Black Betty E350 Beast Van!

[ndubes]

Originally Posted by ndubes

If the WaterPort capacity proves to be too small, I was thinking maybe I could mount the road shower on the rear of my roof rack to reduce all the sloshing

Actually maybe that isn’t the best idea, with the penthouse top I imagine having all that water down on one end wouldn’t be good for the mechanism. I wonder if mounting it vertically to the ladder would work?

I mounted the WaterPort up on the front hitch today and it looks a bit ridiculous. I had to use a hitch extension to clear the aluminess bumper and it looks like a battering ram. I might try to mount it on top of the bumper rail tomorrow but that might interfere with my line of sight driving. Otherwise I may just be able to mount it to the rock sliders on the drivers side.

[MikeS123]

There is this option as well if you already haven't found something.

The Spray Box

There are a couple of different options.

[ndubes]

Originally Posted by MikeS123

There is this option as well if you already haven't found something.

The Spray Box

There are a couple of different options.

I like this, basically like the water port but 15gal capacity (with the mobile version) rather than <3gal. I think the mobile version would be the way to go, that way you can use it wherever you need it. Just a matter of finding a good place to store it while you're heading on down the road.

At this point I am planning on installing an on-demand propane water heater and pump in one of the rear cargo doors as some others have done, where I can just stick a hose in a bucket and get a hot shower. But something like this would be nice for rinsing dishes, dirty shoes, etc. The capacity of the mobile spray box is such that it could be my only water storage on the road too which would be nice.

[ndubes]

I ended up returning the waterport yesterday, I liked the portability of it but it takes a lot of frequent pumping to keep good water pressure on it and 2.8gal goes really quickly too. I think I'm going to work on installing a small pump and on demand water heater in one of the back doors as some others have done, and just carry a 6gal jug of water with us. I think the SprayBox is probably another good solution as it has a lot more capacity and 12v pump, but will probably focus first on the door mounted setup.

Headed up to CCV tomorrow to pick up the van with the pop top! I'm really excited about it. Many thanks to @1der for helping me coordinate and oversee the install, and hopefully avoid any future maintenance issues. Very anxious to see how things turned out with the AC and the "kids bed" up front, but know we will have many awesome years ahead of us in this rig! I'm flying up with a friend and we are going to stop into Snowmass, Telluride, Flagstaff and potentially Durango if there's time. Hopefully smooth sailing! I'll update with some pictures in about a week when I return.

[ndubes]

Well I did post an update from our trip a couple months ago but it was a separate thread, so here's a link to it:

http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/for...rip-24937.html

Also made a few updates to the van over the past month or so... will post photos in next few days:
1. Swapped out the Aluminess front bumper (for sale here) and Warn M12000 winch (for sale here) for a Buckstop bumper and Warn M16Ti winch. Rationale for the Buckstop was better airflow for the 6.0's radiator, hopefully resulting in cooler temps. Haven't had any problems with overheating but I decided I was willing to spend the $ to prolong the engine's life. Rationale for the new winch is just that the Buckstop bumper is made for it, and my van is heavy as $#@%! So if/when I need it I think the extra power is a good idea. I went with the Aluminum upgrade on the bumper btw. TBD on the temp diffs, its cool in Phoenix right now and I just got it installed yesterday. I have to say the bumper seems very well built and I really like the look though.

2. Our little guy is 2 right now and out of the pack and play we used to put in the back. So We had some removable shelves made out of aluminum honeycomb and then carpeted. Nice and light, and we have two panels so we maintain the flexibility with how we want to outfit the van for each trip. He will sleep on top of the shelves while big sis sleeps above the driver in the pop top. Lots of space for gear above and below now!

3. Installed some blackout curtains from the top of the pop-top extending all the way down to the floor. This eliminates the need for us to put up any kind of shades on the windows up front, as well as keeps it nice and dark for our daughter to sleep if we turn the lights on in the pop top. I'll try to get some photos posted in the next few days.

4. To-date we were just working off of the stock ford dual-battery setup mounted on the frame on passenger side. We had some mornings where it was overcast (solar not helping) and very cold, and the van barely started after running our portable dometic 2-zone fridge all night. So we put in two more actual "house batteries"on the driver side frame to give us plenty of juice to not have to worry about that again.

5. Put in a cell phone booster, link here. This is one of the few that had good reviews. Won't have a chance to test it for a while, we will see if it makes much of a difference. We were camping a couple months ago at the grand canyon and my wife hiked rim-to-rim-to-rim in a day (insane) and I had half a bar of service, so I didn't get her text saying she made it out safely at midnight until 6am the next day. Hoping a booster would have given me a couple bars to receive that text on time.

6. Installed this little inclinometer/altimeter/tilt/level gauge on the dash. I don't like where it is right now but the gauge is pretty cool, includes your GPS coordinates as well. The only thing that I don't like so far is it seems like the level "zeroes out" every time you start the car. I think I must be missing something. As such, if your last stop before setting up camp was getting gas and were on a slope at the time, it wouldn't do you much good. I feel like I must be missing something, so I hope I can figure that out.

[ndubes]

Here's a couple photos of the back shelf. We utilized the holes where the old seatbelts were (now have integrated belts on the Sienna seats) and mounted a piece of angle iron on both sides that the panels sit on. They don't move at all, just enough friction from the trunk mat material to keep them snug and secure. Kids seem to like it!

[ndubes]

Photos of the new backstop bumper. Hard to see in the photo but definitely exposes the lower part of the radiator through the holes which should help. Also reinstalled the stock Ford air scoop underneath.

[ndubes]

And finally a picture of the new blackout curtains and the new house battery boxes on the driver side. Utilized our rock sliders that are welded to the frame.

[Otter]

Great build, helpful thread. Our builds are very similar.

I’m in the process of sewing up my insulated black-out shades and will be using snaps as well. A quick question: I was going to use adhesive male snaps on the van trim but see you used screw-type. Are they just screwed into the plastic trim only or is there some kind of backing? Holding up well?

Also wondering if you have any pics of the shades rolled down and snapped. It would help me envision just how much fabric I should leave around the edges. Thanks in advance! And if you have any comments about how you like the shades or what you might do differently, I’d welcome that.

[ndubes]

Originally Posted by Otter

Great build, helpful thread. Our builds are very similar.

I’m in the process of sewing up my insulated black-out shades and will be using snaps as well. A quick question: I was going to use adhesive male snaps on the van trim but see you used screw-type. Are they just screwed into the plastic trim only or is there some kind of backing? Holding up well?

Also wondering if you have any pics of the shades rolled down and snapped. It would help me envision just how much fabric I should leave around the edges. Thanks in advance! And if you have any comments about how you like the shades or what you might do differently, I’d welcome that.

The screw snaps are holding up fine - no backing. I was worried about it a bit as well so the snap on the shade end has a little extra webbing so you can kind of pull up on that while pushing down on the plastic trim. So far so good.

If I had it to do over again the one thing I’d do is instead of Velcro for holding them up I’d use some type of small bungee on the ends. Like a hair tie basically. Would make opening/closing a lot quicker. I may make this change at some point. I also wonder if some rare-earth neodymium magnets would work better than snaps? Just would have to figure out how to mount them to the trim. Sew one end into the shade itself.