Ford Transit Cab Chassis with Composite Camper

Pinnacle Campers

Chateau spotter
Why put all the time and money into a regular cab Transit and Quigley conversion when you could just buy an F350 and be ahead of the game?
Why?, Its just like you said, "its all about the accommodations out back, no?"
The F series cabs are 2' longer than a Transit cab.
So for the same overall length, call it 20', you get 2' more cabin length.
 

sg1

Adventurer
This is exactly the point. After having sold my Transit because I finished my Panamericana trip I currently only have a Crew Cab F 150 with a pop up camper. I like the truck but my wife wants a proper bathroom and shower like we had in our Transit. I don't want anything longer than 20ft because it still fits in standard parking spot. I really tried but I just can't design a 20ft camper with a usable wetbath and 4 safe and legal seats on a pick up truck chassis. The cab is simply too long. On a van this is no problem. This is why I probably bite the bullet next year and convert a van or put a composite box on a van chassis (probably Transit AWD Ecoboost) . Remember "Happy wife happy life".
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
Are you confident that the cutaway will be ok with the body attached to the back going offroad. I understand the off road driving would be mild.
You are correct. I wouldn't call the transit a true off road going vehicle. It will be perfect to do back country roads but rock crawling and technical trails are certainly not for this set up. Therefore I'm confident that this set up will work just fine. There are several European builders that have done this without any issues.
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
This is exactly the point. After having sold my Transit because I finished my Panamericana trip I currently only have a Crew Cab F 150 with a pop up camper. I like the truck but my wife wants a proper bathroom and shower like we had in our Transit. I don't want anything longer than 20ft because it still fits in standard parking spot. I really tried but I just can't design a 20ft camper with a usable wetbath and 4 safe and legal seats on a pick up truck chassis. The cab is simply too long. On a van this is no problem. This is why I probably bite the bullet next year and convert a van or put a composite box on a van chassis (probably Transit AWD Ecoboost) . Remember "Happy wife happy life".

We came to the same conclusion...
 

dags

Adventurer
You are correct. I wouldn't call the transit a true off road going vehicle. It will be perfect to do back country roads but rock crawling and technical trails are certainly not for this set up. Therefore I'm confident that this set up will work just fine. There are several European builders that have done this without any issues.

Thanks for the information. Will be great to follow the build
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
Test fitting at our factory is done. Next week we will ship it to Canada.
 

Attachments

  • dry fit transit camper.jpg
    dry fit transit camper.jpg
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Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
Very good question. It is of course a possibility and would need to be handled as a custom order. The idea behind this concept is the simplicity and straight forward process to get one ordered. We basicly try to pre assemble these to allow for even faster turn around times than our usual 10 weeks.
In addition, we did not want to make the camper look like a regular RV... In our case, we made that nose big enough to either use it for storage or for a pull out bed for either a single person or child. We also thought about pricing and complexity during the assembly stage. Here is a picture for your reference of a king size cab over.
 

Attachments

  • 65863543_891509467858871_5399982550703669248_n.jpg
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dags

Adventurer
Very good question. It is of course a possibility and would need to be handled as a custom order. The idea behind this concept is the simplicity and straight forward process to get one ordered. We basicly try to pre assemble these to allow for even faster turn around times than our usual 10 weeks.
In addition, we did not want to make the camper look like a regular RV... In our case, we made that nose big enough to either use it for storage or for a pull out bed for either a single person or child. We also thought about pricing and complexity during the assembly stage. Here is a picture for your reference of a king size cab over.


I was thinking something more like this

ExtremTransitRV.jpg
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
You had mentioned German camper forums, any chance you share them so I can get more ideas?

Will see if I can find them again. Not on there on a regular bases. Found them through google. But generally speaking there is not a lot of info out there about the transit cab chassis.


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gdaut

Active member
Very good question. It is of course a possibility and would need to be handled as a custom order. The idea behind this concept is the simplicity and straight forward process to get one ordered. We basicly try to pre assemble these to allow for even faster turn around times than our usual 10 weeks.
In addition, we did not want to make the camper look like a regular RV... In our case, we made that nose big enough to either use it for storage or for a pull out bed for either a single person or child. We also thought about pricing and complexity during the assembly stage. Here is a picture for your reference of a king size cab over.

This is an interesting build. One question: why is the cab-to-cabin pass thru so narrow (much more narrow than on a regular van)? Does the cab on the chassis version only have a small opening?
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
This is an interesting build. One question: why is the cab-to-cabin pass thru so narrow (much more narrow than on a regular van)? Does the cab on the chassis version only have a small opening?

The opening is small at the moment to give people the option to install a secure pass through door.
In our case, we will cut the most of it out after the camper is mounted to the truck. Our front seats will swivel.


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sg1

Adventurer
You had mentioned German camper forums, any chance you share them so I can get more ideas?
A better source for ideas would be the websites of quality builders. Some of them are even in English. Most builds are on a Sprinter or Iveco chassis, Transits are rare. Any cabin on a Sprinter chassis can be put on a Transit chassis. Both have "stiff" frames where the cabin can be bolted directly to the frame (no sub frame required) and where you can attache the cabin to the cab without a flexible connection. Iveco has a "soft" frame requiring a sub frame and a flexible connection to the cab. Here is a list of the top builders with at least 20 years experience:
https://www.bocklet.eu/en/vehicles/overview/ , http://www.ormocar.de/kabinen-fahrzeuge/expeditionsfahrzeuge/ , https://www.exploryx.de/index.php/exploryx-fahrzeugfamilie/ , https://www.bimobil.com/en/ , http://www.batari-fahrzeugbau.de/ , http://www.alpha-cab.de/englisch/home.htm , https://www.woelcke.de/ . Happy dreaming
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
A better source for ideas would be the websites of quality builders. Some of them are even in English. Most builds are on a Sprinter or Iveco chassis, Transits are rare. Any cabin on a Sprinter chassis can be put on a Transit chassis. Both have "stiff" frames where the cabin can be bolted directly to the frame (no sub frame required) and where you can attache the cabin to the cab without a flexible connection. Iveco has a "soft" frame requiring a sub frame and a flexible connection to the cab. Here is a list of the top builders with at least 20 years experience:
https://www.bocklet.eu/en/vehicles/overview/ , http://www.ormocar.de/kabinen-fahrzeuge/expeditionsfahrzeuge/ , https://www.exploryx.de/index.php/exploryx-fahrzeugfamilie/ , https://www.bimobil.com/en/ , http://www.batari-fahrzeugbau.de/ , http://www.alpha-cab.de/englisch/home.htm , https://www.woelcke.de/ . Happy dreaming

It was Batari that did this several times.


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