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Ford Transit Camper Van Conversion Build Update
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May 2, 2025
In this video, we walk through our current spec build that we are taking to Adventure Van Expo in Chattanooga, TN. Come by our booth Odyssey Custom Vans and say hi! Adventure Van Expo Chattanooga, TN: 323 Camp Jordan Pkwy, Chattanooga, TN 37412 Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 7-8, 2023 Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. https://www.adventurevanexpo.com/chatt 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?month=2023-08
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:08
hey guys welcome back to the shop wanted
0:10
to give you an update on where our Ford
0:12
Transit van build is uh getting excited
0:15
we're one week out from Adventure van
0:17
Expo Chattanooga Tennessee this van is
0:21
going there and so uh it's not complete
0:24
yet but we're very very close so we're
0:27
going to start at the top and we're
0:28
going to go to the bottom show you
0:30
everything I've been working on just
0:31
give you a little bit of update from the
0:33
shop so uh follow
0:36
me so I'm going have you guys go up the
0:44
[Music]
0:47
ladder so update on the roof the reason
0:50
that the roof is doing well is because
0:52
one the dedic RTX 2000 is fully
0:57
installed and two we're able to actually
0:59
lay everything out because we have our
1:01
solar panels in uh I've already mocked
1:03
everything up so everything has been
1:05
installed and it has been taken back out
1:08
uh to have all the brackets uh tightened
1:09
up and all that stuff so what we're
1:12
going to have up front is we're going to
1:13
have two 100 W Renegy panels up
1:17
front and one thing that I did was I
1:20
created this
1:21
modification uh so ignored the zip the
1:24
the tie right here that's just to hold
1:26
it while everything dries but if you
1:28
look this is the 4 in antenna it's
1:30
relocated so that is above the solar
1:33
panel so the signal is really nice uh
1:35
and what I did is actually Co the whole
1:37
entire W wire and the gland right there
1:40
with Flex
1:41
Seal and it's all one nice gasket so
1:45
nice and
1:46
watertight so our two 100 wat panels
1:50
will be set up with one DC todc Renegy
1:53
mppt combo charger it's a 50 amp charger
1:57
so those are on that one and a second
1:59
second I'm going to show you the 220 W
2:02
new power system uh or panel what's
2:06
really nice about the new power is
2:09
uh the width and the length of it is
2:13
perfect it took me a long time to find a
2:15
panel that would fit this space because
2:18
because of
2:19
the 100 W panels and the RTX there
2:23
really wasn't anywhere to
2:25
move so we have this panel that's going
2:28
in today so this whole roof system will
2:31
have 420 WS of solar charging the
2:35
van and that is the roof got our Max fan
2:40
here got to clean up some plastic on it
2:42
but it's a 7500k deluxe version with a
2:46
remote
2:47
control so let's hop on
2:50
down we'll talk a little bit about the
2:52
outside of the
2:54
van get on the inside so we have our crl
3:00
windows are both of our vent
3:02
windows installed a furion 30 amp uh 125
3:07
volt Shore
3:12
power and before we walk in follow me
3:15
back here so this is our 220 W panel and
3:21
if any of you guys had the flatl vanco
3:23
roof rack you'll know it's uh maybe an
3:25
inch uh shorter than most uh some are 60
3:29
in flat vanco is like 58 and A4 so
3:34
finding a panel like this is pretty
3:35
tough so this is 220 wat it's 30 in
3:41
wide and the key for this panel the
3:44
reason it's so important uh is it's 56
3:47
and 3/4 in wide so our long however you
3:53
want to we'll put it you're doing this
3:54
orientation so 30
3:57
by 56 and 3
4:00
3/4 you have a Ford Transit with a flatl
4:02
vanco roof rack you might want to look
4:05
into this panel
4:07
because it fits
4:10
perfect uh we have our Flatline
4:13
vanco and again this is not sponsored I
4:16
just like using these products these are
4:19
upper cabinets you'll see this update in
4:21
later video but I modified them right
4:23
here this hole so simple
4:26
modification so that it will uh line up
4:30
perpendicular to the
4:32
roof so if you put these in for Transit
4:36
they'll be angled so what I did is I
4:38
modified it so it'll be a nice right
4:40
angle again you'll see that later but I
4:42
just want to show you this little detail
4:43
because I may not show it in the future
4:46
video um while we're over here we've got
4:48
two of our gray water heating pads so
4:51
these two pads are going to go under our
4:53
20 gallon gray water tank that's under
4:55
the
4:55
van uh keep it nice and toasty so it
4:58
doesn't freeze on
5:01
this is our other
5:03
one we got a spare tire that's going to
5:05
go in the back this is the flat vanco
5:08
spare tire rack that's going to be
5:10
unboxed pretty
5:13
soon our 20-gallon under mount greay
5:15
water tank is right under
5:18
there we'll move inside the
5:21
van uh I've been talking to you guys
5:23
about the power
5:25
system we have 600 amp hours of lithium
5:29
iron F F at in there uh we got the
5:32
ventron vron links distributor taking
5:35
care of all of our power the front is
5:39
going to supply our sub panel to the
5:41
kitchen Galley where all the electrical
5:43
for the rest of the van will be
5:44
controlled we've got our DC todc
5:46
Chargers inputs here we've got our
5:49
Renegy Rigo so that's the Bluetooth
5:52
version 3,000 watt pure sign wave
5:55
inverter charger this is what runs the
5:58
shore power also inverts us for the
6:02
110 last but not least we have our dedic
6:04
RTX
6:05
2000 air conditioner unit very happy how
6:11
I fit the adventure wagon panel around
6:14
it uh that's the look I wanted to
6:16
achieve like nice and low profile and um
6:20
it's
6:22
perfect so I'm going to show you this
6:24
pullout tray here in just a
6:28
second so this is uh from flatlight
6:32
vanco it is on 500 lb drawer
6:35
slides so one thing I like to show off
6:39
is this is bolted to the chassis of the
6:42
van so you don't have to
6:45
worry about this messing up anything in
6:48
the floor um it's three bolted with six
6:52
grade8 bolts I see some people bolted
6:55
into the floor of the van you're not
6:58
going to be able to do this you'll it'll
7:00
be a bad day so if you put grade eight
7:03
bolts through the chassis of the van
7:06
this thing is going to allow you to have
7:09
fun easily put all your gear in the
7:14
van um and I think it's built really
7:17
well
7:19
too we'll talk about this later but this
7:21
is our Webasto uh air toop 40 uh
7:26
gasoline fired heater so it's connected
7:29
Direct IR ly to the auxiliary port on
7:31
the Ford fuel tank so you don't have to
7:33
have an exterior tank or anything like
7:35
that and this vent is actually going to
7:38
come out right here it'll be just like
7:41
that and we've got plenty of clearance
7:43
between here and underneath the
7:44
batteries we got about 2 in on the top
7:47
and then we got plenty of room on the
7:49
sides um we actually did an additional
7:52
RTV ceant around the gaskets from masto
7:55
just to make sure just that extra step
7:58
to seal it from the outside so we're
8:01
going to swing around but before we do
8:03
this is our uh 40G Northwest conversions
8:07
water
8:09
tank and uh it's the over the wheel
8:11
version but it's 40 gallons most FS are
8:14
going to have 20 gallon tanks so you can
8:17
take your showers wash your dogs off
8:19
your bikes and still have tons of water
8:23
to uh use for
8:25
cooking um also you may see that we have
8:29
the uh coin floor from lawn
8:34
seal so this is the uh Marine vinyl
8:37
flooring uh very popular in the van life
8:41
world
8:43
uh completely
8:45
waterproof as it is it's used in the
8:47
Marine industry uh the best part about
8:49
it is the expanding and Contracting
8:51
you're not going to have to worry about
8:52
it buckling or anything like that where
8:54
if you had a floating floor system you
8:57
may have to worry about the humidity and
8:59
stuff like that this is uh it can can
9:03
breathe so um the van you know may get
9:07
up to 150 plus degrees inside all the
9:10
way down to below freezing so you need
9:13
some type of resilient floor that's able
9:15
to expand and contract and the laale
9:18
Marine vinyl does just
9:20
that uh back here in the back before we
9:23
go look at the electrical in the front
9:25
we have our 220 wat breaker and we we
9:29
have our 200 W breaker these are dual
9:31
pole Breakers specifically for uh wiring
9:35
solar so it's important that you use
9:38
dual pole so that you not only shut off
9:40
the positive but the negative as well
9:42
this is good for maintenance we have our
9:44
main battery power switch and here we
9:47
have our uh this is just temporary but
9:51
this is going to be uh the exhaust fans
9:54
and these fans are going to be connected
9:56
to
9:58
a
10:00
CC board right here we
10:07
go might have to show another video I
10:10
think I moved it anyway we have a uh
10:15
thermostat uh thermostatically
10:17
controlled circuit board you can dial in
10:20
what temperature you want the fans to
10:21
come on so we're going to have a
10:22
temperature probe underneath the exhaust
10:24
fan of the inverter so if it gets above
10:27
you know 80° in that chamber those fans
10:29
will kick on and I've already tested it
10:31
it'll lower the temperature of that
10:33
cabinet about 20 to 25 degrees which is
10:37
excellent all right guys we have the van
10:40
right here where we entrance to the
10:43
inside uh right here to my left is going
10:46
to be this kitchen Galley so this is
10:48
from Flatline vanco we're going to have
10:49
a rot sink inside we're going to have
10:53
tons of storage in here we're going to
10:56
have our uh interi your gray water tank
11:00
for the inside of the van the 20-gallon
11:02
gray tank under the van is for the
11:04
shower this is our we're calling it like
11:06
our Flex space you can use it for a
11:09
microwave you can use it for putting a
11:11
porta potty in it's just a space that
11:13
you can customize to put whatever you
11:14
want we're going to have two drawers
11:17
right here so got a silver drawer a
11:19
drawer to keep all your you know your
11:21
induction stove stuff like
11:23
that still got to wire up all the main
11:25
electrical so all the main electrical
11:27
comes to this one Port underneath the
11:30
sink and that way it's easy to maintain
11:33
check fuses stuff like
11:35
that uh as we walk in we got a handle
11:38
here we will have a a lagoon table Mount
11:41
here and here so if you are in then
11:46
you'll be able to get on a table here um
11:49
we are using a scopa swivel seats so we
11:53
did that for the driver's seat as well
11:55
as the passenger seat and uh I'm I'm
11:58
pretty impressed rest I they went
12:00
together really well they're nice and
12:02
smooth they don't make it a lot of
12:04
sound uh we added rooftop shelf uh our
12:08
front headliner
12:09
shelf we have the uh fredman seating
12:14
flip and fold
12:15
seat so you guys can hang out we've got
12:19
seat belts for four people so you can
12:20
bring four people have them seated uh
12:23
but one thing I like about the Freeman
12:25
flip and fold is most additional seing
12:29
van you can't move it's stationary this
12:32
is a flipping fold as it says it's
12:35
really simple you just flip this down
12:38
this is actually a Stow andgo table so
12:42
this table will come out and I will tell
12:44
you how it's we're set it up right now
12:46
but this
12:49
table so this is spring
12:52
assisted it has a locking mechanism so
12:55
that it doesn't rattle when you drive
12:57
you me go around and show the the other
12:59
side what it looks like up um no we can
13:03
just keep going we keep going uh so this
13:06
is up out of your way so when you walk
13:08
in the van it's it's nice it's very nice
13:11
and spacious you get a kitchen Galley
13:13
and you have you have all this this room
13:15
where this would be in the way now the
13:18
table flips and actually locks in right
13:21
here
13:24
uh let's see
13:27
here
13:32
I'll show you how easy it is it's it's
13:35
crazy easy I mean I I can do this with
13:37
one
13:38
hand so this
13:41
table that you have additional table so
13:45
imagine you're in your van The Kitchen
13:47
Gallery is going to come about right
13:48
here so you could be you can be cooking
13:53
here doing dishes you know charging your
13:56
phone and devices there's a outlet
13:58
that's going to be over here here but I
13:59
mean you got a ton of space I mean this
14:02
is almost like a standing desk I didn't
14:03
even don't even think about that but
14:06
this is a really cool
14:09
setup uh with the Freeman system I'm
14:11
just going to pop this down here so we
14:13
can keep the
14:19
tour 11 fold seat again locks into place
14:23
I think that's one of the best
14:25
features uh I'm doing an aluminum trim
14:27
on the bottom so I got to set that up
14:30
here in just a
14:31
minute this is where the isotherm Cruise
14:34
130 fridge is going to go it's also in a
14:36
flatline vanc
14:38
Galley this is going to be hidden with
14:42
lawn seal but this is our hidden shower
14:46
so kitchen Galley is here refrigerator
14:49
is
14:51
here as soon as you come into this
14:53
you'll be able to just lift this up now
14:56
you can put this wherever you want you
14:57
can probably just put it in the back
14:59
while you're taking a
15:00
shower but you have an INF floor shower
15:03
that drains to a 20 gallon gray water
15:05
tank and mentioned how tall you are yeah
15:07
so I'm 6 feet I'm 6 feet tall
15:11
and we've got I don't know what what'
15:14
you say six Ines almost a foot maybe
15:16
almost a
15:21
foot this let's see so I'm 6 ft tall was
15:25
that 9 10 8 in 8 in pretty good guys 8
15:28
in to the fan because this floor does
15:30
drop an
15:31
inch um and this is not in place so
15:35
let's just show you behind the scenes
15:36
real
15:38
quick so this pan is right here got the
15:43
hole drilled out this is going to
15:45
connect to our
15:46
plumbing and this is a Tetra van shower
15:52
pan now it's steel it's not aluminum the
15:55
reason it's steel is because you're
15:57
going to have a
16:00
shower curtain and the shower curtain I
16:02
designed it to clip into the L TR so use
16:05
one two 3
16:07
4 got your shower here and the steel pan
16:10
has magnets so it holds the uh shower
16:13
curtain
16:15
down um come on up come on
16:19
up and you just kind of hang on that
16:21
seat
16:23
probably so the interior van this is our
16:26
control
16:27
panel uh I wanted it to be very simple
16:32
very
16:33
clean
16:35
um uh it was very exciting making
16:37
Thomas's van everything Wireless all uh
16:40
iPhone controlled w i mean Bluetooth but
16:45
there's a lot of complexity that comes
16:46
with that and I know some customers want
16:48
something very simple so this is just so
16:52
simple this is the new reneg G1 system
16:55
it's designed for offgrid homes so like
16:58
your Log Cabin cabin Mountain anything
17:02
like that so it's designed to have
17:04
basically the same kind of setup as a
17:06
van batteries inverter stuff like that
17:09
so it has all these menus you can go in
17:11
these
17:12
menus uh and if you want a nerd out I
17:15
mean this this gives you way more
17:17
information you could ever want cell
17:19
voltages all that stuff um it also will
17:23
show you when you're plugged into Shore
17:24
power how the power's flowing loads in
17:27
the van
17:28
and if you go down here to slide over
17:31
we're going to go to our uh DC to DC
17:34
this is going to allow us to see engine
17:36
alternator charging solar
17:39
charging that sort of thing uh when it's
17:42
connected to Wi-Fi or your phone you're
17:45
going to be able to go to the uh Renegy
17:48
app um and you'll be able to uh do some
17:51
more detailed uh
17:54
settings it's also going to tell you
17:56
your battery percentage and then it has
17:58
three three very clean just uh minimal
18:03
buttons and these are switches just like
18:05
in a home so you have your light switch
18:06
which is on it's going to turn in all of
18:08
our lighting forgot to mention the
18:11
shower in the kitchen is directly placed
18:13
underneath the fan so if you're taking a
18:14
shower it's all going to be ventilated
18:16
out here even got some
18:19
lights uh these are Luma coin lights
18:21
with the adventure wagon kit they're
18:23
very very nice lights so you can change
18:27
them to red
18:29
if you guys are at
18:30
nighttime and you want to you know have
18:34
more of
18:35
a different mood different mood I don't
18:38
know um red is better for at nighttime
18:41
like if you're in the bed uh you could
18:43
actually you can turn these off
18:46
individually or you can uh have them all
18:49
on uh but what's nice is if it's night
18:51
time and you just want to leave one on
18:54
because uh you know you're getting ready
18:55
for bed uh maybe like you're reading a
18:57
book or or something like that uh and
19:00
you don't want the van you know bright
19:02
from the outside like the windshield you
19:04
can turn to Red anyway you can also
19:07
touch and hold these and they will dim
19:09
they have a memory so they'll remember
19:12
your last dim
19:13
setting and then you can just hold it
19:16
and it does a little flash that just
19:18
tells you it's
19:20
full next is our remote control for our
19:23
max air fan now this is the deluxe so
19:25
this is going to have the auto
19:27
temperature function
19:29
right here so you t hold this it'll
19:31
automatically open the fan at 78° and
19:34
above it'll automatically close it as
19:36
soon as it gets lower than 78° nice
19:38
feature if you're away from your van
19:42
right here is our uh manual control and
19:45
I'll say that one more time manual
19:47
control for the inverter so instead of
19:51
getting the app getting ready to cook
19:53
you want to get your induction stove on
19:54
you just push the button it's on you
19:57
don't have to go to your app or over
19:58
here simple just very
20:01
simple very uh right side we have the
20:04
new wabaso 3.0 smart temp Bluetooth
20:07
controller for the gasoline
20:10
heater this is nice because you're you
20:13
can be in bed you know you wake up in
20:15
the morning the van's cold and turn on
20:17
the heater get the van nice and warm all
20:20
from your bed you can with aery app
20:22
control all these light switches via the
20:26
app do that again via the Renegy
20:30
app the second button is over here this
20:33
is going to be controlling uh our
20:37
cabinet lighting so this is a switch
20:39
circuit in the back we're going to have
20:42
an auxiliary 12volt port with a a high
20:45
current quick charge for USBC and USB
20:48
type a uh so if you want a quick charge
20:51
function this is actually designed with
20:53
the appropriate amps and current to
20:56
actually quick charge a device which is
20:58
uh not always the case if you're using a
21:00
standard USB
21:02
outlet um this also has an app connect
21:06
to your phone so you can uh turn this on
21:09
and these three functions from your
21:12
phone um let's talk about the adventure
21:15
wagon we'll talk about this light and
21:16
then we'll kind of wrap this up so this
21:19
is the adventure wagon interior system
21:22
so everything you see here the L track
21:24
all the upholster panels are from
21:25
Adventure wagon we went with a a bamboo
21:29
ceiling and then from Flatline vanco
21:31
we're doing a bamboo cabinet doors so
21:33
it's going to look really nice we've got
21:35
our insulated covers for our our Windows
21:39
where's that from that is from Van
21:41
Essentials uh we also have one for here
21:44
and I actually custom installed these
21:46
buttons
21:48
because uh I covered the metal frame for
21:51
Aesthetics and for uh you know keep that
21:54
cold out and at the same time I did
21:57
these butt butons because the magnets
21:59
don't work so I needed a way to attach
22:01
it and these actually work much better
22:03
they seal really close and I think are
22:06
pretty good
22:07
deal um yeah but this is the adventure
22:09
wagon kit so it's nice it comes out in
22:13
one kit with the L track you can do a
22:15
couple of options and I really enjoy
22:18
it um again we're going to clean this up
22:22
kitchen Galley is right over here and
22:25
then let's uh turn this light on and
22:27
we'll end the
22:28
in the update with that so we've got a
22:31
rigid Industries amber light Amber's
22:34
better for bugs the white light attracts
22:36
more bugs the Amber does they're still
22:39
bugs but it's less uh and it's also a
22:41
little more calming at night
22:43
time uh we just finished installing our
22:45
F f45s
22:47
awning and
22:49
uh that's pretty much it that's a pretty
22:52
long update but um hope you guys enjoyed
22:55
also make sure you guys check out the
22:58
DIY van build cheat sheet so the DIY van
23:00
build cheat sheet is an Excel sheet over
23:02
the last three years of my Amazon
23:03
purchases and uh I think it's a really
23:06
nice way to help you guys with your DIY
23:08
build there's all kinds of stuff from
23:10
the max air fan the tools I use in the
23:12
shop which are probably the best thing
23:13
on the list all my tools are on that
23:15
list you can find them on Amazon really
23:17
easy um to get that list it's completely
23:20
free go to Van Builder hq.com click on
23:23
the uh just type in your email hit send
23:27
it's going to come straight to inbox and
23:28
you're going to get that whole entire uh
23:30
list for free to help you out with your
23:32
van builds also check out van Builder HQ
23:35
for our blog post we got a lot of great
23:37
articles there to uh go through stuff
23:41
van related we talk about solar we talk
23:44
about um different lighting inside the
23:47
van and uh you're going to be at
23:49
Adventure van Expo next week that's
23:50
right next week I'm going to be at
23:52
Adventure van Expo Chattanooga Tennessee
23:54
so the 7th and e8th that's the SE yep
23:57
7th and e8th OCT and uh 7th and 8th of
24:00
October so if you guys are there come by
24:03
say hi you'll see the the van in its
24:06
final form um really excited not
24:10
everything's in there but trust me we're
24:11
going to get the kitchen gallies and
24:13
stuff like that in there um but yeah if
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you're at Adventure man Expo ched
24:17
Tennessee next
24:19
weekend feel free to come by say hi
24:22
check out the van I'd love to meet you
24:25
uh also if you're not subscribed to this
24:26
channel get subscribed we got tons of
24:28
videos DIY uh to help you out with any
24:30
of your van needs uh make sure you guys
24:33
give a like thumbs up on this video and
24:35
share it to any of your friends that may
24:37
find helpful with their building their
24:38
own van and until next time we'll see
24:41
you guys in the next
24:44
[Music]
24:56
video
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