RV Conversion Part 1

After one month of starting building out my Ford Transit Connect van into a RV it is time for a first update reporting on progress. I didn't start earlier than mid-June due to the one month no-questions-asked return policy CarMax offers, but once that was over I started to tear the van apart. Reflecting back, I believe I made a lot of progress, but based on pictures it doesn't look like much. Not sure what to think of this as I put in many 10-hour days. As I stated before time in retirement flies! Maybe not a good idea to be the project manager, designer and constructor without schedule pressure or alcohol policy! As accustomed from my previous work life there are various phases to this project and yes, these are overlapping, without clear boundaries and with plenty of scope changes.

This project has become a battle between Amazon delivery and myself. I am losing and my living room has turned into a storage facility. There are no deliveries scheduled for today. Time to provide an update. 

Phase 1: Floor & Insulation

Status: 90% completed

When you drive 4 hours south of Barcelona you'll arrive at the Ford plant just past Valencia, the birthplace of my vehicle. The Transit Connect comes with two levels of flooring because Germans love to eat American chicken. What!? Listen to this podcast and you'll understand. Therefore to avoid 25% tax, all Transit Connects imported to the US arrive as passenger vans and the extra seats are removed locally. This probably explains why the passenger version is priced similarly than then regular van. Good for me!

After I removed the carpet the lower floor for the 2nd seat row became evident, but due to this being the passenger van, this lower sections also included the additional AC evaporator and electric heater for the 2nd and 3rd row seats. I did not what to remove this and decided to continue to reuse the AC to cool the back of the vehicle while the engine was running and the 80 Amp heater circuit will get reused to charge my additional batteries (Phase 2 project). I was really happy to have found this 80 Amp circuit as this spared me from running a cable from the starter battery through the firewall, which I dreaded.

My new vehicle

Rear with 2nd and 3rd row seats removed

Lower floor behind 1st row seats exposed showing AC evaporator and electric heating for 2nd and 3rd row seats.

It took some weeks of internet research and pondering to develop an idea of what I want. It was clear I needed every spare inch of ceiling height to allow comfortable seating. Therefore, unlike all projects I saw on the internet I needed to retain a two level floor. Low at the right back door to also allow good seating with a future table and the 4" higher level elsewhere. I accomplished this by designing a custom footer out of 2x3s.

Custom footer for two level elevations in back.
 

Finished & painted floor with two levels. in the back the right sliding door. At left the painted footer ready for 2nd level plywood. The front lower level will accommodate the large inverter, the fuse and electrical disconnect from the starter battery (alternator) and the relatively small AC-DC battery charger.


2nd level unfinished plywood floor and lower (black) floor at entry. Existing seat bolts used to secure floor. First mock-up of bed (Phase 3).

I ended up using 1/2" plywood for the flooring above a layer of Reflectix insulation. When it comes to insulation I first thought the more the better. However, after I read an article which I can't find right now, I realized insulation wasn't as critical for the camping trips I intend - mainly in the heat. In the cold you need to insulate to maintain the heat generated by some heater in the van within the vehicle. However, in the heat (unless you have a strong AC unit) insulation will only delay the time the inside is as hot as the outside. The best you can do is to open windows and use a fan to support the inside not getting hotter than the outside. At night with windows closed and using a small AC unit to drop humidity you should get comfortable quick especially as the outside temp drops also quickly. 

Partially insulated ceiling

What's left to do: Glue down vinyl flooring (Phase 6) and trim. Install removable 2'x2' RV table.

Phase 2: Electrical & Appliances

Status: 90% completed

Electrical installations greatly vary on individual requirements. Mine were:

  1. Maintain refrigerator cool (indefinitely) without hooking up to shore power
  2. Charge electrical gadgets, e.g. phone
  3. Be able to run "regular" 110V appliances up to 2 kW without shore power including cooking with induction stove instead of propane

When designing the electrical system it is important to recall high school physics and differentiate between energy and power. In our case energy is important to size the battery and power to ensure 12V to 110V inverter and cables are appropriately sized. To fulfill my requirements I decided to have two 100 Ah batteries, a 2kW inverter, two 100W solar panels and 50 amp alternator charging when driving.

To not make this too complicated let's use three scenarios for a camping trip.

Scenario 1: Batteries 1/2 full, I park van in afternoon for overnight camping (no external power)

1/2 full batteries mean I have 0.5 x 12V x 100 Ah x 2 batteries = 1200 Wh  of energy stored. In other words I could run a 1200 W appliance for one hour until the batteries are dead. 

Assuming it's a sunny day I'll collect another 2 hours of solar power (400 Wh)in the afternoon. My refrigerator draws about 20 Wh (60W when running, but typically only 1/3 of time). I will also cook and use the 1500W stove for 10 minutes (continuous) in the evening and another 5 minutes in the morning for coffee and oatmeal. I'll also run the window AC unit for an hour before sleeping to knock down the humity. Charging a cell phone totals to 4000 about mAh (or 15 Wh @ 3.8V). Also the lights (12 W) were on for 4 hours at night.

  • Arrival: 50% battery life, 1200Wh
  • Solar: + 200W x 2h = +400 Wh
  • Fridge: - 20W x 18h = -360Wh
  • Cooking: -1500W x 0.25h = -375Wh
  • AC: -600W x 1 h= -600Wh
  • Light: -12W x 4 h = -48Wh
  • Phone charge: -15Wh
  • Depart: 8% battery life, 200Wh

Scenario 2: Batteries empty. Pull into campsite with electric hook up

All electric power will be pulled from external hook-up. Battery recharges at 20 Amps (120W).

  • Arrival: 0% battery life, 0Wh
  • Solar: + 200W x 2h = +400 Wh
  • Charging from hook-up: +120W x 13h = 1560 Wh
  • Depart: 81% battery life, 1960Wh)

Scenario 3: Batteries 50%. How long can I survive without external hook up or driving (alternator charging)

Cooking will be done with propane. No AC only fan for cooling. 

  • Arrival: 50% battery life, 1200Wh
  • Solar: + 200W x 5h = +1000 Wh
  • Fridge: - 20W x 24h = -480Wh
  • Light: -12W x 4 h = -48Wh
  • Fan: -10W x 24 h = -240W
  • Phone charge: -15Wh
  • After one Day: 59% battery life, 1417Wh 

So if there is 5 hours of sunlight per day I should be able to be self sufficient with solar!

Additionally, when driving the battery charges 600Wh or 25% every hour. I think I will be good.

One noteworthy experience was disconnecting the explosion devices, which were the left curtain airbag that runs all the way to the back of the van and the two 2nd row seat belt pretensioners. If you don't know about these watch this cool video from the Slo-Mo Guys. The internet tells you to fully power down the vehicle by disconnecting the starter battery before removing the connectors, but I just did it and nothing happened. Also, when just unplugging these the "airbag malfunction" light turns on in the dashboard. A google search revealed the system is looking for a constant 2.2 ohm resistance and ebay sells just this as "SRS simulators". After plugging these in the "airbag" light turned off and all is good. I kept the passenger side curtain airbag connected as I will not modify that side of the vehicle and deployment should be as intended.

Seat belt pretensioner connector before removal. Yellow/black means "Do not Touch", just like a wasp.

Major Electrical Components

Electrical components. Two 100 Ah batteries on the right and components, cable mess on the left

Close up of the DC-DC charger in the middle, battery disconnect on the right, yellow box is surge protector from shore power which also goes to 16 Amp GFCI breaker before distribution (not shown). On lower floor level (not shown) are the disconnect for the starter battery, the AC-DC charger and the large inverter.

First solar panel installed. 2nd will arrive next week. Fortunately, van came with Thule roof rack.

Appliances

For safety I also installed a combo carbon monoxide/propane detector as well as a regular smoke detector.

What's left to do: Installation of 2nd solar panel, completing 110V distribution to outlets, ceiling lights

Phase 3: Bed

Status: 90% completed

A lot of thought went into the bed. I wanted it expandable from daytime "couch mode" to full length covering the right rear entrance. That way I could use the entire left side of the vehicle for cabinetry. This set-up is something I have not seen on any internet / YouTube research. Even before buying the vehicle bed size was a big consideration into deciding what vehicle to buy. I will write a future blog on vehicle selection criteria. Anyhow, knowing from tent camping my own requirements I decided on a 24" wide bed, 6 feet long. This falls apparently in the "cot" size range and there are mattresses for this. Additionally, in case I get lucky there will be a side expansion (not fully planned out yet) to add another 15" width bringing it to a Twin size bed. The length of the vehicle allows the refrigerator to go behind the bed adjacent to the head / feet area. The following video best shows the functionality:

Bed elevation was also a critical consideration. I wanted to be able to sit upright, but also have as much storage space under the bed as possible. I think I found a good solution that also provides perfect sitting with the low entry level (future area of removable 2'x2' table). The bed mounts to the four bolts that used to secure the 3rd row right seat and it can be removed and the seat reinstalled in case I need to have a third seat or just remove the bed to have the original full length of the van for transport. I could claim this was planned, but it was just lucky and only possible due to the refrigerator being portable. 

What's left to do: Install drawer at back of bed (storage) and "door" underneath front of bed to secure storage. Build pieces to widen bed. Paint (Phase 6).

Phase 4: Side Cabinetry

Status: 50% completed

This is the cabinetry on the driver's side of the vehicle above the electric stuff. It needs to house the microwave and window AC unit. It will also have space for some storage. I have completed the main framing and secured it well to original seat belt bolts, but it still needs doors, additional support and shelving.

Side Cabinet. This will hide the electric stuff and house AC, microwave and shelving.

One change of plans occured when the window AC unit came in. I had initially planned to box out the back of the unit and make a flexible insulation connection between the box and the left rear window. That way I just needed to roll down the window, throw the condensate line out and power up the AC. That was the plan. Unfortunately, upon disassembly of the AC unit it became evident that there is no condensate line. Instead the condensate runs into the lower back of the unit and the condenser fan actually flings up the water droplets and blows them against the condenser fins. Thermodynamically this is a genius way to utilize the evaporation enthalpy of the water, but throwing around water right above my electrical mess does not work for me. My new plan is to use slides as used on the bed. When released the entire AC unit will roll out the window leaving only the last two inches inside. This is work in progress. Slides will be here Saturday......

I had hoped this would work. Good thing I did not start boxing in the back. I noticed over the weeks that beer attracts flies like nothing else. I am still studying this phenomenon and will report more detail.

Slide out little AC! This will hopefully work. The picture looks deceiving. The wooden cabinetry actually is about an inch from the window glass when rolled up.

What's left to do: Finalize cabinet support to floor (electrical mess). Make slide-out AC work. Add additional support, dividers, shelving and doors. Mount 110V outlets. Install bungee cord to very top shelf.

Phase 5: Back Cabinetry

Status: 0% completed

The back cabinet will be adjacent to the side cabinet and wrap around the back to the refrigerator. It is much lower to fully leave the back left and rear windows uncovered. There is not much I know about this yet. It needs to hold the countertop stove, sink, faucet, water pump and fresh water canister (8 gal?). There also needs to be a gray water canister (2 gal?). I also thought about being able to switch the gray water to run through an existing hole (currently sealed with rubber) straight to the ground outside, but this would run right onto the exhaustion pipe. Also, having an opening so close to the exhaust does raise some concerns about fumes getting back into the vehicle. I think I'll just have a small container that I need to dump more frequently. 
As the rear of the vehicle opens vertically like a hatchback, it provides great cover even when raining. I am thinking this back cabinet needs to somehow allow me to cook from the outside. Thinking about a flip up outside table on the back of this cabinet and I can move the stove to it. Also, my current induction stovetop is only a single "burner". I need two to cook. I will have a backup propane stove from backpacking, but maybe something else... We will see. So far the only thing I bought for this phase is the water pump and the switch for it. I also spend about an hour looking for a small sink.

What's left to do: Everything

Phase 6: Vinyl floor, Painting, Final Trim 

At least I have bought the vinyl floor and glue. I need to do research on good paint. Unless folks have other opinions I was thinking about painting everything white. 

First Experience

With the electrical scope nearly complete except for solar - but no bed - I went camping in Old Fort, NC from 6/30-7/4 with the Raleigh Trail Runners. Six of us camped and eight stayed at a nearby AirBNB. What really worked out well was the refrigerator. It needs only 50 Watt when running and it doesn't run much. Maybe 10 minutes every hour? It is so nice to not have to deal with ice and ice water mixed with meat juice.... I also really enjoyed the induction stove top. It takes only two minutes in the morning to get my coffee through the Italian style espresso maker I needed to buy (aluminum does not work with induction cooking). I was also pleasantly surprised not needing AC during the night. It actually felt cool in the mornings, but it did cool down to the high 60s at night. I can also confirm that the 24 inch mattress was wide enough, but I have concerns about it not being thick enough. I like very hard mattresses, but this one is not hard enough and with only 4 inches my hip definitely hits the bottom. On my next trip I will surely pack one of my camping mattresses for additional support if needed.

Waking up to sunrise.

Nothing beats a campfire and good company

Coming to the end of this blog I want to sincerely thank Marty and Carol for letting me borrow some of their tools! It is now 10:30 and way past my bedtime.

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