Ford E450 Box Truck RV Conversion

[BradKW]

I got a bunch of aluminum delivered this week... angle for door, solar, misc, "T" for door, and rectangle tube for bed platform.  Saved well over 50% from buying locally...only downside was the "T" that arrived wasn't exactly what I expected. It is very heavy guage, which I figured "ok, that's fine", but when I went to install I had two problems:

1) It was hard to cut...my metal working tools are a 4.5" grinder w/cutting wheel and a metal cut-off blade I put on my 10" mitre saw. I had visions of pretty 45 degree cut corners but gave up on that quickly. Still had to modify corners with back cuts which I freehanded into the mitre saw with it locked down in storage position, blade guard wedged up, and trigger clamped on.

2) The inside corners of the T-stock aren't 90's...they have a radius. which meant I had to trim off 3/8" all around door edge so it'd seat flush:

But got it done, applied FRP to last side, and installed. Looks good and has a nice flush fit...the metal serves as the door stop atm, preventing in-swing. Weight has ended up being an issue that needs addressed, ordered a set of 100# struts and will see how that goes. I'm not very optimistic given the physics involved of where struts will have to mount, but they're cheap and worth an experiment. Other options are expensive struts or a Rockler bed lift system...either one will be another $130 into it.

Oh, also added a rain gutter to protect hinges...it's unequal-leg angle. Top edge of door will get dressed too, but couldn't decide whether to run under hinges or up to them, both answers having a downside.

Before and After:

 

[flying kurbmaster]

you would have been better off cutting that alluminium with a wood blade, in the miter saw, one with a lot of teeth is best, alli is soft, you won't ruin your blade and you will be able to get the nice 45, clamp the metal down before cutting is best. looks good.

 

[highdesertranger]

kurb is right. use a blade with the most teeth you can find for your saw. this works with miter saws and skill saws. highdesertranger

 

[speedhighway46]

I cut all the aluminum strip material for my Peterbilt Motorhome conversion on my table saw using a carbide combination blade I got at Home Depot. Some of the material was 1/4" thick; I have cut hundreds of feet of it over the last five years. The blade is still razor sharp and still does a perfect job on both the aluminum and hard maple plywood.

Make sure to wear eye protection; better yet a full face shield. Those little bits of cut aluminum hurt when they hit your skin.

 

[flying kurbmaster]

I
Make sure to wear eye protection; better yet a full face shield. Those little bits of cut aluminum hurt when they hit your skin.

agreed along with ear protection and make sure you do up your collar they are also hot so you don't want them down your shirt. this is especially true when cutting on a table saw. ask me how I know.

 

[BradKW]

Been a couple weeks since update, but been putting in the time on weekends. Sometimes it feels like I spend as much time moving s**t around and cleaning stuff up as I do making progress.

Got the interior insulation pretty much done...feeling pretty optimistic about 3/4" polyIso over spray foam. Also primed the floor, basically just so it looked cleaner for layout.

Insulating the pocket door area took some time because if you screw through the metal, it'll screw up the door opening. Just as I had cut 2" foam board to fit and glue on, it occurred to me that I'd likely want to be able to attach other things to the wall as well...so nice when I think of these things before having to take it apart. Used Sikaflex 221 to mount 2x nailers and insulate between:

Ended the day today actually enjoying myself, playing around with a rough layout plan and tape:

 

[BradKW]

I wasn't happy with the thin, brittle, semi-transparent fiberglass roof panels. It came with a hole in it from a branch, and then I added a hole through mysterious means. I wanted something more substantial and able make for easy visual inspection...if was hard to see a small hole in panels even if knew where to look.

So the roof system will be 3 parts: Peel and Seal membrane, EtrnaBond edging, and an elastomeric coating once solar mounts and fan installed.

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

That's a mighty fine looking roof if I do say so, almost a shame to cover it with solar. But then it's such a good roof for solar, it would be a shame not to cover it with panels. Van's looking great, love seeing the updates.

 

[Mobilesport]

Where are you going to locate the shower pan?
Are you going to build shower walls or install one of those pre made fiberglass shower stall? 
I was looking around Menards home improvement store today and they have some real nice options.

 

[BradKW]

The shower will either go in front of where you see the Nature's Head sitting and overlap the door, or it'll swap with the toilet:
[img=250x250]http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/...ads/IMG_20160724_172239_zpsjejigfju.jpg[/img]

I wish we had a Menard's...or a Lowes...or even a normal HD. I was just in HD this morning, and they stock exactly one shower pan, a 38" neo-corner. I am thinking I want a 36" neo...there's some nice pre-made surrounds that I like, but I may end up using the neo-corner backwards so the chopped corner adds walkway space, and the pre-mades are designed for the neo-corner to be the door. So probably will end up using FRP or similar...

 

[highdesertranger]

if you go on line you can order one and they will deliver to your Home Depot for free. I would go with a three sided one myself. the ones with the separate walls never stayed sealed. even more so in a vehicle. highdesertranger

 

[Cammalu]

Don't forget about RV graveyards for parts an ideas


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Gary68]

not sure if you covered this but have to ask,what you got planed with all that juice,mobile power plant?rollin light show?

 

[lost sailor]

Wow! Beautiful craftsmanship. Engineering is really the word for it. Congrats on your vehicle, I empathize with you on working in that heat!
I lived up north from you, in the Lauderdale area for some years. I have been thinking about a box truck too, and was wondering how to remove
the roll up door. Your experience was super helpful. Man, you are gonna have a TON of power with all those panels! Thanks so much for taking
the time to document all the work, I know that is an extra chore by itself!

 

[BradKW]

My general progress can be summed up with:

1) built solar panel rack
2) installed rack on roof
3) installed MaxAir roof fan

[img=400x400]http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/...ads/IMG_20160807_150518_zpshmlefigb.jpg[/img]

You can see how one more large panel will go up, and then two 100 watt panels will bracket the fan longways.

This wasn't an easy install and I would suggest anyone looking at a similar installation on a similar vehicle strongly consider going with a pre-fab 3-bar roof rack for a base platform. They make them for box trucks. Downsides would be 1) added height, at least 8", 2) added visibility, anyone who glances will see you have a roof covered in solar even standing next to truck, 3) added expense of racks.

I'll go ahead and detail the issues I ran into anyway...I probably would have still done the same thing, but would have been nice to be mentally prepared the time involved.

Here's the basis of the difficulties, and it's a combination of 2 factors:

1) the semi-transparent roof material on this (and many) box trucks is basically garbage. Maybe when it's new it's better (not better enough I'd be happy with it), but after 12+ years it has become brittle. And look how thin it is:  
[img=400x400]http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/...ads/IMG_20160807_153236_zpsfxcfwnfy.jpg[/img]
What you're looking at is the piece I cut out for fan..I peeled back the roofing material I added and placed it next to a quarter. The quarter is thicker.

2) The interior roof supports are metal channel...wish I took a pic before insulating. But it is in the shape of a "V" with a flat bottom about 1.25" wide, instead of the point. All well and good...it was easy to attach furring strips and insulate the interior. Here's the problem: the top of the "V" that supports the roof is open and hollow. There IS a 3/8 roundover on top edges, but for a space of about 1 3/4" between the "tips" of the "V", it's just a hollow drop of 2.5" down to flat bottom on interior.

And that's only if you're centered...off a little to either side and you hit the sloping "V" wall which does nothing good when you're trying to through-bolt brackets to roof.

Get everything aligned, tighten up bolt, and guess what? That thin, brittle fiberglass will break, allowing you to suck your Z-bracket right through the roof material without ever getting the bolt properly tightened.

Eh, tired of talking about it, going shopping...I'll post pics of how I worked around this later...

 

[BradKW]

The challenges to mounting the solar rack were, in no particular order:

1) An unwelded, 14' x 6' aluminum rack made from "L" stock, unequal legs ( [img=200x200]http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODAwWDgwMA==/z/7JYAAOSw5VFWIVbY/$_58.JPG[/img] )... is flexible as heck. Awkward to maneuver, getting it square on roof was a challenge. Ended up having to put two of the large panels in place to hold it square because initial placement of first Z mounts was trial and error. If doing it again, I wouldn't use unequal leg stock and wouldn't make the rack so precise...between the tight fit and the small lip down, there just wasn't room for error. Trying to make it perfect cost me hours being forced to mount it perfectly square...margin for error would have been welcome.

2) The Z clips ( [img=100x100]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61el3JZRtkL._SL1500_.jpg[/img] ) are nice, I would recommend them. Unfortunately, they fit between the aforementioned "V" opening.

3) You end up dealing with through bolting a 1/4" x 3" stainless, and unless you have very long arms (or a helper) you'll need T-nuts. T-nuts are a very handy item in specific situations...one that you tend to forget about till needed:  [img=120x120]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71tHw5ukRtL._SL1159_.jpg[/img]  ...the teeth set into wood so nut doesn't spin when tightened.

4) Since roof braces are hidden from sight, holes through roof are a matter of transferring interior measurements to roof and crossing fingers.

5) Can't predrill the rack since won't know where Z bracket will be exactly. Once mounted, the idea of taking those little nuts/locking washers off, marking panels, drilling panels, and running a single bolt through bracket-rack-panel just wasn't happening. If we were talking about normal sized panels, sure...but between the size/weight of the large panels and the very low profile mounting, I couldn't deal with that.

6) Instead, the panels are sitting only on the nuts, not the aluminum channel...not desirable. So I still need to mark them, but I will drill a large hole so easily sits down over nut, and anchor through the side with SS self-tappers. I did read somewhere that panels should only be secured on bottom edge. I'm choosing to ignore that.

Basic anchor system:

[img=500x500]http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/...ads/IMG_20160807_105450_zpsw0hs5jqn.jpg[/img]
Form left to right: T-nut, 3" SS bolt, large galv washer to bridge the "V" and distribute weight, Z-bracket, SS bolt supplied with Z bracket, scrap of aluminum rack material...which is actually shown opposite as I used it, because that scrap already had a hole in it for picture   ;P

[img=300x300]http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/...ads/IMG_20160731_143249_zpsluz5epug.jpg[/img]

Drilled hole, covered with Eternabond tape, used Sikaflex caulking to place washer.... One thing the Eternabond is also doing for me is preventing dissimilar metal contact. I think.

[img=300x300]http://i465.photobucket.com/albums/...ads/IMG_20160731_143506_zpsg3k7v3id.jpg[/img]

Covered washer with more Eternabond tape, then bolted it down, applied more caulking. Wash/rinse/repeat.

Between 3 drills, assorted nut drivers, hardware, other items, measuring inside, setting T-nuts, mistakes and random forgetfulness, this really felt like a Keystone Cops operation solo...up and down, round and round, inside, topside, over and over.

It's coming out fine and I'm happy with it though. My frustrations just stemmed from an expectation of time, and at every turn was another "Awww, reallllly?!?" ...if ya know what I mean.

 

[BradKW]

Managed to get all the panels installed...the 3 big ones are the 975 watts for the 24v bank, and the two small ones are 200 watts for the 12v bank

The combination of size, weight, and low profile installation definitely created some challenges. All the panels needed to have their frames notched out at each bolt head, the bolts being what attaches the Z-brackets to the rack. If I didn't do this, the panels would have just rested only on the bolt heads, not seating down onto the rack. That was really a PITA.

But they are up, wired, and wires passed through to interior:

 

[highdesertranger]

nice. you have a mobile power plant. highdesertranger

 

[Mobilesport]

After the Solar is done , what's next?

 

[BradKW]

Probably finalize interior design and start building electrical and plumbing systems...which I expect will take 6 weeks, but that may be optimistic.