Dropping floor

[theonlyliyote]

I’ve searched on here and haven’t found this specifically to my situation (still new to this forum so might be just not seeing it…)

2008 Ford Econoline E450 Bluebird Micro

The main cabin area is raised about 5” up (from what I can tell during a sundown inspection) on a second set of floor joists off the main chassis. I don’t see any reason I can’t drop the floor another 4-5” to save some interior height after insulating.

1) probably don’t need crazy floor insulation due to living and traveling primarily in CA (and SoCal at that) but would be nice to get a little more head room as well as more cabinet storage.

2) I’m a fabricator (wood and metal), work in RV remodel/repair as well as a residential contractor. So, not afraid of a little work or a challenge.

Does anyone have experience with this? See any issues I may run into? Any advice based on EXPERIENCE?

I’ll be doing a daylight inspection tomorrow. Just picked the thing up last Friday (12/12/25) and dropped it off where I’m storing it/doing the work. So I figured I’d do the research and pick y’all’s brains for ideas, options and specific things for which to look upon inspection… wouldn’t wanna tear into my new baby to hit a major snag and do too much expensive damage.

 

[nikitis]

The rear suspension may not be at the right level if you do this, so check on that. The leaf springs.

Also if you lower the floor, you the height also goes down with it, unless you plan to do a roof raise after lowering so you have a lower overall height for bridges etc. But in most E450's height isn't much of an issue anyway if you roof raise it without touching the lower mounting area.

 

[#1FordFan]

My aunt (a quadriplegic) bought a new wheelchair van in 88. it was a E150 and had about a 6 inch lowered floor in the center of the body. This 6 inch drop was only able to be done because there was a 4 in body lift (spacers) front to rear. From Ford it only had about 2 inches of clearance between frame rails and body.