Adventure Van -> Truck Camper -> DIY.Roamer

So I think I'm embracing your rivnut mentality for my E-track, how much beer would I have to bring down to bribe you to let me use your tool to mount up a few?

No beer necessary;

scheduling will be the tough part unfortunately I was supposed to be off today and ended up working 12 hours

With trips coming up to wyoming then montana then utah the next couple of months are going to be hectic!

drop me a line when you wanna come down I'll PM you my digits.

PM received, I know what you mean about hectic, been a rough few weeks for me as well. I'll be in touch.

Hey look!

It's a baby Sprinter kitchen and another overhead cabinet :huh

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www.mobenmotorcycles.blogspot.com

Geek, can you post up what this material is again? I went back 30 or so pages and couldn't find it. Thanks!

It is called t-slot aluminum.

The brand I'm using is made by a company called 80/20 - http://8020.net/
They have an ebay store and an amazon store as well.

Here's a pic of a bike rack we made out of t-slot aluminum (and a steel frame that bolts to the factory tie-down spots on the sides):


Untitled by djb_rh, on Flickr

That stuff is awesome.


--Donnie

So we've finally figured out all the pieces. Now its just a case of doing the work.

Best part about 80/20 is you can move things around, change things up, and figure out exactly what works best with minimum effort.

The rear boxes are going to be changing in dimension.. so I'm actually going backwards at the moment (although the cool thing is that one allen wrench and 20 minutes and voila - back to basics!)




I also got the kitchen design started this morning...


Originally I was going to run 6 foot rails from floor to ceiling but once again the van's taper got me. If I put a rail in the stair at the bottom it sticks out of the van at the top :huh So the top cabinet and the bottom cabinet will be independent.

I've also been playing with the height of the outdoor table. I think I'm going to order some 8020 pivot-nubs so this table is mounted there all the time and you just swing it up when you want. This seems to be a good height when standing outside



I'm going to finish up the framing before I put this in... I'm trying to think of a way that I can easily see it without having to get on my hands in knees in a dark cabinet like it was before...

Got some stuff done this past weekend.. not as much as I'd like.

As I'm considering this "final assembly" I'm taking more time to do things right as opposed to just throwing things together to see if it works... unfortunately this leads to lots of little side tracks that take time I could be using better on bigger issues so things don't go as quickly as I'd like.









It turns out our door island might be big enough for the water and the portapotty.. this will make loading/unloading both much easier. I still haven't decided how far forward I want the fridge (knowing I have to build an air tunnel to its compressor and I'd like to put the subwoofer in front of it)...

You might consider putting something over the tops of those batteries while you have those nice conductive chunks of aluminum perched above them. One bump and holy shit!!

I have seen first hand what happens when you short the posts together on a 6v and it is quite surprising! :eek1 The noise is impressive as well.

You van sure looks like it is developing into a sweet setup!

Does that include insurance?
I pay nearly $2000 a year for my F150 pickup, and thats with a perfect record and includes the 40% good driver discount....

No, That's just to register the vehicle w/ the county. Insurance is a seperate payment. You just have to show proof of insurance when you register the vehicle.

Colorado is the third most expensive state for vehicle registrations in the USA.

Thanks Dan

Good point! I agree 100%
If you look closely you'll see the restraint brace I built that goes over the battery has 4 l-shaped pieces of aluminum bolted to it. Those brackets are what the protective cover will bolt to during final assembly.

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I want no chance of something being in the cabinet and getting jammed between the posts in an accident dead shorting 330amps and catching the van on fire. The batteries will be completely isolated.

As you probably noticed I over engineered the battery restraints a bit. That's 210 lbs of lead I don't want flying around the cabin in a crash. The double rails at each end let me tie into the factory hard points in the frame so that the batteries are into the frame of the van. With my brace system I'm sure the van could be upside down and those batteries aren't going anywhere. Some RV setups I've seen are pretty scary - yeah I trust that 1/4" sheet of plywood with 1x2 softwood frame and penny nails to keep that 70 lb battery from hitting me in the back of the head when I rear end someone :eek1

Try Canada? I'm Canadian...

I spent 11 years getting my greencard so I would NOT have to pay Canadian taxes/registration/insurance fees any longer

twice that!:eek1:eek1

First year was over double that... I wouldn't complain if the renewal half'ed every year

Stuck "adventure" van I should throw a locker in the Dana 60

Or maybe not drive the Nunbus on the Beach? Maybe?

^ Or deflate those tires some and not get stuck?