Clifford - 1998 E350 Build

[bemerritt]

I'm going to do a floor update tonight, but in the meantime, anyone have an easy solution for plywood that doesn't lay flat?
Here is a pic showing its a good 12" raised in the middle:



I can press it down flush no problem



I'm going to bite the bullet and screw a couple bolts through the floor of the van ( i know, not i deal) in about an hour, so on the off chance someone sees this before then, I'd love to hear ideas.

The flooring i am putting down over it is 2mm rubber coin grip flooring, so a smooth, flush joint is ideal.

This joint will be under the bed, but i want it flat to slide storage over it.

Thanks!

[86Scotty]

Screw it through the floor. It will be fine. Use decent screws and be sure to see what is underneath there. I once heard of a guy who shot a flooring screw right through his rear ac freon line.

[bemerritt]

Floors are in!

- Sprayupaint the holes with red rustoleum



- Use existing plywood from the van to make a template on the 1/2" rmax insulation



- Use plywood as a template for the floor. I used 1 4' wide roll. The seems will be covered by the gaucho seat and the bed, but 1 7' roll would have been preferred. The 7' roll was almost 3 times as much, so i went with the 4 foot roll. It is a 2mm thick dark grew coin grip industrial floor.



-Silicone the holes and lay down a couple pieces of double sided fiberglass tape to make sure the insulation doesn't move around when placing the plywood



- Insulation in

[img]<https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/423/18586597285_3aa4831c11_z.jpg[/img]

- Plywood in



I didn't take any pictures, but I used about 8 stainless bolts, nits and washers to bolt down the warped plywood. Now it's nice and flat and I'm very happy about it.

- Lay down the two sided tape along the perimeter of the coin grip flooring



- Flooring in



Very happy with it. Just need to add edge protectors to the back, slider step and entry into the front cabin. Any suggestions?



Tomorrow I start work on the bed and bench combo. Originally I was planning my the top of my bed platform (no foam) to be at 19". This was based on the height of one of my coolers. I sat on something that high, and i don't like how high it is. I want the bed and gaucho seat to be at the same height for ease of manufacture. What height do you guys recommend before you put a pad on it?

Don't worry, managed to get some fun in with the van in between cutting the floors and installing them.

[Viva]

Typically seating surfaces are at about 18". So I mean that would be the top of a cushioned seat. Hence the seat base would be that minus your cushion. Not that you have to stick to that, but at least it gives something to go on.

[bemerritt]

Finally and update!

- Bed

Bed frame is made out of 2" square steel. Definitely not the lightest material in the world, but I had most of what i needed on hand and it is easy to weld (total amateur over here).

Here is what I use as a workspace. Pretty dirty when I took this pic, and it only got worse haha.



Like I said, it only got worse...



Anyways, I am very much an amateur welder, each weld seems to be better than the previous. So hopefully soon I will have the confidence to tackle the external battery box, where the welds have a higher risk associated to failure. Used a fairly cheap mig welder I bought off of Amazon with gift cards about a year ago.

Here it is before the gaucho bench is welded in. thin masonite top on top of the plywood.f Recessed and supported by angle iron welded to the 2" tubing.



one benefit to the steel tubing is the strength and the ability to leave the bed nice and open underneath.



view with the bench in



Went with a 4.75 mattress from overstock. Glad I listened and didn't get the 8". Plenty comfortable. I also lowered the top of the bed to just over 16". This gives me 14" under the bed while still having the ability to sit up in bed.

Here is a back view



In that pic you can also see some repurposed drawers from the vans past life. It is nice to be able to have all of those odds and ends for camping accessible out the back of the car. You can also see I got rid of the bad tint job. Only took about an hour and 20 razor blades haha.

That's it for the bed/bench for now

[bemerritt]

Also installed my solar panel

- Solar

100 watt renogy panel
100 ah wet cell from costco
1000 watt inverter
pwm windy nation controller



Ended up bolting the panel to the roof. used thse washers to help make the seal water tight.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#93783a029/=xnwwan

Used these for the two cables

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AOB ... ge_o04_s00



Right now I have all of the electronics right infront of the left rear wheel well.



Couple of comments/questions on this

- Yes, I have a larger gauge wire to the DC fuse block than the inverter. The cable to the Fuseblock is definitely overkill and I will probably use this cable to attach a second battery and get a properly sized cable for the DC fuseblock. The cable for the inverter is larger than the one that was provided and should be fine for the 1000 watt inverter

- Is it ok to connect the solar charger to the dc fuseblock instead of straight to the battery? The fuseblock is rated at 130 max amps, so i should be fine.

- Battery venting. I am still looking into this, and ultimately want two 100 ah wet cell batteries mounted under on the driver side. But in the meantime, It should be fine with how open it is, right? Still researching this, but any insight is welcome.

- Ultimately my final setup will be another battery and panel, with the main draw being a fridge of some sort between the two front seats. Still deciding if/how i want to connect the house batteries to the van batteries.

My first trip with the van is this weekend with some guy friends. But next weekend I want to surprise my wife with some boondocking around so cal. I have never been on such an adventure, so any tips/tricks/locations are welcome. I understand you probably hold these spots near and dear to your heart, but anything you can share in a pm would be awesome.

Thanks!

[mikracer]

Cal Poly SLO or Pomona? SLO alumni here...

[bemerritt]

SLO all the way!

[mikracer]

Originally Posted by bemerritt

SLO all the way!

Nice!

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by bemerritt

Couple of comments/questions on this


- Is it ok to connect the solar charger to the dc fuseblock instead of straight to the battery? The fuseblock is rated at 130 max amps, so i should be fine.

Still deciding if/how i want to connect the house batteries to the van batteries.

My first trip with the van is this weekend with some guy friends. But next weekend I want to surprise my wife with some boondocking around so cal. I have never been on such an adventure, so any tips/tricks/locations are welcome. I understand you probably hold these spots near and dear to your heart, but anything you can share in a pm would be awesome.

Thanks!

Sure, you can connect the solar controller to the fuse block.

As far as connecting the van and house batteries together, think of it this way: Your solar panel puts out around 5 amps in full sunlight, which will take 10 hrs (you won't get 10 hrs of direct sunlight in many places on this planet) to put 50ah back into your battery. Your alternator puts out over 100 amps when the engine is running, so 50ah takes about 30 minutes.


This thread may give you some camping ideas:

http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/viewto ... =10&t=2595