I had a customer come to me and asked me to convert their Ford Transit Connect cargo van into a camper van for them and their puppy.
I discussed with the customer on what their desired van work flow would be. There is no wrong or right way to build your van. Everything is a compromise. In this small van, every inch counts.
Their van goals: sound deadening, insulation, insulated walls, bed, cargo area, shelving, 12v fridge, table, room for solar panel, and a self-contained sink system.
I started out using sound deadening material that you can find at Home Depot: Frost King Self-Adhesive Duct Insulation. The hum of a cargo van usually comes from the large open sheet metal areas. These areas need to be covered. We started with the wheel wells and continued until the entire van was covered. Tip: Use gloves to avoid cutting yourself with this material.
Next I installed the insulation: Thinsulate. Use 3M90 Spray Glue to glue the Thinsulate into the desired area.
I cut pieces of Thinsulate and put them inside the back panels. They are easy to remove when needing to access the jack.
We are still using the plastic lower panels on the Ford Transit Connect for this kit. So while insulating, we took a piece of Thinsulate and cut it around the mounts to fit inside of the stock plastic wall before we re-installed it back into place.
Now that the walls, ceiling, and the 4 doors have sound deadening material and Thinsulate, I moved onto flooring.
For flooring we used the Legend Evolve lightweight floor. We bought it from upfitsupply.com. The van came with a rubber floor that was already insulated from Ford, so we just put the new Evolve floor right on top of the stock one.
For walls and ceiling panels, we again turned to Legend. You can get the wall, ceiling, and floor kit from upfitsupply.com.
I ran into a snag when I realized the wall kit is cut around the wheel wells. This exposed the Frost King material and does not look good. I needed to cover it. I bought some flexible rubber material in the floor section of Home Depot and glued it over the wheel wells.
For a sink system we ordered a Boxio Wash camp sink. It fit perfect inside the TNTvans Super Shelving cargo area.
Next we installed the TNTvans Ford Transit Connect Camper Van Conversion Kit.
It comes with a bed platform that gets the camper up off of the floor of the van. This allows them to store all their gear under the large bed.
We designed the height of the bed to have just enough room to store gear but still leave room to sit up inside the van.
I left an aisle down the middle of the van so the customer can use the back doors to get in and out of the van.
This kit is reversable. The bed and shelving can be switched to either side of the van.
We put a table at the end of the bed platform. This is a swell place to sit your plate of food or a laptop.
This DIY Camper Conversion kit is designed to maximize the space along the wall and up to the ceiling of the Ford Transit Connect. We left a convenient platform on the left side of the shelving to work as a night stand while the camper is sleeping. This is a great place to set a drink or cell phone during the night.
We decided that the best place to store an Ice Chest 12v Fridge and Solar panels are in the openings of both sides of the van.
Overall the TNTvans DIY Ford Transit Connect Cargo Van Camper Conversion Kit came out great. All of our interior units are built with an aluminum framework to keep them light and extremely sturdy. We use the smallest but strongest materials in order to use as little space inside the van as possible. This way there is more room left over to store more of your gear.
Here is a video outlining the bullet points of the TNTvans DIY kit. The entire interior can be installed in just one day and it is so simple that anyone can do it!