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.
Drove it home today.
1999 Ford E-250, 6 cylinder, 125K miles.
Was a home builders work van. Some slight surface rust.
Cargo doors a bit dinged up.
I'm planning on doing a full conversion. Most of the work I'll do myself but some will be beyond my abilities. I'm giving myself a deadline of no later than spring. Van won't fit into my small garage so that will affect how/when I can work on it.
I've been reading this and other conversion forums for a few weeks. It's been a huge help so far. Learned quite a lot already but there's still a lot I don't know. Counting on the pros who frequent this forum for some advice.
Advice like: The previous owner drilled some 3/4 inch holes in the floor for bolted down shelving. Whats the best way to cover these holes from underneath? Should I treat the metal edges of the holes before I start?
Thanks for your time, now and in the future.
WVvan
P.S. I'm thinking of call it "HAL the Van".
Why HAL? Well since my name is Dave....
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
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.
Drove it home today.
1999 Ford E-250, 6 cylinder, 125K miles.
Was a home builders work van. Some slight surface rust.
Cargo doors a bit dinged up.
I'm planning on doing a full conversion. Most of the work I'll do myself but some will be beyond my abilities. I'm giving myself a deadline of no later than spring. Van won't fit into my small garage so that will affect how/when I can work on it.
I've been reading this and other conversion forums for a few weeks. It's been a huge help so far. Learned quite a lot already but there's still a lot I don't know. Counting on the pros who frequent this forum for some advice.
Advice like: The previous owner drilled some 3/4 inch holes in the floor for bolted down shelving. Whats the best way to cover these holes from underneath? Should I treat the metal edges of the holes before I start?
Thanks for your time, now and in the future.
WVvan
P.S. I'm thinking of call it "HAL the Van".
Why HAL? Well since my name is Dave....
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Say good-bye to old Hal.
Say Hello to New Hal.
And no I never have stopped messing with the build.
Say Hello to New Hal.
And no I never have stopped messing with the build.
Here's a couple of short subject posts.
While the mountains in West Virginia might not be the highest in the U.S. the difference in pressure is still enough to cause a problem I didn't foresee. Constructed the drawer that holds the Porta-potti to just be a little taller than needed.
After previously cleaning and filling the Port-potti at home (1000 feet) I drove to and set up camp at 3800 feet then found that I couldn't open the drawer. The Porta-potti had swelled so much in size it's top was hitting the bottom of the fridge.
A temporary fix was to remove the mounting screws on the front of the fridge then slide it out enough to get the drawer open. Then I could open the gate valve that separates the two parts of the Porta-potti and relieve the pressure so it returned to it's normal size.
That worked for the weekend but for a more permanent solution I've removed the small vent grid from the bottom front of the fridge.
This should give enough clearance so it doesn't happen again.
Next subject is the electric sofa-bed. Last time I updated the controls I didn't post about it. I've revisited it recently so time for a quick update. The two actuators that drive the sofa bed are run by DC motors. To change the direction of the motors you reverse the polarity by swapping the positive and negative power leads.
In the photo below you can see the first of the control boards on the right. It used mechanical relays (numbered 1, 2 and 4) to do the swapping of the power leads. The number 3 relay failed and was replaced by the larger automotive style relay at the bottom. There are two computer chips. The one at the top is an Atmel microcontroller. This is the "brains" that controls the sofa-bed. The second chip is a Darlington transistor that uses the 5 volts that the microcontroller outputs to switch 12 volts which is needed to drive the mechanical relays.
I hadn't kept up with the technology so didn't know this way of controlling the DC motors was "old school". There are now better ways. Started having trouble with another one of the relays so decided to make a new updated control board. On this new board the "brains" is supplied by a Arduino Nano microcontroller. In the picture below there are two ICs numbered 1 and 2. These are "H-bridge motor controllers". Each chip takes the place of two mechanical relays and also the Darlington transistor. The H-bridge chip can swap the polarity of the power going to the DC motor. It takes two 5v inputs from the microcontroller and uses that to indicate how to switch the 12 volts outputs from the H-bridge.
Here it is all wired up to the middle support on the sofa-bed that also holds the actuators. The disc in the lower corner is a piezoelectric buzzer to remind me to turn off the power to the sofa-bed when it's reached final position.
The microcontroller requires some inputs to know the current position of the sofa-bed as it moves. In this photo you can see a potentiometer (variable resistor) that's wired to the microcontroller. One of the actuators lifts or lowers the back of the sofa-bed. As the lifting arm moves that small piece of spring wire will rotate in line with the potentiometer. The small white nylon cap causes the spring wire to move the potentiometer and the microcontroller reads the change in resistance and translates that to the lifting arm's position. Since the potentiometer is not perfectly in line with the pivot axis of the lifting arm the the spring wire slides slightly as it rotates so the nylon cap can't be too tight.
The position of the of the other part of the sofa-bed is indicated by three limit switches. The controller only needs to know if it's fully open, fully closed or in the middle so only the three switches are needed.
Here's a video that I posted a couple years ago that shows how the actuators work when under power. It also stars my dearly departed old friend Tiger.
Youtube video
While the mountains in West Virginia might not be the highest in the U.S. the difference in pressure is still enough to cause a problem I didn't foresee. Constructed the drawer that holds the Porta-potti to just be a little taller than needed.
After previously cleaning and filling the Port-potti at home (1000 feet) I drove to and set up camp at 3800 feet then found that I couldn't open the drawer. The Porta-potti had swelled so much in size it's top was hitting the bottom of the fridge.
A temporary fix was to remove the mounting screws on the front of the fridge then slide it out enough to get the drawer open. Then I could open the gate valve that separates the two parts of the Porta-potti and relieve the pressure so it returned to it's normal size.
That worked for the weekend but for a more permanent solution I've removed the small vent grid from the bottom front of the fridge.
This should give enough clearance so it doesn't happen again.
Next subject is the electric sofa-bed. Last time I updated the controls I didn't post about it. I've revisited it recently so time for a quick update. The two actuators that drive the sofa bed are run by DC motors. To change the direction of the motors you reverse the polarity by swapping the positive and negative power leads.
In the photo below you can see the first of the control boards on the right. It used mechanical relays (numbered 1, 2 and 4) to do the swapping of the power leads. The number 3 relay failed and was replaced by the larger automotive style relay at the bottom. There are two computer chips. The one at the top is an Atmel microcontroller. This is the "brains" that controls the sofa-bed. The second chip is a Darlington transistor that uses the 5 volts that the microcontroller outputs to switch 12 volts which is needed to drive the mechanical relays.
I hadn't kept up with the technology so didn't know this way of controlling the DC motors was "old school". There are now better ways. Started having trouble with another one of the relays so decided to make a new updated control board. On this new board the "brains" is supplied by a Arduino Nano microcontroller. In the picture below there are two ICs numbered 1 and 2. These are "H-bridge motor controllers". Each chip takes the place of two mechanical relays and also the Darlington transistor. The H-bridge chip can swap the polarity of the power going to the DC motor. It takes two 5v inputs from the microcontroller and uses that to indicate how to switch the 12 volts outputs from the H-bridge.
Here it is all wired up to the middle support on the sofa-bed that also holds the actuators. The disc in the lower corner is a piezoelectric buzzer to remind me to turn off the power to the sofa-bed when it's reached final position.
The microcontroller requires some inputs to know the current position of the sofa-bed as it moves. In this photo you can see a potentiometer (variable resistor) that's wired to the microcontroller. One of the actuators lifts or lowers the back of the sofa-bed. As the lifting arm moves that small piece of spring wire will rotate in line with the potentiometer. The small white nylon cap causes the spring wire to move the potentiometer and the microcontroller reads the change in resistance and translates that to the lifting arm's position. Since the potentiometer is not perfectly in line with the pivot axis of the lifting arm the the spring wire slides slightly as it rotates so the nylon cap can't be too tight.
The position of the of the other part of the sofa-bed is indicated by three limit switches. The controller only needs to know if it's fully open, fully closed or in the middle so only the three switches are needed.
Here's a video that I posted a couple years ago that shows how the actuators work when under power. It also stars my dearly departed old friend Tiger.
Youtube video
With the warm spell last week decided to take some time off and get in one last camping trip for the year. Spent some time at Dolly Sods.
Also spent time "living in my van down down by the (Cranberry) river" while doing some biking in the Cranberry Wilderness.
There were a fair amount of people fishing.
Here's why. Hard to see them all but there are five trout in this photo.
Also spent time "living in my van down down by the (Cranberry) river" while doing some biking in the Cranberry Wilderness.
There were a fair amount of people fishing.
Here's why. Hard to see them all but there are five trout in this photo.
I started this window cover project back in 2013 but didn't write about it at the time. Had to revisit it recently so now is a good time to document it.
This is the side window. When constructing the side panels for the van I embedded hard drive magnets into the panels to hold a window cover. The four metal washers in this picture are held in place by the magnets.
Here is the material that will be used on one side of the cover. It's aluminum covered fabric that's made for hot pads or ironing board covers.
The material allows some light through and I want it to totally block light for when stealth camping so sew on a second layer of white cotton.
Hand sew the washers onto the corners of the cover. It works as intended with the magnets holding it in place with the silver aluminum side facing out to reflect sunlight.
Problem is it's kind of bland looking so need to spruce it up. I want to add a picture to the cover. Start with a roll of freezer paper.
Also get a new HP Deskjet 1000 printer for $29. They almost give these things away so to make back the money on printer ink. Picked this printer after reading that the ink cartridge can be user refilled.
Cut the freezer paper into 8.5x11 sized sheets. Do the same to with the white cotton.
First lay down a cotton sheet then a freezer paper sheet, SHINY SIDE DOWN. Cover the two sheets with another cloth. Then run an iron on a medium heat setting over the sheets. This will fuse the cotton sheet to the paper.
With the freezer paper backing you can now run the cotton through the printer.
My first printing. Looks good.
The cotton easily peels away from the freezer paper backing.
Read that ironing after printing will help set the ink.
To see if the ink was colorfast I gently washed the cloth. As you can see the ink didn't last.
After a little more research thought I'd next try Bubble Jet Set 2000. It did a better job of holding the color.
So what picture to use? Here's one of mine I like. This spot is called the High Falls Of The Cheat.
The falls are on the Shavers Fork River located on Cheat Mountain. Here's a larger version of the picture.
Figured out how large I'd need to make the picture to fit on the window cover then used a computer program called GIMP to resize the image. Next cut it into equal sized segments with the Guillotine tool. This was a MISTAKE and I'll show you why father down.
Print each segment individually.
The printer can't print all the way to the edge of the paper so that had to be figured in the size calculations.
Trim the image to remove the border.
Line up all the image segments.
To glue the segments to the window cover I used a product similar to Stitch Witchery. It's like a plastic webbing that you iron and it melts fusing the material.
Iron it onto the backing material then peel back the tape cover.
Lay the image segments edges on the melted tape then cover with cloth to keep the ink off the iron as you apply heat. This glues the segments to the cover.
Here is the finished window cover. You can see the mistake I mentioned earlier. The edge of most segments is visible. I should have printed the image segments so that there was some overlap. That would have hidden the edges.
Here's how it looks in the van. The edges aren't as noticeable in person as they are in this picture. The camera seems to accentuate the white edge lines.
I've been using it for the past two years but with one small problem. The top two magnets embedded in the wall aren't enough to hold the window cover in place if you bump into it hard enough. Time for an update.
A few days ago I removed the wall panel and window cover.
A couple image segment corners had become loose. Used Tacky Glue to secure these. Considering this cover just gets balled up and stuffed into a drawer when it's not being used the segments have withstood the use rather well.
Add six additional hard drive magnets to the wall panel.
Sew additional washers onto the window cover. Return the wall panel and now more securely attached window cover back to the van.
OK. That's it for this project.
This is the side window. When constructing the side panels for the van I embedded hard drive magnets into the panels to hold a window cover. The four metal washers in this picture are held in place by the magnets.
Here is the material that will be used on one side of the cover. It's aluminum covered fabric that's made for hot pads or ironing board covers.
The material allows some light through and I want it to totally block light for when stealth camping so sew on a second layer of white cotton.
Hand sew the washers onto the corners of the cover. It works as intended with the magnets holding it in place with the silver aluminum side facing out to reflect sunlight.
Problem is it's kind of bland looking so need to spruce it up. I want to add a picture to the cover. Start with a roll of freezer paper.
Also get a new HP Deskjet 1000 printer for $29. They almost give these things away so to make back the money on printer ink. Picked this printer after reading that the ink cartridge can be user refilled.
Cut the freezer paper into 8.5x11 sized sheets. Do the same to with the white cotton.
First lay down a cotton sheet then a freezer paper sheet, SHINY SIDE DOWN. Cover the two sheets with another cloth. Then run an iron on a medium heat setting over the sheets. This will fuse the cotton sheet to the paper.
With the freezer paper backing you can now run the cotton through the printer.
My first printing. Looks good.
The cotton easily peels away from the freezer paper backing.
Read that ironing after printing will help set the ink.
To see if the ink was colorfast I gently washed the cloth. As you can see the ink didn't last.
After a little more research thought I'd next try Bubble Jet Set 2000. It did a better job of holding the color.
So what picture to use? Here's one of mine I like. This spot is called the High Falls Of The Cheat.
The falls are on the Shavers Fork River located on Cheat Mountain. Here's a larger version of the picture.
Figured out how large I'd need to make the picture to fit on the window cover then used a computer program called GIMP to resize the image. Next cut it into equal sized segments with the Guillotine tool. This was a MISTAKE and I'll show you why father down.
Print each segment individually.
The printer can't print all the way to the edge of the paper so that had to be figured in the size calculations.
Trim the image to remove the border.
Line up all the image segments.
To glue the segments to the window cover I used a product similar to Stitch Witchery. It's like a plastic webbing that you iron and it melts fusing the material.
Iron it onto the backing material then peel back the tape cover.
Lay the image segments edges on the melted tape then cover with cloth to keep the ink off the iron as you apply heat. This glues the segments to the cover.
Here is the finished window cover. You can see the mistake I mentioned earlier. The edge of most segments is visible. I should have printed the image segments so that there was some overlap. That would have hidden the edges.
Here's how it looks in the van. The edges aren't as noticeable in person as they are in this picture. The camera seems to accentuate the white edge lines.
I've been using it for the past two years but with one small problem. The top two magnets embedded in the wall aren't enough to hold the window cover in place if you bump into it hard enough. Time for an update.
A few days ago I removed the wall panel and window cover.
A couple image segment corners had become loose. Used Tacky Glue to secure these. Considering this cover just gets balled up and stuffed into a drawer when it's not being used the segments have withstood the use rather well.
Add six additional hard drive magnets to the wall panel.
Sew additional washers onto the window cover. Return the wall panel and now more securely attached window cover back to the van.
OK. That's it for this project.
