My SMB Indiana Sprinter building experience - Page 7

llamadave · 08-05-2013, 07:28 PM

I have mentioned our dinette table before. The first one I made was too small because it was designed to also work up front. Also the finish on it stuck to hot dishes. So I made a new one and it works really well. It is made from two layers of 1/4" very sturdy MightyCore foam board with canvas dry-mounted to both the top and the bottom. The top has a print on it (a photo of lava from our recent trip to the Galapagos). The finish is several coats of clear Polyurethane which is normally applied to wood tables.

The resulting table is very light weight but durable and does not bend with heavy loads such as gallons of milk and large pots of food. It stores under the large rear cabinet and the center post stores in a compartment on the floor so the table literally takes only seconds to set up.

If anyone is interested I would be happy to have my printing company Redipix.com make these for you at a special price that only covers my cost. Send me a PM if you are interested. We can put any image you like on the table top. Checkerboard? Your favorite camping spot? Grandkids?

David

llamadave · 08-05-2013, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanw909

Maybe Llamadave should open a customizing shop for camper vans. I 'm sure you could find find solutions for all kinds of rigs.

Thank you for the compliment. I know you are joking about opening a shop, but I will reply anyway. I put a whole lot of time into these upgrades because I enjoyed it and I look forward to using Vanessa after they are finished. If I charged for my time for this work you would not be able to afford to pay me. I do enjoy contributing to this forum as a way to pay back all I have learned from it, and I will be pleased if some of my ideas will be available from SMB in the future.

David

llamadave · 10-13-2014, 08:38 PM

Backed Vanessa into her new shelter before the storm for the first time tonight. Our new pole barn is 32x48 and also holds 3 trailers, a Ford F150, and lots of tractor implements.

Tomorrow we head down to the Sprinter dealer in Indianapolis with hopes they fix the computer problem that plagued our Alaska adventure.

David

tonyvoudy · 10-14-2014, 04:57 AM

Great looking garage Dave! I remember I had a big feeling of relief when I finally parked my van in the garage!

llamadave · 11-12-2015, 11:49 AM

This week we took our van back to SMB North in Huntington for them to replace the shower pan (see photos). We have had it almost 3 years now and lived in it almost 500 days. I figure my wife and I each use the bathroom (toilet, sink, or shower) 5 times a day (a conservative estimate) so we have flexed the floor over 5000 times. It is supported by 3/4 plywood under 1 inch of Styrofoam and I guess what happened is that the foam got compressed a little so the floor flexed each time we stepped into it. I am pleased with the overall van interior construction as this is the only major problem we have had, after considerable use. The new shower pan feels solid when we step on it, and I hope it will last longer than 3 years this time.

The other thing is that I talked to them about the battery monitor which has not been properly recording the state of charge (SOC). I think the problem is that they connected the inverter/charger ground and the solar ground to the battery negative terminal. These need to go to a real ground and only the battery negative should go to the other end of the shunt. SMB argued that they need to go to the battery for some reason. I will move them to the ground terminal and report on the electrical forum after I test it.

David

Scalf77 · 11-12-2015, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by llamadave

The other thing is that I talked to them about the battery monitor which has not been properly recording the state of charge (SOC). I think the problem is that they connected the inverter/charger ground and the solar ground to the battery negative terminal. These need to go to a real ground and only the battery negative should go to the other end of the shunt. SMB argued that they need to go to the battery for some reason. I will move them to the ground terminal and report on the electrical forum after I test it.

David

I would agree with you they are wrong. The current flow has to go through the shunt, they pretty much bypassed that.

-greg

JayBea · 11-13-2015, 08:16 AM

Hey Dave,

I'm curious, did SMB use any different method of shower pan underlayment this time around? It seems to me that Styrofoam will eventually compress and once again allow the pan to crack.

It's odd, SMB (Texas) installed a LinkLITE battery monitor for us but similarly grounded the solar controller directly to the battery not through the shunt with the result that charging amps were not measured. I corrected it easily. I don't see how you can monitor your battery condition without a similar device.

Keep on travelling, we are at about 450 nights and trying to hit it hard while we can, see you on the road.

JIM

llamadave · 11-13-2015, 09:56 AM

Jim, They re-did it the same way with foam. They say they have never had this problem before, and I am not inclined to tell them how to do these things. We will see if it lasts more than 3 years this time.

I am telling them about the error in wiring the battery monitor. I suspect that the solar panel installation manual (for any brand) says to run the ground to the battery negative terminal, without any thought about shunts. They are just following instructions here.

David