The Hulk aka The Clubhouse aka Da Van
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We began planning and researching about six months before the building began. We attended a couple of RV shows, went around to local RV dealers, and spoke with van conversion companies to try to get a feel for what we wanted our van to be. A recommendation from John Richardson about a company called Sportsmobile gave us some good beta to go on. Their website showed many different layouts for van conversions as well as tools to help you design your own. So Steve and I spent many nights sitting in the empty van, drawing and configuring our roadtrip vehicle. We had to decide what kind of appliances we wanted and what kind of power requirements came with them. Were we going to have running water? A bathroom? A shower? What was going to power all of these things. Do we want to be able to stand up completely? What kind of van tops are available? What kind of cabinets, closets, and drawers did we want and how do we put them together? We decided to split things up. Since Steve had some construction experience from helping his dad build a few houses, he was going to be in charge of our cabinetry work. I volunteered to take the electrical work. Then we began the building phase. Steve started sketching construction schematics and I began researching RV electrical systems. The cabinetry construction was the first phase and Steve had to quickly get me up to speed on using a circular saw, router, and the basics of cabinetry. I learned quickly what a difference an inch will do to one's plans. We made our share of mistakes but for the most part Steve had been pretty thorough in his plans. After two weeks we had the structure of the back cabinets secured in place. My favorite piece of work in that set is the pantry. To design that, Steve would roam about the kitchen pulling out various food items, checking their heights and widths to make sure the pantry would be user friendly, and it turned out great. That pretty much concluded our work in San Diego.
In Sacramento we began building the under-bed compartment. This was where our electrical center was going to go. First we built a box for our auxilliary batteries, four 6V golf cart batteries. The box had to completely seal off the batteries from the inside of the van but still allow access to them, and also be well ventilated. That entailed cutting a hole out of the side of the van for a vent. For that we used my dad's air grinder tool. We were intimidated by all the flying sparks at first but once we got used to it we made progress. Then we completed the under bed structure and I was able to begin wiring. To be able to have AC power we needed an inverter, which converts DC to AC. The inverter we bought has an integrated charger built into it so that we can plug in somewhere and the AC from the outlet will be converted to DC to charge the batteries. I realize that a lot of this information is rather uninteresting but since we've spent four months belaboring these details I feel compelled to give them their moment of stardom. The shore power outlet was hole-in-the-van #2. This outlet is used to charge the batteries from an outside AC source. Around this time Steve installed the XM radio and stereo system. I believe we have four 6 1/2- and two 6x9 speakers and some kind of amp. It has been set up so that we can plug the laptop into the system and watch DVDs in surround sound. On a scale for pimpness, I would give it a 9+.Yeah Yeah Yeah - It's pretty cool. The XM stereo rocks the house. We can drive all over the place and never lose reception, plus there's so many different stations. XM's cool too because if there's a song you like - it'll tell you who the artist is. Pretty Rad huh.
During those many hot summer days in the Sacramento Valley we realized that the roof was going to need some serious insulation and a fan. We picked up some water heater insulation to line the inside of the top. It was about 1/2" inch thick fiberglass material with aluminum on one side. They say that aluminum has great heat refraction properties, and it really did lower the temperature in the van after we installed it. It still gets kinda hot - due mostly in part to the dark color of the van, but with the fan and the insulation it's manageable. The fan was hole #3 in the van. By this time we weren't giving any second thoughts to putting holes in the van. While we were attacking the roof we installed the solar panel. Depending on the weather, the panel replenishes 30-50% of our daily power consumption. We can also use the van's alternator to charge the batteries or we can plug the van into any AC outlet. Between driving and the sun, though, we've had no energy issues.
Somewhere in this time frame we picked out the colors for the van and began staining the wood and put up the hawaiian print material on the roof (that was one thing we didn't buy from Home Depot). We had some sheet metal guys make our surfboard shelf and propane box and then we installed those. I had a little mishap while cutting slits in the surfboard shelf (to be able to tie things down on it). I was wearing safety glasses, mind you, but even still a hot metal chard came flying into my eye. I waited overnight before having it removed by an opthamologist who also had to buff out the little rust ring that had begun to form around it. It was a crazy procedure but my eye is fine now.
Oh yeah, we had to learn about propane systems, too, and how to flare copper tubing. The system pretty much goes together pretty quickly, but it's the checking for leaks part thats tricky. We used a soapy solution (i used dish soap and water) to rub around all of the joints. If there was a leak, you would see some bubbles forming. I saw a whole bunch of bubbles when i first did it, but after tightening all the joints down really good we had a leak free system. One of the joints seem to spring a leak while we were on our test drive so we had to use some plumbers thread compound on the joints and that did the trick. No more bubbles and no more funny smells (well - propane funny smells that is - i've been letting some of my own funny smells loose in the van - but that's another story). Then we could put together our kitchen area. We have a stove but no oven and a sink but no running water. We didn't want an oven from the beginning but we had contemplated the running water part for a while before deciding against it. So far the setup has worked out well for us.
After the kitchen area had been completed we laid down the linoleum and then built the bed frame contraption. We built the bed frame so that it locks in place when it's in it's couch position and then we just have to lift it out of the lock (3/4 inch), and then it pulls out to a bed. Next time we build one of these i'm gonna make it on some kinda rollers cause it's a bit tough to do, but with team work it goes pretty good. After that is was details, details, details.....adding doors, drawers, and handles.....putting up the bamboo....adding the captain's chairs. The passenger chair swivels around so we can kick it there when we're parked. That feature added a lot of space to the van.
Anyway, by the end of this project we were pooped. We had our doubts as to whether or not we'd actually be able to pull it off but our stubborness paid off in this case and we pulled through. I don't think I'd want to build another one any time soon but maybe further down the road we'll be inspired to build van #2 bigger and better. But we both learned so much from this project and now I feel like if you can dream it, you can build it. You can really build anything.
Yeah - this Van project was pretty cool. I didn't realize it would take as long as it did, but it was still cool learning alot of the stuff. I give my big thanks to Larry (Natty's dad), his expertise with automobiles really helped us out in several situations. He probably alone help shave off a couple weeks of our schedule - Thanks Larry. I can't forget Joanne (Natty's Step Mom) too. She probably helped us out the most by opening up her home to us and let us just take over. It was a nice set up at Joannes house for us to work. It was in the country so we could work till pretty late. Larry had all of his tools there too so it was like having a auto shop all to ourselves. We couldn't have asked for a better set up. Gotta give thanks to Terry (Nattys Step Dad) and Connie(Nattys Mom) for letting us stash all of our belongings in their garage, and really making us feel welcome whenever we came over. There are actually alot of people to thank - Like Paul our Next door in San Diego who let me borrow his tools without any hesitation - true spirit of Aloha in that guy. Randy for helping install the floor. John and Jessica for the help with the pantry and John for helping us think through the ideas for the futon set up. Curtis for the multimeter - making sure we got our juice on - Curtis is a EE. I'm sorry if i forgot anybody - but thanks to all who cheered us on ... Now we must drive...