Building an Adventure Van

[a1fa]

looks good boss

[Hayduke]

That floor is gorgeous, Ed! Come down to Salida and do our house!

[pfb]

Floor looks great, but is slippery going to be an issue? Anything not strapped down on top of it is going to sliiiide... Rubber backed carpet will help, but the entire mat will probably slide on a sharp enough corner.

[Geek]

Nothing loose will be put on the floors without restraint (be it a snap in piece of 80/20 or straps); the whole "slam on the brakes and get hit in the back of the head" thing again

Driving the van these past few months I've found that anything loose in the back becomes really annoying. I've actually been using rox straps to restrain stuff like computers & such... they work great!

Hence the huge amount of storage space we are building into the thing... and the reason all lower cabinets are being assembled with "t-slots out".

[Gummee!]

Originally Posted by Hayduke

That floor is gorgeous, Ed! Come down to Salida and do our house!

What Duke sez. There's actually white oak with a honey finish under all the nasty-ass carpet in the house here. Very pretty. Too bad it doesn't like dog claws!

M

[Geek]

Sliding doors.

Is there a downside?

Upside: if the lower cabinets had sliding doors the stuff inside could be accessed when the isle is loaded with things like mountainbikes or whatever (i.e. no swing space needed for door...)

[Sheep Shagger]

Originally Posted by Geek

????? Knock the chuck off and put that gauge the spindle, then put a few different drills in it and use the gauge on the shank. That outside chuck measurement is no use the chucks are so cheaply made & turned on the home machines.

[leeinmemphis]

I totally came across this by chance but I am currently doing something very similar but with a MUCH lower budget.

[Cowboy]

Originally Posted by leeinmemphis

I totally came across this by chance but I am currently doing something very similar but with a MUCH lower budget.

Yeah, just saw your project over in Duke's Vans thread. This project started there too. In fact, I suspect Duke's thread was responsible for a lot of Geek's motivation to buy the sprinter in the first place.

Like any Geek project, this one quickly grew to the point that it needed its own thread, for fear of completely taking over the vans thread!

[slackmeyer]

Originally Posted by Geek

They have new quiet ones?? Do tell!

Dang. I think you already bought something.

Anyway, these are the shit: long lasting and very quiet. Great price for these things, too.

[Geek]

I can't believe I've put 10,000 miles on the thing already



I stopped by the dealership and had the 10K service done.
They have a few Sprinters in stock if anyone's looking




They also had this $220,000 piece of gull-wing-goodness there for me to drool over while I was waiting

[Geek]

We were going to go snowboarding today and work on the van tomorrow but it is windy today and not tomorrow so we switched days.

I started the day by building the rail for the right side mounting to the van...

First cut the 8 foot rail down to legth and then mark the location of the 6 holes:


Using the drill jig drill the 6 holes:

...they end up coming out perfect thanks to the jig.


...and voila. The other rail is mounted to the van (again with a little bit of knuckle busting to get the nuts on the backsides.


Cheryl spent the day cutting and gluing luxury liner pro into the slots... she's doing a great job (compare this to the photo above.. which has the black damplifier vibration damping only.. and then below the mass loaded vinyl and closed cell foam glued on):
right rear

left middle


I decided to change something in my cabinet design... the rear panels have to be assembled the way that they are because of the door hinge access... but the front panels do not have to be this way:



...by "this way" I'm referring to the fact that the closest corner has a full height vertical, but the wall side has a vertical that is inset in the two horizontals.
I don't have an option in the back but in the front I can make things look better..

In the back.. the vertical is inset to allow the door hinge to fit:


So, I pulled the panel...


..and am now making it with parallels. Looks tidier



I then cut out a piece of LLP...



..and laminated the inside.


I now have one very quiet cabinet wall

I built the vertical walls for the right side cabinets as well.. but I'm waiting on UPS to show up with the end connectors so I can put it all together.

They are supposed to be here Monday along with the live hinges for the bed platform that bridges the gap.

[Keith]

Still looking good, keep up the pics and the good work!

[EJ_92606]

Originally Posted by pfb

Floor looks great, but is slippery going to be an issue? Anything not strapped down on top of it is going to sliiiide... Rubber backed carpet will help, but the entire mat will probably slide on a sharp enough corner.

I was thinking about chassis flex and how the wood will handle that...creaking and moving? And moisture/fluid spills? The wood does look incredible though! I think I would have gone with an indoor/outdoor carpet. Lighter and better sound absorption as well.

[Geek]

The bed platform will be carpet as will the walls below the upper cabinets and above the lower cabinets.

I've been driving around for a week with the floor in it (though I removed it today to protect it) and the van is silent - not a sound/creek anywhere. Everything is precision fit and nothing is able to move (I'm putting a lot of effort into making sure). As of the moment.. the only "creek" I have is in the swivel of the seat I'm sitting on.. haven't figured out how to get rid of it yet

The floor is currently composed of the vans sheet metal, then damplifier, closed cel foam, mass loaded vinyl, plywood laminated with fiberglass, and then the hardwood on top of all that.
Pretty much no sound comes through the floor anymore

The luxury liner pro will be even a bigger part of this when the back of each cabinet is laminated with it (the floor already is).