glennwelch

Salsa, she was retired from the race track at age 3, now 4.5 yrs old.

I set out to make a road trip van for me and the dog out of my 2013 FTC, XLT. I plan to take two long road trips (yet to be seen), after which I will restore the van back to its original. I wanted curtains, air conditioner, storage, a decent mattress, refrig, ice maker (it makes a batch of ice in 8mn), solar panel (canoe fits next to it) / deep cycle battery, 30amp plug-in, 120V and 12V plugs, outdoor cooking supplies and pull out awning. The curtains went better than I expected, I sewed them. I could not have sewn without Youtube. The flexible rods are bolted to the existing holes. The only drilled holes are around the Lexan window (holes will be behind original window), it is curved & I could not curve it, so screwed it. A car friend insisted that I get the wheel flares painted to match the car, so I did. Very fun project whether or not I make to Belize.

I put a solar panel on my Connect, that charges its own deep cycle battery. I hooked up a modified sine wave inverter, well that would not run my ice maker, it just buzzed, so I got a pure sine wave inverter and that works well. I also made the pictured rear side window from a sheet of lexan, so I could cut holes in it for an AC vent, wiring to the solar panel and a 30amp plug in.