Blue View – Auxiliary Switches

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Blue View – Auxiliary Switches

An option that is available on Ford Transits is a panel of four auxiliary switches. We're not sure whether Blue's original parents ordered the van configured the way they wanted it or whether it was just purchased off the lot, but either way, Blue has the optional switches installed. So far, I only have plans for one of the switches – controlling the right sideview camera that will hopefully give us a little better visibility when we're trying to back out of a parking space.

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Blue View - Finding the Right GPS for Blue

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Blue View - Finding the Right GPS for Blue

Our Ford Transit didn't come with a GPS.  We do need one, however, and on our initial travels, we used a smart phone as our GPS. Our iPhone works reasonably well, but the display is small, and the ambient road noise sometimes overwhelms the voice commands when we're at highway speeds. Since we plan to be traveling a lot over the next few years, we wanted something better. Here's how we chose it.

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Blue View – Installing Rivet Nuts

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Blue View – Installing Rivet Nuts

Rivet nuts are a great invention and are an immense aid in upfitting a van. They are inserted into a hole in the sheet metal of the van, and, using an inexpensive tool, they convert the hole into a captive nut. I used them to attach the ceiling panels to the roof bows, to construct a 'containment' wall to keep everything in its place when we were hauling dozens of crates of stuff from Nine of Cups to Las Vegas, and I'll use a lot more when we begin mounting wall panels, cabinets, and Murphy beds to the interior of Blue. Here's how I install them.

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