills and available time.

I bought my van in Sept and it's been crazy slow for me, and I didn't even rip out walls or floors and I haven't insulated. Granted, I'm working 30+ hours a week and the weather hasn't cooperated but I finally installed the continuous duty solenoid a couple of weeks ago, took a week each to build the bed (I'm trying out the foam board technique so I've literally had to wait for paint to dry), build a box for the frig and other miscellaneous tinkering in side, a build box (closet) for a bike, take seat belts off (the bolts in the floors were a PITA). Lots of sitting in the van, trying to picture how I want the build, since I have not ever lived in a van/camper/RV before. Lots of research and asking questions. Also, it spent a couple of weeks at the mechanic's. I think I'm finally ready to take the van out on a test trip next week though the build is still a bit rough.

If you know what you want and can dedicate full-time to the build, you can probably do what I did in less than a week.

I've been following your threads. Good luck finding a suitable vehicle!

 

[Dirk Mitchell]

I am about to do my conversion on an E-350 so I have been looking into this. I am a handyman by trade so I have quite a bit of building experience but the car part is new. I picked mine up and drove it back from Colorado and dropped it off at my mechanics, he did a few maintenance things and a full tune up on it and I had it back in 2 days.

As far as insulation and flooring I am going to do that all at once and I am planning on 2 days to prep and get it all done so I would think if you are having someone do it then he would be done in a couple days or worst case a week at most.

The real question comes in when you start doing it yourself. This is a great conversion video I saw a few weeks back it is worth watching and the guy who did it is really good at getting back to you if you ask him a question. now he does it in 17 days but that is full time
He does a pretty good breakdown in another video he says plan on 300 hours so if you are doing that a few hours a night you can see how long it is going to take. That seems like a lot of hours but it goes by pretty quickly.

I haven't started videos of my conversion, but I have already bought a lot of the stuff needed for the build I got most of it from Amazon, if you want I can send you a list of it or you can look at my build thread if you are curious. https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=21117 it has most of the info. Now that we are not buried in snow I am hoping to get started next week.

I hope all goes well, if you were closer I would offer to help but I am in Utah so a bit far away.

 

[steamjam1]

Anything is possible. It depends on how much energy and money your willing to throw at it.