Sleeping Space - A Quest

If you saw the earlier post about making a window flare you know we need to use this feature to increase the width of the van, for my 73 inch tall self.

Well, the first attempt at a flare failed pretty badly.  After a few weeks of thinking, I decided I could use the failed flare as a mold and lay-up a new flare inside of it.

First we fill, sand, fill, sand wash and repeat...



Once we have a smooth enough surface mold release wax and polyvinyl alcohol are applied.



I then sprayed gel coat into the mold to seal the yet to be laid fiberglass.



The the lay-up starts.  This consists of cutting various types of fiberglass (cloth/mat) to fit the mold.  Then the layers are applied with catalyzed polyester resin.  This is a time limited process as the resin is curing as you are applying it.  In addition air bubbles must be removed!  Needless to say its not the easiest work.

Here is the flare about half way into the lay-up.



Once the layup is cured, the edges are trimmed and the flare is removed from the mold (at least in theory).  It only took me an hour and a half to separate the 2.  You can see on the left of the photo below where i did not apply enough wax and the mold stuck.



Here is the now flare-less mold.



This is the flare's surface after de-molding and water clean up.



I then proceeded to fill, sand, and paint the flair with van matching paint. (sorry no photos...)

I applied the flare using 3M window weld adhesive.

In this photo you can see the complete bed platform.  

I am a bit proud of the design on this platform. It can be hinged up from either end for storage access.









And to wrap things up the spare tire has been moved to the back door.  The reason is to allow mounting the batteries under the van.









Here is a shot of the rivnuts that hold the battery frame in place.



That's all for now.  We just received the last of the galley components, so we are going to start building cabinets soon!

Moving Electrons, and Visible Progress

Another step on the road to being unplugged.

One of our major goals was to have only one fuel in our new home.  To do this we are designing our systems to use electricity for everything except heating (air and water).

To achieve this goal we needed either a generator (diesel) or copious solar energy.  Since we have a burning hatred for the noise created by generators, we decided on the solar option.

Below are a series of photos of the solar install as it currently sits.  These panels are Grape Solar 160W monocrystalline panels.  Total output under ideal conditions is 640 watts.  This will hopefully allow us to boondock for as long as our water and patience will allow.

In the photo below you can see the vent fan clearance as well as the wiring pass through box.  I am considering mounting beastly LED lightbar to the front solar panel.  Stay tuned!

The panels are mounted to 2"by 1/8" thick aluminum frames.  The frames are anchored primarily with adhesive and secondarily with sheet metal screws.

Below are photos of the mock ups for the AC and DC distribution panels.

Monster gauge;  Below is the 2/0 gauge main battery cables.  These weigh about a pound per foot!

Here is a layout of the DC side of the electrical system.  You know something is getting complicated when the engineer needs diagrams to keep things straight....

Da Bass!  Really just the floor.  We added 1/2 of polyiso foam insulation to the floor, and fill the remaining gaps with reflectix.  Nothing is worse than a cold floor in the morning.

By now you must be wondering how many hours we have in this project?  Sadly you may never know, as I am too scared too tally them up...  Anyways, onwards to the bed fabrication!

This is how the bed frame arrived, 40lbs of raw steel stock.

After a bit of cutting, and some welding...

Some more cutting welding and fitting...

We have a bed frame!  This frame is designed to hinge from the front and rear.  This will allow storage access from the rear doors or from inside the van.

Excuse the ugly welds, sadly my budget doesn't have a $2,000 welder in it.

After putting hundreds of hours into the van, it still looks like an empty cargo van...  Frustration!  Thankfully, patience is an unofficial requirement to be a vagabond.  :)

Next up:  We have been refining our layout and cabinet designs.  I have also been ordering expensive bits at a frenzied rate.  Soon we will start in on making the interior cabinets.

Getting Down To Business

Over the last few months we have been getting down and dirty converting the van.  Here are the highlights!  It may not seem like much, but the foundation steps are often the most critical.

First off we decided on a layout for the interior.  This layout features a permanently deployed rear bed (Jen’s request).   A drivers side Galley, and a 48' bench/couch.

Next we got rid of that ugly cargo divider.  Feels so much bigger!

Anyone need a sprinter cargo divider?

The van is only 72” wide where the bed mounts (left-right orientation).  Because I am 73” tall we needed to make a window flare to allow for some extra headroom.  Here is the flare in process.  It is being molded from fiberglass over a hand-made foam plug.

We also decided to spray expanding foam insulation into the walls of the van.  We purchased ours from Tiger Foam.  It was surprisingly easy to work with.  After many hours of masking, and about 30 minutes of spraying we had some results.

On a warm day in October I installed power lock actuators and cruise control bits. We used OEM actuators made by VDO (Amazon had great prices). I still need to run the wiring and hook up the remote unit.  

In my next post I will discuss some of the van's camper systems.  Heat, water, electrical, and solar.  We have decided to go with no propane (single fuel all the way!).

Chucks new owner has been treating him well.  Here a few photos from his new home.