Hal The Van

[Gnarvan]

Do you sleep at night or do you lay awake all night thinking about these mods? Very impressive!

[WVvan]

Thanks John. Actually you're closer than you think but in the wrong way. Most nights I do think about the van before going to sleep. No matter how bad the day's gone all I have to do is think, "What do I do next on the van" and it takes my mind off all my problems.

"So the fridge is 23" long but only 18" wide. If I was to mount it sideways so the door faces the front I'd have more space in the .... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."

Works every time. It's much better than counting sheep.

[larrie]

I agree totally. Picturing the van and the future mods as I go to sleep is great for blotting out my daily cares and woes. It is especially handy when the C and Ws wake me up in the middle of the night.

[twogone]

schnuckzz...snortzz... if Christine and I don't eat anything this month, I can afford that Trasharoo I been cravin'...zzzzzz

[shenrie]

Originally Posted by larrie

Picturing the van and the future mods as I go to sleep is great for blotting out my daily cares and woes.

sometimes this works for me, other times it gets me excited (about the build, not "excited", lol) and actualy makes me lose sleep. big ole catch 22.

this build thread is amazing. i actually stumbled across a vid you made when i was doing some research on hydronic units. i was like hey...that looks familiar, then i saw the name of the person who posted the vid...

[audisnapr]

Originally Posted by Gnarvan

Do you sleep at night or do you lay awake all night thinking about these mods? Very impressive!

I don't know about you DIY guys, but I'm obsessed. I fall asleep thinking about projects, think about projects while showering... commuting to work, at work... commuting home until I finally get home to work on said projects. Rinse and repeat.

[WVvan]

Thanks Shenrie. If you google "cleaning webasto" the top result is one of my postings. I've read that companies spend big bucks trying to game google to get high rankings and I'm doing it for free.

Solar Panels continued -

A painting tip. I found that by standing the panels on end it was easier to spray under the mounting edge on the back.


Also a trash can makes a good painting stand. Easier to spin the panel around like on a lazy susan.


With the brackets painted next make a rubber pad for the angle iron end where it bolts to the penthouse top. The pad will serve to both protect the fiberglass top and hopefully seal around the bolt to prevent water penetration. I have a roll of butyl rubber bought from MacMaster-Carr. This is not the sticky and malleable kind of butyl tape I've used before but more like bike inner tube rubber.


Cut a custom piece for each bracket with a drilled 1/4" hole in the rubber for the 5/16" bolt. Marked both the bracket and rubber pad so they could be matched up again later. The letter I wrote on the bracket will be hidden on the underside when bolted down. I also cut more pads that will go between the brackets and the solar panels. These pads are to act as an insulator between the aluminum panels and steel brackets to prevent galvanic corrosion. The pads had an added benefit which I'll cover later.


Get my box of stainless steel nuts and bolts I ordered from McMaster-Carr. I ordered 1" and 1-1/2" long 5/16" bolts. Ended up also needing 2" long. Luckily I have a Fastenal in town.


Bolt four brackets onto the front most panel.


Mount the other two brackets on the back panel.


Put the panels on the top of the van.


Bolt the two set of panels together. The debris you can see on the roof was knocked off the trees by the rain storm earlier in the day.


With the panels bolted together check that the roof holes line up. I had to make some adjustments to a couple of the brackets to get it just right.


Use some 2x4 pieces to hold up both the panels so I get my hands underneath them to do the final tightening of the bolts holding the panels to the brackets.


Next start working on the wiring.


Again the wood block were helpfully in giving me room to work.


Here is the wires running just under the protective angle iron piece I added to the end of the one bracket.


The wiring is on the drivers side of the van since that's the side the solar controller is on. It's getting kind of crowded under the rear panel. I ended up adding a couple more nylon anchors to tie everything down. You can't tell from the picture but I've only plugged in one of the two parallel cables I made earlier. Without both cables plugged in then I don't have to worry about the the uncapped wires being electrically "alive". I need to know how much slack will be left when they are all plugged in so the unplugged ends are zip tied near their final position.


I needed extra room under the panel to do this work. The advantage of the rubber pads between the panels and brackets is to allow them enough flexibility for me to prop up this corner bracket even higher without having to raise the other brackets.


continued -

[WVvan]

Solar Panels continued -

Up to now the work on the solar panels has been done with the penthouse roof down. Need to raise it to continue working on the wiring. Don't want to take a chance of the panels falling off so I'll put bolts through the bracket holes and the roof to stop the panels from shifting. Add the rubber pad for each bracket before inserting the bolt. I wonder which pad goes here?


There's no nuts on the bolts yet but this should be secure enough for raising and lowering the top.


Wasn't done yet but decide to step back and and admire my work.








Something I noticed during the walk around. If I place a level on the front panel.


The rear of the back panel is this far below that level.


I hadn't expect that much of a difference between them but luckily the rubber pads between the brackets and panels have given the mountings enough flexibility so there's no problems.

So raise the roof with the solar panels for the first time. Here's the amount of force needed to raise the roof now. Subtracting 10 lbs for the weight of the electric jack I'm using gives 153 lbs. I'll be covering this aspect in a upcoming posting with more details.


Here's the free ends of the parallel cables for the solar panels. While working on the wiring with the roof down I was just feeding the cables through the holes in the nylon half rod and they were sliding into the gap between the penthouse roof and the top of the van without any binding.


Now switch to the inside of van. This is the right rear corner (passenger side) of the penthouse top. Here is the conduit that protects the wires that run to the brake light on the outside of the top and the inside light on the ceiling near the front. These wires were run by Sportsmobile when they installed the top.


To run the wire for the solar panel I'll have to do something similar so let's see how they did it. There is a finish piece that runs across the back of the van below the top.


There's just a couple screws with caps that hold it in place.


Pulling back the cloth in the corner shows the hole that's drilled through the roof of the van in which the wires are run. That's how I'll get the solar cables from inside the penthouse top to the inside of the van


So how to get run the cables from outside the penthouse top to the inside? They explained it to me when I bought the top. This is the left rear corner (drivers side) of the top. I'm going to start removing these screws until I can open up a gap in where the canvas side meets the roof.


Before proceeding, unclip the top most bungee cord on the outside rear of the penthouse top. Found it's easier this way.


Start with the roll up shade.


Keep removing screws till the canvas comes free. That's what I'm looking for.


The brake lights wires are of a smaller gauge than the solar cables so were more flexible. SMB was able to just snake them through the gap. For the cables I'm going to instead drill a hole on this white covering panel.


Then feed the cables through.


This is the view under the top. The cables come through the roof, make a half loop to avoid the bolt hole then fit in between the canvas and the top. Since the half rod brings the cables in at such an acute angle it's a nice tight fit against the underside of the roof as opposed to if they came in at 90 degrees. I'm trying to avoid the bolt hole enough so the cables won't interfere with the nut and washers that will go there.


Didn't know exactly how the wiring was going to end up being routed through the top until I got to this point so put off this next step until then. Pulled about two inches of each of the two cables back through the half rod so the slack was under the solar panel. Can' t really tell from this out of focus picture but next I put a big gob of silicone II on the wires and coated those couple inches of slack generously. Then drew those gob-smacked cables back through the half rod. Smeared the remain silicone over where the cables enter the half rod. Hopefully this will waterproof the half rod.


continued

[WVvan]

Solar Panels continued -

The solar cables now enter through the penthouse top.


To complete the circuit to the solar controller use two 10 gauge wires previously installed in the side of the van. While installing the final insulated wall panels I'd run these two wires knowing that they would eventually be needed.


Had to remove one wall panel and peel back a little of the insulation to find where I'd left the ends of the wires. The advantage of using the double sided tape to hold the Reflectix in place is it's easy to replace if you ever need to go exploring.


Have to run the wire through what used to be the roof of the van.








Splice together the solar cables and these wires.


Between one set of wires add an in-line fuse holder. The fuse is in the circuit before the wires enter the side of the van. This is in case there is a electrical short within the wall of the van. Without the fuse it would be a fire risk.


Protect the wires with corrugated plastic split-loom.


When installing the in-line fuse holder I was trying to decide where was the best position. Near the bottom? Near the top? When I had a "Well duh!" moment. Put it in the middle. Otherwise you couldn't access the fuse when the top was down.


How the back of the penthouse top looks with conduit now at each corner.


The label on the back of the solar panel recommends a 15 amp fuse but since the two panels are wired in parallel I'll use a 30 amp fuse. Notice there's no fuse in the holder.


Without the fuse I have an open circuit which means I can finally safely plug in the other set of parallel solar cables.


With the cable plugged in I won't have to reach in under the panels again so they can finally be bolted down.




The bolts used here are the 2" stainless steel bolts I bought from Fastenal. By adding one more washer the bottom of the bolt is even with the nut. Hopefully this will protect the canvas from the bolts.


Here's the wires to the solar panels and solar controller with it's cover removed. Before attaching the wires I need to figure out which is positive and negative.


Use the voltmeter. Tape the wires to the voltmeter probes then put the fuse in place. Meter reads (+) 27 volts. It's a 50-50 chance but I picked the right wire for positive. Mark the positive wire with yellow electrical tape.


Remove the fuse before proceeding. Connect the wires to the controller. I've added a shutoff switch to the controller. Wanted a way to turn off the power from the panels if needed.


Put the cover back on the controller. Put the fuse back in place. Turned the switch. Nothing happened. Oh No!
Wait, Everything's OK. It takes several seconds before the solar controller boots up and the "charge status" light comes on.


With the solar controller working this was soon the voltage reading for the van. I'm making electricity from the sun!


I began my "Electricity Happy Dance" which looked similar to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS7Og1zvdy8

continued -

[WVvan]

Solar Panels continued -

Wondered about the added weight of the solar panels so before installing them I measured the force used to raise the top. Used an electric actuator, my thinking stool, old bathroom scale and a scrap wood piece.


With the wood scrap at the top of the actuator this contraption weights about 10 lbs.


Raising the top brought the scale to 106 lbs. Subtracting 10 gives 96 lbs of force.


After raising the top 4 inches the springs in the top start to have a greater effect and less force is needed.


Install both the panels on the roof and do this test again. It's now around 153 lbs.


That makes it tough to raise. Not only that but once the top is all the way up it comes back down without much force. I can bring it down with just one finger. Not good. Have to increase the tension on the lifting springs.

WARNING: This is dangerous. Before messing with the springs you need to watch this very informative video penthouse owner Larrie has made. He covers it in more depth.
http://vimeo.com/62530890

First thing is to get a come-along. I just picked this one up at Harbor Freight. Happened to be on sale for $14.99.


Being from Harbor Freight, before it could be used I had to completely unwind the tangled cable from the spool and then rewind it evenly.


Cut a couple supports from scrap 2x4's and use to prop up the corners of the side I'm working on. These are for safety's sake. Didn't want to bet my life on a $14.99 tool from Harbor Freight.


Remove the cover from the secondary spring and lift it out. With the top raised it's not in either tension or compression so lifts right out.




Anchor both ends of the come-along with S-hooks rated for 400 lbs.




Increase the tension on the lifting spring with the come-along until the chain comes free.


Reduce the length of the chain by one link. Hook it back on the spring and slowly release the tension by backing off the come-along until the chain is taunt. I then zip tied the now loose chain link so it wouldn't rattle.


Repeat on the opposite side.


The top now raises and lowers like it did before I put the panels on the roof. One more thing. Don't know what the max weight rating is for the penthouse top but the way everything feels I wouldn't put another pound up there. Since I don't camp in the winter where snow loading might be an issue this shouldn't be a problem.

OK, that's the end of the solar panel project. I'm currently working on backup cameras, led lighting (regular, disco and Das Boot) and the battery separator so one of these will be written up next.