Build Thread - Ford E350 Uhaul to Race Hauler conversion / Totter Home
 

I have posted this on a few other sites trying to get as much info from people who have done something like this.
If anyone has done such a project your input is very welcome or if your thinking about doing such a thing subscribe to this thread.

I have googled countless internet pages on "Uhaul to RV conversion" and figured a fleet maintained Uhaul would make a great hauler/RV camper for towing from race to race. I really would have liked to buy a older NASCAR Rig and put the boat inside with a custom built tilt-trailer. But she would have taken up a good chunk of my driveway so the smaller size will have to do for now.

FIRST: This build will most likely take a few months, if not more. I only have 1 day a week to work on it, so sorry if the progress is to slow..

This will be used for Motocross and to Tow my boat to and from the races.

I would like something that will sleep 3, have a small restroom (or closet) dinner and comfortable.
The back needs to have lots of storage and still have a wide enough floor space to hold a larger 4x4 ATV that will be used to tow the boat around the pits and to a from the crane area.

Now the donor Vehicle - (2K)
Ford 1999 E350 Uhaul (std. 200k)
Engine - V10 (runs strong, shifts strong)
Body - 14ft Box with 3ft "attic" and the body has no rust.

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I want the "Hauler" to look like a RV, not a work truck. Once the conversion is finished I can register it as a RV, but I want it to look like a RV, not a old Uhaul. Plus I don't want the Police messing with me, if your towing a race boat they say your a race team.. and the truck must be registered as a commercial vehicle cost much more for plates $$

I have 4 basic color / graphic ideas I designed at work. All are cheap (500-600) , use standard vinyl and can be cut and installed at home.

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#3 or 4 is what I'm leaning towards - Simple designs that look pretty cool.

The inside is laid out to scale, or really close.. The rear shop area will hold a 4x4 ATV that's used to tow the boat from the pits to the crane.
Storage is the key, I need enough room to carry all my spare parts, tools, radios, intercoms.. all that crap.

The attic will sleep 1, the dinette / sleeper can sleep 1 (or 2) and I'll have a fold down bunk above the dinette that will sleep another.

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I like this clean industrial look, but I'll go with Black / gray.

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For the front 2x3ft shower / toilet combo area I found these little marine units. II'll rough in the space and prep-it, but I wont go buy one till I'm sure I'll need it as most sites have facility's.,

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step one was removing all the aluminum channel and rubber bumpers that protect your stuff during a move.

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I than found some really thick and cool "coin" rubber flooring that was cut and placed over the whole floor.
I know Home Depot sells a diamond plate rubber floor, but I saw this is a NASCAR rig and liked the looks.

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I than installed the ceiling in the lounge area with a 1/2" insulation board under the sheet of shinny white plastic board.
Than we build the rough wall in place bolted to the floor and screwed to the walls and ceiling.

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Now that the front is built out I finished off the inside of the restroom (closet) area.
I used a PVC decorative panel and the prefabricated trim pieces with a 24" doorway *(yes its small)

Most race sites have bathrooms, so I wont be installing the shower/toilet unit until I think its needed. Until
then I'll just use this space as a closet.
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Now the fun part, enclosing the "lounge" - sure makes this small space feel even smaller.
But maybe that will change when the windows are cut in.

I used a thin insulation board to bring the walls out flush with the upper and lower aluminum tracking.
I than covered it with 1/4 OSB. I was not sure if someone might lean into the wall panel and push into
the foam so the 1/4 OSB gave it a little more strength.

I personally think any insulation is not needed, but I needed to raise the wall surface out
3/4 so its lighter than 3/4 plywood

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I also started pre-wiring - I'll run a 220 to the back shop area and a few 110v lines up front.

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For the passenger side rear I'm using black garage cabinets that are supposed to take the hot / cold weather change
without pealing or warping. I just needed to build up the base to fit over the wheel well. I'll cap the top with a stainless
counter and use this wall space to mount spare props to the wall.

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Cool project

Awesome, me likey.

This is a little teaser of the trim going around the toe kicks, cabinets and counters. My wife actually suggested that I weld, grind and finish each corner so they are completely seamless.. .. way to O.C.D. for me


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Nice !

A couple million years ago, when younger, we would get these and go redneck. Gut the inside of box, find someone remodiling a kitchen, and hang what we could (cupboards aand counters) inside. Made a great race car hauler on a budget.

Yours will be much nicer !

Cool project !

this is real cool! dont forget some fancy american forces ;)

Had my underground power running out to the garage and bar room short out, so van project was placed on hold till it was \fixxed.

But back at it for a few hours this weekend...

I used left over rubber flooring on the walls to reduce scuffing and normal wear and tear.
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The built in tool boxes have been trimmed out and counters installed.

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The lounge door was installed and trimmed

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I used 2" aluminum carpet transition metal to trim the door, worked great and was pretty cheap

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Electrical outlets run along the main work counter and trimmed out with 1x1 aluminum, even used brushed aluminum outlet covers.

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Your going through all that trouble may as well fab up some aerodynamic aids. Especially if you want to do some highway runs it could be capable of.
Maybe a triangular locker above the cab , some flat panels for undercarriage under rear and if your still going add inline heat exchanger and or bigger oil cooler and block off top 1/3 of radiator. Will make a big diff at highway speeds and may reduce fuel consumption depending on how fast you go . Just a bed capper with a quicky fabbed wing made a huge difference on our dually support trailer hauler

I used some cheap LED Tape lights off ebay ($16) and aluminum channel from amazon to attach them to the walls.

The channel has a nice frosted white lens that helps soften the lights.
The lights can be changed from White, red, blue, green... and everything
in between.. you can even buy a pulse puck thing that can be attached
near a speaker so the lights fallow the beat of your music.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6ZlfLLE5_k&feature=youtu.be

What a cool project! Keep up the good work and pics!

Subscribed!

Stupid plastic bins cost as much as the tool box!! But I'm slowly stocking the truck with Stainless steel lock nuts, bolts, screws, washers, electrical parts, zip ties, water pump rebuild kits, water pump housings, prop nuts, prop washers, prop hubs.... etc... the back will be finished this weekend. Then I start on the front half ...

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Love reading these threads!

Following. Sweet project

Great thread, keep up the good work.Looking forward to the finished product

keep posting it

while looking for plastic storage bins like theNascar rigs have I found them to be pretty pricey and kind of thin and cheap.
One of the best prices I found was 112 bins for $116.00 (free shipping), right around 1$ per bin.Not really bad, but considering the size
of the bins I would need a couple hundred bucks worth just do do a few drawers.

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I found this plastic case at Harbor Freight for 8.99 with 20 removable plastic bins. Thats .45 cents each, they seemed a little thicker, a littler deeper
and will hold more parts than the red ones from Ebay.

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Over all not bad. Every company make there tool boxes a little different size, so I used skid plate foam cut around the back and one side to fill in
extra space and to keep the bin boxes snug.

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The LED's lights are wired to a large marine battery in one of the cabinets along with a REALLY BRIGHT halogen
110v light for when I might need some serious light while working. The back is finished.. now I'll start on the front.


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After a mid winter break I'm back to work.. I cut the hole this weekend to access the cab, I was going to buy a
rubber accordion seal but after talking to the body shop guy at General RV I'll be doing something different.
His words " Every Class C RV and Most Ford Cube truck have the cab bolted to the chassis" it wont twist,
if it does you bent your frame and will have bigger issues.. The advantage for me is only cosmetic, a rubber
seal wont look as nice..

http://s22.postimg.org/hdcisttwh/049.jpg

Also most people don't like the a table/bed combo and would prefer a couch. So I punted and will install a couch..
one problem I ran into is finding a couch small enough to get into the area and threw a 24" door way.

Problem solved (i Think) I found a 74" W couch for 169.99, but its short.. so I'll cut off the legs and build a base
from Overhead kitchen cabinets to raise it up to normal tall people height. This will also add a little more storage..

http://s16.postimg.org/d595ywnut/Couch_Bed_Idea.jpg

nice project

Very cool, nice work!

well thought out nice work !

RV Panel is up and glued into place. I also used the plastic snap pieces between the planes for a clean finished look.

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Upper crown molding is 9" chip board with carpet glued on. Each piece is 4ft long and attached with screws to a wood block that was fastened to the box. This way I can remove it to run my lights or to install speakers.

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Between the doors I had a funky size gap that would have been difficult to finish, so I wrapped some carpet and screwed it in.

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Total cost including the truck and mechanical repair is around 4k so far.


I bought CHEAP carpet with padding already attached (.64 cents) sqft
from Menards. It was thin enough to roll around round corners yet has a
little insulation and sound deadening properties.

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The thin trim board is nothing more than OSB with the carpet stapled to it.
The reason I need todo this was the corners are metal so to cover them I
need wider wood to reach over to the box area.
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It was a nice Febuary weekend for Michigan so I spent a few hours
finishing up the back of the van.

I finished up the end cap on the drivers side boxes along with finishing
the aluminum trim around the boxes. I also mounted a dry erase board
on the wall for race times, lane assignments and general info.

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Also finished up the floor trim with that "plastic" molding and found a great
(REALLY GREAT) Deal and a Flexsteel leather RV couch that folds out into a
bed. I wanted something with more brown, but I could not pass on this..
and the wife likes it so I'm happy

http://s23.postimg.org/5l8psibez/image.jpg

Now my one negative.. I removed some wrap material over a bump in the
outside. I knew it was damaged, just did not know to what extent.
The FRP was cracked and never sealed allowing water into the wood rotting
it out. I just cut the fiberglass layer back to dry wood and will dig out the
rot, much like a transom in a boat.. should be pretty simple, but will add some
time onto the project.

*The white patch was done by U Haul, not the best but I can work with it.


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Getting closer to the summer race season so I must keep moving even though the weather sucks ... :/

* ran into a problem I never thought of.. My small kitchen area cabinets are to big to fit into the standard 24" RV doorway. So I was going to use overhead cabinets and build a toe-kick, but I used a Bathroom vanity instead. The vanity offered draws witch IMHO offer more storage.

I found this on Craigslist for 100 BUCKS! Score.....

I looked at building a counter as my width is only 20" instead of the standard 24" but after a quick trip to Menard's picked up a *Blem 4ft counter top.. 16$ :smokin:


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I had to saw cut off the backsplash and will finish it clean at a later date.

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It's filling up quick...
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You do amazing work.

Yesterday at the salvage yard I picked up a new RV window for only 50 bucks! .. I need to start watching my pennys to come in under 5000.00 budget.

I hung the window in place with a couple drywall screws, outlined the inside lip (or smallest ring) and cut with a jigsaw.

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Window slide into place with little effort.

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*One thing I found is most RV windows don't have finish trim rings inside when bought off eBay or the salvage yards. So simply run upto your big box store and buy some cabinet finish screws. They offer black, have large heads with a aggressive thread. I drilled and screwed the window in from the outside aluminum lip.

The inside trim ring was made by 1 x 3 wrapped with a tan fabric. The corners are cut at a 22.5 degree angles to mimic the rounded window corners.

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Finished project for Saturday..

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*Figured I should post a finished picture and update

The Uhaul stickers have been removed and the truck box was painted a gloss white for now. I used a "roller" to paint the box.. seriously. The FRP board on the box has a texture, so a fine 4" roller worked perfect. I used a Rustoleum machine paint mixed with some harder/gloss agent and reducer... Turned out pretty great!

The front U-Haul doors I just sanded, spray primed and spray painted with dupli-color fleet white. I taped her at the body line for a nice break in the white.

Once I decide on a finial color/graphic I'll spend a little more time on the exterior.

Truck pulls great, with the 10 cyl. engine you would not even know its behind you even up hill. I locked the cruise at 60mph and seem to average 9-11mpg and I'm good with that.

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Such a sick Braap Van!!!

Tricked out wheels to...........Oooops pun intended

I'm still going to do some nice stainless wheel simulators... but race boat parts now get priority

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