"Temporary" Insanity

Last Fall we started looking for a "Class B RV" (aka Camper Van) for fun adventuring in the coming decade. After looking at Winnebago Travatos and others, we came up with a list of must haves:

1. Fast, easy, secure, out of the weather indoor storage for our bikes
2. No propane
   Headache to fill an under mount RV propane tank, some places refuse to fill mounted tanks
3. Huge battery bank
   Lithium batteries can run everything propane could and enable more flexibility for offgrid air conditioning, induction cook tops, microwave convection ovens, hot water heaters, Starlink internet, etc.
4. Huge battery charging via a second engine alternator
   Basically grid independent; never need to plug the van in anywhere. No need to reserve electric camp sites 9+ months ahead of time and being stuck to a schedule.
5. No generator
   Unnecessary with 3 & 4 above, do not want the maintenance requirements of changing its oil and cycling its gas regularly.
6. Modern DC air conditioner
   Runs off the huge battery bank, further eliminating need for electric camp site reservations.
7. Real shower / wet bath
   Coming back from a grueling day of riding or hiking, we really want a shower before bed (even if it's a 'navy' version).
8. No diesel engine
   Just can't go there; too many horror stories on all sorts of fronts, less power, more expensive fuel, etc.
9. AWD or better
   We're not serious off roaders by any stretch, but they'll be plenty of times we hit some snow or bad weather in the mountains. Even my buddy with a 2WD van got completely stuck on long slick wet grass on soft ground once.

The above combination simply isn't available from any RV manufacturer.

So, let's just buy a cargo van and do it ourselves!

Some might call it 'temporary' insanity. The jury is still out on that, but we bought a 2023 Ford Transit empty cargo van and are embarking on building it out into a custom camper adventure vehicle.

Van specifics:

• 2023 Ford Transit High Roof Extended Cargo van
• AWD w/ 3.5L Ecoboost engine, 10 speed transmission
• Trail option (bundles many things you'd want for driving a lot and notably adds a body lift, larger tires & rims, and running boards)

2023 was the first model year that Ford offered the Trail package; it was a rough roll out. For years, Transits have been an "order and wait 6-18 months to get it - maybe" vehicle. Trying to order or find a Transit Trail was extremely difficult (weeks of internet research and countless dead ends). Found a few where dealers had them, but wanted $10K over MSRP. No thanks.

Lucked into finding a stock dealer ordered van in Boone, Iowa. There was an active recall on the backup camera that prevented Transits from being delivered to dealers so the van was built, but sitting in Kansas City at the factory. We signed the deal for the van in late November and waited.

Late January, 2024 the call comes that the van is en-route to the dealer. Flew to Des Moines one way and took delivery on 1/31. Drove it back to Madison and straight into the storage unit that we had rented back in December knowing we'd probably need it mid-winter and its not easy to find one with a 10 foot high door with a week or less notice.

We returned to Madison from Florida in early March and pulled the van out of storage and (slowly) started work on it.

A few pictures from delivery day.