r1alvin

great job with the woodwork!

Me neither this was my first build. Lots of lessons learned. Take your time and really think it through. Here's a link to my build. Hope it helps! And hello from another mountain/road biker!

That's my van! Go look at my build thread and you can see what I did although I opted to build a stable flat platform over the lower 2nd row area to maintain that low entry point on both sides of the van while still allowing plenty of space to put "things".

100% intentional

These two bagel brothers like camping out in the back of the van more then I do lol. You can see what I mean with the tie off point there,,,Right now I'm just looping their lead around the hook. I might look into make something more clean and simple, but same idea. Is this an alternate safe way to travel with them in their harness as opposed to being in a wire crate that can fold up etc in a crash? Also serves as a nice place to hook some plastic bags for trash or whatever else.

I used the hook as a tie off point for the Beagles lead . It actually worked out really well during transport too. They had their harnesses on and the hook allowed them to stay on the floor, in the rear of the van on a soft pad with restricted movement instead of in a wire crate. (Beagles like to snoop around the van lol) I've been thinking about maybe running a line across the width of the van to both hooks to allow more restricted movement for the dogs during transport but I'm still trying to determine if this would be safe. Both dogs seemed to do well back there as I left enough lead for them to lay on the floor comfortably.

Added these heavy duty 500lb. hooks to the rear pillars where the seatbelt use to be. Forgot what they are called but our local Ace hardware had them for cheap. Used a small section of M10 allthread, a hex spacer and a really short M10 Bolt and 2 lock washers.

Thats cool! I never thought about sniffing around the gutter area, now I will! See if you can cut, tape and epoxy a rain shield to one of those in case of weather. Maybe you can cut a plastic gutter or one of those corrugated roofing strips from the same aisle.

Back from our trip to Colorado! I drove the entire route solo both ways approx. 13 hours straight. Was not even the slightest bit fatigued after all of that driving! Did a lot of high elevation driving including 1 drive up to the summit of Pikes Peak with a fully loaded van (2 bikes, gear, 2 dogs, full 8 gallon water tank). Overall the van did great but was easier to manage in the hills in "S" mode where I could select the gears. I can now see the value of that swing away hitch that was posted in here for the bike rack. We arrived a day early as I mentioned above and found a place to pull off on a dirt road in the Pike National Forest. I set up my bed arrangement and it worked great. I also cracked a window and had a bug screen with magnets on the exterior of the sliding door window. Problems arose as temperatures plummeted into the 40's. It got too cold to sleep and I didn't have a sleeping bag or anything, just a thin sheet so I turned the van on to warm up the interior. My fuel guage said that we had approximately "300 miles to E". It seems when the van idles with the heat on, I counted 8 minutes 46 seconds for the fuel indicator to drop a mile. I figured this would give me PLENTY of time to finish a good nap before running out of fuel. (ie: 8min x 200miles / 60 = 26.6hours). Sure enough, I slept great! Woke up, drove down to the Hungry Bear in Woodland Park, CO and had a nice pancake and egg sandwich breakfast with coffee. Shower was also really nice to have and I used it several times to rinse myself off and my bikes. It's even better if you need to rinse the dirt out of a wound from MTB riding. Finally, the fuel mileage was great! Speed limits were 75+ in many areas and we were doing that and up to 80-84mph on cruise control and I was averaging over 24 mpg!

Headed out to Silverthorne, Colorado tomorrow morning with the van, 2 beagles, and both bikes,,,Going to try out a night of dry camping tomorrow and then check into the hotel Saturday,,,

how do I know where and when my Transit was built? Is there any reference VIN numbers or something on this recall?

I actually had a few EC5 connectors laying around so I made an EC5 to XT-60 adapter and successfully ran my 12VDC shower pump with this Antigravity battery pack! How cool is that? It has a 12,000mah capacity,,,can jump start any vehicle has usb ports on it for phone charging and a built in flashlight. It also has a cigarette adapter charger.

hide-a-mat i had laying around the house. a bit wide but it might work

My medium sized dog cage fits perfect (Crate in the picture is 30" x 19" x 21".) There's plenty of room for our larger crate in the back if need be.

Opened up, the sleeping platform dimensions are 29.5" x 71"

Done!

The Kuat racks need something like that for our TC vans. When I was shopping for racks, we put a Kuat on my TC, then loaded my MTB on the rack and the handlebar end was about an inch from hitting the rear liftgate window. My Thule XT Pro has better clearance then the Kuat and it tilts down, but swinging the entire rack away from the rear loading area is interesting. I would have to see one in person to really see how complicated it is.

I like your bike choice,,,,,interesting tent setup on the roof,,,post more pics!

That's cool! I wonder what it costs? Do you have one/?

Alright I got the shelf brackets dialed in! A square, measuring tape and a few clamps were my best friend here....Also spent some time planing, sanding, filling and getting ready for primer,,,,

Phase 2 Cabinet is mostly complete. The folding shelf brackets are a pain in the YOU KNOW WHAT to align so they release smoothly. I have a few adjustments to make with them but I think I'm real close.

I was wondering whats underneath those plastic caps on the roof. Can you please elaborate more on that? No drilling required? So all it is is a hole that goes from the roof to the interior? I'm guessing that when you said you used sS lag bolts, and judging by the picture, you screwed them from the inside of the van through the hole into the wood above,,,,

You mean come off that fuse block on the rear passenger side? That option is always there,,,in the future I will look into it if I ever get my hands on a wiring diagram for the vehicle. For now, the lipo works and it's simple. I have a small Antigravity Micro-Start multi function battery that has a 12V output (and other useful functions) that I believe will also work yet I haven't made the barrel connector to XT-60 adapter for it yet.