FarOutVan: Ford Transit 2016 DIY campervan conversion for MTB & splitboarding

[FarOutRide]

So here we are, we just packed the van and left our home! It feels unreal!

We stopped by the scale and just published the weight summary of our build:

http://faroutride.com/weight-summary/

We are pleased with the conversion added weight, but shocked by the payload we're carrying! It was hard getting rid of things & food we had in the house, so we will have to downsize the van now hihi.

 

[highdesertranger]

I have PMed you and you have ignored me. this thread needs to be moved this does not belong in the "Newcomers corner". if you make another post in this thread without contacting me I will close this thread. highdesertranger

 

[FarOutRide]

Outstanding build you've got here!!!

(can I come with you??)


Best of Luck with this new great adventure!

Thanks!

Counting down!! Congrats! One more day now?

We've done it now! We're on the road
We're still visiting friends and family, then by mid-september we get far from home! We're so exhausted from the downsizing of the house, the last few days were just CRAZY!

 

[FarOutRide]

We celebrated our first day as full-timers by… doing some upgrade to the van! We upgraded the basic Ford factory radio with a Joying Android aftermarket Radio; it got WiFi, Bluetooth, USB port, SD card Port, 7″ 1024px touchscreen display, yadayadayadablingbling. 

Oh we’re glad we went for it! The sound has improved and this thing is much more fun & entertaining to use! Having Google Map displayed on the 7” screen and yelling us driving directions has reduced the number of pilot/co-pilot fights, we must admit!

Here is the full installation write-up:
http://faroutride.com/radio-upgrade/

See you on the road!

 

[FarOutRide]

We still have a backlog of conversion articles to write (insulated window covers, rear air-vent floor intake, "garage" final build-out, speakers upgrade); the last weeks were just INSANE, time flew by.

But today's article is pretty special, as it marks the very beginning of our journey on the road. Finally. Today September 1st, we leave everything behind and we just drive (far). Life's good!!


http://faroutride.com/day-1/

 

[FarOutRide]

We're on the road now and we've been carrying the speakers & thinsulate for too long... it's using too much of our precious living space, so we finally stopped at a Walmart parking in Ohio and did the job!

To make a long story short, we had the factory 2 speakers system and the sound is not that great... So we upgraded for JBL GT7-6C speakers system (6.5" speakers + tweeters) since they seems so popular and the reviews are great.
It's a really nice improvement! The sound is much deeper and clearer after the upgrade, it's really worth it. We also took this opportunity to add Thinsulate to our front doors because we'll hit the Rocky Mountains in a few days and winter is imminent...

Here is the full write-up:
http://faroutride.com/speakers-upgrade/

See you on the road!
Antoine

 

[FarOutRide]

We LOVE riding our mountain bikes. It can only means two things: 
1-We drink a lot of craft beer
2-We take a lot of showers. 

Let's focus on the latest item: http://faroutride.com/exterior-shower/

Cheers!

 

[FarOutRide]

Today marks our first month on the road! Time flies!

We made an article about our lessons learned, van report & some highlights:
http://faroutride.com/first-month/

Cheers!

 

[FarOutRide]

Budget is probably the biggest contributor of the "GO/NO-GO" decision for a trip like ours. A few years ago, we had to make guesstimates about our foreseen travel expenses. We wish we had a baseline to start with... So, in hope of helping future travelers, here are our actual expenses for the month of September 2017!


http://faroutride.com/vanlife-actual-cost/

 

[FarOutRide]

While curtains work for houses, we think insulated window covers are a better option for campervans...
They are lightproof (for shade & privacy) and insulated (to keep us cool in summer, warm in winter).
We're obsessed with functionality and with the rare earth magnets all around the edges, they just "snap" to the van metal window contour. Easy breazy!

On a hot and sunny summer day, the covers will prevent a green house effect; it makes a HUGE difference!
On cold days (winter, but also in fall/spring at night), they also make a big difference; we sometimes remove them to get better cell phone signal and it doesn't take long before it gets uncomfortably cold.


Here is our write-up:
http://faroutride.com/insulated-window-covers/

Cheers!

 

[mayble]

Thanks for the visual - I've been working on this in my head for awhile now, so it's good to see how it comes together.
I'll probably use thinner materials that can hopefully be sewn by machine (no snowy winters in my future!).  Not sure I have the patience you guys do.  Maybe I can borrow your mother in law?

 

[FarOutRide]

Thanks for the visual - I've been working on this in my head for awhile now, so it's good to see how it comes together.
I'll probably use thinner materials that can hopefully be sewn by machine (no snowy winters in my future!).  Not sure I have the patience you guys do.  Maybe I can borrow your mother in law?

Haha, I doubt that
Just a layer of EZ-Cool would probably do the job for the summer tho.

 

[FarOutRide]

We took some time in Salt Lake City to perform this small upgrade: an on board mountain bike tire inflator. Why "mountain bike"? Because we tapped into our Air Lift system and it has some limitations (such as air compressor low volume displacement and max 100 PSI); make sure to read the intro of the article to fully be aware of the limitations.

Half of the Faroutcrew thinks this is a useless upgrade (she's right in a way), the other half LOVE this upgrade (Hey I'm the one who pump the tires)!

Anyway, here's the write-up:
http://faroutride.com/tire-inflator/

Cheers!

 

[highdesertranger]

first I really dislike having to be redirected to another site to see what your talking about. I do this on my system to but I don't use the air bag air at all. I tap into the compressor line before the air bag controller. this way the aux air is isolated from the air bag air because the bag controller acts like a check valve. I then added a second power switch to the compressor so that it can run without having to use the air bag controller. now on my system I run an engine driven compressor with an aux tank. I designed the whole system to operate this way, I can run air tools, inflate tires, have compressed air for whatever and not touch the air bag system. I really wish you would post your stuff here instead of redirecting us, it's like the only reason you come here is to redirect us. highdesertranger

 

[John61CT]

If it was spamming lots of different threads maybe, putting summary update notice posts to a dedicated thread like this makes it easy to ignore.

If every relevant valuable info blog were tracked here like that IMO would make the forum much more valuable.

Same with wiki style content like frater's

Please let's be more open to the outside ref's, not less.

just IMO of course, Bob's site to do what he likes and you da mod

 

[FarOutRide]

I don't think duplicate my work here would be a good idea, as I frequently make corrections and improvements on the website (i will loose track if I duplicate things here). Sorry if it looks spammy, if that helps, here is the LAST article of the conversion. I can delete this whole thread if it's against the forum rule, just let me know.

In this article we present you our final garage layout and how we achieved to fit SO MUCH stuff in it!

http://faroutride.com/garage/

Thanks for reading! See you on the road!