The big red windsurfing van!

[sailquik]

Originally Posted by panion

Good luck, van looks great.

Thank you!

[surfgeek33]

Originally Posted by sailquik

Changing the subject a bit, something has been concerning me a bit about that bumper: The stock bumper has a hole in it for letting air into the bottom section of the radiator and I think the Aluminess does not. For folks who have had the stock bumper and switched to an Aluminess: Anyone know if there is a difference in the engine operating temps before vs. after?

The Aluminess front bumper for the 08 do have vents on the bottom of the bumper for airflow. I will take a pic when I get home if you'd like. As far as temps, my V10 runs really cool even when we were around Vegas at 110 last week.

Ray

[sailquik]

Originally Posted by surfgeek33

The Aluminess front bumper for the 08 do have vents on the bottom of the bumper for airflow. I will take a pic when I get home if you'd like. As far as temps, my V10 runs really cool even when we were around Vegas at 110 last week.

That's good to know that there is some thought towards airflow on the part of Aluminess...It's a load off my mind to know temps stay nice and cool- especially with the oppressive heat we've been experiencing the last month or so!

[sailquik]

Part Five: Pictures of the progress!

Many thanks to SMB Forum user jenningt for snapping these pictures on his trip to SMB Texas. I am thrilled to see the van taking shape for real after weeks of imagining how it would turn out!

Comments are welcome...

[sailquik]

Part Six: The evolution of my sail cabinet

You can begin to see, in the pictures in the previous post, what the sail cabinet and surfboard racks are starting to look like. In the pictures below, you can see how the sail locker evolved. This was the hardest part of the whole van to design because I don't think that the folks at SMB Texas have done a lot of these, and even if they have, everyone's needs are different based on what gear you own and how you want to organize it in the van. Here's the pics:

First, I gave SMB Texas a rough idea of what I wanted and they sent me some pictures of what they had in mind. There was a big difference in what I was thinking about and what they understood. For starters, I had mentioned I wanted to fit my small waveboard inside the cabinet, with the idea that I could put it in there if the racks on top were full, and if not, I could fit my booms in that slot. Unfortunately, they made the board "slot" entirely too wide, taking up most of the cabinet and leaving very little for sails and masts. Here is my initial design and what they came up with:



I asked them to flip the board around so that the curvature of the board would not take up so much space inside the cabinet, and to move the divider further from the wheel well so the masts could fit in that slot. Here is how it looked after that redesign:





This was starting to come together and was looking much more how I had imagined it, but I realized that divider was taking up a lot of space and that a big open space would fit more stuff, so we cut down the divider to the height of the wheel well. This is the almost final cabinet:





There's still a couple of details that I asked them to improve upon and we'll see tomorrow when I go pick up the van how and if they were corrected. For reference, this cabinet is holding six sails (4.7 to 8m), four masts (400-490cm), and one 7'7" board (83L). I will probably put my three booms in where the board is and set the board on the racks up top, so I have options.

Tomorrow I should have lots of pictures of the finished van, so I'll post them up as soon as I can!

[sailquik]

Between the 1500 mile trip home and the work that piled up while I was away, I haven't had a chance to take any pictures of the inside of the finished van...but they are coming by the weekend at the latest.

Initial impressions are that the mechanical, plumbing and electrical are installed well and everything works. The carpentry is OK, but there are a couple of details I would have done better. Also, one of my side ladders and roof rack didn't arrive in time, so they are sending them and I'll have to install myself.

Here's a picture of the finished van on the way from the beach:

[sailquik]

Part Seven: The finished product

So here's how the van came out! A few pictures, with comments where I thought it would help, follow:

First a few pictures of the outside. I will add some of the inside later today or tomorrow. There are more in my gallery.

This first two are of the electric running boards, retracted and then extended. I couldn't find any pictures when I was spec'cing the van, so here's a couple for those who might want to see what they look like before they order:



Outside shower:


Outside city water inlet and generator exhaust location:


Air inlets on Aluminess front bumper:


All the stuff that fits in the storage in the front bumper (if you don't have a winch). I use this space for wet storage, since it has two drain holes on the bottom. Rain water gets in, so it is usually wet anyway:


I looked for a detail picture like this for a while and never found one. I was trying to decide whether I could go for the Aluminess bumper without the Bushwhacker flares. As you can tell from this picture, the bumper has a nice curve built into it and the look wouldn't be as integrated if you opted to eliminate the fender flares. In other words, if you opt for the bumper, you'll probably want the Bushwhackers...


Inside pictures coming later...

[ChuckB]

That's a very nice set-up. You have me thinking about something similar but for surfboards.

[sailquik]

Thank you! Maybe you can get some additional ideas from the inside setup for your surfboards. Here's some pictures:

Top Closed:



Top Open:



There's a couple more in the gallery. Since I took these pictures, I decided to go back and put the small board inside the cabinet and just leave two boards out on the racks. The booms fit comfortably in the racks as well. I will post up a couple of snapshots of how I'm storing stuff when I get a chance.

If you only have surfboards, you can probably fit three boards comfortably on top a standard height cabinet since you will have less board thickness and no footstraps to contend with. The limiting factor, really, is the board length and how long a board you can fit lengthwise behind the driver's seat.

[ChuckB]

Ok not you really have me

So how many people can you seat with that set-up, 5-6?