Up next in 10
Camper Van Flooring Part 3: Locating spare tire winch point before gluing floor down Ford Transit
2K views
May 3, 2025
Have questions? Ask in the Chat! Don't forget to check out Odyssey Custom Vans latest build currently For Sale here: https://www.odysseycustomvans.com/ Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways we can help you: 1. If you need a vetted parts list, download our → FREE DIY Van Build Cheatsheet to help you save time and money on Van Parts and Gear: CLICK HERE: https://vanbuilderhq.com/ 2. If you want to get Done-For-You Van Build help, book a → FREE Consultation with my Calendly Link: CLICK HERE: https://calendly.com/odysseycustomvans/intro-call
View Video Transcript
0:01
[Music]
0:58
he
1:04
[Music]
1:49
hey everyone welcome to the live stream
1:50
today we are in the back of the van and
1:53
we are working on prepping the back of
1:55
the van to glue in the rear floor panel
2:00
yesterday we finished modifying and
2:02
gluing in the tank vent fitting which is
2:05
on the right hand side of your screen uh
2:08
also the drain line for the tank so in
2:12
my opinion these need to be done prior
2:14
to fitting the floor in that way you can
2:16
have a nice clean tight fit um if you
2:20
try to do this after the fact you're
2:21
going to have to get into the floor and
2:23
kind of cut it away you won't have a lot
2:25
of access to stuff so that's what we're
2:28
doing uh specifically in this
2:31
video we are going to talk about let me
2:34
zoom
2:36
in so down
2:39
here uh where that green tape is you see
2:42
where it says 4.5 in Center I know it's
2:45
hard to see but today we're going to be
2:49
talking about the importance of uh
2:51
locating and being able to have access
2:53
to the winch point for the spare tire so
2:57
in the rear of a Ford Transit if you're
2:59
doing a custom van conversion you're
3:01
going to initially cover this up with
3:03
your floor and you're going to have to
3:06
think about ways that you're going to
3:08
come back to this and make sure that you
3:10
drill a AIS
3:12
hole that you can stick a
3:16
um a socket extension in here so a/ inch
3:20
socket extension and be able to turn uh
3:25
the winch
3:27
so this has a mechanism with a cable
3:31
that goes underneath your van and it
3:34
lowers uh it raises and lowers the spare
3:37
tire so if you need to go change your
3:38
tire on the side of the road you need to
3:40
get your uh tire iron out put it in this
3:44
hole or a uh halfin socket extension
3:48
with a ratchet and Ratchet down the
3:50
spare tire from underneath the van
3:53
disconnect it pull it out put it on your
3:55
van and then take the damaged Tire go
3:57
back hook it up and then winch it back
4:00
up underneath your van if that's the
4:01
method you're going to use but it's
4:04
important to use this now luckily when I
4:07
do Adventure Vans uh typically my
4:10
customers are oversizing the tire so
4:13
when you oversize the tire
4:16
um it won't fit underneath the van
4:18
anyway so you won't be able to you won't
4:22
be able to use that uh hole so I usually
4:24
keep it covered however uh what I do is
4:28
I will make a mark on the on their
4:32
van and then down here I'll tell them
4:35
this is your point to get to your tire
4:39
so all you got to do is take a measuring
4:42
tape go 4 and2 in
4:46
in and then you need to take a uh let's
4:50
see what this is you can take a 78 drill
4:54
bit um and uh hole saw and you can start
4:58
cutting in the hole and you should be
5:00
just dead on top of it so if you stay
5:02
Center to the line and go 4 and 1/2 in
5:05
in um it's from this face so if your
5:09
insulative floor or your floor
5:12
insulation is this one is off about an
5:14
eighth so you just want to add a eighth
5:16
of an inch to the 4 and a half inches
5:18
when you go in to start your hole and uh
5:20
you'll find it you'll drill it out then
5:23
you can use it and then what I do is you
5:25
can go onto a site called McMaster Car
5:28
uh or even uh Amazon has it and you can
5:31
find a plastic cap that you can cap this
5:34
back off if you want to keep it nice and
5:37
clean so that's what I'm going to do uh
5:41
I'm trying to get away with the smallest
5:42
hole to drill um in the past I've done
5:45
like a one inch hole or an inch and a
5:48
half um then I just got like a desk
5:50
fitting from Lowe's but for John and
5:53
Susan's van I want to keep things nice
5:55
and tight so I'm doing a uh 7/8 hole and
6:00
then I'm hopefully going to be able to
6:01
find a plug for it um if not I'll just
6:04
oversize it a bit to the next standard
6:06
plug size so that is what I'm doing
6:09
right now so uh I just wanted to go live
6:12
really quick to show you how I'm going
6:14
to transfer this to the plywood put the
6:17
plywood in do a test fit and then go
6:19
from
6:20
there and as usual if you guys have any
6:23
questions uh go ahead and put those in
6:25
the chat um I'm actually not
6:27
even monitoring the chat right now let's
6:31
see here we
6:33
go okay so let me Zoom back out um so
6:39
what we're going to do now is grab our
6:41
piece of
6:45
plywood and we're just going to test fit
6:47
it and then get our measurements and
6:50
then we can go back and cut it um I've
6:53
had to do a couple modifications on the
6:55
wood that's why I haven't glued it in
6:56
yet now what you want to do anytime cut
7:00
your piece of wood is you're going to
7:02
want to repaint that
7:04
area um I'm okay with having exposed
7:07
wood inside the
7:08
van uh but on the floor of a van just in
7:13
case the rare like if you get rain in
7:16
the back of your van
7:18
uh or you spill something or you have
7:21
like a cooler or something leaks I just
7:23
want to make sure
7:24
that you've got the uh the best odds at
7:28
resolving this situation instead of
7:31
having some water get into this wood
7:32
that you just can't get
7:36
out okay so where this uh spray paint is
7:42
um I sanded an area down here and then
7:44
yesterday this is the notch that I cut
7:46
out to cover the vent and the
7:50
drain so that way I don't have to go
7:53
back to
7:58
it
8:21
[Music]
8:45
so you guys can see I've got a nice
8:48
tight fit with a four-way stretch
8:52
carpet
8:53
um I'm happy with the fit but it's
8:56
almost I may have to go a little bit
9:01
may have to trim off a little bit I
9:03
don't know it's so perfect I don't
9:04
really want to touch
9:06
it all right so let's get this all these
9:10
wires out of the
9:15
way
9:16
okay so there's our floor uh looks
9:19
really really good and it is actually
9:25
exactly in line where we drilled our
9:27
hole today so this one I just go here to
9:32
four and a let's see four and a half
9:36
plus an eighth and actually circled uh
9:39
where the floor was going to
9:41
go so we'll drill through the
9:44
floor and uh we should come out exactly
9:48
where our hole
9:58
is
10:28
okay
10:43
me grab a
10:58
pencil
11:28
for
11:42
then I'll zoom in on this when I'm
11:43
finished so you guys can actually
11:46
see what's going on
11:58
here
12:33
all right let's see if I can
12:35
get down here so I can show you the
12:41
hole all right I don't know if this is
12:43
going to show
12:44
up maybe not see if I can get my
12:49
phone it'd be cool to get this shot but
12:51
I don't think I'll be able to maybe not
12:53
well there you
12:55
go all right let's see
12:58
here
13:15
all right so when I shine the light on
13:16
it you should be able to
13:19
see what I'm talking about so see that
13:23
hole right there so that is that's what
13:26
we're wanting
13:27
to uh that's what we want to make sure
13:29
we have is that access to that exact
13:36
uh device or whatever it's
13:39
called and look at that we are right
13:42
perfectly on that
13:44
hole so make sure that is something that
13:47
you keep in mind when you are doing your
13:50
own van build is uh just make sure that
13:54
you don't forget that is something
13:58
to check off your list and not forget
14:01
about um because when you go to hunt for
14:03
it after the fact it's going to be a big
14:06
pain in the butt and you're probably
14:07
going
14:08
to cut out a lot of stuff of your van
14:11
that you're
14:16
um you'll make a mess that you don't
14:18
want to
14:23
make okay let's clean this up and uh see
14:26
if you guys have any
14:28
questions
14:39
I'm going go vacuum this up actually
14:40
really
14:52
quick so I'm going to take this out I'm
14:53
going to spray paint the underside and
14:56
then we're I'm going to uh off camera
14:58
I'm going to go ahead and
15:00
uh glue it
15:27
in
15:58
and get you over here so you can
16:02
see
16:04
uh you can see how this came
16:11
out so this was our this is the after
16:14
this what it looks like
16:27
afterwards
16:29
and so what I did here just to make this
16:30
look really nice is if you use hole saws
16:33
to cut out uh your radiuses first and
16:36
then you jigsaw in between and go out so
16:38
you can have this nice radius right
16:42
here um so this was all spray painted
16:45
black before I put the fittings in to do
16:48
as a rust preventative for the open
16:50
edges I taped this off just so I don't
16:52
get any dust in there while I'm working
16:55
this I put some uh uh sealant around the
16:58
O-ring and it's just sitting there this
17:00
is just a placeholder to keep it
17:01
expanded as the oing dries or the
17:04
sealant
17:05
dries and then uh this allows me to this
17:09
is how this is covering nothing right
17:10
here but the wood is very strong and
17:13
it's going to support this so when I go
17:16
to put my tank
17:18
in let me get
17:21
a a wood piece for an
17:26
example so say for example this is part
17:29
of the tank
17:30
box the tank box will come up here like
17:36
that and then this will allow me to uh
17:41
have support back there for the the
17:44
bottom of this that way if I just cut
17:46
this whole entire thing out this will
17:48
just be hovering
17:50
for you know almost 8 inches seven
17:53
inches so that's you don't want that um
17:56
because it's possible that could cause
17:58
squeaking
17:59
so this will come out here the Box will
18:02
come all the way out to here um gives us
18:05
plenty room to put the tank
18:07
in and yeah so the next steps on this
18:09
floor are we're going to uh glue this
18:14
piece down
18:16
today and then as well as the one in the
18:19
back I just got to make a couple
18:21
modifications uh and then tomorrow this
18:25
uh well late tonight what I'm going to
18:27
do is let me back the camera up just for
18:30
a
18:34
minute and let me see if I can get this
18:36
product over here there's a special
18:39
product for the floor oh sorry had the
18:43
volume
18:45
down let's see there's a product for the
18:47
floor it
18:51
is see I can find
18:57
it
18:59
it's a Ben Benjamin Moore
19:02
product and this is what I use now to
19:05
prep
19:07
my uh raw wood
19:09
floor so this is called uh insul X they
19:14
it's a brand it's a sub brand of
19:16
Benjamin Moore and they make a lot of
19:18
Specialty Products this is a waterborne
19:21
bonding primer and so this is what is uh
19:26
is what I like it's it's a urethane
19:30
acrylic and what this allows you to do
19:32
is it bonds hard to coat
19:35
surfaces so believe it or not epoxy is
19:39
uh to coating something to epoxy the
19:42
bottom needs to be prepped pretty well
19:43
as you can imagine if you do a garage
19:45
epoxy floor you're grinding sanding the
19:48
concrete and then you're doing an acid
19:50
etch to kind of really open up the pores
19:52
to get that good epoxy adhesion uh well
19:56
wood um just my personal research but
20:00
you need something like this and U so
20:03
down here it says excellent adhesion and
20:05
ceiling top coat with latex oil urethane
20:09
epoxy so that's the what we're using it
20:11
for lacquer cures in low temperatures
20:15
and high humidity so this is a a good
20:18
product for the van application but the
20:21
epoxy part is uh and this is an interior
20:25
and exterior um paint so once the wood
20:29
floor is glued into in the floor um I go
20:34
and I uh put this bonding primer on and
20:36
that's in another one of the videos on
20:38
the channel if you guys are interested
20:39
in checking that out and then after this
20:42
dries let's see what the what it looks
20:46
like
20:48
uh so drying is tack free in 30 minutes
20:53
recat 3 to 4 hours top
20:56
coat uh with two components paint that's
21:00
what we're putting on top of this is a
21:01
two-part epoxy 24 hours so we'll put
21:05
this on today and then
21:06
tomorrow technically we can prep for the
21:10
epoxy floor um which that'll be really
21:14
exciting uh but on my schedule I'm by
21:18
between going ahead and uh doing the
21:20
window install and then cleaning
21:24
everything up and doing the
21:26
uh uh epoxy however the epoxy floor is
21:31
holding up putting these bottom panels
21:34
in so the window is I can cover
21:37
everything with plastic it's not that
21:39
big of a mess as long as you manage
21:41
everything it's fine so I'll
21:45
probably I want to get this uh power
21:47
system up on the wall just in case I run
21:50
into any
21:51
issues I can order something if I need
21:54
to and during the meantime of me
21:56
ordering something to fix an issue I can
21:59
install the window which I have all the
22:00
hardware for so that's just kind of like
22:02
a time management thing so I'm not you
22:04
know wasting time just waiting on parts
22:06
or something like
22:08
that anyway we'll end it with this this
22:11
is
22:12
uh what I paint this surface with so
22:15
that when I put
22:16
the um lawn seal two-part epoxy which it
22:21
looks like
22:23
this just get the where is that
22:27
bucket
22:42
here we
22:45
go so this is once we put this
22:49
on this is the next thing we're going to
22:52
put
22:52
on so uh the lawn seal
23:07
yeah so these are
23:09
the two products that go hand in hand
23:12
inside this bucket you got a another
23:14
bucket so this bucket is basically your
23:16
mixing
23:17
bucket uh with a base and then a a
23:21
secondary
23:24
part all right that is uh going to do it
23:27
unless you guys have any questions so
23:29
I'll be on here just for a couple
23:30
minutes I'm going to clean up that floor
23:34
and uh in those couple minutes if you
23:35
guys have any questions based on what I
23:37
just went over put them in the chat and
23:39
I will be happy to answer
23:57
them
25:44
okay doesn't look like we got any
25:46
questions um yeah stay tuned for the
25:48
next live stream we're going to uh boo
25:51
making our progress up on the floor uh
25:54
so as as long as soon as the lawn seal
25:58
is in the floor uh that's when these
26:01
back panels will go in and then uh after
26:04
the back panels and the window go in uh
26:09
it's all going to
26:11
be camera will come back on there we go
26:14
it's all going to be interior so we've
26:16
got the the kitchen Galley and the
26:18
fridge and microwave stack um the bed
26:22
system is straightforward couple
26:23
brackets some bed beams uh but yeah uh
26:28
that's that's the next part so make sure
26:31
you guys are subscribe to the channel uh
26:33
like this video If you enjoyed it share
26:34
it to anybody who uh needs to know that
26:37
to drill a hole in the back of their
26:38
floor because you need to access your
26:40
spare tire um also don't forget to check
26:43
out van Builder
26:46
HQ uh this is our blog post where we
26:48
have a bunch of helpful articles on
26:51
everything DIY van
26:54
related we have a free DIY van build
26:58
cheat sheet up here and this is a it's
27:02
uh what I did is I put together an Excel
27:04
sheet of the last three years of all of
27:05
my Amazon purchases for the shop it's a
27:09
great thing to just browse through to
27:11
see if there's some products that might
27:12
be helpful to you there's solar panels
27:15
cables wires fuses water pumps PEX a
27:18
crimpers tools fittings for
27:22
uh for a 8020 Series so like the 15
27:26
series the nuts and the t-nuts and all
27:28
that good stuff that they use uh the
27:31
tools are really important on there CU
27:32
it's um some of the weird stuff that I
27:33
use in the shop that uh you can get on
27:36
Amazon and are very helpful for Van
27:39
building so yeah check that out and as
27:42
always if you guys are looking for a
27:44
custom van conversion just like John and
27:47
Susan are doing behind me you can go to
27:49
Odyssey custom vans uh sometimes we have
27:51
Vans listed for sale on the website that
27:54
we have built and currently this is one
27:56
that we have it's an adventure van bu
27:58
build get a little video tour at the top
28:00
at the bottom here there's a link where
28:02
you can schedule a call and you just
28:05
click this link schedule a date and a
28:07
time and we will hop on a phone call to
28:10
talk about your custom build or one that
28:12
we have available thank you so much for
28:15
uh watching the live stream today and uh
28:17
we'll see you guys in the next
28:20
[Music]
28:27
one
#Campers & RVs
#Vehicle Repair & Maintenance