Imgur user worked on this old van for four months on week-ends and every evening after work and now that it is done, he is all excited to embark on adventurous journeys with it.
"I spent the last 4 months building an adventuremobile on the weekends and evenings after work. Building this van was at times overwhelming, but always exciting. The experience has taught me many things and I am excited for the adventures to come. I hope you enjoy this tour. -Evan"
"The finished van/tiny home. It weighs in at 6,600 lbs. Well under the GVWR of 8,600 lbs. The total build added 1,300 lbs."
"Cleared out and ready to get started. It took a day to rip out all the factory trim and riveted cargo rails. I made a dump run to get rid of it."
"The day I bought a 2006 Ford E250 off Craigslist. Blank slate!"
"OSB floor complete. It flexed a lot because the metal floor was uneven had been dented from use as a cargo van. I eventually drilled a bunch of holes in the OSB to fill the underneath with great stuff foam. That took care of the flex."
"This is the giant hole cut I cut out of the van to access the propane tank. I'll be honest, this was terrifying. I wasn't 100% sure the propane tank I bought off amazon would fit in the space, with the brackets I had fashioned out of L brackets and sheet metal. I hadn't ever used a jig saw on metal before, and I wasn't really sure what I was doing. I just went for it and it worked out pretty well."
"10 gallon propane tank installed! It fits!"
"I used 30 cans of great stuff foam to fill the cavities. I vastly overestimated the amount of space that one can was useful for, and ended up making like 4 home depot runs by the end of this day. It took a while, but in the end it was a relatively cheap and easy way to insulate the dead space between the inner and outer sheet metal layers."
"Insulating the walls. For all the window wells, I put up two layers of reflectix with an airtight gap of a few inches between them. Seems to work well enough. The second layer is visible in the later photos. I held it in place with high strength metallic HVAC tape."
"Cutting a hole in the brand new roof to install the maxxfan. A little unnerving, but this was pretty straightforward compared to the propane access panel."
"Installing the flooring. I used spraylock 3100 to bond the floor to the OSB."
"Luan plywood with a light stain for the walls and doors. I used water based 2 in 1 poly stain on all of the plywood in the van."
"Batteries sitting inside the bed frame and secured in place with 3/8" bolts through the van body. The batteries total ~200lbs, so I wanted those very well secured."
"300 amp hours AGM deep cycle batteries with a 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter. Powers a blender or microwave without any trouble."
"Carpet and 1/4 plywood walls going in. I bonded lightweight carpet to the hightop with 3M high strength 90 spray glue."
"Building the galley from a re-purposed kitchen cabinet, free off craigslist. These are built out of particle board, so I hacked it apart and reinforced it with hard wood."
"Testing the freezer, with the bear necessities. The fridge draws 3.1 amps when it cycles on. I estimate is draws around 35 amp hours a day. 200 watts of solar panels fully recharges the batteries by sometime in the afternoon when it is sunny out."
"Water jug, and storage held in place with bungee straps. I replaced this cheap water jug with LCI water jugs that are built for military use. They are much beefier, and I am confident that they will never leak. They are 5 gallon and I have two of them. I can drain to the street or into another jug."