6.0 e350 Stahl Service Body Build

[Offroading_is_Fun]

Originally Posted by KDB

Tx Offroading! I have had other individuals interested pm me about the bumper. One person reached out to Aluminess direct and was told they didn't have one available. It seems to be a one off custom bumper made exclusively for the Tiger Siberian. I believe i may have gotten one that had been laying around and didn't make it to a Siberian production rig. I've seen other Siberian rigs that do not have this bumper. On this rig is the one that i have. It's got some nice features and a good amount of storage. Two small openings on the ends of the bumper and one larger compartment at the top center.

I would have thought that the folks over at Aluminess would have gotten the 'hint hint, wink wink' that there is quite a bit of interest in this bumper if they would bring it to market. I like the physical 'bumper' part of your bumper and the swing-arms from the one they currently sell. The only things I didn't like about their swing-arms is that they look like they would partially block the rear tail lights depending on what angle you looked at the van... With this bumper it wouldn't really matter, since additional lights are mounted in it.

Really the only other thing I have seen that looked really nice (And I think it was Colorado Camper Vans who did it...) was adding gas struts to the swing-arms so that you could unlatch them and they would help hold the arms open.

I should probably just go out of my way and learn to weld... I know if I took all of those requests and asked a custom fab shop, they probably wouldn't miss a beat in saying, "And that will be $6K please!"

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

Just putting this out here, a service body on a Transit. Note that the Transit is a dually however. No affiliation.

Herb

FWIW, there are a lot of nice vans that seem to pop up in the Florida area.

Just the other day I saw two 2009+ (Don't remember exact years) E-350 EB vans, V10, both had 12-18K mi, and both were appx $17K. One was a club wagon (and I quote...) "All options" van, the other was a black cargo van that had a minor scuff above the exhaust. Both were "Retired government vehicles" (I'm not sure which government agency would hold onto a van for 10 years, put a thousand miles a year on it, and necessitate having the V10?).

I'd be curious to find what people thought of the 6.8L V10 versus the Ecoboost (3.2? 3.5?)L V6. Bet the little V6 gets marginally better mileage, but I'm not really sure how the Ecoboost is for maintenance.

Looking at the new 2020 AWD Transits, I'm getting the feeling that the prior transits will start to become a harder and harder sell.

[Twoxentrix]

KDB - You should be proud of the results! Looks like your vision has come to fruition.
I'll also comment: Vendors involved in making this happen did a great job - testament to the engenuity of the companies that participated.

[KDB]

Originally Posted by Offroading_is_Fun

I would have thought that the folks over at Aluminess would have gotten the 'hint hint, wink wink' that there is quite a bit of interest in this bumper if they would bring it to market. I like the physical 'bumper' part of your bumper and the swing-arms from the one they currently sell. The only things I didn't like about their swing-arms is that they look like they would partially block the rear tail lights depending on what angle you looked at the van... With this bumper it wouldn't really matter, since additional lights are mounted in it.

Really the only other thing I have seen that looked really nice (And I think it was Colorado Camper Vans who did it...) was adding gas struts to the swing-arms so that you could unlatch them and they would help hold the arms open.

I should probably just go out of my way and learn to weld... I know if I took all of those requests and asked a custom fab shop, they probably wouldn't miss a beat in saying, "And that will be $6K please!"



FWIW, there are a lot of nice vans that seem to pop up in the Florida area.

Just the other day I saw two 2009+ (Don't remember exact years) E-350 EB vans, V10, both had 12-18K mi, and both were appx $17K. One was a club wagon (and I quote...) "All options" van, the other was a black cargo van that had a minor scuff above the exhaust. Both were "Retired government vehicles" (I'm not sure which government agency would hold onto a van for 10 years, put a thousand miles a year on it, and necessitate having the V10?).

I'd be curious to find what people thought of the 6.8L V10 versus the Ecoboost (3.2? 3.5?)L V6. Bet the little V6 gets marginally better mileage, but I'm not really sure how the Ecoboost is for maintenance.

Looking at the new 2020 AWD Transits, I'm getting the feeling that the prior transits will start to become a harder and harder sell.

Hi Offroading,

**It turns out that yes Aluminess can provide the bumper through a Service Provider. Agile is able to install these bumpers for anyone interested.** John at Agile told this to me yesterday.

[KDB]

Ok, so what a few crazy weeks it's been. From picking up the rig at CCV in colorado to baja a week later (for 9 days). It's been a blur of adventure in the van. Im probably getting offtopic of this sub forum but i'll talk about my trip here anyhow and share some pics.

Drove overnight Saturday 4/6 to arrive in central baja at about 10.30pm that following night. Essentially a 24 hr drive. Drove non stop with only a handful of little breaks. It's not for the faint of heart and between the two of us we make it work and get to the border at sunrise. I cant say i recommend this practice but it works for us.

Anyhow, caught some great waves, got in some quality shore fishing, and generally had a great experience in the van. I tested its limitations getting stuck...twice. Sand and then mud. I can say a locking rear diff set up would be great in the van. I just might be looking into that.

Impressions of the conversion, the Agile handles trail and steep rocky trail terrain very well. Deep sand, mud, etc. Not so much. It drives great onroad as well as off and absorbs lots of bumpy rugged terrain. Again, great on trail but once in the sand we got stuck pretty quickly. Granted we got into it pretty deep. Thankfully a buddy with his 04 TRD and our Go treads we were able to have mostly easy pullouts. THough not without consequence!

Sparing the details of our adventures at some remote points goofing around...at some point in the offroading - i believe it was after the second pull out - we got stuck in (what i've come to find out) was 4 low. We thought it was a transmission issue. We ended up having to drive 30mph back for 500 miles! Mind you our speedo was reading 80-90mph. It was a loooong ride. We really got to absorb the countyside - which is pretty incredible - though it got old and we had seen it many times before. I felt like i was leading a pack train getting over run by big rigs. Like a pioneer of sorts! Maybe not. We actually made it to Ensenada last night where we got a room.

Up at 6.30 am, off to the border, and after a very long day and a half we made it to Agile in Santee outside of San Diego. They were quick to jump in the rig and figure out what was going on. Stuck in 4 low. They could see we were road weary and the vehicle completely baja'd out with dust and the usual mud and wear. They offerred to get it fixed within a day or so but i couldn't afford to miss work and we opted to fly home. I wanted them to have more time with the rig and potentially help fix another small issue or two like the lights, etc.

We had time to kill before the flight so we went down to Pacific beach and enjoyed some good beers and food on the ocean feeling satiated from our adventure.

We booked two flights back to San Francisco when dropping off the rig and arrived in SFO at 11.30pm last night. One day late and 12 hrs before a meeting i couldn't miss. We were kindly picked up by my sweet girlfriend at around midnight only to drive the hour + back to Santa Cruz. It was a long day.

Agile is adamant about finding out what caused the issue and were very responsive. I will share the outcome of their findings. The van drove in 4 low fine all the way back and didn't over heat in any way. Hopefully no real damage was done. Probably do a full system fluids flush and assess the vehicle. Get a full tune up and detail and im thinking the rig will be as good as new. It *should* be fine. Famous last words! I expect to fly back to Diego and drive it home in the next week or two.

**One thing became clear, however, we were getting a loud fan like sound turning on and off while driving. It can get pretty loud. Does anyone know what im referring too and if so is that normal? If not, what the heck is it?** I didn't seem to affect performance when the vehicle was driving normally on the way down. Just a loud fan would come on and off periodically.

Impressions of the pop top... great! It creates a ton of space and will really be a lot of fun to use. I want to ask CCV if the actuators are supposed to get to the end of the channel it uses when raising as mine seemed to have a little further to go before stopping. It would be nice to have the tent a bit tighter but it works great and looks good.

The Darsche awning is awesome. I highly recommend it. It's fairly quick to set up with the legs and guy outs and very quick to set up with out. We had it in perhaps 15-20 knot winds no problem. It was guyed properly and remained ridgid. CCV installed it well. Theres a tiny bit of flex but it seems extremely solid.

The ridgid headlights CCV installed came tumbling down into the bumper within 20 minutes of being on the washboards. Their mounting bracket connected to the bumper at the ends of the bracket bar and was not at all a secure mount unfortunatelyu. Upon seeing how it was installed i was a bit disappointed. Some bolts coming down from the top of the bumper through the mounting bar would have done the trick. Im hoping Agile can do that for me. They remained flopping around in the bumper most of the trip.

The van in general performed well. It needs some sound proofing in the back as the rear door lock and handle mech's rattle quite a bit. THe seam that attaches the cab to the body also should get some reinforcement. It was definitely squeaking and is a week point in this rig's design for taking it offroad. The twist. I did anticipate this and have intended to reinforce that junction. Reinforcing with some additional bolts should do the trick. I don't know if it will take care of the squeaking, however, - which really wasnt that bad and primarily only squeaked when off road. It does indicate some very small play in there though. I don't anticipate it being an issue with some reinforcement. Some sound proofing over the seam should help quite a bit with the squeak.

[carringb]

The loud fan sound is your fan, and is normal. Especially if running A/C. It makes more noise with more engine RPMs, and since you were stuck in 4-lo, your engine would be turning much faster than normal.

Usually, being stuck in 4-low is just simple driveline binding especially if 4x4 was used on pavement. Often, backing up will relieve that.

What PSI did you run in sand? I've run as low as 8. Much more than 20 psi is probably too much for soft sand.

[KDB]

Good to hear about the fan. As ive only driven the van a handful of times prior to the baja trip i had only heard the fan come on maybe 4-5 times during the colorado drives. It came on much more frequently on this trip. Both heading down and of course when coming back in four low. The weather wasn't too warm but it wasn't the cold of colorado.

We did have suspicion that we were stuck in 4x4. We reversed, locked and unlocked the hubs a few times, etc. The speedo being off seemed like a 4x4 issue though that was also something I hadn't experienced.

We aired down to around 30 from 65psi. We certainly weren't aired down nearly enough but thought we'd be ok each time we got stuck. doh! This pic is of the second pull out. It got worse before it got better.

[KDB]

Originally Posted by Twoxentrix

KDB - You should be proud of the results! Looks like your vision has come to fruition.
I'll also comment: Vendors involved in making this happen did a great job - testament to the engenuity of the companies that participated.

Thanks, TwoX! Cant wait to get it out again. Really needs some interior work but it's still a ton of fun to camp out of as is. The bed and fridge are all i really need at this point. It hauls a ton of crap. I need to put in some serious efforts to kitting out and organizing the cabinets. Probably starting with the kitchen side of the vehicle.

And yes, absolutely, all the contributions to the vehicle have been executed well. A few little things here and there that needed fixing or immediate repair in some cases but overall it's really come together.

[KTMRIDER]

Sorry to hear you were stuck in 4 low. That is strange and crazy to go that far. Do you have the electric shift 4wd from Agile? Also curious if you have any form of front limited slip or locker?

You should air down a little lower in sand to help. I go 25 on front and 30-35 rear often when off-road. I have monitored the heat with a cheap HF laser and no issues.

Hope Agile gets you squared away quick. Maybe have them add a lockers now if you can afford it since they have it.

[Twoxentrix]

Curious what your rig weighs in now that you have most of the exterior conversions done... went back through the this Thread briefly & didnt come across it (probably just missed it), what size tires are you running?

[JWA]

Not sure how or if this relates but............happened to see a work truck with service body, for some reason it caught my eye, I thought of this conversion and a friend in my same business who opted for one of these over the usual full-body van.

I've got to say its a very viable alternative to the standard E-Series and with the right body/chassis combination could become an ideal transport/camper/off-roader fairly easily. Given they'd be far easier to find used or new they have to be seriously considered by more people I'd think.

None the less this one is pretty spectacular and shows the potential of this type body.