Build Progress
18 July 2022
Week 1
After staring at the splendor that is to be our new home on wheels in the not too distant future, we installed Kilmat sound deadener. We chose the 50mil version to keep the extra weight added down and still be effective. One word to the wise, if you purchase a high roof extended cargo van with windows all around, you can get by with one box. As a result of potentially poor planning on our part we now have a box of the 80mil to sell. After completing the Kilmat install we moved on to the seat swivels from Amazing Auto. I can't say enough good things about these swivels, they are very well built and easy to install and are perfect for use with the 10 way power seats. They do raise the base of the seat over an inch after the install, but since the power seats lower that is not an issue for either of us and my wife is only 5'4" tall... One thing I can say is that the process of turning the seats does take a few minutes as the motors in the seats are slow, but once you do it a few times it becomes quite easy. With the seats done and the Kilmat down, we moved onto starting the floor installation. We got the polyiso foam and plywood cut for the floor of the van. Not glued down yet as we have to finalize the layout first to see where we might need extra aluminum "floor joists" placed to support heavier components.
25 July 2022
Week 2
We were on vacation for the bulk of this week, but when we returned we managed to get the roof rack and ladder installed.
01 August 2022
Week 3
This week we finalized the layout with a 3D mock up using 2x2 wood framing and cut the aluminum floor joists and polyiso to fit. Now we just need to waterproof the plywood and we can glue to the van floor. We also installed the Backwoods front bumper! That was a lot of work as it took us 12 hours in the heat to get it all installed. The only thing left for that project is to wire up the winch and lights that are installed in the bumper. When they said everything takes longer that you think to install, they were right!
08 August 2022
Week 4
Finally got the floor all glued into the van! Starting to see some progress...
15 August 2022
Week 5
So since we decided to not finance the van (interest rates too high in our opinion) we are having to save up cash to purchase the next big phase of the van. The next big phase is to start framing the van out with 80/20 extruded aluminum. So since we had what we thought were all of the supplies to wire up the lights in the bumper we decided to start tackling that task. And boy was it a task! We are hoping we don't have to re-run the wires based on how we routed them.
22 August 2022
Week 6
So if anyone ever tells you that running wires and getting them all terminated for fog lights and bull bar lights in a Transit van is easy... well I am here to tell you it is not! Now with that said we were able to get them run and connected to a test battery and they work. And even better than that, they work with my home grown automation setup using home assistant and some Shelly 1 relays. The picture to the left is just for prototyping and is not the final version, but it works for testing purposes. We also have the lights connected to some physical switches on the passenger seat base.
September 2022
Changing to Monthly
We have not been very diligent at taking photos and posting progress lately, but according to photos that I did find, we put in the floor in September!
October 2022
October
October was a very busy build month. The first of many orders of 80/20 extruded aluminum arrived and we got right to work cutting and assembling the main framework for the van. We built the two rear structures first. One to house the electrical system and the other the water system and some additional storage. We even started to install some of the electrical components to test out the solar that was installed on the roof way back on week 2. Some of the electrical was temporary just to test things out. Towards the end of the month we built what would be the structure for the kitchen drawers.
December 2022
December (year one)
You will notice that we skipped November 2022 apparently for the start of the holiday season.
December build coming soon!
