Popping my top

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by Viva

Thanks to everyone who responded with info on the drawer slides.


Viva

Viva: From the receipt it looks like the drawer slides are Accuride 3832 series.

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by TeleSteve

Did you go with the 3" 130 lumen 30 LED lights? What do you think of the light output? I just finished my headliner and I installed six 110 lumen 2.75" lights, when I ordered them I was unsure how bright it would be. Now that they are in I am sure glad I wired them to switch in pairs of two, with all six of them on its is bright, but not to bright.

Mine are 180 Lumen warm white 36 LED units......2.6W each. I like the matte silver finish and low profile surface mounting but if they were offered in black I would have selected black. They have two small screw holes for mounting and a nice machined aluminum outer ring screws on to hide the screws.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinf ... duct/1115/

[TeleSteve]

Originally Posted by boywonder

Mine are 180 Lumen warm white 36 LED units......2.6W each. I like the matte silver finish and low profile surface mounting but if they were offered in black I would have selected black. They have two small screw holes for mounting and a nice machined aluminum outer ring screws on to hide the screws.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinf ... duct/1115/

When I looked at superbrightleds.com they looked like white trims. Looking closer at your interior pics again the silver does look good. I would have been happy with silver but not white.

[ohpyramids]

just read through the whole thread. highly inspirational and helpful. thanks for taking the time to document all of your work!

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by ohpyramids

thanks for taking the time to document all of your work!

You're welcome!.......more to come.....just installed the propane tank this morning, presently trying to figure out where to put the Propex heater.

I didn't document all of my work.........I've left out the crappy first attempts at some projects.

[JWA]

Originally Posted by boywonder

I didn't document all of my work.........I've left out the crappy first attempts at some projects.

Oh yeah---I also "prototype" quite a few projects, only showing the final/working examples. I think I hit about 3:1 ratio of tries to finished!

[boywonder]

Got the propane tank mounted......

I ended up mounting it on the passenger side of the van under the barn doors.

The driver's side has very little space with the rear A/C refrigerant lines so it wouldn't be "stealth" enough for my neighborhood since there is not enough width between the frame and body to "retract" the tank. (my van cannot look like an RV parked in the driveway)

I have it mounted such that when it's fully stowed (in the "up" position) I can still reach the valve. It will only need to be "deployed" for refilling.

The mounting frame spans between the frame and the body, so the body side mounting uses rubber washers to allow a bit of movement. There is approximately 1/4" clearance all around for some comfort.

Existing holes in the frame (there are many to choose from!) were used for mounting on the frame side and the body side uses a couple of 1/4-20 screws vertically oriented under the side door step.

The raise/lower mounting works OK.......it takes a lot of turns of the knobs to move the tank vertically......16 turns per inch since the threads are 3/8-16.

I'm using the regulator from Go Westy and some 1/4" OD soft copper to feed the Propex.

The shoulder screws shown are from the parts bin; done correctly all 4 would be the same length.

[boywonder]

Next up is installing the Propex heater......

Since I've recently reworked the cabinets on the driver's side of the van, I needed to also rework the chaise area for easier storage access so a couple of hatches were added. These both use Southco Latches and Blum concealed hinges.






The height of the chaise area of the cabinet was just about perfect for mounted the Propex on it's side. Propex recommends 1" air clearance around the unit; I have about 1/2" or less on two sides although karl from Westy Ventures has mentioned on the Samba forum that the case for this unit just gets warm when running due to the improved internal insulation.

I used a cable strain relief/gland to protect and seal the 1/4" gas line where it penetrates the van floor and rubber grommets on the intake and exhaust flues.

I'm presently finishing up the hot air vent routing.

[86Scotty]

Love that drop down propane tank. Nice work!

[boywonder]

Thanks 86Scotty!

A few more things accomplished.....

I made a new grill/trim for the side of the chaise; it includes the heater duct outlet. The cold air return is just the air in the enclosure below the chaise, ie I only have a single short piece of ducting running from the heater hot output to the duct outlet on the side of the cabinet. The heater sucks cold air in without any ducting. The cold air inlet has provisions to screw the duct grill directly into the heater as shown in the picture.