Van Projects

Having a mini-motorhome that was once an ambulance can be a lot of fun. It's less fun is when you have to work on it. The Ford van part and the ambulance part are not a perfect fit sometimes. There's a secondary battery to help power the ambulance area. Even since I've owned the vehicle I've been unable to access that battery.

Finally, I got fed up and decided to make a big hole. I tried to cut a new door in the side of the van. The box is built of very heavy duty aluminum. My grinder burned out before the job was done, so my reciprocating saw finished the job. That's when I discovered the battery was housed in another heavy duty metal box that was welded to the floor. There was no way to get to it from the hole I'd just cut.

It did give me a better chance to look the situation over. It might be possible to get to it from inside the van. I could see the backside of big air filter box. There's a huge air filter for air in the cabin. When I get a chance I'm going to take that apart and see. Once I was done looking around I sealed everything up with a nice piece of aluminum pate. Doesn't look too bad.

Just to make my day perfect, the van would not start. My guess is that the starter is going. In case it was a low battery I cleared the battery terminals and put the charger on it. That's about the time I got tired of working in the cold and dark. It will be still be there in the morning.

While these issues are a pain, better to have them in my driveway than a thousand miles from home.

-Sixbears