Just after my 40th birthday, I traveled two hours north from my home in Richmond, Virginia, to pick up a 2022 Ford Transit 250 with all-wheel drive, a high roof and a long wheel base (148″), non-extended. Since then, I’ve been working to turn it into a home for myself, my cattle dog, Claude, and my two cats, Bitty and Eddie Poe, with the ultimate plan to live full-time on the road.
As I’ve worked on my van, I’ve found countless online resources to help me along the way. This would be an impossible task without them and, in the interest of paying it forward, I’m sharing my story and process here to help prospective van builders with their own journeys.
Body Modifications Each time I cut a hole in the van, I called it a body modification. These are the items that change the overall appearance of the van, and turn it from a boring, creepy, white cargo van, to a nifty home on wheels.
Body Modifications Each time I cut a hole in the van, I called it a body modification. These are the items that change the overall appearance of the van, and turn it from a boring, creepy, white cargo van, to a nifty home on wheels.
With Mo scrubbed, primed and painted, the next step of the van build was the floor. All it took was a lot of research, patience, $420 and some power tools.
My van, Mo, had a past life with FedEx and, after 44,000 miles of things thrown, tossed and dropped onto the floor of her cargo area, it was pretty beat up. To mitigate the chance of rust development, I spent the first month of van ownership scrubbing, priming and painting.
Someone once said that words have meaning and names have power, and it’s widely acknowledged that vessels, sea-faring and otherwise, should be named. So I knew, when I bought the van, that I would name her. But I didn’t want to rush it. I had to get to know the
