A month ago I bought an adventure van. Built on a Ford Transit Chassis with AWD and Dual rear wheels. Lots of nice features I will go into in more detail. The original build was done by Regency conversions in Fort Worth. Basically anything they did was done wrong and is broken, so I am having to go through literally every single system and either rebuild it, or have it rebuilt. Luckily I got it for a really good deal, so I can do the things right.

I will make a post for each major thing I do, hopefully you all will enjoy...

Sorry to hear everything was done wrong. Seems like Regency was all the rage in the 90's. Looking forward to watching the progress on this.

Aweome! Interior pics appreciated when able.

From the title I was assuming E250 4 wheel drive conversion and armor but Im down for this as well.

Here is the inside...

The biggest features I were interested in were of course AWD and the ability to sleep 4. I also wanted the Ford instead of the Mercedes for 3 reasons. First the Ford burns gas, which is just easier. Second, the Ford can be worked on at any Ford Dealership. The Mercedes can only be worked on at a Sprinter certified Mercedes dealership, of which there are only about 100 nationwide. I was worried about getting stuck somewhere. Last, the Mercedes seems to have issues with "limp mode" at high elevation. Since I live in Colorado and plan on taking this thing everywhere, I didn't want it to go to low power mode anytime the chip detects low oxygen.

I this pic you can see the almost king bed lower bed and drop down full sized bed. On the right is the bathroom door and on the left is the fridge and induction stove.

First fix was on the toilet. It is a really nice porcelain macerating toilet (it chops up your poo as it goes through the system). Unfortunately the builder did not appear to know what expansion bolts are, so they just laid the toilet seat on top of the commode. Not a big deal, I bought the bolts for $8 off amazon and fixed it in less than 5 minutes.

Next step, roof rack...

So about a week and a half ago I got onto installing a roof rack, which I bought from Flat Line Van Co. I got the low pro rack instead of the safari rack as I have a bunch of equipment on the roof and I worried the safari rack wouldn't match up with the A/C, solar panel, and venting ports.

Install of the rack was pretty simple, took me most of a day and I did it all by myself. Tiring day. The ladder on the other hand was a pain in the butt.

I originally installed it in the recommended and predrilled location. Hardest part was the base mount, which took a couple hours. Lot of swearing while installing that base plate. The rest was done quickly. I did have to relocate the gray water dump valve handle, again no biggie.

Unfortunately I soon thereafter learned that the recommended location blocked the plumbing port door so I couldn't fill the tanks. Dang, the ladder has to be moved, which of course means I will be customizing things. I removed the ladder yesterday and will re-install on the driver's side at the very back of the van. I like that location better but will have to be creative to make it sturdy enough. I will also be drilling hardened aluminum, which sucks.

I am also adding "panels" to the rack. I bought a garage shelving unit from Costco and I am fastening the shelves to the crossbars themselves with some old ubolts and rack pieces I had around. I think this is going to work to make it easier to walk on and store stuff. We will see how that goes. Again, Customization is necessary with these things.

Here is a pic with the rack installed




Next step... Some storage solutions, then off to the lift and electrical !!!!!

This is awesome!

Some storage issues...

One thing with adventure vans is that they have very little storage and also a very small kitchen. This lack of storage is especially true since it has the drop down bed, which takes an area usually lined with cabinets. So I had to solve that right away. The rear of the van is made of two bench seats that fold out into the king bed. I decided that the bench seats would be rarely used and under them was going to be a main storage area. Took some measurements and found some box options. To explain more, the area under each bench is occupied by the heater and electrical system. I am using the central area between the benches as storage and will just leave the area setup as a bed.

I originally wants Roam boxes but they didn't really fit right. I wanted tight tolerances and their specs just weren't right. In addition they have strut lids which just seemed like something to break. Pretty sure I am strong enough to open a plastic lid without a strut. Eyelar made boxes that were the perfect size so I snagged one. Ordered tan, showed up gray but I don't care. I had a gift certificate from REI so I also grabbed a 150 L soft box. I figured kitchen would go in the Eyelar and towels and soft stuff into the REI box.

For those asking why I don't put the kitchen onto the roof, it is because it is just too heavy. That Kitchen box weighs 50+ pounds when loaded and I don't like the idea of carrying it up the ladder. I also don't like climbing the ladder just to get the stove out.

Anyway, exactly 1 inch of lost space on each side of the boxes.

Add on... I don't like the soft box so I am getting a second 90L Eyelar. They are well made and have strap locations built in if they need to ever go on the roof. The locks are strong enough to slow down a thief as well. I will try for a tan one again. Food and soft goods into the tan one, kitchen and hard items in the gray one. I also have one cabinet dedicated to quick food along with the fridge.


Today I am ordering the lift kit and AT tires (leaning toward Toyo open country AT with snowflake rating). I am also getting on board with Regency and ordering more lithium self heating smart batteries (Should end up with 500AH). I also may have found the in line 60 A and 300A fuses that I think are taking down the electrical system. Doing a little voltmeter work to see if I can isolate the problem.



I have a lot of real work to do today (end of the month) so I may not do much more than ordering stuff. Trying to go DH Mountain biking on Thursday at Keystone and leave for California on Sat so I may not update for a while. Hopefully the next post will be drastically different with this thing being 3.5 inches taller.


Here is the Eyelar box. Pretty nice.



And the REI soft box (not my favorite)

This is really cool. Following.

If they used any Romex in their build, replace it with tinned stranded wire. Basically follow ABYC wiring standards.

Fortunately, REI has a great return policy.

Return Every Item

I didn't really think about returning the soft box to REI as normally I end up finding a use for stuff like that but I think I will. Otherwise I will just end up letting my wife use it to store christmas ornaments or something and storing ornaments in a $150 fabric box is a little stupid. I am thinking about expanding fridge storage capability with a plug in cooler unit, so maybe it will go towards that.

I was crazy busy with work today being the last day of the month so I only got some ordering and little stuff done.

A week ago I had the van in Durango and Telluride and bottomed out twice on a fairly normal gravel road. Stock it has VERY little clearance due to the tanks and plumbing being mounted on the bottom instead of inside the cabin. Heck I can barely get it up the driveway without bottoming out the receiver hitch in the rear. So obviously a lift was in the works.

I am going with KC Trucks on the lift as Kevin and Bill over there have done about a hundred Coachmen RV's for Patriot Motors and those are built on the transit AWD dually chassis. We are going with the 2.5 inch lift and the Toyo open country AT tires. The ATs have the snowflake rating for winter snows and that is an absolute need here where I live. The stock tires are 205's and I know after the lift you can switch to a 215/85/16 but Kevin swears you can also do a 245/75/16. I think the 245s are too wide in the rear, even after the lift but he says they fit with a little grinding. If they are too big we will just switch to the 215/85/16. I'm gonna talk to him again before we order the tires as obviously they need to fit.

So we will be lifting 2.5 all around plus adding a 2 inch bigger diameter tire, giving a net rise of around 3.25 to 3.5 inches. This will make a crazy difference in ground clearance raising me from 5-6 inches up to 8-9 inches. 8-9 inches is a lot of clearance.

The order went in today for the kit and if it arrives before Friday then I will drop off the van and have him wrap it up while I am in California. I could do the lift myself except first... I don't want to, and second... you have to grind off some shock mounts and install new ones and that seems like a job for someone who wants to do that stuff. It has been hailing every day this summer so I can only drop it off if he has inside storage. With it hailing everyday every car in the Springs is looking for inside storage and repairs so hopefully this won't slow me down.


I also spoke to Renegy about the electrical system. My god they are frustrating. They kept asking about the solar panel and I kept telling them I didn't really care about a 100w panel not working when the whole rest of the system didn't work. Guy thinks it is cross wired somewhere but I am 99% sure it is either a bad charge controller or bad inverter. If I have the time I am tracing every wire tomorrow to assure nothing is crossed. I will also look at the in line fuses and make sure they are good. The Renegy "advisor: was funny, although he surely didn't intend to be. Early in the conversation I sent him a schematic of the whole system that I got off their website. 10 minutes later he send me the same schematic back as a "solution." I responded that I just sent that to him and he really didn't know what to say. Started blaming the solar panel again. What a waste of time those guys are.

The guy who is bumping up the electrical storage said today he would do the trace and find the issue if I didn't want to mess with it. It will cost me, but that is why I work so I may just throw that stuff at him. Good news, Renegy put their 100ah auto heating smart batteries on sale, which will save me about $250 per battery. Also good news... I have learned so much about the systems over the last few weeks that I think I would be fine re-wiring it myself. Only thing slowing me down on that is that if I have to prove the inverter or controller is the problem for a warranty claim I think Renegy would trust a professional over me. If I do it, I will take a lot of pictures.

Been out in California for a mini vacation so nothing happened the last week except for fighting warranty. The parts came in for the lift came in as well.

I drop the Van off monday at the suspension shop. We are doing a 2.5" lift all around and swapping the tires for some Toyo open country's. Since the open country's are 2 inches bigger in outside diameter, the van should rise 3.5 inches total. Once done all will be aligned. Key thing with the lift is to get one with camber adjustment. Without it you will blow through tires and cv joints fast.

The original dealership called and said they are trying to work out a way for me to get the electrical system fixed at the Cheyenne Wyoming dealership. Hopefully I can schedule that right after the lift is done. Even more hopeful that they won't keep it for months on end, but RV repairs always suck.

Since the fridge is so small I ordered a 30Quart powered cooler that plugs into the 12v or 110v. I was going to get a dometic or ARB, but they cost well over a grand and I can get a Bouge for $230. Even if it breaks I can buy 5 Bouge's for the price of a dometic and 7 for the price of an ARB.

Today I am re-installing the ladder in a new position in which it doesn't affect the plumbing. Tomorrow I am talking my kid mountain biking at Trestle so I got to work fast.

Will post pics of the ladder if I get it done today

Very cool!

All right.

Back from California for a week now and got a lot done. Powered cooler showed up, lift is done, tires done, ladder done.

Here is a pic with the ladder attached. I looked at installing it in the very rear but before I did I thought I would see just how much needed to be done to get it to fit around the plumbing port. Sure enough I got it to fit and also be able to open the plumbing port . I had to cut new holes in the rack and reconfigure the way the rack mounted to the bottom.

Put it all together and unfortunately, I do not like the way it sits. My driveway slopes a lot so I didn't get it perfectly vertical. I followed a body line thinking the body line was vertical and it wasn't. I think it sits about 1/4 inch from vertical. It was hard to tell because our driveway is so sloped, but it is off. This weekend I will fix it, I just have to tweak the holes a little and change the bottom mounting plate, also just by a scooch.

I will show what I did for the lift and tires next

So yesterday the van came back from the shop doing the lift. I could have done it, but I have just been so busy. Plus, I can't do an alignment or mount the tires so I just sent it off. Kevin flipped it back in 3.5 days so it went quickly. Drives fine.

Went with a 2.5 inch lift all around. Blocks in back and springs in front. The front also gets a camber adjustment so as to keep from destroying the CV joints.

For tires I went with the Toyo Open Country ATs as I think they are really good snow tires and this is Colorado. Everyone goes with KO2s, which are great tires, but I just didn't think they stopped well in the snow and I need to bring this 8600 pound beast to a stop coming down the mountains in the snow.

Here is a pic of it lifted.



And another, note how much space is in the wheel wells now



Front coil-overs



And rear blocks. You can also see the sumo springs we added. They are basically bigger bump stops that stop a 8600 pound van from leaning too far over. They compress is you hit a big bump and technically add to the max weight capacity, but really they are good for stopping excessive leaning.

I chose not to do the adjustable shocks. Maintenance increases drastically and I am not building a true off roader, just a gravel and snow beast. Plus, I am not the type to get out and manually set shocks for a gravel road or pavement and each one has to be adjusted manually every single time.

After the lift ground clearance increased to 10 inches at the undermounted tanks, and 8.25 at those ugly running boards. I am also at 8.25 inches at the black water tank emptying pipe, which is under the ladder. I will have to change that black drain position as it is a fragile part and you don't want your lowest point to be a fragile one. It is now on the list. One day I will replace those ugly chrome side steps with a slider step.

Last, at the rear bumper, clearance went up to around 13 inches. That is nice as this big butt end drags on occasion. The rear end was where it dragged coming up the driveway, no longer a problem. Not even close.

This is the new rear wheel well setup. I love having that space in the wheel well as when it articulates or turns I don't rub anywhere. Surprisingly this is about the max tire size I could do. The wells will hold it, but you have to match up all 6 and the duallys will rub in back. Weird being maxed out in size in the rear rather than the front. Looks great in person, aggressive without being all bro'd out. Haven't tried yet but I think this well do quite well off road... within reason.



Tomorrow I am driving to Buffalo Creek for a mountain biking session with some friends. I will get a good test of driving on back roads and curvy mountain roads.

I added a second fridge in the form of a powered cooler from Bougy. Holds 40+ cans of soda. We will probably use it as a freezer on trips and use the regular fridge as a fridge. I got this size as it fits perfectly between the driver's seat and the bench seat behind it. Got beige instead of black in case it ever sits in the sun. A friend has the same unit and loves it. I loved the idea of spending $235 instead of $1100 for a dometic. If it lasts half as long I will just buy a 2nd one and still be 700 bucks clear.



Next step, fixing this dang electrical system. I already ordered some batteries to supplement the existing. But first I have to find the problem.....

My wife is ordering an awning for it. She is loving this and wants to pitch in. The correct awning for my size is the Fiama F45S 350 and surprise, surprise, it is backordered. I guess we need to put in on order and wait it out. Wife wants the awning to be manual instead of electric so it will be an easy install.

I also lined up a guy to tint the windows. Right now they are tinted with the cheap stuff that doesn't block UV well. There is a new film that blocks 98% of UV and has a heat blockage way up there as well. It is even more expensive than a person can imagine window film could possibly cost. Coolest thing is that they make a clear film for the windshield as well that still blocks 98% of UV and over 80% of heat. I hate the price but if I do this I can literally remove every window shade and valance and get rid of the rattles and weight. It is very tempting. Or I can just pay the guy four hundred to do the windshield with 15% and front sides with 35%. Doing the good stuff on all windows will add a zero to that price. But I will be rattle free. I hate rattles. Hate Hate Hate rattles.

Can't wait to see the progress

Enjoying the updates! Very cool project!

I would call around on the tint. Every reputable shop will have ceramic as an option. I think the windshield and front windows with ceramic should run close to what you were quoted for standard tint.

$4,000 for ceramic tint???? That's ridiculous. Maybe $2,000 since you have a lot of glass, but I think it should be even less than that!

I had already called around about the ceramic tint and you are correct, the quote was insane.

Started into the electric system today before catching a flight to dfw.

One of the batteries is bad. I checked ampage with all 3 batteries disconnected from the system and they were drawing. So I checked individually and one is drawing amps.

I then started chasing wires. One large cable was attached to the positive of battery 1. It then went through the floor and attached to air. Seriously. This should probably be attached to a second alternator but it instead goes to nothing. There should also be a charge controller there letting the alternator know when to charge.

Frustrating stuff.

Good news is that by disconnecting battery 3 I can now run the systems and clean the freaking toilet.

Obviously I need a lot of time on this one. Might get a day on Sunday to continue

Cool rig.

How easy would it be to remove that "Xalta" off the doors?

JB said:

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Cool rig.

How easy would it be to remove that "Xalta" off the doors?

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Good question. I don't like it either. That might go on the list

Judging by your name, are you in Knoxville? We have some great friends from A&M there and visit sometimes!

Back on topic, so, the Sprinter floor has dropped and I've got a Revel coming in two weeks. We're in Oregon and it's going to be our ski house + long weekend adventure with our daughter vehicle. BUT, I need internet for work and starting to diligence. Have you looked into StarLink, Mobi, WeBoost et al.? **** is confusing and I'm a tech dude.

I have a WeBoost and can speak to it.

If you have cell service, but it's weak, a WeBoost can make it less weak. Think of standing on top of your van/truck/etc with your phone in your hand. Do you have service?

If there is service but it's weak, you're in luck. No service = nothing to boost = have to drive somewhere else.

Naveronski said:

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I have a WeBoost and can speak to it.

If you have cell service, but it's weak, a WeBoost can make it less weak. Think of standing on top of your van/truck/etc with your phone in your hand. Do you have service?

If there is service but it's weak, you're in luck. No service = nothing to boost = have to drive somewhere else.

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Man, OR is weird with their towers. In Portland, on the west side, I'll go from 5G to nothing, literally nothing in Forest Park in minutes. On Mt. Hood, I'll have 5 bars of 5G at Meadows main lot, but nothing, actual zero at the off-site Hood River Meadows lot. I park there more often, but the eff with an entirely new, and in-addition to my current internet Starlink. But I don't think I have a choice if I want to work from the lot.

I will post a bunch of updates soon. I have done a ton of stuff but have been too busy to update.

RangerRick9211 said:

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Judging by your name, are you in Knoxville? We have some great friends from A&M there and visit sometimes!

Back on topic, so, the Sprinter floor has dropped and I've got a Revel coming in two weeks. We're in Oregon and it's going to be our ski house + long weekend adventure with our daughter vehicle. BUT, I need internet for work and starting to diligence. Have you looked into StarLink, Mobi, WeBoost et al.? **** is confusing and I'm a tech dude.

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I used to live in Knoxville, now in Colorado

knoxtom said:

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RangerRick9211 said:

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Judging by your name, are you in Knoxville? We have some great friends from A&M there and visit sometimes!

Back on topic, so, the Sprinter floor has dropped and I've got a Revel coming in two weeks. We're in Oregon and it's going to be our ski house + long weekend adventure with our daughter vehicle. BUT, I need internet for work and starting to diligence. Have you looked into StarLink, Mobi, WeBoost et al.? **** is confusing and I'm a tech dude.

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I used to live in Knoxville, now in Colorado

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Dope. Well, I pick-up a Revel in Sacramento this week and ready for the ****ty RV adventure. This week I've become a master plumber on YouTube with Sharkbite fittings, a master electrician with the inverter and additional batteries, and a thermodynamics expert with deep winter airflow and insulation. I've got a solid punch list to make this thing the OEM that Winnebago won't.

Before starting on all of the electric and plumbing your first step will almost assuredly be an anti rattle campaign. Revels are super cool but notoriously noisy. I removed some noisy valences, placed felt sticker things all over, found ways to latch cabinets better, etc.

I would have gone the Revel route except two things, first the bed was super small and I needed to sleep 3. Second I wanted a Transit instead of Sprinter solely because the nearest Mercedes dealer that would work on a sprinter was 1.5 hours away.

knoxtom said:

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Before starting on all of the electric and plumbing your first step will almost assuredly be an anti rattle campaign. Revels are super cool but notoriously noisy. I removed some noisy valences, placed felt sticker things all over, found ways to latch cabinets better, etc.

I would have gone the Revel route except two things, first the bed was super small and I needed to sleep 3. Second I wanted a Transit instead of Sprinter solely because the nearest Mercedes dealer that would work on a sprinter was 1.5 hours away.

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Heard, my dude. We are sleeping 3: us + 4 year old. I have a Canyon Adventure GLSS with bed riser for her to sleep under us.

I have some rubber with adhesive backing for the rattles and a punch list of other noises, MaxAir foam, heater fuel pump chassis knock, etc. My main concerns are: 1) I found an up-fitter in CO who swaps the jank bench for real, tether and car seat rated, bucket seats for our girl and 2) omg, what is this Winnebago plumbing. Actual wtf.

Some other items, clear silicone all points of entry that I know Winne 2%'ed. My '24 is notorious for terrible alternator charge programming, so another $350 for Roam Rig to re-program the alt-to-lith settings. And then I have to start shoving havelock since this is primarily a ski rig for us and OEM insulated is lol.

This thing is far from turnkey, but still so much cheaper than a custom Sprinter.