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Dobby my 2010 Ford Transit Connect XLT(soon to be camper lol)


Deryk the Gypsy
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I bought my ftc last month with a hair under 43k miles in pretty decent shape overall.  Over time I want to turn him into a proper little campervan!  I just installed a Maxair Maxxfan Deluxe and today it downpoured all day (was dry the last time I checked).  I stained and polyurethaned 2 pieces of 3/4 oak ply for the floor... needs a 3rd coat when the sun comes back out tomorrow And I start my slatbed...I think I have enough wood for it lol.

Dobby.jpg

IMG_20190609_175911763.jpg

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Thanks!  I looked for almost 3 months.  I regret not being fast enough on a 2013 ftc xlt premium wagon had 42k miles and was $8900.  It was orange but if I got tired of it could always do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auvf7DDw5z0 lol.  The prices on the FTC's are crazy.  140k miles for $8k?  I saw a few with under 30k miles for $13k+  .  I lucked out because the garage who was selling it took dark shitty pictures.  When I called him, he told me 1 previous owner, he serviced it and when the business went under he bought it to flip it.  He said no accidents real clean and it was...the pictures didn't do Dobby justice.  The interior is dry from yesterdays downpour all day long.  On to the next step if the sun ever comes out lol

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Great find!  They are out there with minimal miles, but they are rare.  Your blue one is a whole lot nicer color than my generic white one.  It take a while to find one, but when you do, it's worth the wait.  When you find one with minimal mileage and in a color like that, it's even better.  Congratulations!

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Thank's Will!  Yeah I really didn't want a white one...I will probably stop at truck stop's while traveling but not looking to blend in and I want to add 2 more windows that open for air flow.  My neighbor was looking at it and swears he never saw one before...and he was a tractor trailer driver.  I said you saw them but being white it is a fleet vehicle typically and you just kind of ignore it.  I saw them on the road but never gave it any thought...now, I see them all over the place.  I am starting to honk and wave at the other drivers.

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Great find. Mine is Blue and Silver - former port security vehicle. Prices are all over the place. The truck dealer I bought mine from said if it had been plain white it would have cost three grand more than what I paid for it because construction/business people like to blend in. A blue one with low miles is a real find. Enjoy. 

 

As far as camper conversions go I just put a portable ice maker in mine. Used 12v Car battery + 750/1500 watt inverter. The ice maker only pulls 120watts @ 1.5 amps. Just about the same as a cell phone charger. Now I have refrigeration when I need it - ice in 1 gallon freezer bags placed into my cooler - and I also have ice for my road drinks, usually Gatorade from the dollar store. I feed the icemaker cheap bottled water and drain it at the end of the day if I'm not doing an overnighter. Took me a lot of head scratching to turn down the mini-fridge thing and go with this setup. Would like to hear comments opinions regarding this direction.

Edited by Bill Jackson
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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey Bill!  I don't have pictures on the tablet I am on for the next few days but slowly pulled the 2nd row seats, laid down 1/2 inch of styrofoam shiny side down.  3/4" ply on top.  I planned on a 28"x72" by 14" tall bed so my portapotty would just slide under and I can sit upright with a little headroom.  ended up being 30" wide, next time I will try to make it a little narrower.  Built it out of oak, light and strong and in 2 separate pieces.  My back is a mess from a worksite fall so everything I plan for is light enough I can do it alone lol.  I was going to buy a new mattress and decided to sacrifice my nearly 7 year old 10" latex memory foam mattress.  The cushions squash down nicely and man I sleep like a baby on it lol.   Oh, 2 turnbuckles (I think I will add a 3rd) hold the bed in place, so easy to remove if I need the van to transport something or whatnot. 

 

 I installed a MaxFan deluxe roof fan, had one in my old camper and I loved that the vent can be open year round and doesn't leak inside., a leisure battery and fuse panel, I haven't installed the little smart doohickey that will send a charge to the back leisure battery to keep it powered.  I need to put the car on ramps and dread dragging them out from the shed lol.  

 

I have some ideas for a galley, and a 6 gallon water jug and the nearly unused fresh water pump from my old sailboat that got totalled by sandy.  I installed it the summer before the hurricane lol so I held onto it...so now I will eventually have some running water ... and that means eventually a luke warm shower lol.

 

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On 6/16/2019 at 9:38 AM, Bill Jackson said:

As far as camper conversions go I just put a portable ice maker in mine. Used 12v Car battery + 750/1500 watt inverter. The ice maker only pulls 120watts @ 1.5 amps.

120 watts is 10 amps from a 12 volt cigarette lighter plug.  If you're running it from an inverter powered by the vehicle battery, the inverter will draw a bit more than 10 amps from the battery because inverters are not 100% efficient.  I wouldn't leave your ice maker running for too long without the engine running or you may not be able to restart the engine

 

Don

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From what I recall, if you pan on installing a lot of electronics, you should use a battery isolator to protect the battery under the hood which operates your car.  Then you can run a 2nd battery for all of your electronics.  2nd battery would be a must for any camper conversion.  

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It's funny about how generic the white ones are.  Mine is white, and nobody remembers seeing it, ever.

 

My wife and I occasionally use a Coleman 12 volt refrigerator in mine.  There's a 12 volt plug by the back doors, which is convenient and means less wires up by the seats to get tangled up in.  Remembering to unplug it is sometimes a challenge.

Edited by WillMartin
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I have a battery isolator just need to get my ramps because with the front skirting I can't get under to ziptye the wire in place securely.  In the future I might add a solar panel but I think my maxxfan running on low at night for a weekend shouldn't drain the battery.

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2 hours ago, Deryk the Gypsy said:

 but I think my maxxfan running on low at night for a weekend shouldn't drain the battery.

 

 

We'll all find out after you do it.

 

I do not like anything on when the vehicle isn't running.  But that's just paranoia from old tech, in old cars, where everything drained the battery.  I'm pretty sure that someone here could do the math and figure out what the fan's draw actually is, and how long you can run it in theory.  Because everyone's battery is in a different condition.  You may have a brand new battery.  I may have a battery which is a few years old, and it may discharge faster.

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If you can find the space for them, the biggest bang for your buck in 'house' batteries is a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series for 12 volts.  They will provide about 200 amp hours and conservatively discharging them to 50% gives you 100 amp hours of 'usable' power  -  That would power your ice maker for several hours and would probably run your ventilation fan for a week or more.  They do make AGM golf cart batteries which contain no liquid acid and are not vented, but they are expensive.  You can mount them anywhere you can find a suitable nook though because you never have to check the water level in them.  I've used golf cart batteries and other 6 volt batteries (primarily L-16's, which are 'double' golf cart sized) in sailboats for many years and they are an excellent power source for inverters when the engine isn't running.  I have a 750 watt inverter in my TC which is powered off the engine battery, but I did replace the small starting battery with a larger AGM battery

 

Don

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Deryk: Congrats on your new camper home. Can you tell me if it is really 4'11" in the cargo area as stated in the 2010 Brochure? After 2010, the brochures for 2011-13 show them to be a little shorter inside. Have fun working on your roaming home. I too am looking for a *non-white* TC - early years for best interior height. 

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That's the key --- easy to remove and then set up at will --- looks like you aren't playing around with this conversion. Great work! I need to get into mine and reconfigure a little bit. I have added a side +- quick tent to be put at one of the side doors. Thanks for sharing what you have done... it is inspiring.

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On ‎7‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 11:13 AM, Beta Don said:

If you can find the space for them, the biggest bang for your buck in 'house' batteries is a pair of 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series for 12 volts.  They will provide about 200 amp hours and conservatively discharging them to 50% gives you 100 amp hours of 'usable' power.

 

Don this is the best, practical, affordable advice I have received to date. I don't have anything connected to the main battery that starts the engine. I just run a battery charger every once in a while to get back to full capacity on the camper battery. The twin 6 volt in series advice is a real help to me. Thanks for the guidance - as you say it is really 10 amps on 12 volts. This particular ice maker kicks out ice every 7  minutes, I run it about 14 minutes unless I need a couple pounds of ice. However, unique to portable ice machines, as soon as the basket is full the entire machine shuts off entirely - no fan, no refrigeration, nothing. Then when the ice melts below the top, the machines turns back on to refill the basket. A majority of the time it draws zero amps while ice is being stored. It's not for everyone but it has worked out well for me. Thanks again for the sage advice.

Edited by Bill Jackson
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It's not that hard to wire in an ACR (Automatic Charging Relay) which will automatically recharge your camper battery anytime the engine is running.  The ACR will make sure your loads on the camper battery can never discharge the vehicle battery, as any time the engine isn't running, the two systems are kept completely separate  The TC has a huge alternator (90 amps I think) which won't be taxed at all keeping your golf cart batteries full up and you'll have plenty of power for the ice maker, lights, fans, radios, even a TV if you like

 

Look for a Blue Sea Systems 7601 ACR  -  Amazon sells it for about $60.  Not terribly difficult to wire up.  It comes with instructions

 

Don

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