Glad you enjoyed it!

You can do this!!! I won’t lie - it is a ton of work, but very manageable. Just take your time! It will look great I’m sure! 😊

Yes! Just the addition of the KilMat made a huge difference when we were driving the van around. After the Thinsulate and the wall panels were installed (which also are covered in Landau foam and fabric) the sound just got better. We went from hearing every little rock hitting inside the wheel well (which was very loud!) to not even being able to notice it at all.

That is a great question and I totally get it!! There are two places that come to mind that are a bit scary- the first is Hailey Pass. Going up was not an issue but coming down the back side was steep, and we had to come down very slowly because it was all loose pebble and gravel. A little nervrwracking, but manageable if you take your time. The second place is coming down from the Bears Ears towards Bear Lakes. This was just after the hailstorm for us. It is a good path, but narrow in some places and it is a very steep drop off the side in a few areas. I think I was so focused on getting down together lakes during the storm that I didn’t notice it so much. Other than those two places, the rest of the trail up and over passes is fairly easy!

Thanks for the update to the installation. We have had ours installed for almost 2 years, and have had zero issues with our system, but if I had to do it again we would definitely use your recommendation. Thanks for the info!

Thank you for watching and we appreciate the comment!😊

As you may have seen in the video, the cutout in the van roof is notched so the antenna can’t move/turn and it is screwed in with one screw underneath

Thank you! So, the first panel nearest the front is held in place by 6 fasteners-a row of 3 near the edge and then another row of 3 in line with the lights. They are screwed into furring strips attached to ceiling. There are no attachments near the front of the panel. We are just relying on the curvature of the van ceiling to ever so slightly bend the front part to hold the panel in place. So, essentially the front edge is just floating. We have had no issues- the panel doesn’t move or squeak, and it fits up nicely against the headliner.

So, we have now had our rack on for 2 years (we installed it spring 2022), and so far no real issues. We haven’t had any leaks or dirt coming through. The inside frame of the door is relatively clean overall. We have also slept in cold weather and I didn’t notice any cold drafting in. Our van is also very well insulated, including the back doors, and so it is very comfortable to sleep in the back. The only issue we have experienced was just in the past few months when we had the tires rotated, which included taking off the back spare and rotating it with the other tires. We found that doing this caused the left door to shift ever so slightly making the right door hit the plate when closing. It’s very subtle but we will have to adjust the left door hinge a bit- on the to-do list! We are not as familiar with the Owl or Rover models, but in general we have been very happy with this tire rack/ladder mount and would be likely to order again if we had too. Hope this helps-thanks for watching!

@@blazingwanderers Yes, yes, helped very much! Appreciate the detailed response. Very 👍 grateful. Here’s a sub for what it’s worth. 😉

I don’t know how this compares to a foam mattress sitting on slats, but what I can say is that we briefly tried the foam mattress on the plywood platform directly and it was really hard on my hips and shoulders. The Froli system made a huge difference in comfort level when we added it. And despite being plastic it is surprising sturdy-nothing has broken and it is much more comfortable on my hips (I’m a side sleeper!)

We just went through the van to check valves and tighten fittings recently. Evening has been working well and we have not had any issues yet with the water system!

Yes- we ordered two colors of Fenix laminate (Bianco Male and Piombo Doha), both available in 4x8 sheets at 0.8 mm thickness. It took me a while to find a distributor to order the colors we wanted, and we were able to order through Dakota Hardwoods out of Houston. We them laminated baltic birch plywood to make our cabinets and drawers. Its really beautiful laminate, and we are so happy with the look, but it sure was a lot of work!

Good luck!! 😊

Good for you! Using the precut kit was a great option for us. We still spent a month dry-fitting panels, covering the panels, and then installing panels. I can't imagine how long it would this part of the process would have taken if we had to cut the panels as well! I ordered Duramax tweed fabric and the landau foam from Perfect Fit. I ordered 35 yds of the fabric and 45 yds of the foam (because it was used for both walls and ceilings). We also ordered 10 yds of Sunbrella Vinyl from Sailrite for the ceiling. The vinyl was just about the right amount. However, I do have plenty of foam and fabric left over, so I could have ordered maybe 5-10 yards less, but we wanted to make sure we had extra material for any do-overs! The Sunbrella vinyl was definitely the more expensive (about $40/yd), but it was a much nicer, high quality vinyl, and was easy to work with, doesn't discolor and still looking great! As far as the adhesive--that stuff really sticks! We haven't had any issues. We did used the 74 when gluing to foam (i.e., blobs, window frames) and then the 90 everywhere else. Just be careful when using the 74 because it is orange in color and if you go to heavy it will show through the lighter fabric color. Just be judicious with your use and you will be fine. Good luck!

@@blazingwanderers Awesome! Thanks for the quick reply!

So, we installed the Eccotemp L5 Portable Outdoor Tankless Water Heater. We have the propane tank in a sealed cabinet inside the water cabinet on the rear passenger side of van under the bed, right next to the water heater. You raise a good point about the exhaust and heat. We do have venting cut into the bottom of the garage cabinet door and a vent right over the water heater to provide air turnover. We are not as concerned about exhaust and heat based on the two scenarios for which we would use hot water: 1) for the sink to wash dishes, and we use our water frugally so the hot water tank is only kicking on briefly each time I use hot water, and 2) the outdoor shower, which has to happen with the back door open, and so then we don't really have to worry about exhaust issues since both doors will be wide open! We modeled our build for propane tank and the water heater off of @FarOutRide and @SevenOSavage builds, so I would also encourage you to take a look at their builds which are excellent. Finally, we do have a CO detector mounted in our bed area and we also cook with our slider ajar/open and with the MaxxAir Fan on to vent when using our propane stovetop. So far, we have not run into any issues, so it is working well for us. Hope this helps, and good luck!

Noted!

Thank you! We used Phillips oval head, stainless steel sheet metal screws (#10) to put up our panels with a stainless steel finishing washer. We picked these up at Lowe’s or Home Depot - and they are not painted! I personally think the addition of the finishing washer gives it a great finished look overall with the fabric.

Our van is fully built out now, and we haven’t seen any issues with the flooring and the adhesive. If we had to do it again, we would still go with the 3M90! We are also very happy with the Lonseal flooring and would install this again if we do another build someday.

We did. All sides covered -front, back, and all four edges!

Yes!! And it is beautiful in our van, and incredibly durable!

Thanks! It was such a long process, but so worth it! Good luck!

We used blind attachments for attaching panels to the foam window rings around the CRL windows and to the fiberglass of the flares in the back. We screwed straight through the panels into the metal for the walls -for the ceiling panels we attached to furring strips behind the panel. We just used a standard fastener/screw with a finishing washer to give a more decorative look. We bought almost all of our fasteners and attachments from Amazon and in a few cases, a few extra at Lowe’s!

For our flat panels, we used a threaded insert in the back of the wood and fastened with T-nuts. The angle brackets work really well as they give you a lot of flexibility to make adjustment with the 8020 as you tighten down the nut. No issues and would do this again if I had to rebuild!

Hey there! At the time, I am not sure if we even looked at the Titan wall panel kit (we purchased in 2021). It was when we starting framing out the van with the wall panels that we realized we needed the structure kit if we wanted our wall panels to meet up with no gap. My husband was very active in the FordTransit Forum online and I believe this is where he learned from someone else about the structure kit. It does make the wall panels and the ceiling panels fit together perfectly, and if we did it again we would still use that kit!

Yes, the panels are 1/4 inch Baltic birch. We bought the wall and ceiling kit from AVC Rig pre-cut, which saved us a lot of time. We did buy a few pieces of the 1/4 inch Baltic birch to re-cut a few pieces where we didn’t want seams, and used the wall kit pieces as the template. This was mainly for the pieces around the windows and flares.

Thanks! Yes, we did cover all the wall panels with landau foam and the same fabric. The ceiling panels were also covered with Landau foam and marine vinyl.

Glad it was helpful! and thanks for the suggestion--I will my husband make another video of the complete system. So far, it has worked out great and no real issues!

It is Grey Abyss!

We ordered the fabric from Perfect Fit and the vinyl for the ceiling from SailRite!

Laying the vinyl should be fairly straightforward too. Good luck!

No we did not- just used the plastic tools and was gentle!

We bought the clips at Lowe’s where we also bought the Pex tubing!

Yes, we are at or slightly over our GVWR when fully loaded with us in the van. We’ve had it weighed several times at the cat scales when we are out and about. We did upgrade the suspension and have leaf springs so this does increase your load limit to some degree. We did a lot of weight calculations, and while the 8020 does add weight it wasn’t significantly more than doing everything in wood. But you are correct everything adds up! We also upgraded our tires, and we keep a close eye on the weight and integrity of the tires, as this will likely a failure point due to the weight. We’ve done some big road trips and so far so good and like I said, we’ll continue to monitor tire tread and our loaded weight as we go!

Thanks for the reminder- we are just in the process now of tightening things up again and will do this as well!

Yes- this is a 2021 Transit. I have been searching my notes to remember how much fabric we ordered but I can’t find my order notes. I ‘think’ I ordered about 30 yards. We do a a small amount left over and so it was the right amount for us. I think when we calculated how much we wanted we built in a little extra in case we had to redo or two large panels. Also, we use this to trim out all the door frames and blobs. So, I think this is the amount we used, and we do have enough leftover. I could redo a couple panels if we ever had to, but not too much that it isn’t manageable to store.I’ll keep looking in case I come across the actual number that this might get you started!

Your quick reply to my question is appreciated. This gives me an idea to start my build. Thank you 🙏

Our transit did not come with a factory mat- it was just the bare metal floor so I don’t have any comparative. So far, we have not seen any signs of moisture issues with our current floor system from AVC Rig.

We ordered a box of 50 mil 50 square feet KILMAT and had just a few sheets left over- it was the perfect amount for us in my opinion!