Colby C

i had mine done at an upholstery shop, nice grey door panel material, and 1/8" of foam underneath. i installed m6 riv-nuts in the holes, and used machined stainless washers, and stainless hardware to hold them on. bonus was a bit of sound dampening due to the foam, little less echo chamber

it handles it just fine, keep a little bit extra braking distance, and take it easy over the big bumps, but theres still travel left in the suspension in the rear. i have done it a couple times before. again, not long distances, just about 10 miles from my laser cutter, to the shop. i was hoping i didnt have to pull the interior kit, but my trailer isn't going to be ready til friday, and i have orders to fulfill so ya gotta make it happen, guess i could have rented a pickup truck for a few hours, but this is no biggy.

pulled the camper module out today..... 4 bolts, 10 minutes and its sitting on saw horses in the back of the shop at work. its nice to know it will just slip right out in short order. only reason i pulled it is i have a giant pallet of steel parts to pick up. transit will suffer for the 10 mile trip home until i unload it, should be about 2200lbs back there.

yes and no, I've been coming home from LA (have a bunch of friends up there, I'm 35 miles south in orange county) and have left there at midnight 1 am and yeah, the 101 is traffic-y. but mostly thats well past my bedtime 250 is fine as a scooter, it'll go 80, and cruise 65 super sweetly, I've done a lot of 50cc riding too, see a buncha cool stuff at 35mph on backroads. mostly, little bikes are just too little, I'm 6'3 and 300lbs, no grom, z125 gunna work for me. I've had em all, bmw, triumph, vstroms, etc, i like a nice middle weight standard bike, gotta have 200+ miles of range, and ba able to cruise 85.

yeah, I've put 100,000+ miles on various motorcycles the last few years, but this time, i was in the van. i don't currently have a street bike for longer trips, just a 250cc scooter i rip around town on, and a plated dirt bike. it really depends, on which direction, and what you call "LA" before 6am, i can run all over southern CA with no traffic, but after 6:30 am, its heavy til 10, and from 3:30pm (15:30) its heavy traffic til about 7:30 (19:30) its all part of the game. my commute TO work at 6:30am, is 12 minutes, regardless of van, motorcycle, scooter, whatever, its all 80mph freeway blast, but home, at 6:pm, its 50 minutes, same route.

did not go to "the city" this time, been MANY MANY times, wife wanted to get home, so we booked it from Ft. Bragg home to Orange County in a day. it was semi brutal, 600+ miles, left at 6:45am, got home about 8pm, traffic thru LA was hit just in time at 5:30.

yeah, told the wife "if this is the worst thing that happens, its all good."

thanks for the kind words. im not a wordy kinda guy, I'm short and to the point in real life, so its hard to convey in words, pics work great though.

yup, just a single calculation. did not reset the trip meter the whole trip, though it auto resets after 2000 miles. my last van, 200 e150, 4 inch lift an 33's, was lucky to get 14, so anything 20+ and I'm stoked. yeah, i didnt see this coming, just WHACK. little chunk out of the glass, wouldn't care, but its right in my sightline. yeah, my glass guy at work will likely fix it for nothin, seems as he does 2-3 windshields a month for us.

interstate work going thru Utah where the speed limit is 80mph, everyone runs 10 over, its nuttier than squirrel doodoo. a lot of the trip was 2 lane back roads, at 60 ish, i did no per tank calculations, just a big overall average at the end.

Just got back yesterday from the "big trip" went thru CA, NV, AZ (just the corner between NV/UT), UT, WY, MT, ID, WA, OR, and all of CA top to bottom. 3906.7 miles 152.984 gallons of fuel 25.537 MPG $441.29 total fuel cost $2.88 avg price per gallon. not bad, pretty stoked with that actually. now, incidental costs..... parking ticket in seattle, stopped at the rei flagship store, totally worth checking out if you haven't been there before, just make sure you get a parking stub if you're street parking, cuz the pay station was broke where i parked, so i figured it was like LA, broken meter = no pay..... wrong $44 Broken windshield, picked up a rock at 90mph from a gravel truck, took a nice chunk right about the line of sight for my left eye, bummer, might have it "fixed" but i don't know yet, i have a 3 week trip coming in september, so ill wait to have the windshield replaced til after that. van needs an oil change, I'm 100 miles past my service interval, it'll cost $30, i already have 5 cases of mobil 1 (costco ran a sale), and i have a few filters (factory filter about $4 wholesale)

thanks guys, its all just simple and straight cuts with the table saw, some with the router, and sand sand sand and then polyurethane and repeat. Build took basically 5 weekend days working about 5 hours a day to do the wood/floor/platform build. Took another whole day to run the power wire from the battery, under the floor, taped to the harness the entire way to the right rear corner, install the fuse panel, make the ground wire etc. I also had a wet floor underneath the floor mat caused by the AC drain fitting not fitting the "tunnel" of the car well, dealer had it 2 whole weeks and "couldn't duplicate the problem"........ jerks. i got it back, pulled the false rear floor up, pulled the passenger seat, and peeled the flooring up, dried it all with a fan over the weekend while i was working inside, and then found the loose fitting. pulled the fitting out and 2 of the little tabs were broken, so i gooped it up with permatex ultra grey and shoved it back in the hole, its not moving now, and no more leak. stinking dealer jerks couldn't even do that. shoulda investigated it myself first, but with being only 2 months old, and 5000 miles on it, figured i shouldn't have to. wrong. the trailer wiring took a whole evening, like 3 hours, from getting off work at 5, and i was home by 8. evidently they make the converter kit to go in on the left rear. well, i wanted my electrical in the right rear, so i had to extend the left side harness about 9 feet, to go up and around the rear opening, and to the left side, and then shorten my right side harness the same 9 feet. the next night i installed and harnessed the switches into the panel, and sorted out the power and ground distribution/buss bars, and buttoned up the interior panels so i could slip the camper module in. it will come out, but i don't plan on removing it often, if at all.

ok, so this is my only car, its my daily driver, my business vehicle, my camper etc etc i have a regular job, as a mechanic, and i have my own business, https://foldaflame.com where we make portable flat packing fire pits and grills, for camping, overlanding, or just plain having fun. i use this thing to go to events, carry product, pick parts up from manufacturer, etc, so it had to be a pretty versatile lay out for me, and this is the best i could come up with in regard to sleeping and storage, and also convertible storage for big hauls. theres going to be more to come, hope you enjoy. sunday we leave on a 2 week trip to the pacific northwest, from so cal, destination bainbridge island, by way of yellowstone and then some.

into the van it goes sitting mode with the boards sleep mode in the boards haul mode with the boards shoot!!! the doors didnt close, did this all in my head, and never installed anything into the van before the final installation, this was the only goof up. cut an inch off the corners in the back, like a glove add some aluminum trim, just some 3/4 angle aluminum, 1/16" thick, had to drill my own holes for the button head twist nails. now, time for "fancy" as my buddies call it bed cushions in!!! thats all (for now) folks!!!

Cut the deck boards, poly, and have wrapped with carpet and now we assemble the platform

assemble the platform base

coating the floor with poly, 2 coats rough cut flooring glue, not pictured, and roll out the floor and cut it closer. a lot of this, sand and poly, sand and poly, flip, and more of the same. eventually they start lookin nice!

Going to give a quick rundown of the process, ill skip the paint drying, just the basics. The whole camper module sits on a 3/4" sheet of baltic birch plywood, 4'x7' ish, i forget the exact length. its held in with 4 m10x1.5 bolts, with a washer. i can remove in 20 minutes or less with the help of a friend. sheet in. sheet out and framing of the walls begin.

this is the electrical area at the rear. trailer wiring boxes, fuse box etc. i also added a terminal block and a ground buss

been working on my transit connect for about a month, lots has been done, lots left to do. run down, -10GA power wire from battery junction plate to right rear corner of the van -Bluesea 6 circuit fuse box with ground buss -3 gang switch panel, 12v CLA, and dual USB ports installed in passenger side rear plastic trim -bed/storage platform, converts into seating, and sleeping as needed, held into the 10mm threaded holes in the floor, all done in 3/4" baltic birch with 3 coats of poly -sheet vinyl flooring -4" firm foam cushions wrapped in grey tweed