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Take a Look Inside Our New Odyssey Custom Van Before Anyone Else!
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May 2, 2025
2020 Ford Transit AWD 148" High Roof Van Build Update! Thomas's Van Tour Marine One: https://youtu.be/OXBGIVWLtvc 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://van-builder-hq.ck.page/846c83ab54 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?month=2023-05 Odyssey Custom Vans: https://www.odysseycustomvans.com/
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:07
hey guys welcome back to the shop
0:09
starting a new build now this build has
0:12
been on pause since we've been working
0:14
on Thomas's van uh we just put out a van
0:17
tour in a video so feel free to check it
0:20
in the link below it's an awesome story
0:22
and an awesome build so check that out
0:24
but we're going to talk about the 2020
0:27
Ford Transit all-wheel drive high roof
0:29
from 148 that's behind me now this van
0:32
we purchased new it is a spec build for
0:35
the shop so we're putting this together
0:37
to show all the capabilities of Odyssey
0:40
custom vans as far as
0:42
a different layout build wise now we're
0:46
getting ready to do a lot of things
0:48
really quickly over the next couple
0:49
weeks as van is really going to come
0:50
together very fast so before that
0:53
happens I want to show you where I'm at
0:55
right now what I've worked on and then
0:57
what are the next steps to this build
1:00
all right the first thing we're going to
1:01
do is start with the top of the van and
1:03
work our way down down at the bottom is
1:06
where I've been doing the most work
1:07
because we have a
1:09
uh pretty complex floor system as far as
1:12
what components we're installing and
1:14
using but let's briefly mention the top
1:16
of the van and then we'll keep going
1:18
forward so as you can see we have the
1:20
adventure wagon interior conversion kit
1:22
put into this van we have bunk windows
1:25
so these are the awning windows the aw
1:28
1033 so they when you twist them they
1:32
come out instead of sliding side to side
1:34
really good for rain cover ventilation
1:38
when it's raining
1:40
the top here for adventure wagon we went
1:42
with a upgraded bamboo Center panel
1:45
which is really going to tie into the
1:46
design theme of this van so we have uh
1:50
black gray
1:53
bamboo those sort of tones we've got the
1:56
black leather Ford seats up front as
1:59
well as black leather for our flip and
2:01
fold that we'll talk about in just a
2:03
second but the pretty much the interior
2:06
is done the pieces that are missing
2:08
those are just trim pieces that pop
2:10
right in from Adventure wagon the
2:12
technical stuff is pretty much taken
2:14
care of already
2:16
we are going to be doing a Dometic RTX
2:19
2000 air conditioner unit in the back of
2:21
the van so that is not put in yet but
2:24
where that's located I can pretty much
2:27
do that at any time
2:29
do have the max air this is the 7500
2:32
Series so it is uh it has the thermostat
2:35
where it will automatically open and
2:37
close
2:39
um has the remote
2:40
up in the front we're going to keep
2:42
everything nice and clean we're not
2:43
going to do a show for the front we're
2:45
just going to keep it nice and open
2:47
uh
2:48
behind me and in front of me we're going
2:50
to have two kitchen galleys the back one
2:52
is going to be the Flatline vanco 24
2:54
inch galley
2:56
it has a bamboo top and it will have a
3:00
microwave as well as the drawer slide
3:03
out for the um
3:05
the porta potty
3:09
so let's go ahead and change the camera
3:11
angle and move on down
3:21
so right here this is where
3:23
most of the work in this van has been
3:27
um
3:27
going on
3:29
so this section of the van we are
3:31
working on we're going to go from front
3:34
to back explaining everything we went
3:36
with the flip and fold seat
3:39
flip and fold seat is uh it's just
3:42
excellent because it does exactly what
3:44
it says it flips and folds out of the
3:45
way it's extremely easy
3:48
there's a lock here to unlock it when
3:50
you're traveling
3:51
comes down
3:57
moves on up
3:59
and it comes all the way back right up
4:02
until
4:03
the kitchen Galley so you still have
4:05
clearance you can lean back without it
4:07
rattling
4:08
very comfortable enough leg room in the
4:10
front to sit and have the front swivel
4:13
seats turn around and then you get
4:15
enough room in the back
4:17
however just like the Storyteller this
4:20
area right here to slide in and out is
4:23
very tight so you can kind of think of
4:25
this as the same setup of how the groove
4:27
Lounge comes out but where the groove
4:30
Lounge does not move this one
4:34
you can see it's spring assisted it'll
4:37
pop out right out of the way and you
4:38
have a big big walking area to access
4:41
the kitchen Galley here
4:44
as well as the 41 inch kitchen Galley
4:46
here
4:47
what's nice is you're going to get
4:50
uh isotherm 65 drawer fridge as well as
4:54
a
4:55
cabinet in here that's going to house
4:57
your gray water tanks
5:00
so moving on to the back we have right
5:04
here in the middle
5:05
this is a really cool it is a in-floor
5:08
shower pan from Tetra van
5:12
and if we lift this up this will be our
5:17
foreign material which is lawn sealed
5:19
the black coin floor
5:20
that black coin floor will be epoxy to
5:23
this so when you have this shut you'll
5:26
have a seamless transition in the floor
5:30
but this pan is
5:33
uh it's a one inch it's one inch deep
5:37
on the sides and it goes down to an inch
5:40
and a half in the middle
5:42
we've already pre-drilled a pilot hole
5:45
before we cut out and hole saw the drain
5:48
this is going to drain into a 16 gallon
5:52
undermount tank and that's from agile
5:54
off-road if you guys have been following
5:56
the live stream that's the one I've been
5:57
mentioning that I really enjoy it's
6:00
specifically designed for the Ford
6:01
Transit and comes with pre-bent metal
6:04
hanging brackets
6:06
so this will be here
6:08
when you're not using the shower you can
6:10
take this put this back in
6:13
nice and flush with the floor system
6:16
and one of the details that's really
6:18
just going to throw it over the top is
6:20
the where the kitchen Galley is butt up
6:22
against this it is just a super clean
6:25
line uh very proud of that
6:29
moving back we've gone ahead and laid
6:32
out our footprint for our battery system
6:34
this battery system is going to have 600
6:37
amp hours of lithium iron phosphate
6:39
expandable up to 700 so there's a space
6:42
for one more I may go ahead and just get
6:45
one more for the spec build just to fill
6:47
it up but 700 amp hour batteries
6:52
we have the robasto Evo 40. airtop Evo
6:58
40. and this guy is really awesome and
7:01
has altitude adjustment so depending on
7:04
certain altitudes if you're going you
7:07
know down the beach or you go up in the
7:08
mountains or even like Colorado it's
7:10
going to automatically adjust the uh
7:13
the air fuel ratio so it runs properly
7:17
and looks a little wild right now the
7:19
way we have this ducted here but what I
7:22
don't want to have happen is if you have
7:24
this gear tray
7:26
this Flatline vanco gear tray
7:29
if you have it loaded up with let's say
7:32
gear camping gear and you don't are not
7:36
using it for bikes you don't want the
7:39
heater blowing onto this
7:42
pull out just imagine if you had you
7:45
know some of your luggage here and it's
7:46
just getting roasted by the the heater
7:49
you don't want that
7:51
so this is going to come through and
7:54
this Gap right here just worked out
7:57
perfect
7:58
for where our through bolts
8:01
so you know how I like safety
8:05
this tray is through bolted with grade
8:07
eight bolts through the chassis so it's
8:10
not
8:11
just bolted into this wood it's through
8:13
the chassis
8:15
um
8:16
so it's going to be extremely strong if
8:18
you want to put a lot of weight on this
8:20
pull out slide which is which is kind of
8:22
the point of a pull-out slide anyways to
8:23
load it up and then get the gear in and
8:25
out
8:27
so that is uh why this looks kind of
8:30
funny but this will be completely
8:32
enclosed in its own box right here
8:36
um from here to the inverter charger
8:39
we're going to have all of our DC to DC
8:41
and mppt charge controllers we're going
8:44
to be going with a
8:46
believe it or not a renegi one setup so
8:49
Renegy has put together
8:52
um a home system that's also made for
8:55
off grid
8:57
environments where it is a one screen
9:01
for like a one center console for all of
9:04
your devices both your DC to DC charging
9:08
your solar as well as your inverter
9:10
charger just a dedicated communication
9:13
panel it also comes with three switches
9:15
so that you can map those to interior
9:18
lights you know water pump that sort of
9:21
thing
9:22
uh so yeah we're going to try that
9:24
system
9:24
so we'll have two of their integrated 50
9:28
amp
9:29
DC to DC nppt charge controllers
9:33
so those will go right here and then
9:35
we'll have our victron Lynx distributor
9:38
getting everything nice and organized
9:40
we'll have our
9:42
breakers for solar our inverter Chargers
9:46
is a 3000 watt unit we won't actually be
9:48
using this exact one we'll be look
9:51
purchasing the new version of it which
9:55
goes with their off-grid system it's
9:56
called Rego
9:58
and looks exactly the same except it's
10:01
painted gray but it has built-in
10:03
Bluetooth connectivity
10:04
and so the way the renergy one system
10:06
works is all of these batteries right
10:10
here have these uh RJ45 connectors and
10:13
so they all link up communication wise
10:15
so all
10:17
six or seven of batteries going to be
10:19
individually networked up together
10:21
that'll go to a Bluetooth Hub that
10:24
Bluetooth hub from here from the
10:26
inverter charger
10:27
uh uh and from the to DC to DC mpbt
10:32
charge controllers those will
10:33
communicate to the renji one Hub and
10:37
you'll be able to access all that on the
10:39
Hub and your phone so you can download
10:41
the rinergy app
10:45
so that'll be the power system nice and
10:47
nice and clean I'm going to make it as
10:49
compact as possible in here so it's
10:52
close to the wall as possible this all
10:55
had to be done because
10:58
this
11:00
had to have a
11:02
footprint of where it's going to be laid
11:03
out and so what I did is I took my 80 20
11:07
and I made sure I offset it by an inch
11:09
and a half it's going to allow me enough
11:11
room for my three quarter inch panel
11:13
uh and then now give us another three
11:15
quarter inches of space between here so
11:18
that there's no problem in uh
11:21
you know moving this this guy in and out
11:25
um but the reason all this has to be
11:27
done first the flip and fold the shower
11:30
pan the heater power system and the
11:33
slide out tray is because all this is
11:37
going through the floor we got a lot of
11:39
through bolts the
11:42
flip and fold as well as this
11:45
so we have a lot of floor penetrations
11:47
and it's really
11:48
good to do this
11:50
it's essentially it's an essential part
11:54
of doing the floor with this kind of
11:56
setup because you want to have it all
11:58
right then take it all out so that when
12:01
you put your nice flooring down you're
12:02
not having to make any modifications
12:03
after the fact you can lay the lawn seal
12:07
down you can pre-cut it out as much as
12:10
you can and that's going to allow you to
12:12
work with it easier because once you get
12:15
the epoxy set up and we do have an epoxy
12:18
how to install lawn sill floor epoxy
12:21
video
12:22
you only have about 30 minutes working
12:24
time with that so it may seem like a lot
12:27
but 15 minutes uh
12:30
pot life and then you have 15 minutes of
12:32
working time so that's seven minutes per
12:35
half side and that can get really
12:37
stressful very quickly
12:40
so
12:41
the more you can do ahead of time
12:44
the more you can prep for the floor the
12:46
better
12:47
uh it just makes doing this enjoyable
12:51
so we know everything's going to be on
12:54
the floor
12:55
over here behind me
12:58
no modifications necessary we'll do that
13:01
later but that has to do with the water
13:04
system essentially for your water system
13:06
the only thing you have to worry about
13:08
is the hole going through the floor for
13:11
the
13:12
drain and the vent as well and sometimes
13:17
depending on what you like to do you can
13:19
integrate those into the same
13:21
same thing
13:24
but yeah we are finished with all of our
13:26
Cuts so the next thing you'll see is
13:30
I'll be taking out this floor I'll be
13:32
putting on the table behind me which is
13:35
the exact size of the interior of a van
13:37
so it's a 12x6 it's actually 12 by 8
13:40
foot table
13:42
and we'll take all these panels out
13:43
we'll flip them upside down and then
13:46
we'll start to put in our aluminum
13:49
uh
13:52
bracing bars it's essentially a way for
13:55
us to
13:56
reinforce these seams right here
14:00
so if you don't reinforce this seam over
14:03
time the up and down the flexibility of
14:07
the insulation even though it's
14:10
hard insulation
14:12
the flex will Flex this lawn sealed
14:16
joint and if you're
14:19
you're OCD like me that may bother you
14:22
so to make sure that doesn't happen uh
14:26
we're going to be using what I call the
14:27
humble Road method so we will be
14:30
cutting out two one inch channels
14:34
from the foam
14:37
and we will be installing aluminum
14:39
strips going our aluminum square tubing
14:43
and then we'll actually sheet metal
14:45
screw into the tubing through a
14:47
countersunk hole in the Floor of this
14:49
wood panel
14:51
and that allow this Gap to be this
14:54
secure so there's no flex over time
14:58
we'll be using a Loctite peel Marine so
15:02
that allow us to maintain flexibility
15:04
but still
15:06
adhere it to the van chassis itself
15:12
and then
15:13
um
15:15
yeah last but not least we will do the
15:18
uh
15:19
but the epoxy floor in
15:22
once all that's finished we'll get into
15:24
putting the kitchen island cabinets back
15:26
in
15:28
so while the epoxy floor is curing
15:33
we will install the microwave and we'll
15:35
do our modifications to our 41 inch
15:41
now one thing to note I'm using a
15:43
special paint that I've researched and
15:46
uh
15:50
epoxy will stick to Wood but sometimes
15:53
it doesn't do a good job and this paint
15:55
that I'm going to use is going is
15:57
specifically made to
15:59
uh
16:01
paint epoxy onto wood and make sure
16:03
there's a good adhesion so I'll tell you
16:06
about that product it's a Benjamin Moore
16:07
product
16:08
uh so we'll tell you about that more
16:10
later
16:11
yeah just wanted to give you guys a
16:13
quick update
16:15
um let's do a short video here uh we
16:18
still have the power to run
16:21
I guess I'll mention power really quick
16:23
before I close this video out uh the two
16:26
mppt
16:27
DC to DC charge controllers that we're
16:29
going to use they're an integrated
16:31
charge controller so the DC to DC
16:34
charger and the mppt are combined
16:38
each box is a 50 amp Max so we'll have a
16:43
100 amp
16:45
coming from the
16:47
Ford alternator
16:50
um
16:51
we do have a
16:53
250 amp alternator
16:56
so as far as power
16:59
we're doing just fine
17:03
all right that is it a little update
17:05
video guys if you like videos that are
17:07
in this format uh put a like to the
17:11
video and also give me a comment in the
17:13
comment section below I really
17:15
appreciate to hear your feedback and
17:18
don't forget to check out our DIY van
17:21
build cheat sheet so what is the DIY van
17:23
build cheat sheet well it's essentially
17:25
an Excel sheet of all the items that I
17:28
buy for these Vans when I build them so
17:30
the sheet currently has over 250 curated
17:32
products so when I'm being curated those
17:34
are products I've specifically bought uh
17:37
for the last three years on Amazon and
17:39
myself to build these vans so if you're
17:41
wanting to save time and money if you're
17:43
wanting to buy a part that Nick has
17:45
bought and you don't have to worry about
17:47
combing the internet and then wasting
17:49
money buying parts that may not be the
17:52
best fit for you go ahead and click on
17:54
the link below in the description get
17:56
the free cheat sheet it's 100 free it's
17:59
just there to help you guys out
18:02
so you put your name and your email
18:03
address in uh and when you click on it
18:06
it's going to be delivered directly to
18:07
your inbox completely free it's just
18:10
really
18:11
um a form that's going to you know help
18:14
you when you're building your van it
18:17
helped me when I get started I'll tell
18:18
you what the tools section if I could
18:20
just bought all the tools on there to
18:22
start with uh I would save it a lot of
18:25
time so the tool section is a section
18:27
that is very important on that list
18:29
everything I use in the shop to do the
18:32
rivets for the adventure whacking kit to
18:35
do the PEX connections with the the
18:39
propex tools like the expansion tools
18:41
the hole saws that I'll use to drill out
18:44
this for the floor pan they're all on
18:46
that sheet and it's there to help you
18:49
out it's completely free it's called the
18:51
DIY van build cheat sheet click on the
18:54
link in the description below and we'll
18:56
send it right over to you thank you guys
18:58
so much for watching this update video
19:00
and we'll see you in the next one
19:05
[Music]
19:10
thank you
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