Accrete's Chevy AWD & Ram Promaster projects

[accrete]

There has been some questions sent my way as to what Cari and I are living in and I thought i'd share part of my reply to a curious mind who sent a recent PM (And many thanks for sending your question! I enjoy replying and sharing any tid bits that may assist a fellow adventurer).

I share this also because I believe the idea of being mindful of the materials we utilize in any of our van builds has an effect on livability as I explain below as it relates to our RV findings.

Here are the highlights of my reply:

Greetings & thx for the PM/Q.

Excuse the long winded reply : ) You caught me on a day off and i'm just relaxing visiting the forums with my wife's blessings as she reads a good book next to me.

My wife and I wanted to go the tiny house route but the county where we are on the Oregon coast is crazy prohibitive on zoning. We were on an acre of land with a farm house and that was fine...but if we wanted to have a TH we would have to get onto a minimum of eight acres and the home could not be viewable from the road! Silly. Yet, we could have totally trashed our acre with old rusty cars, weathered/falling sheds/ etc and gotten away with that eyesore. But put a pristine cute little TH on it and the "Neighbors" would have said it "Devalued" the neighborhood. Insane.

Soooo.... in October of 2011 we moved into a used 38ft 5th wheel (a DRV Mobile Suite) to test the waters of full time rv living. And by that I mean it is our home. We are parked in a nice RV Golf Resort and I help with their website development and wifi maintenance when i'm not in the office at the local Costco (where my wife works too). So the coast is our home.

...Within a year we noticed some health issues that we believed were related to living in the particular 5th wheel we had purchased. Even though the DRV Mobile Suites are beautiful rigs (arguably in the top three manufacturers for full time living) they are made with traditional materials that off gas for several years. Unknown to me at the time was some research (I think it can still be found on line??) that involved similar health issues (we were constantly stuffy/runny nosed and itchy skin with rashes at times) seen in the occupants of "Temporary" housing set up by FEMA during the Katrina cleanup. The families were living full time in the RV's (built by traditional build standards) for the years following and research was pointing to the off gassing of materials as the culprit.

OK, so fast forward to ~2014~ I began in earnest to find a solution to what I was perceiving as an unhealthy living situation, yet still wanting to call a larger RV our home (since we both work for Costco we know we could transfer to any state they have a location/opportunity for us, so wheels under us is a nice feeling...even if we stay here till I retire!)...

My full time live-aboard rv search brought me to a line of products i'd seen when pondering smaller rigs for camping which was "Green Certified" in the sense that they did not use any materials in their rv's that would cause off-gassing. So the next RV show we went looking for any rigs by a company called "EverGreen RV"...

We purchased a new EverGreen Tesla T3970 off the floor of the 2014 Portland Fall RV show (Google image examples). Our rig has never smelled at all and more importantly, our symptoms disappeared within a couple of weeks after moving out of the prior 5th wheel and we've been sniffle-free since. . . Unfortunately at this writing i'm not sure they are still in business?? There were rumors they may be closing shop, though you will find used ones out there and I would certainly put them on my shopping list.

OK so what is needed in the research-mode when looking to actually live 16/7 inside these things is go to an RV show and put your nose into overdrive. Does the RV smell "New"?? It will be off gassing for years, at your body's expense.

So my biggest tid bit is beware and avoid if possible RV's with that "New" car smell. And we had ionizers and air purifiers in our Mobile Suite, yet had developed all those aforementioned symptoms along with near daily headaches upon waking.

Fun on wheels... (though we did sell the tiny 15ft Parkliner tt seen to the left in the image)



Best wishes on your research/plans.

: ) Thom

[larrie]

We have seen their Evergreen and it is very nice. Well laid out and with great attention to detail. The build quality reminded me of a custom home. To bad they are no longer in business.

[accrete]

Greetings Larrie, THX for the kind words. Cari & I hope you two had a great summer and are enjoying the adventure.

: ) Thom

[accrete]

I enjoy the questions of forum members at the various forums I visit, though always think of this build thread as the van's garage, home-thread. So when questions pop up that highlight some little tip or tweak i'll bring that conversation here for keepsake : )

The below question was asked in the context of creating a comfortable sleeping area and I had commented on what we were using. I'll put that original post in here and go onto the forum members Q's:

Here are those posts, those asking Q's are in quotes.

The "Backpakers" style pads (Q-Core in our case) my wife and I are using are nothing like the common box-store queen inflatables we used way back. Also, for a couple, if you have pads for each you get no movement between the two when moving or getting in/out of bed. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of abuse these pads can take. We kneel on them, sit on them, and at times I've even stood on them. No issues for us. Very pleased.

Like others, we also sandwiched our pads in material so they will not move. I measured our bed (a ~full size area 54" wide~) then picked two pads that would comfortably fit the area, then purchased two inexpensive blankets that were just a bit wider (they were twin size). Put one below and one above the pads, then covered all in a cotton fitted full sheet...

Under the pad(s) is a Froli Sleep System that acts as a promoter of airflow and a box spring for added comfort. Here is a picture on the original platform layout:



Then we make the bed with two flat full sheets my wife sewed Velcro along the bottom and about a foot up the bottom of sides. Really easy to clean in our scrubba bag (example link - no affiliation) and hang on a clothes line in camp.

I'm afraid to ask what that Froli thing costs...
Just curious -- if the insulated inflatable mattress solved the problems associated with MF, why did you not just use it by itself, vs. putting the Froli under it?

Thanks,

Greetings and thx for the Q. I'm a long time sailor, grew up spending the weekends on the family sailboat in the San Francisco Bay and even sailed from Hawaii to California. One of the things I remember doing as housecleaning every time in the boat before heading out of the Yacht Club was taking all the berth cushions off the berths, wiping off the condensation with a bit of white vinegar and letting things air out before replacing cushions. Without air between bottom of cushion and platform the build up of mold is significant over time. The Froli Sleep System acts foremost to promote airflow between platform and pad, and second as a spring foundation for comfort. It allows the occupants of a boat or rv to take regular cushions and turn them into a comfortable and hygienic sleep system.

Cost? As one who had seen the ugliness of what mold can bring into the mix in a small living area it was not a factor in our decision. I believe we paid somewhere around ?$380? for enough to create the bed in the van as seen from this original image of platform before installing in van:




What is not seen in the image above is that the head of the bed is open to the froli and the cover is fabric at the foot end so there is airflow under mattress pad.

As mentioned elsewhere, the morning after awaking in our Sealy Pillow Top at home after returning from the maiden voyage of the van+Froli week+ vacation my wife asked me if we could get a Froli for home. The sleep was that good in the van. Yes I got one for the home. And in our full time 43ft fifth wheel we have a queen Froli set up too. You are not adding any weight really, as a queen is somewhere around 7 to 8 pounds as I recall. Oh, and the people that I got the FSS from are the US importers (the bed is from Finland or Norway??) and great customer service.

....there was a follow up question in the forum and my reply :

Thanks for the really good explanation. . . is the FSS basically a collection of plastic bed springs?

Yuppers, that's basically it. As I noted we have one in the van, and one under a queen size in our full time rv. The queen comes down from the ceiling in the rear bedroom/laundry room/toyhauler garage.

We also utilize another product called "Hypervent" under a much larger king size standard mattress in the rv. Since the king is in the master suite and was pillow top and ~12" in height we didn't think we would have issues with mold between platform (it has inside storage under) and king mattress... but we were wrong. About a year into the new rig we did some extensive fall cleaning and lifting up the mattress noticed mold in the areas that were basically mirroring our bodies. Hard to believe that ~12" of foam wouldn't soak up all our body heat! Anywhoo... we scrubbed/cleaned and removed mold and installed the Hypervent product. It has been a year this fall and checking there is no sign of mold. For DIY'ers there have been products found in big box hardware stores that contractors use between sheet rock that looks a lot like the hypervent product.

Another comment on the "Hypervent" product... since it is less than 1" high it could be utilized under the pad in a Roof Top Tent (RTT) and still get everything closed up in the clam-shell.

-----end.

So that is our mattress/bed solution(s) as of this post. The Froli has been in use now since summer of 2011 in van, and the primary sleep system in our prior 38ft fifth wheel before purchasing our latest Tiny-House on wheels (the 43ft mentioned above).

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
sweet dreams : )
Thom

[accrete]

I had an inquiry via PM on what we are currently running on the van as far as wheel size and tires, (THX for the question!) here goes:

Here is an image I just took this morning showing what is on the rig:


From the Les Schwab Tire Center invoice:

Their product number 292265

Fuel 534 Black
17x9 6-5.5/135

-12mm offset

For tires we are currently running the TOYO Open Country
265/70/r17

No issues as far as rubbing/clearance. There is a 2mph offset so be mindful of that. 55mph is actually 57mph, though that shouldn't get you in much hot water with most officers.

I will be switching over to the TOYO Mountain Country traction tire next swap. I might do that this year as they will buy back these near-new tires (~5k). The reason for the change is we only put about 6K miles on the van annually and the softer compound will be fine during the ~6 year life of the tires as we'll most likely not exceed the ~50K warranty.

: ) Thom

[accrete]

Greetings,
Just a quick hello and shout out to all fellow travelers. Life on the soggy Oregon coast during the winter tends to drive one bonkers if you don't have some nice indoor hobbies. My winter days are mostly spent still doodling with 3D art projects. The one pictured below i did last week prompted by my wife's enjoyment of feeding the feathery friends. The highlight is on a hummingbird feeding off vines being held by the character in the scene. The bird is a near twin to those who frequent the feeder my wife put up outside our rig.



Awaiting the spring thaw and first trip out : ) till then? More doodles, and soul time.
Cheers,
Thom

[larrie]

Nicely done. The Oregon spring is just around the corner.

[accrete]

Cari has been wanting to beef up the rear suspension for a couple years now so i went ahead and ordered the Boulder Off Road kit for the Van. Here is a picture of the parts received in the kit. We are having our professional mechanic friend do the install next week (same one who installed the BOR Lift a couple years back).
I will report back the results : )
Thom

[accrete]

Update on rear handling kit install...

The saga continues. While the "Kit" is installed mostly, the shocks sent (now apparently the correct ones < the original shipment had the wrong shocks ProComp verses the advertised Bilstein > ) we are now waiting for 3+1 spring replacements. I didn't realize that spring replacement would also be in the mix, but it makes sense as the original springs are not rated to handle the loads we currently have in the build. What's another $500 bucks or so right?

We are taking the rig out anyway, just not pushing it. Spent a few days/nights at one of our fav camps in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest north of Vancouver Washington.



most of the time was spent under our Kelty Noah 20 tarp due to the rain, though with river sounds and good company we enjoyed the time!



this is the second full season with the Aluminess rear camp kitchen set up, wife is digging the camp these days...



and the river just beyond the fire pit...



By mid week we were the only ones in the campground!



Once the kit is finally completed i will give a road trip report.

: ) Thom

[accrete]

The full kit is FINALLY installed working as advertised.

Since the van is my wife's daily driver (which she lets me drive now and again cuz she luvs me) i will let her words speak to the kit's functionality;

"Oh my GOSH i love the way this rides now!"

She says it is like on rails around the country road turns she drives to/from work each day. Guess that is a good thing and what she wanted.

The final tweak was adding 3+1 rear leaf springs from GM. It did pop the rear up 1/2" inch or so and the rig looks even more "Bad ass" as our two young adult kids call it.

I'll post a picture soon.
Cheers,
Thom