Just moved my truck mount to my new van!!!

Didn't take any pics yet... it's nothing fancy, a 94 E-150. But I'm really proud of myself for installing it! Actually my wife and I did it all alone. It's a Chemtex Panther unit 25 hp with a stainless steel fresh water tank. Just in case anyone is interested....

The first thing we did was remove the shelves and the reel. Got em out of the truck, got em cleaned up and off to the side. There were nuts and bolts in places I simply could not imagine getting nuts and bolts into. This became a REAL pain in the ass so I decided I'd just go to Lowes, get some new bolts and a bolt cutter. Cut them ALL off and used new ones. Made the install MUCH easier.

When I finally managed to get the air intake detached from the waste tank I took the waste tank out through the back after sliding the machine about a foot forward. Cleaned it up real nice and walked it to the new van. Propped it up and in it went.

Next I got some 4x4x6 boards... 4 to be exact and lined up both vans where the boards were resting on the steps on the side of the van. I flipped the machine 180 degrees then we slowly started moving the machine forward but then I got the brilliant idea of using my furniture slides! I couldn't believe it worked and didn't damage my slides at all! We moved it freaking effortlessly.

Then came the hard part. Getting the machine to raise up one inch to get into the van. We pushed and pulled. Finally I had to do one side at a time, get it up there and have my wife hold it while she pushed and I did the same on the other side. OOOOH, what a RELIEF when we finally got it!

So now came the fuel tap. I use to have a Dodge but I got a Ford. The fuel line is the same. Basic installation goes as followed but I ran into some problems.

Running from the gas cap to the gas tank are two pipes. One is a large pipe for filling up the tank and the next is the fuel injector. This is the one you want to cut in half, slide your fuel tap into and clamp it. It's really pretty easy, except for the van was old and the tube basically disintegrated!

On the fords it's really f**king difficult. The fuel injector line runs directly OVER the gas tank, so you have about two inches between the gas tank and the floor. DAMN! I thought I was going to have to lower the gas tank and go through ALL of that bullsh*t. Some a**hole put a clamp there with the head facing UP so there was no way I was getting to it, much less with a screw driver. Oh, I was PISSED!
FINALLY, I found a wrench that fit and it took me about 45 minutes just to get the damn clamp off. But I finally did, took the hose off of the Dodge and used that.

I drilled a 3/4 inch hole for the fuel tap and hooked it up exactly how I found it. I couldn't wait to crank it up so we did!! Started up IMMEDIATELY!!!!!

The rest was just spent drilling holes for the reel and shelf and cleaning off my equipment and organizing everything beautifully. I'm surprised how much freaking room I have compared to my Dodge. It's unbelievable! It's like having twice as much van. I can probably fit 5 Dehus and 10 blowers in the extra space. Oh course, it's being taken up by tool boxes and my RX is laying down and other things like that. But if I needed to pack it, it's not hard at all!

So. Jon Don wanted $1600 to do it. Hell, they wanted $200 just for the freaking fuel tap! Chemtex wanted $600 but I live 4 hours away. I'm so freaking glad I did it myself! It wasn't really that difficult. Just time consuming. We started at 9:30AM, spent two hours at Lowes and eating and we finished up at 11:30PM. But hell, with the way business has been SLOW, I'll spend a day to save $1600!

I thought it would be at least a 2 days job. Nope. We're ready to roll in the morning!!!!


Edited by Atlantis - 19/March/2009 at 12:57am

Good going.. Always nice to do it yourself.. These Manufacturers/distributors seem to want the Farm when installing/fixing our equiptment.. I use to have the 20hp Panther..

Edited by John L - 22/March/2009 at 1:01am

If your going through alot of couplers, you may have an alignment issue. Make sure you have those lined up super straight in height and in angle. Its a pain to get it perfect, but a micrometer or some digital calipers will help if you can fit it in there to take measurements. Couplers are a pain sometimes.