97 E150 Conversion Mark III -- 4x4 camper van

[jydog]

Starting the electrical System

House Battery install

[jydog]

Need some help on this one. How can I make the battery cradle easily accessible to check the water in the batteries every month or so? and my mount turned up a little short of the bolt holes. Any suggestions? nothing obvious is coming to mind. I really do not want to cut a hole in the floor.

[shenrie]

^^^ i plan on using the spare winch to lift my battery tray up and down. havent figured out specifics yet, but thats the idea i got rolling around in me head.

as for the holes, maybe cut the original piece so it will go inbetween the rails, then weld a piece of flatbar onto the battery cradle from the bottom. when the cradle is in place, it wont be able to slide side to side and you can use the new flatbar piece for the actual mounting. does that make sense?

[jydog]

Yeah, That makes sense. I was hoping not to make this any heavier but looks like adding more steel is needed. Batteries will probably be 150lb and the cradle is probably 30-40. I error-ed on the make everything out of 1/4 steel side plus that was all my suppler had at the time. I thought about the tire winch also but I wonder if it can handle 200lbs? I think my next move will be LiFePO4 batteries after these wet cells die. lower maintenance .

[jydog]

Well, this explains a lot. My backyard alignment with the fastrax alignment gauge went way wrong. I finally gave up and brought it to a local shop for alignment. As you can see below my caster was way off ( aprox 4 degrees ). Camber and toe were good though. Drives way better now not perfect but better. They noticed I needed to replace the ballpoints on the drivers side.

[thestoneman]

^^^^ good to hear!!! Any updates on tranny and t-cAse?

[jydog]

Here is a little catching up. All set to install this new bumper the other day.





saw this at the salvage yard and thought it was a neat comparison.



and then ran into this.



Got it in my mind that i need it if the guy would come down on the price a little and he wouldn't budge. So I went home to mow some grass and think about it. After mowing a while it started making more and more sense. So now I have two campers in my driveway and I may be selling the MarkIII.





What do you think is a reasonable price for the 4x4 MarkIII?

[grovesja7]

Any 4x4 plans for the new one?

[jydog]

Maybe, I have some leftover parts....

[86Scotty]

Dig the new van! Show us some more pics. I'm guessing it's a mid 90's 460/E350 chassis, which I'm pretty familiar with. Get ready for 9-10 MPG with that top, but it doesn't matter because you have a home on wheels. I would most definitely convert it to 4x4. You have plenty of power to support it. I'd also be willing to bet if you pull a rear hub cap you'll find a full float rear axle.

Congrats!