The 8020 framing for all of the above is all designed together. The bench could be removed without tearing into the fridge cavity - same for the heater. But overall a lot of interdependencies for securely attaching all of this weight to the van. The starting point was the image above
Used 1/4" scrap baltic birch plywood chunks for spacers as I cut and installed each board. A few of them were very laborious (measure 53 times and then cut for 30 seconds sort of things). But the results are pretty stunning. I've read other build threads
Mostly followed Thrivans approach for a slatted hardwood ceiling. Didn't want tongue and groove for the complicated install and massive squeak potential. Moser Makes had a similar approach with some valuable tips also. The requisite 'before' shot for context where I'm starting from is
With north/south beds, we have room on each side above for 'reasonable' sized storage cabinets with less risk of forehead contusions. Before shot above with the just bare skeleton frame of the cabinets clamped up. Mostly followed the recipe from humble road and thrivans. Huge thanks to
This one I kicked down the road forever, figuring I'll solve it "someday" and building away on the utility cabinets with a blind eye. Gotta pay the piper at some point. Roughly the ugly starting point above. What can I possibly anchor any window trim framing
Primary goal for the build was to easily carry both bikes in the garage area (no 'yard sale' bike rack hanging on the back blocking the brake lights, no wrestling with covers, no weather exposure, less risk of theft, quicker to deploy & stow). I'm using
With the build out, the van is on the heavy end of the GVWR of 9,500 lbs. The factory van suspension isn't designed to drive around "full" all the time so we decided to improve things: * Remove the rear 2 5/16" Trail lift
Way back on the first post as motivation #1 for the build was easy, fast, secure, interior bike storage. Here is one of the full extension bike trays in the van. A second identical one goes alongside it. We can 'nest' both gravel bikes onto a single tray
Each side of the BluTech Trio water filter above has stainless steel quick disconnects - and the flex hose gives me enough leeway to be able to yank the entire filter assembly out and replace it with a 'straight pipe'. Will make replacing filters a lot easier - and if
Wow, where has the time gone. I'm way behind on keeping up the blog - but I have been working almost every day on advancing the build. What a project. Water is critical. The final design: That looks relatively easy and logical on paper. A bit harder to reduce
The van starts life as a very exposed metal box with little ventilation. So it gets either really, really hot inside or really, really cold. Neither extreme is that comfortable for us delicate types. So we insulated the floor with 1" of polyiso foam. Much of the roof and
Lithium battery technology is amazing for a van - high energy density, long life, and you can use almost all of the energy in them without damage vs only 50% or less for previous battery technology. The only drawbacks are cost and the inconvenient fact that you cannot charge them below