We’ve completed our first 4×4 van conversion at the new Agile Off Road shop.

And it only took us 28 days – a new shop record.

Kathleen came to us in January with a pretty standard request. She wanted us to outfit ‘Black Beauty’ (her ultra-low-mileage, 2011 Ford E-350 V10 van) with an Agile Off Road 4×4 conversion kit, Method Grid wheels, and a fresh set of BFGoodrich All-Terrain K02 tires.

With parts in-stock, we can usually knock out a job like this within a few weeks. However, when we moved into our new shop on February 1st nothing was ready. No lifts, no tools, no products. We didn’t even have phones or internet!

It’s possible we underestimated how much work it would take to move from our home of 8 years 10 minutes up the 125-freeway into Santee. But thanks to our great staff and a couple of weeks of very late nights we were fully operational again and ready to do what we do best… help our customers build the adventure vehicles their dreams.

While her van was in our possession, Kathleen’s vision for her build really began to come together. Maximum range was important to her, so we custom made a fuel tank that would take advantage of all the space in the vehicle’s undercarriage. She’d also decided to equip the van with front & rear bumpers, a spare tire mount, bike racks and nerf bars all provided by Aluminess. And thanks to a quick turnaround by our great neighbors, we were able to get those parts over to the shop and installed in no time.

Following some testing and a final shakedown run, we sent Jesus up to Calabasas to deliver Black Beauty to an overjoyed Kathleen. We got her van back to her just in time to get ready for the Gran Fondo road cycling event she puts on in Malibu every year.

In its current form, the van makes an excellent ride support and corse set-up vehicle with its abundance of cargo space for bike storage, tools, materials, etc. A hearty congratulation is certainly in order for Kathleen. From all accounts, the 2018 Malibu Gran Fondo was a huge success.

We can’t wait to see what other adventures Kathleen & her van go on next. We’re almost as excited as Kathleen is to see the transformations her rig undergoes during the next stages of the build which will involve a full interior build by a local fabricator and Penthouse pop-top roof from Sportsmobile.

Stay tuned for updates on this build and other custom conversions we take on by subscribing to our newsletter below.