Tardis

[expeditionnw]

after some exhaustive research and fitment, I fit a 45 gallon tank behind the axle. Its a perfect fit, and doesnt hang any lower than the OEM tow package. It clears my 4" exhaust, the tow package, and bolts in using factory frame holes.
The van rides much nicer with that much weight back there too.

[expeditionnw]

Originally Posted by larrie

Am looking for some designs to supporting an under floor water tank between the frame rails behind the rear axel. B350 had some good photos of his support system. Did a shearch and did not get any results. If anyone has done this can you post your designs or point me to the your build thread. Thanks.

I built a skid plate out of 3/16" steel to hold my tank. basically a shell that covers three sides of the tank. keeps the light away from the tank, and protects it completely. Ill find some photos.

[larrie]

Well it finely warmed up a bit here in Oregon which allows me to work in my garage for extended periods. The result is a productive couple of days.

Got the fridge slide mounted in the kitchen cabinet and test fit the Norcold NRF45 fridge to make sure it would clear the sink. The empty space to the left is for four drawers. There will also be two more drawers above the fridge.



In addition was able to make progress constructing the drawer boxes. Twelve down and five more to build.



The nasty weather has delayed the delivery of the drawer slides. They were suppose to show up last week and then again yesterday. Now they are scheduled for delivery tomorrow. Once those are here the drawers can be mounted and the drawer fronts installed.

[larrie]

The cabinets are done. They were a time consuming project. Not sure I will ever build cabinets again.

Got the seat anchor plates mounted with the help of my brother in law. He was in the van and I was below positioning the plates. The large bolt was uses as a grab handle. The two smaller bolts were then screwed into the plate to hold it in place and prevent rotation when tightening the large bolt. Before installing the plate a bead of caulk was run around the plate to prevent water intrusion. The excess around the bolt was smoothed. Once the calk had cured the excess around the bolt was cutout.



Here is the bottom view of the anchor plate.



Once the plates were installed the 1/2" floor insulation went in and then the 1/2'' plywood went on top of that. The floor was sealed with two coats of sanding sealer on both sides.



Not all of the holes through the insulation and plywood sandwich lined up exactly. Some minor adjustments were made with a Dremel Tool and a side cutting bit. Three inch long grade eight bolts will be used to bolt the cabinets and seats to the floor.

[larrie]

Finished the wall covering today. Wanted to maximize the interior width so pulled all the factory side panels. Then glued two layers of Refletix directly to the sheet metal. The blue tape on the windows caught any overspray from the 3M 90 adhesive.



One layer of Refletix was glued to the metal between the window studs. The second layer covered the studs making a smooth even surface.



The next step was to glue hull liner over the Refletix. We went with a soft light gray color. I was supervised at how easy the material is to work with. It was easy to stretch and get it to conform to the interior van contours. I started with the driver side to get a feel for working with the HL. Cabinets would cover most of this side so any mistakes I made would not show.



I spray painted the center window on the drivers side black and as you can see ran the Refletix and hull liner over it. This area will be covered by cabinets.



The two layers of Reflectix at the windows gave enough depth to bend the hull liner over it to provide a clean looking edge.



One thing I learned was to think about where the seams in the hull liner will occur. Doing the drivers side first helped the passenger side come out much better.

[86Scotty]

Looking good Larrie!

[larrie]

Wanted to come up with an easy way to seal the holes through the van floor that are needed for the sink drain, power wiring, propane pipe, and other services. The solution was to get some 1/8" thick x 2"wide x 36' long aluminum from Home Depot. Then drill some holes in it and cut it to length. Cut some butyl rubber sheet to match the aluminum with holes sized for the the pipe or wire passing through it.

Here is the cut aluminum and butyl rubber sheets. A leather punch was used to punch the holes for the screws and wire. A mat knife was used for larger holes.


To make life easier the mounting holes were drilled from the top inside the van.


Butyl rubber caulk was placed between the aluminum and the butyl rubber sheet and again between the rubber sheet and the van body. Then the the assembly was screwed to the van body. Additional caulk was placed in some areas.


From the inside the van the caulk was smoothed to seal the raw edge of the large hole.


Now just need to wait for the caulk to set before installing the pipe and wire.

[kingnever]

I am watching this build like a hawk since you are doing a similar looking dinette setup to what I'm interested in. This may be a newbie question but does the reflectix do it's job better with hull liner? My understanding is that it only really works well if the radiant energy is allowed to reflect off the surface and doesn't do much when it's directly up against metal - but thought maybe it would do it's job through the fabric and keep heat in the van well. Also, is the hull liner thick enough where it's not crinkly to the touch? Not like you need to pet your walls or anything. Thanks for the great write up!!



I'm still trapped in the everlong research about what the best types of insulation are, and as a fellow Oregonian we're going to be dealing with some similar climates.

[larrie]

Reflectix is primarily a radiation barrier. It does have a small R value for insulation. Its insulation value comes from the dead air space that is created behind the insulation. I used it maily because I got tired of researching different products. Just did what most people were doing.

The hull liner is about 1/4" thick so it hides the imperfections in the Refletix. It is easy to work with. Just need a really sharp mat knife or large sisors to cut it with. It is soft and fuzzy/furry to the touch.

Where are your located in Oregon?

[kingnever]

Interesting! Does the double sheet metal hull of the van count as the air gap? Or do you have an air gap simply because it's not pressed extremely tight against the wall? Or am I missing something.

Really interested in that hull liner. I think my girlfriend has her heart set on wood but that seems quite a bit easier to work with and you lose less space. Have you had a chance to try it out yet?

I'm in PDX myself, breathing smoke like everyone else.