SUV Camper Conversion Tour | FORD FLEX | Electrical System, Water, Solar

Welcome back to the channel. Today we're looking at my 2013 Ford Flex conversion that I built two years ago and I've been living out of ever since. So the first decision I had to make was whether or not I wanted to have a split bed or have a full bed, take up the entire back. The back of the Ford Flex was about seven feet long by three to four feet wide, so I decided, because I'm pretty tall, to convert the entire back into a bed and find storage in other places, like the shelves that I've built on either side. The other challenge I faced was figuring out how I can charge all of my electronics that I use on a daily basis, like my camera, my phone, and my laptop. So I decided to use two solar panels connected to my power system in the back and run electricity non-stop through the entire system. So starting from the back, I have what I call my garage. So in here, and this is just made out of plywood, my ski boots are back here, I have a saw back here for cutting wood, I have the car jack to replace my tires, I have snowshoes, and just a few miscellaneous things you would keep in your garage at home. And on the other side, I have some cooking supplies like a cast iron pan, some plates, and my three burner stove. One thing I really wanted to keep consistent in my design is trying to blend it as much as possible into the ergonomics of the car. And so one way I did that was by embedding my shelving into the window. I did that on either side. This one became more or less my pantry where I keep all the food that I need and tire repair kits or my contact lenses. And the other side became a power station where I have a power strip so I can charge my drone batteries or my phone or my camera. So on the left side of the bed is where I have my closet. So in here, I keep my shoes, my boots, and on these little shelves in these little baskets, I've got things like my socks and my underwear. And on top, I keep some of the bigger clothes like my pants and my long-sleeve shirts and my ski goggles. What else is in here? So on the other side of the car is kind of like my secondary garage. Just a big open space surrounded by plywood where I keep things like my backpack, bungee cords, my hose, as well as my tripod and camping gear that you've seen in some of the videos. So also in here, I've installed two different appliances that have become very useful over time. One is the air compressor that I use to fill up my tires if I ever have to patch them. And the other one is my water system that I can use for cleaning or showering if it really comes to that. So deep inside here, you can hear my 10-gallon water reservoir that I can fill up from here. So this is my intake for the water, and then I have a shower head at the other side. And these are my switches that control the compressor in the as you can hear when I turn them on. One design flaw with my placement of the switches is if I ever choose to enter the bed from the right side of the car instead of the left, I inevitably hit this with my knee every single time and freak myself out in the middle of the night. So I probably would have put this a little bit higher up where I wouldn't hit it every time. So some of the items in here have accumulated over time because I didn't necessarily think that I needed it. But after being in different situations, it's become very practical. One of those things is my set of tire chains, which I've used more times than I can count at this point because having a front-wheel drive car in any kind of icy or snowy situation is a good way to get yourself hurt. So I definitely recommend buying a good set of tire chains that you can put on in the winter, especially if you don't want to switch between winter tires because once it gets warm, those are pretty dangerous. Another thing I have in here is my can of fix-a-flat, which I hope to not have to use at least as infrequently as possible. But I'm now on probably the 15th or 20th tire on this car because these low-profile tires do not fare well on forest roads, so take that into consideration. So to be able to sleep in places like Walmart parking lots and rest stops, you need something that you can cover your windows with. And that's where I decided to go with these styrofoam reflectors that I cut out in all the shapes of the windows, and they just fit in there. You kind of tuck it in at the edges and it works wonderfully for blocking out light. It can make it pretty dark in here even in the middle of the day, as well as making it warm. There's not a lot of insulation from a car that has a lot of windows like this, so you definitely need to use some type of foam or something in the windows if you want to stay warm, especially if it gets very, very cold. So to keep these stored and out of the way, I needed to find some place and under the bed wasn't going to work. So I found this little sunroof incent I have in the back of the car and put two little bungee cords. That way I can keep all of these reflectors stored on the roof of the car and then it's out of the way. In the front of the car, I ran up. This was a game time decision because having all of my outlets in the back wasn't too practical because I spend most of the time up here, especially since I don't have any convenient place to be able to eat or sit in the back. My car wasn't tall enough to have some kind of a couch system that I could fit in. That was one of the big reasons why I decided to make the whole back just one large bed, and instead I used the front seats as my lounging spot where I can do work on my laptop, edit pictures, or eat food. And so I ran a power strip up here. This is what I use to charge my laptop and my phone most of the time. So to make the bed, I have a half inch piece of plywood that runs the entire length of the car and is form fit around the paneling so that it fits exactly the right size of the car and it's able to not have too many gaps for me to lose stuff in. And then the actual bed is made of a piece of three inch and a piece of two inch memory foam that you can just buy rolled up at a Walmart or somewhere like that. And I covered it with a sheet and then with a blanket that I sleep under if I'm not sleeping in my sleeping bag. So generally if it's above say 50 degrees I won't sleep in the sleeping bag. And this is very comfortable. I mean I would recommend this for anybody that wants to build a bed in their car. This foam is very cheap and it does feel like a memory foam mattress so it definitely works. So to lift the bed up, originally I just used 2x4s to keep the bed off the ground but they took up so much space and they were very bulky that I decided to use metal bars with threaded ends so that I could adjust the height and make it perfect. And then I bolted those directly to the plywood on the bed. It's stronger and I think it looks better and takes up a lot less space than just having 2x4s hold up your bed platform. So under my garage is where the power system of my car is located. It's not too accessible but I don't need to go in there too often. So I cut out this panel that could be removed. This jumbled mess in here is what I call my electrical system. So I have two marine batteries right here and right here that are charged both by my alternator through this MACR adapter that runs to the car battery and the engine block. And it's also charged by the two solar panels I have on top that come through here and trickle charge the batteries. It usually stays completely full because I drive a lot and so anytime the car's on it's being charged. And coming out of these two I have my fuse panel where I used to have my fridge connected but now I have my compressor and my shower head and my water system connected. And I have a 500 watt AC inverter which I have all of my power strips plugged into. It's pretty simple. I have it grounded to just the back of the car so it's grounded to the frame and it's able to power everything I need in the car as well as charge my phone for days if it didn't have any kind of sun or any kind of alternator power. One thing I would change after two years of living in my car is my electrical system. The way I set it up it's not exactly the most practical way to make repairs and when things go wrong sometimes it's very hard to diagnose. So if I could start from scratch I would definitely plan out my electrical system and lay it out in a nice organized convenient manner so if I ever have something to replace it's very easy. But aside from that the way I have it set up now is the way I've grown to know and love after two years of living in it. It hasn't always been this way. I used to have a fridge. The whole thing used to be built by two by fours and didn't have metal rods holding it up and a lot of things have I've adapted to a lot of the ways my car is designed. If you ever have a Ford Flex that you want to convert I highly recommend following some of the ways that I've done this. But thank you so much for watching and thank you for checking out our channel. If you like this video please leave a like or comment and if you have any questions about my build or your build we'll get back to you as soon as we can in the comments. Thanks for watching and please subscribe!