Swing away Honda bracket.

That’s a very tempting theft target. Ten seconds to cut the chain?

What a great job you did! Thanks for the details...

Is the storage trunk underneath? I have been thinking of removing my Onan since I don't really use it and either try to build a storage compartment underneath or move the spare back under and make the whole van shorter. Haven't come up with a good way to make waterproof useable storage underneath.

JimBollman wrote:
Is the storage trunk underneath? I have been thinking of removing my Onan since I don't really use it and either try to build a storage compartment underneath or move the spare back under and make the whole van shorter. Haven't come up with a good way to make waterproof useable storage underneath.

Sorry for the delayed response Jim. We went on a little RV trip and just got back. To answer your question, yes, the trunk is just forward of the rear bumper and is accessed through a hinged hatch under the night stand. You have to open the rear van door to get to it. We have the EXCEL TD model. I'm not sure how it is configured in the TS model.

To OP: nice piece of work, occasionally I wish I had a welder I could pull out and knew how to use it. :)

Your spare tire reminded me of a discussion that took place last year at the annual b-rally.org Class B Rally about whether a spare tire is really necessary (especially since it was said that several current Class Bs are sold without them). The spare tire on our 2005 LTV was on the back so LTV could create a "basement storage" like you have created in place of the spare tire (the generator on the Sprinter chassis is in front of the axle). We now have 153K miles on our LTV and the only flat tire we have had happened when we were parked at a relative's place overnight and the tire went down due to a nail picked up somewhere that day. This episode educated us on the difficulty of changing a flat tire on a Sprinter van. We got it off and the spare on only because our host had a heavy duty lug wrench that allowed us to get the lug nuts off, the lug wrench that came with the Sprinter was useless. So anyway, I took our spare off almost a year ago and it is stored away in our garage based on our almost no use of it and the growing aggravation of it being in way of the back door (especially after putting a screen in the back openings. I figure I can use our insurance that covers roadside service if we ever have another flat tire, unless we decide to go to Alaska again (unlikely).

But to get back to the "basement storage", when we were shopping for a Class B back in 2005 the "basement storage" was one of the three things that sold us on the LTV vs a couple of other Sprinter-based Class Bs that we liked. I think you will find it as a helpful addition to your Class B. We certainly have.

Are you camped in the Alston Tract in that pic?

Travelin2 wrote:

JimBollman wrote:
Is the storage trunk underneath? I have been thinking of removing my Onan since I don't really use it and either try to build a storage compartment underneath or move the spare back under and make the whole van shorter. Haven't come up with a good way to make waterproof useable storage underneath.

Sorry for the delayed response Jim. We went on a little RV trip and just got back. To answer your question, yes, the trunk is just forward of the rear bumper and is accessed through a hinged hatch under the night stand. You have to open the rear van door to get to it. We have the EXCEL TD model. I'm not sure how it is configured in the TS model.

Thanks. I hadn't thought of going in from the top, but that would be a lot handier than crawling underneath. Be a more major modification since I would have to fabricate a door.

steveh27 wrote:
Are you camped in the Alston Tract in that pic?

No, that picture was taken at the trailhead to Little Otter Spring in Florida. It's about a 1 1/4 mile walk in to the spring which falls into the Suwannee River after a short run.