Thanks for all the great ideas folks. I just finished my camper van, and have
thrown up some photos of the build. check it out. I had to put my own spin on
it. check it out, looking for some feedback.

1500 watts total-arc audio 1200.1 on the sub, and a Tru Technology t4.65 on the
front
10" w7 subwoofer
Morel 6.5 component speakers in the front door
optima 75 ah battery. gonna need a second one i think
xantrex sw2000 pure sine inverter
shore power plug running into a genius battery charger
Mossberg 590

 

Looks like you do good work, nice and clean. Did you upgrade the alternator for the extra batterybatteries? Do you have a stove and potable water in it?

 

Very nice-looking build! I'm about to build a new sink cabinet for my Sportsmobile, would love to see some more images of your cabinets, showing details. I'm going to build mine out of 1/2" oak plywood, probably with a light interior frame as I want to be able to stand on it to access the pop-top bed.

A few thoughts:

1. Do you have ventilation for the big bottom box with all the electronics? You'll get a lot of heat build-up in there, might want to add a vent hole with cover on each end to allow some air flow-through.
2. It seems like the top cabinet with the safe and battery monitors would work better with two doors, so that you can easily check with monitors without exposing the fact that you have a safe. Come to think of it, I'd make a blank false front to the safe cabinet with hidden fasteners. No use advertising that you have a safe, and if someone did break in and was rummaging around your cabinets they wouldn't even know it was there.
3. Do you have a lock for the gun cabinet?

 

This was made from 3/4 birch ply. With hardware from lowes. I do have a false birch front panel, but I don't seem to use it very much.

Was thinking of installing some computer fans in the cabinet, but the heat has not been an issue.

Just a crappy lock on the cabinet door. I will probably upgrade at some point.

Did not upgrade the alternator yet. I have the largest factory one. It does pretty good, but I will put a bigger one in at some point.

Thanks for checking her out. I'll try to find some more photos

 

Also, I just use a portable propane camping stove, and can run a microwave if needed. I prefer the portable options to permanent installs, also I don't really like cooking in the van.

 

Passive/convective cooling would probably do the trick, add a vent on one side low and one on the other side at the top.

 

That's pretty awesome, my ext would be the perfect candidate, I was working on similar, but batteries inside are a bad idea, I've read horror stories of guys optima batteries exploding in their vans, so often, they don't use them anymore. You need to vent all that stuff outside, all batteries give off gas, even the optima, you need to be careful, all electronics give off heat. The shotgun protection is ideal, but just about every camping area is gun free zones, as are parks, so you better be careful, we have been quiet too long, and have lost the right to protect ourselves.

 

For batteries, just find some of the Ford frame-mount boxes for group 65s. They are often on eBay and are fairly decent. I use SLA batteries, similar to the kind often found in UPS systems. They don't REQUIRE venting, and they are VRLA, but I still vent them to be safe. They don't mind vibration, and are capable of handling any orientation you could theoretically get your van into without wrecking it. The downside is they cost about 1.5x as much as lead acid batteries, and only last about 3 or 4 years.

As far as firearms: A law was passed last year. All FEDERAL/NATIONAL parks are under the firearms law of the state they are in. So, most parks now recognize my concealed carry permit. Other than some city folk who really don't belong out in the wilderness anyway, I haven't had any issues with campers/permit holders.