Project Camper Van

[cowman]

Since I know POA likes vehicle projects here’s my latest great purchase- a 2003 E-250 Conversion van.

The purpose of this vehicle will be for my wife to tow a horse trailer to weekend horse clinics/trail rides/etc that may not have available lodging and have somewhere better than a tent to sleep. We did look at other options- horse trailers with living quarters are a thing but pricy and single purpose. A full on RV with the trailer behind would be huge and unwieldy for her to deal with, especially at some of these sites. The van also can be used when we have family or other large groups that want to go somewhere together without taking a second car…. or to carry a full payload for a PA-32 trip and I’m only half joking about that- it’s been an issue.

The van’s rear seat folds into a sofa, the windows are darkly tinted and have blinds in the rear. Most of places she’s camping at have bathrooms available so that’s no big deal, she’s got a camping stove and I have a nice 12v Coleman powered cooler for refrigeration. The big must-have mod I need to figure out is Air conditioning without idling the motor all night.

Most of the places she’ll camp at have RV outlets for shore power. I’ve got a portable AC unit we no longer use for anything else so all I need to do to make this work is route the hot air hose outside and get an extension cord inside. I want to do this with minimal to no cutting/permanent modifications to the vehicle if possible.

Power is easy enough- I’ve found a spot where I can drill a small hole and run a cord inside, hiding a plug behind the fuel door and probably installing some household style electrical outlets in some of the conversion van paneling… it should pretty much look factory. I also want to hard-wire in some kind of battery charger/maintainer that runs when plugged into shore power so she can run the 12v cooler, interior lights, and TV without killing the battery.

The AC hot air duct is the part I’m hung up on. I could probably just cut a hole in the side and use a dryer vent or put a hole in the floor and fashion a plug for when it’s not in use but this van is in really nice shape and I really hate to cut it up. The only windows that open are the front door windows and a few small pop-open style. I’d thought about removing a pop-open window and making a panel to in but there doesn’t seem to be a temporary way to remove them, the latch mechanism comes off easy enough but I can’t get the glass out, I think it’s urethaned in place and won’t come out without breaking it. The only other non-destructive idea I’ve got is to make some kind of insert for the windows in the front doors- probably out of foam board that can easily be popped into place at the campsite. Still thinking about how to do that in a way that’s not overly ghetto and won’t blow in/out at the first heavy wind. Pilots are smart right? Maybe you guys have some ideas.

 

[Tools]

I’d go with a carbon fiber/glass laid up hood for the little partial window.

make a transition duct from the round hose to a 2” x window width rectangle, then nozzle it out the little opening in the bottom. It would just hook through. Have to do a little relief work around the latch.

Non ghetto, easy, retains relative security.

Make a solid piece out of foam. Lay up over the outside, melt out foam when done. Viola.

it would resemble a squeegee attachment for a shop vac.

 

[cowman]

I’d go with a carbon fiber/glass laid up hood for the little partial window.

make a transition duct from the round hose to a 2” x window width rectangle, then nozzle it out the little opening in the bottom. It would just hook through. Have to do a little relief work around the latch.

Non ghetto, easy, retains relative security.

Make a solid piece out of foam. Lay up over the outside, melt out foam when done. Viola.

it would resemble a squeegee attachment for a shop vac.

I like the idea of that, will have to read up and practice on the actual fabrication. The only fiberglass work I've ever done is repairing a broken header panel...

 

[Zeldman]

First thing you need to do is paint the trailer to match the van, and then get the same wheels as the van has for the trailer.

I mean with horse people I thought is was all about the image (money)...

I grew up with horses. In the late 60s very early 70s pop had a '59 Dodge truck, faded air force light blue with an old horse trailer with faded red paint while everyone else had brand new trucks driven by hired drivers and brand new horse trailers. We were definitely the poor folks of the horsey crowd.

My thought for the A/C hot air outlet is go through the floor.

 

[SoonerAviator]

First thing you need to do is paint the trailer to match the van, and then get the same wheels as the van has for the trailer.

I mean with horse people I thought is was all about the image (money)...

I grew up with horses. In the late 60s very early 70s pop had a '59 Dodge truck, faded air force light blue with an old horse trailer with faded red paint while everyone else had brand new trucks driven by hired drivers and brand new horse trailers. We were definitely the poor folks of the horsey crowd.

My thought for the A/C hot air outlet is go through the floor.

Sometimes all of that shiny stuff comes down to "All hat, no cattle."

 

[Ted]

You left out the most important part: Which engine is in that thing? I'm guessing 5.4 if it's a 2003?

It sounds like you've got the right idea, basically making it into a Class B by adding some household outlets, a battery charger/maintainer when plugged into shore power, etc.

For the air conditioning, you might consider seeing if there's a way to add a smaller rooftop AC/heat pump. You could go for AC only if you wanted to save some money there, but it wouldn't look ghetto or out of place, in fact it would be expected on what looks like a Class B, and you wouldn't have to fiddle with the hot air vent aspects. Of course, that's still talking $500 or so plus you're still having to cut a hole in the roof - but it would look more intentional and by design.

Especially if you're towing, I would look at some upgraded sway bars for stability.

 

[cowman]

You left out the most important part: Which engine is in that thing? I'm guessing 5.4 if it's a 2003?

It sounds like you've got the right idea, basically making it into a Class B by adding some household outlets, a battery charger/maintainer when plugged into shore power, etc.

For the air conditioning, you might consider seeing if there's a way to add a smaller rooftop AC/heat pump. You could go for AC only if you wanted to save some money there, but it wouldn't look ghetto or out of place, in fact it would be expected on what looks like a Class B, and you wouldn't have to fiddle with the hot air vent aspects. Of course, that's still talking $500 or so plus you're still having to cut a hole in the roof - but it would look more intentional and by design.

Especially if you're towing, I would look at some upgraded sway bars for stability.

Yup, it's a 5.4 with a Dana 60 3.73 rear end. Looks to have a factory tow package with a big trans cooler and and engine oil cooler. Hitch receiver and 7-pin trailer plug were already installed I just had to install a brake controller and plug into the factory harness up front. There's a pretty beefy looking front sway bar already. We've tested it with the trailer empty and it feels really stable- I had some misgivings about a 5.4 being enough motor for this but it does great. With the beefy 3/4 ton springs it barely drops at all when I put the trailer on, I think I could put my car hauler behind this if I needed to- tow rating according to the manual is 7500#. It drives really nice, I find myself wanting to take it places just because- possibly as passenger. Those middle-row captain's chairs are as good as any living room recliner.

The idea of a roof AC isn't off the table, I just have my doubts about being able to pull down that headliner with all the cool goodies screwed into it and put it back in without tearing stuff up. IDK if I could cut straight through, there's no doubt wiring and duct work for the rear climate controls up there too. I know a lot of the roof conversion van stuff is a bit fragile from swapping out the old broken tube TV for the glorious modern LCD unit- I basically just screwed a 2x8 onto the metal shelf left by the original height roof and used that as an attachment point for a standard TV mount. Barely got that middle roof console re-installed, half the screws were stripped and the plastic shell no longer has the best structural integrity.

Really liking the idea of trying to fab a duct to go out the little side window if I can figure out how to build that. My other thought was to ask an auto-glass place to remove the small glass piece and DIY my own out of a piece of lexan with a simple wingnut removable cover for the vent hole.

 

[Albany Tom]

If that's a portable AC with just an exhaust hose, they are incredibly inefficient. Reason being, they're taking out cooled room air to cool the hot side of the AC unit, and then trying to get the condensate out that way, too. That's not just lower efficiency, but for every cubic foot of air it sends out to keep it cool, you have to pull in another cubic foot of hot wet air from the outside. All because it's too cheap of a setup to have 2 hoses, to let the hot side be cooled by outside air. I've used them, but only in a spot where there aren't any other better options.

I'd search around for other van guys who have solved this problem in a more straightforward way, just my 2 cents.

 

[Ted]

It doesn’t surprise me to hear that the conversion van build quality is about the same as for RVs.

I agree that the rooftop idea has a lot of risk. I think I wouldn’t take down the headliner fully, and instead try to just cut a hole. This isn’t an uncommon thing, it’s done on bus conversions all the time. I’m sure YouTube has some good videos to see what it’s like.

 

[TCABM]

I’m with @Ted on this one. RV/Class B aftermarket solution. It may cost a bit extra, but well worth it if you’r going to do this more than a time or two.

 

[cowman]

Made a bit of progress today. Van is now wired for shore power. I’ve also added a battery charger to keep the battery topped up for 12v equipment. Haven’t mounted it down yet and I may not ever. Want to see how well it works first.

 

[Ted]

That’s a nice and clean installation, I like it.