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Old 04-28-2007, 09:08 AM   #1
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Homemade Sportsmobile

Here's a picture of my homemade sportsmobile This was a Christmas trip that we took to Baja this year. The photo is taken at Catavina, one of my all time favorite places to camp and explore. Since I've been building cars and camping all my life I really wanted to try my hands at building my own camper so I ordered my sportsmobile bare inside. The first thing that I did was have the entire interior coated with a spray foam insulation that is used in the marine industry. It has a very high R value and contains a flame retardant. I wanted the interior to be a light as possible so all the cabinetry is made for 1/8 or 1/4 marine plywood and held together with epoxy and fiberglass tape. I used common boatbuilding material and practices to try to make the interior sqeek and rattle free and lightweight. The rear seat was purchased from sportsmobile and the rear bed frame is fabricated from aluminium. The layout is basically a EB50. The fridge is a Isotherm 4cf model with Isotherms ASU energy saving tecnology. The cooking stove is a Seward princess and is very classy looking. The interior heat is supplied by an Espar diesel air furnace that I am very happy with. Right behind the rear seat centered over the rear axel is a 29 gallon freshwater tank. Right behind the rear axel under the van is a isotherm 6 gallon dual coil hotwater heater. When the van is running the engine heats the hot water. When the van is stationary water is heated by an espar diesel hyronic heater. The only use of the van is remote camping so it has no hookups! So far we have put 7k miles on the van mostly in Baja and the Arizona desert. It did not see much use the first year since I was building it but now I hope to get out with it alot more. It is still not done but it is usable. Future improvments will be the suspenson. I plan on adding hydralic bumpstops to the front to try to lessen the harsh bottoming out of the front end. I also think that there is lots of room for improvement in the shocks and I plan to play around with that a little this summer. I'll try to post some more pictures of the interior soon as I have had some requests to do so. Glad to see the new forum, this format is much better. Seth

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Old 04-28-2007, 09:23 AM   #2
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Well I will request some pictures please because being from Canada it seems I cannot import a sportsmobile so after having the penthouse top installed on a Canadian van I'll probably be doing the interior myself ... So any ideas on types of material used would be appreciated .

Max
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Old 05-03-2007, 05:05 PM   #3
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Tan have you checked out GTRV? They are in Canada I believe...
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Modified EB-22 with Penthouse Top
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Old 05-04-2007, 02:37 PM   #4
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Yes I have , I might go with a GTVR altough i would of preferred a penthouse top the T-top from GTVR might be a good compromise ... thank you for the info

Tan
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Old 05-04-2007, 04:25 PM   #5
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Wow, some restriction! Can you buy a Canadian van, register it and all and then bring it to SMB to finish and return with it (without it ever being a US car and subject to whatever limitation)?

And Jammy- how bout some interior pics!
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Old 06-13-2007, 10:56 PM   #6
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OK so I've had alot of requests for pictures of the interior. Since this is a incomplete project I do not have completed interior pictures.

First let me just say that anyone who is interested in building thier own interior to save money should seriously reconsider this plan. In my opinion the SMB interior is a fairly good value when you compare it to typical American RV manufacturers. Saving money was not my motivating factor. When I decided to build my interior I was inspired by http://www.earthroamer.com/index.html an inqired with SMB west about diesel appliances an was told that they were not an option becasue they were not approved by the American RV manufacturers which SMB was a part of. This did not make any sense to me. These components are regularly used in very high end yachts but not good enough for a Class B?

I also just wanted to build my own camper. I have been building cars all my life and really enjoy the project as much as the end result.

So here is the start



The nice thing about Sportsmobile is that they will sell you a half fininshed van. I ordered my van with the SMB 4x4, leather front seats and the penthouse top. I also ordered some other factory ford options as well. The first thing that I did was to insulate the interior with a marine spray foam from http://rhhfoamsystems.com/ . Hopefully I'll never need any major body work as I've filled all the walls behind the front seats with this foam. As for the cabinetry my goal is to keep the interior as light as possible. All my cabints are 1/8th Birch plywood constructed with fiberglass tape and westsystems marine epoxy. The cabinets are constructed in 3 main sections. Eact section is about 25lbs. Here they are unpainted



The cabinets are being finished with a marine grey paint. I hope to get them back in the van this weekend.
Here is a picture of the Galley so far

The fridge is an Isotherm cruise 85 with ASU http://www.e-marine-inc.com/products/re ... ruise.html It's really quiet and very energy efficient. The stove is a glass princess that is really classy. http://www.seawardproducts.com/images/2276.jpg The countertops are bamboo. I built some brackets under the van and installed a aluminium propane tank that comes out with a quick release and can be carried anywhere to be refilled. It is only for the cook stove. We camp in the desert alot so I decided against a diesel cooktop. The hot water heater is also an isotherm http://www.e-marine-inc.com/products/re ... aters.html It will be mounted directly behind the rear axel under the van and powered by the vans engine coolant as well as an Espar diesel hyronic heater. I allready set up a previous VW camper of mine this way and it really worked well.

Even though this is a work in progress we have used the van quite a bit. It does not have running water yet but the main holding tank is in place and we have a temporary hose with a valve and a switch to torn on the pump. The fridge and stove are working. The espar furnace is aslo installed and functional. So we have the basics. I now have it all apart again and hope to really make some good progress on it in the next couple months. We have a big trip planned in August.

As I get more completed I'll post more pictures. Next time I'll make them smaller
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Old 07-29-2007, 01:07 PM   #7
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Homemade Sportsmobile

Your home built conversion looks pretty exotic.
I have built a couple of van pop top conversions in the past few years. First, I did a 2003 Dodge Conversion using the Sportsmobile top (I have not posted pictures on line as yet). Second, I built a 2006 Chevrolet conversion using a GTRV T top. For pictures, go to http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/gtrv westy/photos/. Then select Terry's Chevy RV Construction and Terry's Chevy with GTRV top.
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Old 07-29-2007, 01:40 PM   #8
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Homemade Sportsmobile

I decided to take the time to post pictures of my 2003 Dodge homebuilt conversion with Sportsmobile top. To see photos, please go to http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/spo ... ers/photos
Then select Terry's 2003 Dodge with Sportsmobile Top.
I am sorry that I do not have construction photos.
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Old 07-29-2007, 03:30 PM   #9
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Homebuilt Sportsmobile

I have also posted pictures of my 2003 Dodge homebuilt on this forum. Just select Albums, then terry.
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Old 12-07-2008, 09:01 PM   #10
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Making Progress

My house batteries are mounted under each front door.

They bolt up to the frame just like the factory batteries
I used a blue sea power panel. It has a built in multimeter with an ampmeter as well.

I used a prosine inverter and a xantrex charger. I got the stuff used otherwise I would have bought both in a simgle unit.
I put a 30 gallon freshwater tank right behind the back seat between the wheel wells.

I mounter a 6 gallon isotherm dual coil hotwater heater right behind the rear axel.

One coil will be fed by engine coolant and the other will be fed by a espar hydronic unit on it's own circuit (not sharing engine coolant). The hotwater heater will be enclosed by a aluminium heated and insulated box. Here's a shot of the hotwater heater box and the rear underfloor storage box.

Test fitting the underfloor storage

Cutting out the floor

Next week I'll be working on an aluminium roof rack/solar panel mount. My goal is to have this thing 99% done before '09.
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