Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
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Undervan Storage Box continued:
Once I got the box home I found that an old creeper made a handy way to wheel it around.
Now I had to decide how to get the box under the van so to mount it. I'll use the term "driveway" to describe the space between the edge of the street and the door to the garage. It's really not much of a driveway since it's only a few feet wider than the van but it does allow me to work on the van and not be in the street. Owing to the slope on the street the back edge of my driveway is higher than the rest. I'm parking the van so the passenger side rear tire is on this high spot. That should allow me to only have to jack up the drivers side to get the clearance I'll need.
Started jacking up the drivers side. Used wood blocks and boards to support the van.
Since it's easier to move around than the metal box I used the wooden mock-up to check rear clearance.
Here's the funny part. After I got the van to the correct height and went to slide the mock-up out from under the van it total fell apart. I hadn't yanked it or treated it roughly.
It just came apart as if it knew it's work was done. It held up for exactly as long as I need it to and not one minute more.
Rolled the box under the van on the creeper then removed the creeper.
Now it gets interesting.
There a no pictures of the next few steps because it was basically just grunt work. Getting the box maneuvered into place then getting it up on a floor jack. Using the jack to raise it up until I could get a couple of jack stands into play.
I found that adding a 2x4 under the box helped with the balance. I kept raising the box while checking the alignment.
This is the view while looking up along the drivers side of the box. I want it as close to the frame beam as I can get it without actually touching it.
This is looking up from underneath at the front side of the box. You can see the underfloor cross beam and the charcoal canister. I'm pushing the box as far towards the back of the van as it will go.
Looking up at the rear of the box. It's all the way up against the back support of the van.
The reason I'm positioning the box as far as possible to the rear and drivers side is because of this. At the top of the picture is the box's front and passenger side corner. Below it in the picture is the exhaust pipe. I want to keep as much distance between these two as I can so as little heat as possible is transferred from the exhaust pipe to the box contents. The aluminum is shiny so it should reflect some part of the radiant energy that comes off the hot exhaust pipe. Since the box doesn't touch the pipe there should be no heat transfer by conduction but there is still convection to consider. I'm hoping that the entire box will act as a huge heat sink and stop the area closest to the exhaust pipe from heating up.
On the left in this picture is the rear exhaust hanger. The passenger side of the box is on the right. I think I've left enough room between the two so that I can work on the hanger if need be.
This picture, not very good, shows the gap between the rear differential and the front side of the box. I didn't try it but I believe that access to the fill hole on the differential might be tight but is doable.
Just to be clear, with this design the rear differential cannot be serviced while the box is in place. Seeing how I had a new limited slip differential installed just a couple years ago I don't think that will be an issue with me.
continued -
Once I got the box home I found that an old creeper made a handy way to wheel it around.
Now I had to decide how to get the box under the van so to mount it. I'll use the term "driveway" to describe the space between the edge of the street and the door to the garage. It's really not much of a driveway since it's only a few feet wider than the van but it does allow me to work on the van and not be in the street. Owing to the slope on the street the back edge of my driveway is higher than the rest. I'm parking the van so the passenger side rear tire is on this high spot. That should allow me to only have to jack up the drivers side to get the clearance I'll need.
Started jacking up the drivers side. Used wood blocks and boards to support the van.
Since it's easier to move around than the metal box I used the wooden mock-up to check rear clearance.
Here's the funny part. After I got the van to the correct height and went to slide the mock-up out from under the van it total fell apart. I hadn't yanked it or treated it roughly.
It just came apart as if it knew it's work was done. It held up for exactly as long as I need it to and not one minute more.
Rolled the box under the van on the creeper then removed the creeper.
Now it gets interesting.
There a no pictures of the next few steps because it was basically just grunt work. Getting the box maneuvered into place then getting it up on a floor jack. Using the jack to raise it up until I could get a couple of jack stands into play.
I found that adding a 2x4 under the box helped with the balance. I kept raising the box while checking the alignment.
This is the view while looking up along the drivers side of the box. I want it as close to the frame beam as I can get it without actually touching it.
This is looking up from underneath at the front side of the box. You can see the underfloor cross beam and the charcoal canister. I'm pushing the box as far towards the back of the van as it will go.
Looking up at the rear of the box. It's all the way up against the back support of the van.
The reason I'm positioning the box as far as possible to the rear and drivers side is because of this. At the top of the picture is the box's front and passenger side corner. Below it in the picture is the exhaust pipe. I want to keep as much distance between these two as I can so as little heat as possible is transferred from the exhaust pipe to the box contents. The aluminum is shiny so it should reflect some part of the radiant energy that comes off the hot exhaust pipe. Since the box doesn't touch the pipe there should be no heat transfer by conduction but there is still convection to consider. I'm hoping that the entire box will act as a huge heat sink and stop the area closest to the exhaust pipe from heating up.
On the left in this picture is the rear exhaust hanger. The passenger side of the box is on the right. I think I've left enough room between the two so that I can work on the hanger if need be.
This picture, not very good, shows the gap between the rear differential and the front side of the box. I didn't try it but I believe that access to the fill hole on the differential might be tight but is doable.
Just to be clear, with this design the rear differential cannot be serviced while the box is in place. Seeing how I had a new limited slip differential installed just a couple years ago I don't think that will be an issue with me.
continued -
