2008 Dodge Grand Caravan Conversion

I figured I should oughtta start a build thread for my Dodge Grand Caravan. I don't make up cute nicknames for things so I just call it "My 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan" or "My Mini-RV."

Because we are limited to how many pictures we can have per post, I will put the basic bed design in this first post, and then show my cabinet build in the next one. Let's see how well this works.

The first picture is of just the tubs set on the floor. You can see that I had to put boards under some of them to level things out. The floor is higher in the rear than it is in the middle.


The second picture is of the board that I cut to fit over the tubs and into the space along the wall. You can see that it is wider towards the front than around the wheel well. I figured out that I only need 24" of width for my upper body and only 18" of width for my legs. So, I cut the board to fit. Note that it fits the contours of the inside of the van pretty well. For those who complain about it being OSB. It was what I could afford at the time, it is plenty stiff because it has lots of tubs under it, and it hasn't absorbed moisture and started falling apart in over two years of use. I have since painted it with several coats of acrylic paint, so I think it will last me many more years. 


The third picture is with the foam on the board. The bottom layer is some of that green, cushion foam from JoAnn Fabrics. That part cost $80, with a coupon. Lord, foam is expensive these days. The top layer is my old "thermal foam" matress topper that I got from CostCo for $100 but used for years before I cut it up for this, so I considered it free for this purpose. The combination of the two is very comfortable. Truly the most comfortable mattress I have ever slept on. 



I took these pictures back when I was first putting this all together. I have since trimmed and painted the boards to match the carpet.

Just this spring, I finally decided to do a real build. I took out the Stow-N-Go seats and cut boards to fit over the holes. I should note that I used high-quality, 7-layer, 1/2" plywood for this cabinet and the panels over the holes in the floor. This has proven to be very stiff and straight. It really made building the cabinet much easier. The plywood was $33 per sheet, which I thought was astronomical. I used about 2 1/2 sheets, so far. So, the total cost for the cabinets, including hardware was about $130. Piano hinges are not cheap.

The first picture is of when I was about finished fitting all the pieces in. There were days of painstaking marking, cutting and fitting of cardboard, then cutting and fitting of the plywood just to get to this point. When cutting the plywood, I cut it about 1/2" bigger than my cardboard cutouts told me to, because you can always take away some more wood, but you can't put more back on. You will notice that I used Gorilla tape to hold everything in place as I was fitting it together. That worked great. I could drive around with the stuff half put together back there and never had anything fall apart. 


These next two pictures are of the finished cabinets. One with the desktop up:

Sorry about these thumbnails being rotated. They are rotated just fine when viewed on my computer (and I'm a computer person, so I usually know what I'm doing), and they are rotated just fine when you click on them to view them at full size. So, I'm not going to mess with trying to fix them in the post. My only guess is that the forum software auto-rotates based on the dimensions and it guessed wrong with these images. 

You will notice the odd cutout at the rear of the cabinet. That is so it will fit as closely as possible to the rear hatch when it is closed, but without rubbing. You can see the plastic shelf unit that I built the whole cabinet around. I don't believe in building heavy wood drawers when light, plastic ones will do just fine. I set the height of the rear "counter top" to be as high as possible without interfering with my ability to see out my back window. I set the height of the little ledge over the drawers to be so that the desktop, when it is folded down, will be at a comfortable height when sitting on the bed. So, the bed becomes my office chair without having to put anything away. I had to cut about an inch off the top of the top drawer. Now, as to the sizing of the little shelves. They are almost entirely random. I did not have time to measure all my gear (especially gear I haven't bought yet) and make spaces to fit everything perfectly. Oh well. I was going to use the parts that I cut out as doors on the cabinets. But once I cut them out, I liked how much lighter the cabinets were, and how much more roomy it made the van feel with those open spaces. I figure the 1" lips around all the openings will help keep things in place. 

The next is with the desktop down:


You will notice that, with the desktop down, there is a 4" vertical space behind the desktop. This is where my laptops will be mounted. I have two laptops and both are the kind where the keyboard folds all the way around back. So, I am going to mount them in brackets in that space and use a separate keyboard that I can pull closer to me. Naturally, I will be able to easily remove the laptops for use outside of the van. And the brackets are going to be cushioned so they won't be slamming around in there. 

You will also probably notice the spaces behind the "laptop space." Those go all the way through from one side of the cabinet to the other. i figure I can put folding chairs or other long things in these spaces. Or I could just put rarely used things in the middle back there, with more often used things on the ends where I can get to them. 

I have more pictures, which I can post if people are interested. Pictures of the panels as I was cutting them all out, and pictures of how the boards fit to cover the holes. I just haven't gotten around to "processing" them to fit the required sizes. Posting pictures is pretty much my lowest priority thing I have to do these days.

So wonderful rebuild of the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan, nice work!

I went ahead and got the other pictures off the camera and "processed" them. I don't have time to post them all at once, but I can put up some every once in a while. 

Here are pictures of the spaces left over after I removed the Stow-N-Go seats:
Here is the space where the middle-row seats used to be:

I decided to also remove the folding panels that went over the holes in the floor. Those panels were a real pain in the rear and they weighed a ton. The boards I replaced them with (to be shown in later posts) are much lighter and sit flatter. 

Here is the space where the rear seats used to be: 
One from almost straight behind the van:


And one from a bit to the side:


I put the tub in the spaces so people can see how deep they are. Those tubs are 9" tall, and almost 16" x 24" (including the handles).

There really is a lot of room down in these spaces. Heck, most of the floor is actually under-the-floor storage. That's one of the reasons I like this van. 

I plan to put my batteries and all the electrical equipment down in the space behind the front passenger seat. Yes, that will be directly under my head. Because my bed literally just sits in place, it will be relatively easy to move a couple of tubs to open that space for maintenance later. Plus, all my electrical will be only within 3-4 feet of anything else, so that will really reduce my wiring requirements. 

Side note: After removing the seats and the folding panels that went over the holes, there were a lot of little studs (welded in bolts) that I had to cut off with my angle grinder. That was the first thing I did that I couldn't take back. So I definitely took a deep breath before firing up the angle grinder.

Katherine said:

So wonderful rebuild of the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan, nice work!

Click to expand...

Thank you very much. I'll be posting more pictures of the actual build process in the coming days.

I want to point out to everyone that I was able to do this with minimal tools and work space. I got all my power tools at either pawn shops or at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The angle grinder cost me $10. You could literally do all the rest of the work with a jig-saw and a drill. But a circular saw comes in handy. I got my circular saw for $15. I got the drill at a pawn shop for about $11 but that was a few decades ago. I also got a crappy router at the ReStore for $25. It was difficult to get to cut at the correct depth, but it was tolerable. 

I have found that used, but professional grade tools last me a lot longer than new, but cheap tools.

Your "My Mini-RV" work is beautiful.  You have more than computer knowledge, it's plain to see. 
Continue posting, the metamorphosis of your unit is interesting.

Just to show people that you don't need a workshop to work on your conversion, here are two pictures of my work area. It is just the sidewalk in front of the crappy apartment I was in at the time. That table is just one of those cheap ($19) fold-up tables from Walmart. I found that laying two 4x4s on top of that planter brought it up to the same height as the table.

Here are some pictures of the first boards I cut and fit into place. I didn't take any pictures of the fitting of the cardboard. Just keep in mind that for every board you see in place, it took an hour or so of fitting the cardboard first. Then an hour or so of cutting the board, fitting it, trimming off so more, and refitting it. It is tedious but anyone can do it. If you don't think you can do something like this, get with me after I get on the road and I will teach you how you can do it too. 

Anyway, here are the pictures:
Here is the first piece. I started at the front and built from there. Adding one piece at a time wherever it seemed appropriate.

It seems the forum software is auto-rotating my images again. I even tried dinking around with them on my PC then re-uploading them. I guess this is just something we have to get used to?

Anyway, if you look closely along the lower right edge, I tucked the plywood behind the rubber trim that was still there after I removed the plastic interior panels. fortunately, that part was perfectly straight and perfectly vertical. Then I cut a notch (which you can only barely see) for where the rubber trim curved back toward the rear. 


Next, is a couple of pictures of the part that looks like it is going to be a whole desktop, but it is actually just the lip that will stick out when the real desktop is folded up. This goes over the plastic drawers and extends as far to the left as I figured I needed to have space for both laptops side-by-side plus some wiggle room for cables and such. 

If you look close at the second picture (which is a close-up), you can see that I was really lucky to have the plywood fit exactly under a piece of metal that stuck out. So that gives it a bit more stability. You can also see that notch where the rubber trim goes past the edge of the plywood. You can also see how I marked areas where I was going to need to cut or file off more wood.

Oh, one very important tool for this kind of work is what is called a "Four-in-Hand Rasp." It has a course and "fine" rasp in both flat and curved profiles. So you can file lots of things to shape quickly. They only cost a few bucks.

max+sophia said:

Your "My Mini-RV" work is beautiful.  You have more than computer knowledge, it's plain to see. 
Continue posting, the metamorphosis of your unit is interesting.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your encouragement. I am honestly not used to getting much encouragement. So, I really appreciate it.

Very very cool van build! Thanks for sharing. I just returned to “home base” from my first month on the road in my Dodge Caravan. A couple months for more “tiny RV” enhancements (eg solar, led lights, TV, etc) then, hopefully, RTR time. 

Love my Dodge!!

Very well done, making the most of space available. And yes the tedious tasks are so worth while and satisfying when it all comes together nicely as you are doing, congratulations.

MM

The next piece I put in was the floor of the rear part of the cabinet.

That weird notch cut into the back corner is so the board wouldn't mash a wiring harness that is under the carpet there. Notice the bolt there in the middle. That is just the bolt that was holding down the rear seat assembly. 

After that, was the front of the rear part of the cabinet. 

Then the center upright. 


A detail picture of the bottom:


... and the top:


Then one from the front-side, so you can see how well if follows the curve of the ceiling. I was really happy with the way that turned out. 


I think this was the most complicated and difficult piece.

makenmend said:

Very well done, making the most of space available. And yes the tedious tasks are so worth while and satisfying when it all comes together nicely as you are doing, congratulations.

Click to expand...

Thank you.

The next piece I made was the rear upright.


Here is a closeup of that weird notch:


Here is the inside view, so you can see why I made that weird notch in the first place. I wanted the cabinet to be as close to the rear hatch as possible. So, I had to cut around the part of the hatch that curved in right there:

I sure wish this website didn't auto-rotate images. 

As you can see, it is not a perfect fit, but it'll do. In the end, I cut out some of my handiwork when I cut the hole for the "door." But that's OK too. I was planning as I went. I only had three weeks to do this whole project.

Next was the "countertop" for the rear part of the cabinet:


I made it so that it would go as far back as possible, but not block hardly any of my view out the rear window. See that piece of blue tape on the window? That is my sight-line when looking past the uprights. I set the depth of the uprights so I would be able to see out almost all of the rear window. That is also why I put all this on the driver's side. 

Next, I put in the middle shelf for the rear cabinet:

I put those Gorilla Tape tabs on there so I could get it out as I was fitting things.

Nice work! You've optimized that space well. Any plans for the front passenger seat area?

reppans said:

Nice work!  You've optimized that space well.  Any plans for the front passenger seat area?

Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm just leaving the seat where it is, for several reasons:
A) It is my back rest when I am kicking back in my bed, just reading or something. It is amazingly comfortable.
B) There are lots of electronics connected to the seat that I don't want to mess with. 
C) After taking out all the other seats, I figured I should leave room for at least one person to ride with me, in case of emergency or just simple convenience sometime. 

I plan to put my propane tank up in the floorboard, in front of the passenger seat, with plenty of room to cram loose things like coats and blankets. It will be the one of the heaviest things in my van and I want it as far forward as possible for weight balance and safety in a crash. (I have blocked the heater vents on that side.) Then I plan to put a tub on the seat. I can even fit two plastic shoe boxes under the seat, so the seat itself doesn't waste too very much space, in the end.

Good stuff. Wish someone would make/sell a plug and play accessory to swivel the front passenger seat on these minivans so they can be used backwards for lounging, without disabling the safety features for forward travel. Downsized from a conversion van to minivan and really miss that feature.

What are you doing for ventilation? Hard to tell, but I didn't even see window rain/wind deflectors (assume stealth is important). Do all three windows open on both sides?

reppans said:

What are you doing for ventilation?  Hard to tell, but I didn't even see window rain/wind deflectors (assume stealth is important).  Do all three windows open on both sides?

Click to expand...

The middle windows don't open. The rear ones only pop out a bit. I have attached a salvaged piece of tent screen over the left, rear window so I can leave it popped out without bugs getting in. I also plan to permanently tape screen over the inside of the passenger-side front window, using Gorilla Tape. Then I can roll that window down any time I want without messing with a screen.

I eventually plan to sew what will basically be tent screen doors to permanently attach to the insides of both sliding doors, and maybe even the back hatch. Most of the time, these "doors" will be unzipped and rolled up out of the way. But all I will need to do is zip the "tent doors" closed, open the sliding doors, and it will be as if I am on a screened in porch.

I don't plan to install any roof fan. There is too much going on (vents and wiring) between the roof and the headliner to try to cut a hole.

I'm not concerned with stealth any more. When I do urban boondock, I only park where no one cares or where no one will even see me.