Vagabound's Build-Out - 1993 Ford E350 Box Truck

[ArtW]

Well, it beats actually working for a living, or that's what one of the 'sporting ladies' in one of the places I grew up in told me  :angel:

 

[Gary68]

so no crvl discount?

have you seen the"how to be a traveling poker dealer" thread? from reducto

https://vanlivingforum.com/Thread-WSOP-is-hiring-temp-cashiers-poker-dealers-NOW-for-this-May-July

if interested,get ahold of him

 

[Vagabound]

so no crvl discount?

have you seen the"how to be a traveling poker dealer" thread? from reducto

https://vanlivingforum.com/Thread-WSOP-is-hiring-temp-cashiers-poker-dealers-NOW-for-this-May-July

if interested,get ahold of him

You lost me about the discount.

As for the poker dealer thread, yes I've seen it. I'm looking for the other thread -- "How not to starve to death before you become a poker dealer". ;-)

Tom

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

I think i'd follow the seasonal work circuit, I actually would love to try it one year myself. Camp host job to beat harvest to Amazon. Then get a 5 month break to collect unemployment and rinse and repeat or try something new if it wasn't to your liking.

 

[Gunny]

It's been awhile since I have checked your progress, what you've done looks very well thought out. Very nice...

Rob

 

[Vagabound]

It's been awhile since I have checked your progress, what you've done looks very well thought out. Very nice...

Rob

Thanks, Rob. I confess that I have given these things a lot of thought, but I can't say anything about the quality of that thought. ;-)

So many things still to do. Oh, to be 30 and flush with cash and energy again. What a thing it would be!

Tom

 

[Vagabound]

I think i'd follow the seasonal work circuit, I actually would love to try it one year myself.   Camp host job to beat harvest to Amazon.  Then get a 5 month break to collect unemployment and rinse and repeat or try something new if it wasn't to your liking.

Thanks for the idea.

Don't want to get too far off track from the topic of a build-out thread, but I'll say that I agree with you. However, my initial investigations are telling me that there's been a sea change. It seems that single work campers, that is one person in the vehicle, are less and less acceptable even to seasonal employers. I bumped into that barrier so far with camp hosting companies, concessionaire companies, and now the sugar beet harvest people.

Similar to the wave of increased interest in RTR this year, it seems that these companies are all getting many more applicants, and so are being much more choosy. Not sure where that leaves single work campers who want to take your advice and follow the seasonal circuit.

Tom

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

Hmm, guess that's the damn Newton's Law taking effect.......for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. More people vanning, less vanning jobs

Wonder if you can partner up with another single for the "work circuit"

 

[Vagabound]

Switching gears here to a different topic for a little bit ... fans.

After a lot of reading, I think I'm going to get a Maxxair fan for my box truck. Haven't picked the model yet.

The questions below are related to preparation for getting the fan.

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Having a box truck, in which I decided to keep the roll up door. the only place the fan can go is the front half of the box somewhere. Additionally, roughly the front quarter of the box is taken up by my bed with under-bed storage.

Although I have no experience with it, I was very reluctant to put a fan over my bed, so I'm happy to read recommendations to avoid that.

So, that leaves only the second quarter of the box roof area as a possible location for the fan. It is easy to get fooled into believing that a box truck roof would allow you nearly unlimited places to put the fan. That isn't the case. In fact, I'm limited to a space of only four feet long by eight feet wide. And even less if other practical considerations are taken into account.

Regarding location, being already restrained longitudinally, my issue is lateral location. Simply, does it make any real difference whether I put the fan on the left side of the box, in the center, or on the right side?

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A related issue that I'm dealing with now regarding planning for the fan is about roof sealant. I will be putting on some white elastomeric cool roof sealant in the near future.  In my case, it is practically mandatory, and the pros and cons of all of that have been covered in another thread. 

This specific issue relates to the fact that the sealant will end up happening before the fan gets installed. My concern is having the roof sealant interfere with a later fan installation, in terms of the fan flange being able to seal properly on the roof. 

So, I've been wondering if I should just apply the sealant to my aluminum roof, ignore the future fan location, and deal with that location later, or figure out the fan location, trace it out on the roof, and carefully paint around it?

Recommendations?

Tom

 

[jimindenver]

I would look at the roof as a whole. Now is the time to plot the roof for solar and possible antenna placement. As far as right or left, over the cooking area to remove heat and odors, over the shower area to remove steam, The one advantage of over the bed is the ability to have a gentle breeze come down on you, just make sure it doesn't leak.

 

[BradKW]

Worse than having a leak is a leak that goes unnoticed...so over your bed is a perfect spot.

I missed the thread about why you want to put CoolSeal on your roof, but my experiences with those types of roof coatings would indicate that your adhesion concerns may have merit...

 

[Vagabound]

Worse than having a leak is a leak that goes unnoticed...so over your bed is a perfect spot.

I missed the thread about why you want to put CoolSeal on your roof, but my experiences with those types of roof coatings would indicate that your adhesion concerns may have merit...

I have a hard time imagining that any leak into the interior of the box could go unnoticed in my case. This place is so small, and I'm constantly in it looking around. That said, famous last words and everything.

No mystery about the cool seal, just need/want to reflect more light and heat off of the roof. I think I will go with the approach of cordoning off some real estate for the fan before I put the cool seal on.

Tom

 

[Vagabound]

Over in another thread called Building a Wetbath, I mentioned a problem I was having with my shower stall. I decided to provide an update in my own build thread instead of over there.

-----------

...
My wet bath dilemma:
I have built a wet bath/shower in my truck. As described elsewhere, it consists mostly of a Rubbermaid bin, two shower curtains with a custom curtain rod, and a modified bug sprayer.Two solid walls, and the other two sides open to the living space.

... I'm using two overlapping shower curtains which hang down into the tub to create a waterproof space. That isn't ideal for a few reasons. In any case, that has me thinking about doing something different on the back wall of the shower, which is plywood. 

The specific problem is the conflict between a sealed wall, regardless of materials, and the use of the bin as a shower pan / tub. With only a sealed wall on the back side, and no shower curtain there, any water running down the wall would continue down the wall past the crack between the wall and the tub and eventually land on the floor. At the moment, the shower curtain redirects that into the tub.
...

Good morning, Tom.

Oh, good morning to you, too, Tom.

(just love talking to myself ;-)

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I thought I would provide an update on the problem I described and the solution that I chose to fix the shower stall problem. This may be a stopgap or it may turn out to be permanent. 

Instead of changing anything with the back wall or adding a skirt, I used a simple two-step solution.

First, I rotated the shower curtains so that the splits between curtains are now in the corners where I needed them for other reasons. That solved the problem on the back wall by having one continuous shower curtain all the way around the back, keeping the water inside from the nozzle at the top all the way to the bottom of the tub.

Second, I needed to deal with the splits between the curtains. On one side up against the wall, I don't need to enter and exit, so I just overlapped the curtains and let the curtains share two shower curtain rings at the top. That is working well so far. 

The other side was trickier. At the point where the curtains meet I need two things -- a watertight overlap, and the ability to enter and exit through that split. As I was waking up one morning, staring at the shower, I got an idea. As John Ritter said in Sling Blade, "it just came over me in a rush." It's pretty hard to explain in a post, so I just took a picture to show you. The short version is that I came up with overlapping shower bars to match the overlapping curtains. My design allows the curtains to be closed and overlapped, or open and completely separated. So far, so good.

Tom

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Most important corner, curtain closed ...




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Most important corner, double shower bars shown ...

 

[BradKW]

Amazing. Intuitive. Brilliant. Ground-breaking. Patent worthy.

 

[rvpopeye]

Simple but effective . Eureka !
Errr or you don't reka cuz you just took a shower....

 

[Vagabound]

Amazing. Intuitive. Brilliant. Ground-breaking. Patent worthy.

High praise from a box truck master! Thank you, sir.

Tom

 

[Vagabound]

P.S. - Just in case anyone is wondering, there are quite a few things that I have attached to the walls that will have to be taken down when it comes time to varnish or paint. Not sure when that's going to happen in the future, so the priority is basic functionality now.

 

[VanKitten]

I have been meaning to ask you....since you are catching the shower water in a pan..does that mean you do not use a drain to grey water tank? What do you do with the water in the pan when you are done?

 

[Vagabound]

I have been meaning to ask you....since you are catching the shower water in a pan..does that mean you do not use a drain to grey water tank?   What do you do with the water in the pan when you are done?

By "you", I guess you mean me.

Well, I've been a fan of Rube Goldberg devices since childhood, so I decided to do something unique. I collected about 150 McDonalds straws and then combined those at intervals of 18 inches with 6 rolls of toilet paper, each one separate in a ziplock bag, with zip ties, and of course a little duct tape. It looks sort of like a anorexic plastic anaconda that ate six rabbits. I was able to create a primitive filtration system that recycles shower gray water back into potable water.

Tom

 

[Gary68]

By "you", I guess you mean me.

Well, I've been a fan of Rube Goldberg devices since childhood, so I decided to do something unique. I collected about 150 McDonalds straws and then combined those at intervals of 18 inches with 6 rolls of toilet paper, each one separate in a ziplock bag, with zip ties, and of course a little duct tape. It looks sort of like a anorexic plastic anaconda that ate six rabbits. I was able to create a primitive filtration system that recycles shower gray water back into potable water.

Tom

i think this post needs it's own thread so we can determine if Tom has gone stir crazy,on meth or just being a floridian

we need pics of this