Holy cow, that's a lot of work. Good job!

 

I was thinking something like this ..

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rrmYJqq1sG4tqxSDZghUWs2ZzBib1yB0IXJv5EQZiWo?feat=e mbedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-__Uir35OJbQ/T_NVQ89rUAI/AAAAAAAAAkU/pLFUSfOAB-A/s400/machinegun.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a>

although Mega-squirting would work too.

 

Thanks BigRigFixer.

One of the projects I have to do before bolting down the kitchen cabinet is a modification to the sofa-bed. When I designed and built the sofa-bed two years ago I hadn't yet taken up welding. Now that I've got some rudimentary welding skills if I was to create another sofa-bed it would be very different. I've been mightily tempted to to take another crack at it but finishing the van takes priority.

Of course nothing to stop me from making a slight improvement. Here is the lifting actuator for the backrest portion of the sofa. I wasn't happy with the design at the time but had beat my head against it for too long and wanted to move on.


The problem is that the actuator didn't lift the back all the way into the final position. It had to be pushed against the lifting blocks via the other actuator to complete it's upward movement. To allow that to work I need to have a sliding mount point at the back where the lifting actuator attaches.


This did work but it left the sofa backrest loose enough to bang against the lifting blocks on a bumpy road. Time to fix it. Start with some measurements.


Take the bed off the sofa-bed and put on a couple sawhorses. Remove the old lifting arrangement.


Use some left over bits to make a new mounting point.


The measurements show that backrest of the sofa-bed is to go from flat (zero degrees) to 68 degrees as the actuator moves from fully closed to fully extended. Dust off my geometry and come up with a design that fits the equation. Make a test version out of wood.


Check that it will work.


It's successful so start to transfer that design to metal.


Finished product.


Make a pivoting attachment point for the actuator end.


A much cleaner looking design I think..


Test it out.


This design is more economical with space so gives me a little more storage room under the sofa-bed.


Add a limit switch.


Install the bed back onto the sofa-bed and check the operation of the new lifting design. While doing this I noticed something. These lifting blocks on the back of the sofa-bed. They help guide the backrest into position and support it when in the sofa configuration. They were the best I could do at the time but can now be improved.


Replace with angle iron.




After switching over to the angle iron backrest supports I'm able to move the sofa-bed closer to the wall. How much closer? In this picture you can see a right angle taped on the floor. This is the old position of the sofa-bed front right corner. I've now gained an 1-1/4" along the full length of the sofa-bed.


While 1-1/4" might not seem like a lot, in the context of the inside of a class B camper van, it's Huge!

 

Another project. Replace really dirty original driver side seat belt with brand new one.


This one's pretty straightforward. Get a T-50 Torx bit and 5/8" socket. Unbolt the old one and replace with the new one.


Here's another one of those "put off till later jobs". When I installed the battery vent in the side of the van the hole I drilled ended up being just a little too large. It's probably off by no more than 1/16" but it just bugged me. Till now that is.

You can see the gap in this photo, along with where someone/something scratched the side of the van.


From McMaster-Carr I ordered ten chromed washers. Didn't need ten but that was the lowest number I could order. The inside diameter of the washer is smaller than the outside diameter of the threaded shaft on the vent.


I take the insulated wall panels on and off enough times that I'm thinking of just calling them "access panels" instead. Remove the access panel over the battery vent and unscrew the vent.


I don't have a drill bit the exact same size as the vent shaft so to enlarge the hole in the chrome washer I'm using a end mill bit on my milling machine. The end mill is smaller then the diameter of the hole I want to make. The table on the mill moves front to back and left to right.


By carefully moving the table while the bit spins I'm able to make a hole just the right size.


Perfect fit.




Mount back on the van. Much better.


Mark one project off the list and add another to it. Paint the van.

By the way, if anyone needs a 9/16" SAE chromed washer let me know. I've got a quantity up to nine for sale.

 

Time to dig into the dash. I already showed some of this with the posting about the switch for the greywater dump valve. Start by taking off the doghouse then removing the stock radio.


To remove the radio use a Din Radio Tool. The tool is these two U shaped wires. Around $6 from Advance Auto. The stock radio is surprisingly slim.


Here's the view without the radio.


Install a new radio using a custom bracket. This leaves some room in the old radio opening for a switch panel. Cut out a template from paper.


It measures 7-1/2" x 1-1/2".


Cut the panel out of an aluminum sheet.


See how many switches I can cram into the panel. I've bought a selection of toggle switches because not yet sure what all I'll be controlling.


Measure and drill holes for the switches.


Add the switches and label them. At this point they not really wired to anything.


With the new radio goes new speakers. The van only has two speakers. One in each door.


To take off the door start with the screw in the bottom right corner.


Pop the cover off the front of the door handle and swing out of the way. It exposes a torx head screw.


Unscrew and remove the handle. You have to wiggle the handle to work it free.


Use a small screwdriver to pry the cover from around the door handle.


Above the handle is another screw. Remove it.


There is a black plastic cover on the inside of the door.


Carefully pry it off.


This gives access to the one last screw.


The plastic door panel lifts straight up and off.


Here's what it looks like without the door panel.


Out with the old speakers and on with the new.


Put it all back together. I had one problem and that was in figuring out which wire was radio plus and which was minus. The wire color didn't match what the Ford manual said it was supposed to be. I used a voltmeter to trace which wire was which back at the radio. Problem solved.

 

More dash work.
I own a ScanGauge II but have never got around to finding a permanent spot for it. Time to take the plunge. This looks like a good spot.


Make sure it's clear of the gear shift handle when in drive. Easy to see when driving. Let's put it here. There is a wire that hooks the ScanGauge to the OBDII port located below the dash. The wire can either be plugged into the back of the end of the Scangauge. To run the wire out the back I'll have to make a hole in the dash but it will be a cleaner look.

Make a small template and use pencel rubbing to copy over the socket location.


Use this to plan out the hole.


No backing out now.


Run the wire.


The gauge comes with velco strips with adhesive backing. Stick to the back of the gauge.


Stick the gauge in place.


Then fire it up.


The wire that comes with the gauge is longer than I need so roll up the extra and zip tie it under the dash. Then go for a test drive.


Looks really nice while driving except for one little problem. As you turn the steering wheel it blocks the view of the ScanGauge. D'oh! Didn't even occur to me. Maybe if I lived in someplace with flat straight roads, Kansas I'm looking at you, I might have left it be. Around these parts that's not an option.

Find a new spot I like higher up. Will have to disassemble the dash to mount it.




Looks like this hasn't been done since the van was new. I wiped out all the ductwork I could reach.


Check that there's nothing in the way on the back of the dash panel where I want to mount the Scangauge.


Do the same for the inside of the dash. No problem.


Here's the new location.


What's one more hole amount friends.


While I have the dash apart do another project. Here is a panel voltmeter I bought on ebay for around $7.


It's made to be flush mounted but there isn't enough free real estate on the dash panel. I'll have to make a case for it. Here is a sheet of shiny steel I took off of a VCR I was tearing apart. It's thin and was used like a veneer on the outside of the VCR. Thought it might come in handy so I held onto it. Make a paper template case for the voltmeter.


Use the template as a guide for cutting the steel.


The front edge of the steel has a small lip that will grab the voltmeter.


Notch the lip where I will be bending it.


Use welding pliers to make the bends.




Once the metal is bent into the box shape it's fairly sturdy.


Make the case deeper than it needs to be.


Add a sheet metal screw to hold the case closed.


Bend the extra metal from the case depth inward.


Use bolts through the back to hold it in place on the dash panel.


By removing the sheet metal screw on the side I can open up the case and slide the voltmeter in or out. Drill a hole for the voltmeter wire in the dash panel.


Button everything up.


I wired it to one of the switches on the new switch panel so I could choose to display either the van (starting) battery or the house battery's voltage.


One more thing to check. The voltage used by the voltmeter itself. I turned the voltmeter on and locked up the van.


Here it is 18 hours later. The voltage hasn't dropped at all.


One more thing. In the above photo you can see that the first hole I drilled for the Scangauge wire now has a round rocker switch in place. I had the switch on hand and it's a perfect fit. I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

 

If that's the same Chinese made eBay LCD voltmeter I think it is, you can swap the annoying at night when driving blue LED with a red one and a larger resister to dim it. That is what I did If you don't feel like gettin fancy, you could use that nice new toggle switch to control the voltmeter... damn thing was annoying as hell at night.

Also, 12.24 is pretty low for a resting car battery, have you not started the van in a while?

 

I'm liking the voltmeter, I'll have to look for one like that. I love reading when you update.

 

Actually I do. It's a on-off-on switch so I can check the house battery or the starting battery or turn it off. So far I usually check the voltage after starting to make sure the battery separator has kicked in and the house batteries are charging then I turn it off. You're right the bright LED is a distraction when driving at night but since I leave it off that's not a problem. The bright readout is a plus because when I'm camping I leave it switched full-time to the house battery to keep an eye on my power usage and the readout works nicely as a night light.

Good catch. You're absolutely right. I had been doing a bunch of electrical work and hadn't run the van long enough to make it up. Ended up to where it wouldn't start. Hooked it up to a charger for a few hours to get it back to full charge.

 

I'm been doing a lot of work on Hal without a break so overdue for a road trip. I hooked up my running water system along with portable AC unit, a microwave and a Engel 12 volt fridge. Beside the water pump, everything else was mounted temporarily for this trip.

First stop, Roger Waters and "The Wall" in Philadelphia.


Then off to the beach.
Cape Henlopen, Delaware.


Back on the road. Maryland House Rest Area, I-95.
I wonder what it is about White Ford Vans that make them seek out each others company?


Fort Frederick State Park Maryland Campground.
Hal has scared away all the other campers. Or maybe it was just me.


If you're traveling west of Hagerstown Maryland on I-70 I can highly recommend Fort Frederick State Park. It's only a mile off the interstate. The Fort was built during the French and Indian Wars.




It housed British prisoners during the Revolutionary War and Civil War Federal Troops were stationed nearby who mixed it up with Mosby's Raiders. The C&O Canal passes through the park along with the Western Maryland Rail Trail. And the campground which sits on the banks of the Potomac River sure isn't overused.

On to what I learned about living in the upgraded van. Having running water for the first time is a real sea change! I've been tent camping for years and using the van as a glorified tent since I bought it. Up till now this was my idea of running water.


I would go three or four days with this single 2-1/2" gallon plastic gas can as my sole drinking water source. For this first trip I just filled up one of the 5 gallon water cans figuring that would last a while. WRONG. I was amazed at how fast I emptied out that first 5 gallons. When you have an electric pump, 5 gallons is nothing. Luckily I learned this lesson while staying at a campground and not while boondocking. Easily refilled the water can at the closest spigot. After that I was more mindful of my water usage.

This was also the first time I've used a fridge. The Engel model was great. It doesn't use much electricity even though I had it at the coldest setting. The noise it makes when running was somewhere between a low hum and a purr. Not the least bit distracting. I first realized how neat it was to have a real fridge when I was shopping and found myself doing the "only buy two days worth of cold food since that's when the ice gives out" calculation. Had to remind myself that's no longer the case. After testing that the freezer section in the fridge would make ice cubes in regular trays, not just the tiny one it came with, I tested it with a six pack of Klondike bars. It keeps the bars solid but not by much. Have to eat them fast once you remove it from the fridge. It will also freeze a one liter squeeze bottle solid.

Next up the microwave. I've read where some people don't use theirs but that won't be the case for me. Used it on a Hungry Man dinner, microwave pizza and some leftovers from a restaurant. This will be a keeper. The microwave I bought is a small 700 watt unit and my inverter and house batteries had no problem keeping up with it. If I was worried about the power drain on the house batteries I would just idle the van while the microwave was running. I posted the other day about having installed the ScanGauge II on the dash. It shows me using about 0.66 gallons an hour while idling. With current prices that works out to about .04 cents a minute. To heat the microwave pizza I made last night would have only cost .20 in gas if needing to run the engine.

Someone posted that my van is starting to look like a spaceship. If you're going to have a spaceship you might as well get a robot. Say "Hello" to my version of R2-D2.


I'm going with the suggested name of "R2-BCool". Most of my camping is of the boondocking in the mountains variety but I wanted to try it at the beach where AC is a must. This AC unit is only for the times when I'm hooked to shore power. I used this for several days at the beach. One problem is the exhaust hose radiates a lot of heat. I'm sure wrapping it in Reflectix would help. But a bigger problem is that all the air it exhausts is being drawn from within the living space. Then that air is being replaced with outside air. The space inside the van never gets real cold. It only really cools you down if it's blowing the cold air it makes directly at you. It's best use was when I was sleeping since I'm not moving around much. It did help lower the humidity so it's better than nothing.

A more efficient arrangement would be to have a separate hose for outside air that is drawn into the unit then used to carry the heat away from the coils and exhausted back outside. Then the cold air in the van would be continually recycled and made cooler still.

I'll have to open it up and see if I can modifying it.

I do see one problem with all my new conveniences. When the van was like a tent with a minimum of comforts it's easy to get going in the morning. Now it's a lot easier to just lay there and listen to the radio or get something to eat out of the fridge. I can definitely see a downside to all this.

 

After I installed a new radio I wanted to add a switch so I could choose to run the radio from the house batteries or the starting (van) battery. I've set it up so there is a singe SPDT momentary ((on)-off-(on)) switch that selects either power source. Once switched the radio runs completely off the selected source and draws no power from the other source. Not only does the radio not lose it's memory setting when switching between the two sources but if it's playing a song there is no audible clue that anything has changed.

To do the actual switching I'm using two 12 volt relays. These relays are rated for 16 amps while the radio is only fused for 10 amps so they should be robust enough. The relays are a dual coil latching type. Since they are latching, no power is required to keep them in the selected position after being switched which is different from a regular relay. That saves power usage and it's why I only need a momentary switch to activate them. I bought the relays for $4.66 each from Digikey. Here's the link.

The relays are made to be mounted to a circuit board. So I first drew up a schematic then soldered the relays to a small piece of stripboard which is type of prototyping circuit board. After soldering on the relays I added connecting wires.




After finishing with the soldering I was thinking of a how to protect the exposed wiring on the circuit board since it will be installed inside the dash. Thought about building a small plexiglass box when I had a "what if" idea and went looking for an old prescription bottle.


Son of a gun. It fits as if they were made for each other. I'll have to remember this idea. I added a couple vent holes to the bottom of the bottle.


Add connectors to all the wires. The connector is male or female depending on if it's hot or not.


For the circuit to work as planned I'll need a "hot on start" power source. According to my Ford EVT manual the plug that goes to the back of the stock radio should have such a wire. I looked and it doesn't. So trace the circuit back to the next connector which is number 201 located in the right kick panel of the passenger foot well. There are other connectors in the same area.


To work on the connectors use pliers to remove this black plastic pin.


That allows the connectors to swing out.


This must be connector 201 since it's the only one with this shape.


I'm interested in circuit #1000 which is a red wire with black stripe. Must be this one.


Cut the wire then check that it's hot on start. It is. The circuit dead ended at the connector so I wasn't too worried about cutting the wire free.


Put all the connectors back like I found them then run a new "hot on start" wire into the dash. Integrate the wiring into the radio plug adapter (right white) I used to plug the stock radio plug into the new radio plug (left black).


Here's the diode I use to stop switch selected coil voltage from back feeding to the starting circuit.


Here's how it works. When the van is sitting and not running the radio is dark. If I flip the switch down to "House" the radio lights up now being powered by the house battery. It's a momentary switch so the toggle snaps back to the center. The radio will stay powered from the house battery until I either flip the switch to "Van" or start the van. When I start the engine the radio automatically switches back to the van battery. That way I don't have to worry about switching the radio back to van and since it's a momentary switch I can never leave it in the wrong position. A rather bad habit of mine.

After I got everything wired up it actually worked right the first time. Surprised the heck outta' me. Well almost right. I'd wired up House and Van backwards on the switch but that's easy to fix. Just rotated the switch 180 degrees.

In practice I've found a neat use I hadn't planned on. When pulling into a parking spot and there is a song on the radio I want to hear the end of I just flip the selector switch to "House". Then after I turn off the ignition the radio keeps playing without missing a beat. It's now become a gas saving feature.

 

Nice, whats next fancy pants? A flush toilet and some grey poupon?

For my HAM/House batteries, here its perfectly reasonable to keep them topped off with solar panels. I have a ladder rack that I painted, and modified with aluminum t-rail and some other goodies to hold my antenna mast carrier and solar panels. 630 watts of panel combined with my xantrex MPPT controller nets me about 190 ah/day in charge during the summer (on clear sunny days!) 80% depleted my battery bank can reach a full charge in 3 days. My compressor freezer/fridge only eats 41ah/day and running my HAM radio in recieve mode only consumes about 20ah/day. Gives me plenty of overhead for my netbook, transmitting, satellite phone, and lighting. When the batteries get weak I switch to a Honda inverter/generator, more efficient than idling my 5.8L fuel disposal system.

You don't have to go as insane as me. I bet you would have damn good results with a single 100 watt and a mid range charge controller. Of course, disabling the system and disconnecting it from the batteries via isolators and double pole relays when the ignition is live to protect it from alternator ripple is always a good idea

 

And with all that you call ME fancy pants!

 

But my van is an emergency radio relay with tires under it. Those solar panels run the radio systems after storms when i deploy to support emergency teams (why do you think i installed a locker, electric fans on a switch, grease packed my connectors, moved vents, and installed larger tires? )

Granted, the fridge isn't needed. I just like cold water and nice sammiches when operating. I MIGHT be spoiling myself a bit with that

I've also got even more, extra-spoiling ideas in mind, but those are for a later date.

 

Some floor work.

I had originally replaced the front floor mat with blue diamond flooring. Over time I've found two problems with it. It's hard to keep clean and worse, slippery when wet.


So out with the old and in with the new. First pull up the blue diamond.

The EZ Cool insulation was installed two and a half years ago but has held up remarkably well. No need to replace it.


Use newspapers and masking tape to make a template.


Use the template to cut out the new front flooring. It's indoor-outdoor carpet I bought at Lowe's. The carpet comes off a six feet wide roll which is a perfect size for the front floor. It cost 62 cents a square foot so total cost was around $23.


It's been installed for a few weeks now and I've really taken a liking to it. To help it hold up I bought Husky Liners from JC Whitney for $79. When the package arrived I found it didn't come from JC Whitney but was drop shipped.


They are a molded style with high sides




I specifically bought this style since it's molded to fit this hump in the drivers side foot well.




At first I thought the high sides would be a problem but I'm getting used to them. Might still do a little trimming.


With the cargo area flooring in place and now a new carpet for the cockpit floor it's time to add a transition piece to cover the difference in floor levels.


Use cardboard to make a couple templates to find what looks to be the best fit.


Get out my sheet of 16 gauge steel.


Cut strip of steel 4 foot long by 2 inches wide.


Clamp the steel strip to the edge of my work table.


I can't add a 90 degree angle to a piece of 16 gauge steel this long but I can do a lesser angle. Use a welding clamp to work my way down the strip and start a bend. Keep going back and forth with the clamp.


Checking the angle as I'm bending.


Test fit. I made the strip wide enough so I could easily run wires under it.


Add a notch so it will clear the back right edge of the drivers seat. Then paint.


After a couple coats of paint screw it into place. The screws that hold it in place only go into the wood flooring. Not the metal layer below it.


That's it.

Lately I've had an audience while working on the van.


But not to worry since Tiger never takes his eyes off of them.


If they get too close he'll have to take them down. After all his name is "Tiger".