The Gnarhauler: Another white cargo van.

[posplayr]

Originally Posted by bisonthecruiser

Wow, that's a great build so far. Really clean.

Agreed

[h.grenade]

Great work on the build so far! I love seeing more adventure style builds these days. I love SMB stuff but I only have a v8 and don't want to much more than 7500lbs when finished. I will still need 4.10 gears I think to get up any hills : )

That cabinet work is incredible! I am not bold enough to tackle that level of finish.

How much did it cost to fab the under floor boxes?

[ibike]

Originally Posted by h.grenade

Great work on the build so far! I love seeing more adventure style builds these days. I love SMB stuff but I only have a v8 and don't want to much more than 7500lbs when finished. I will still need 4.10 gears I think to get up any hills : )

That cabinet work is incredible! I am not bold enough to tackle that level of finish.

How much did it cost to fab the under floor boxes?

Thanks, I'm 5.4L in my van also. It's sitting right around 7500lbs as is, hoping to stay under 8k all in.

I think I paid around $1200 for the two boxes, not including lids and mounting hardware. I had a local guy do it, price was on par with what the forum member on here was charging.

[h.grenade]

Awesome thanks! I see you travel with a KTM and an Evil. Good call. I have a KTM and a Specialized that will be on the road with me at all times.

It's really amazing how big of a difference the interior panels and and trim make. I'm so close right now, it's killing me. I just need a day thats warm enough to glue the coin floor down haha

[ibike]

Shower

I go on week long MTB/moto trips in the summer and have the tendency to get pretty scummy. Now that I've got water on board, I needed a way to heat it and a little privacy.

Water heater
I did some research on portable propane hot water heaters, I found this one by way of Our Karavans blog. Claims to have all copper internals. On par price wise with the other Amazon brands
Tankless hot water heater

Had some extra plywood, laminate and hardware leftover from my cabinets, made a panel to mount the heater to. Put 90 degree fittings on all the connections, water and gas, plus quick disconnects.


Butterfly latch to hold the panel "closed"


Panel open, mounted on lift-off hinges in case I want to use in another location. Used the cubby in the door to hold shower head, hose and propane hose/regulator.


Connected to the Aquor "out" port of my water system. I rigged up a bunch of fittings on the coil hose so I can use it to both fill the tank, as well as feed the water heater and a spray nozzle I keep on board.


Shower awning
I went with the Tuff Stuff Overland model. I caught it on sale, and liked that the arms lock in the open position.

Mounted to my roof rack, as close to the water heater as I could get on the driver rear of the van.


I live in Phoenix and the sun shows no mercy to vinyl and plastic. I wanted a way to pop the awning off when it wasn't needed. I purchased some small sections of aluminum channel, one slightly narrower that would nest inside of the larger size. I then fab'd up the two section with some stainless bolts that "hang" in the opposing section, and some safety pins that tie the two halves together using holes aligned on both brackets.


This is all that stays on the rack when the shower awning is removed.


Brackets and hardware on the back of the shower awning.


I wish the water heater had a thermometer adjustment, depending on the temp of the water in the tank, it takes a little fiddling to get the water temp right. It's got to be set right before you start your shower since the controls can't be reached from inside the shower awning. Other than that small nuisance, I'm very happy with the setup overall!

Also, just for fun. Found a few pics of the van out and about while I was organizing some photos.

Last summer, up above Telluride in Colorado.


Desert camping outside Phoenix over the winter.


Coffee mode

[Twoxentrix]

Nice plan & execution. Really like the ingenuity with the brackets!

[h.grenade]

Yeah super cool use of the hinges to still access the storage behind it! Clever. Nice pics - a coffee station is a must!

[aarcaris]

This all turned out great! I still need to figure out a better more permanent "shower stall" solution for my set up and this one seems like a great option.

[NoR32]

Great build! Now I have to go make some kind of progress on mine.