Rare Falcon 190 PSD aka “white buffalo”

[CKS-Socal]

Hey everyone, I am new here!

The ink is drying on what I believe is an ultra rare truck. The 1995 intervec falcon 190 full self contained class B Camper van, this one was built on a 7.3 diesel platform that the original owner picked up from fords factory and personally delivered to intervec to do the conversion.

The single owner rig was shipped to Europe for a 2 year adventure & shipped back stateside. The owner said they never even slept In it. Inside is a time capsule. The rig has 200k on the motor & about 30 hours on the genset. This model has the rear dinette & mid kitchen/ bathroom option.

The Objective for this build is for my wife and I to be able to take ourselves & our dogs on more trips while having the capability & space to work remotely. We both (including our dogs) love the outdoors and we both enjoy snowboarding. We live in San Diego and also look forward to working while parked at the beach etc. We own a farm/ major project house & finally got a few major milestones completed so this will be our next focus/ planning effort.

Major components of the build.
new AT tires to hold us over this winter
Exterior to be inspected & fully sealed
Interior sink, shower & toilet/ valves to be inspected, repaired & resealed
Test run/ burn in on all RV components.. repair as needed.
Carpet to be pulled and replaced with commercial grade rubber flooring.

Next summer
Bumpers, custom nerf bars, ladder, 4x4 conversion.. assuming 33 or 35” tires. Seats to be recovered with dog friendly material. cabinets & wood paneling to be painted white. Vinyl partial wrap, Starlink, desk terminal buildouts.

 

[86scotty]

Nice find, post up some interior pics!

 

[CKS-Socal]

Nice find, post up some interior pics!

Here are a few… lots of work going on with the rig.. just installed some stock size BFG k02’s!

 

[Ozarker]

You'll find those KO 2's loud on the highway, a low roar, mine do, but dang they look good

 

[89s rule]

Nice score!

 

[CKS-Socal]

Wow what an adventure! We have logged about 10k on the rig since we got it.. Many snow storms were chased last season and the kinks worked out with some of old RV systems..

I replaced the hot water heater, pulled the water tank to replace a leaking barbed fitting (making the floor wet!). The furnace started squealing when we were camping up at mammoth… had to pull that apart and regrease!

Fabrication - I purchased the MOVE bumper kits and built those myself, Lower band of the van was painted similar as the new bumpers with raptor liner. I have Aj’s 4x4 vans doing a full roof rack, side steps, ladder & surf poles during the 4x conversion..

4X4 Conversion - After a bunch of reading up & comparing the pros/ cons & the time I don’t have to do a conversion myself… I ended up going with Aj’s, My build spec involves the following:
Steering: I opted to have them install a red top steering box while it was all apart, my old steering box had a little bit of play and figured now would be the time.

Axles: Both front and rear axles off a 2005+ super duty with the larger disk brakes on 4 corners. I opted for 410 gearing over the 373, my van will be heavy and wanted a little more low range without killing my highway rpm’s. To keep my build sane I did not go for lockers at this time. New custom drivelines

Transfer Case: Since my van is older the bog warner transfer case will be used as it talks better with the mechanical speedo.

Suspension - Front and rear severe duty springs & 7 ply leaf packs, Heavy duty bump stops. All fox shock components including a dual shock steering stabilizer.

Tires - We will be running 17” black rhino wheels with 35x1250 BFG K02’s

Paint - I had the top resealed and repainted as we will be installing a full roof rack and painting later will be a pain.

Lighting - We have 8 LED flood lights and a few light bars that will be installed and tied to an auxbeam Relay switch

Recovery - We have a 17k winch that will eventually be installed in the front bumper, I also have a curt front 2” receiver that will be installed after the van gets back from the conversion!

More to come!!

 

[CKS-Socal]

Current state

Build spec:

12/4/23. Update… wow it’s been a bit…. Ended up repainting the top as the clear was chipping off and after removing the ladder and luggage rails we wanted to reseal.. plus we are adding a full custom fabricated roof rack and want paint done before install.. lower band of the van got black raptorliner, along with bushmaster flares. I built the move front and rear bumpers and had those raptorlined, the van was brought to a shop in Oregon for the 4x install and custom fab work..

Fabrication: custom one off full roof rack, weld tabs for 8 flood lights at the perimeter, weld tabs for front and rear light bars with secondary amber running lights (markers for whiteout snow) roof rack will hold a full size spare! Yikes!! surf poles, custom ladder to be located on driver side. Custom wide metal running boards for snow boots.

4x build spec:
Refurbished 2009+ front Dana 60 with large disc brakes, 410 gears
Rear refurbished sterling 10.5 (disc brakes) 410 gears.
Transfer case BW1356 (mechanical speedo better for the older obs vs nv271)
New custom drivelines
Front severe duty coil springs & bump stops
Rear severe duty spring packs
All fox shocks, 2 fox steering dampers
Shortened fuel tank for transfer case clearance
Frame/ undercarriage was cleaned and repainted
New redhead steering box

Wheels/ tires
35/12.5r17 bfg k02’s
Wheels are black rhino alpha

 

[RVflyfish]

That looks pretty dope. Nice job!

 

[CKS-Socal]

 

[nyyankees588]

Wow, lots of updates in a fast time span - that's exciting! That's a pretty sweet roof rack. Curious to hear what you think if the AJ 4x4 conversion. I've read a number of negative experiences on other forums, but Im sure that there are positive experiences out there.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[CKS-Socal]

The negative reviews seem to spawn from some outlandish assumption that Art and the “Javier” (if that was the name of the shotty Mexico conversions) are related and do similar work.. that is totally incorrect.

I’ve seen those Mexico van build's up close… and I am a welder.. I lived in Cardiff for years and would see them posted for sale blocks from my house. AJ’s is night and day difference in quality. And yes I’ve also driven leaf spring ujoint rigs, they are both different animals, I personally like the Caddy feel with the coil spring better, the breaking with the 08+ super duty axles seems superior (bigger discs)

I could of had my friend install a ujoint kit for probably 5k less than I paid aj but it would of been in the shop for 6 months and no additional fab work.. they got this done in 2 months. we use our van for work and snow.. didn’t want to miss a season. ZERO regrets working with these guys..

Also.. they also converted like 4 other falcons.. I was able to talk with some of those owners to get recommendations on what they would of changed upgraded… spring packs, bump stops etc..