Ford Transit: Insulation and fan installation

By Lee Trampleasure

Insulating a van not only helps with controlling the temperature, but also helps with sound while driving or sleeping. Our van conversion maintains the original passenger van inside walls and ceiling, so all our insulation goes in behind those. If you have a cargo van, or are replacing all the passenger walls/ceiling, this page probably won’t be that useful to you.

I opted for wool insulation from Havelock. It’s on the pricey side, but it has advantages. I’m convinced that there is no ‘best for all’ insulation; if you’re planning on living out of your van, you may want to opt for another alternative.

Photo showing Havelock wool bats
Wool insulation, shipped compressed and shrink-wrapped.

Walls

Unlike a house, vans undergo lots of vibrations; these vibrations will result in insulation sagging down to the bottom of walls. I added insulation pins with caps to prevent this sagging. Hopefully this will work; at some time soon I’ll open up the walls and add photos of the insulation.

Here’s a short video showing the insulation pins.

Here is a gallery showing the installation in the side walls.

  • Photo showing walls opened up for insulation and insulation pins glued to the walls.
    The wall open with insulation pins glued in place.
  • Photo showing insulation in the side walls with insulation pins holding it in place.
    Same location with instulation installed.
  • Photo showing walls opened up with insulation and insulation pins glued to the walls.
    Driver’s side. Note the caps on the insulation pins to hold the insulation in place.
  • Photo showing passenger side with some of the insulation installed.
    Passenger side with the insulation being installed.
  • Photo showing walls opened up with insulation and insulation pins glued to the walls, including a speaker.
    Passenger side with insulation installed.

Roof

The roof of the Transit van includes a large ventilation duct that brings air from the heat exchanger at the back of the van to the vent holes in the ceiling. Here’s a video showing this setup:

Whenever you are working on the walls or ceiling, be sure not to block or damage the green airbags that run along the sides.

In order to fit my fan in, I needed to cut the front end of the air duct. It was plastic, so cut easily with an electric saw. I simply duct-taped the open end to seal it.

I didn’t get a lot of photos of the roof installation, but here’s three:

  • The first shows some insulation I squeezed into the frame, and a plastic bag taped under the area where I will cut out for the fan (I got this tip from a video; keep the plastic lose so the saw blade doesn’t go through it, and the plastic will catch all the metal sawdust and keep it from falling into the carpet on the floor).
  • The second photo shows the insulation pins with the fan installed.
  • The third photo shows how I used a camera tripod to hold the ducting up against the roof while adjusting it to connect it to the roof with its fasteners.
  • Photo of roof with insulation, insulation pins, and plastic sheet under roof where fan hole will be cut.
    Roof with some insulation and insulation pins. Plastic sheet is taped under the area where hole will be cut for fan.
  • Photo showing insulation pins glued to roof.
    Insulation pins glued to ceiling and fan installed.
  • Photo showing ceiling held up near fan with camera tripod.
    Using a camera tripod to hold the ceiling up next to the fan.
  • Photo showing a tripod holding the roof ducting against the roof.
    I used a camera tripod to hold the ducting in place when moving it before I could clip it in.

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