canuckcargo van conversion

[ttpadilla]

Well, that's 2 idler arm pulleys and two wet floor mats - mine's a 2002 Savana 2500.

I also had the rear heater unit pulled but all the hoses were pulled too and a short reroute done up front.

Is there any market for the heater unit? I couldn't find one on Kijiji to get a comparable price for mine. If it's not worth anything to anybody I can throw it in the back of the Montana when it goes to the wreckers.

The interior clean up is next on my list! I was up to see mine today...she sure looks pretty....

Where are your pictures?

 

[Almost There]

Where are your pictures?

The shop that it's in until 10:30 this morning is soooo tight for space that I can't get back far enough to take pictures.

Trust me they'll be coming as soon as I get it home....well after the fog lifts and the rain stops anyways, right now I can't see across the street and we had thunderstorms in the middle of the night.

She also has a name now!

New thread coming up with pics and full reveal....

 

[canuckcargo]

Almost there: I was wondering the same thing about the heater, I've yet to get around to posting it on kijiji. I'm having trouble selling the shelves as is.

Master plumber: that's kind of what I was thinking. Do you happen to know if you can tear the stock rear heater apart and use that heat exchanger (assuming it has one)?

I can't recall exactly but I think espar or webasto make heaters that run on straight gas, soon need to wait for a diesel although it's possible I'm confusing them with the cab heaters

 

[canuckcargo]

Next up I patched all the holes in the floor.

I had a can of plasti dip on hand and figured it couldn't hurt for rust prevention so I put a coat of that on, filled the hole with silicone and put a piece of gorilla tape over top.

I later read about the penny idea on here and regretted not doing that instead.

 

[canuckcargo]

This is the hole where the rear heater was, I ended up coating the area in plasti dip, siliconing an aluminum plate down and then putting four self tapping screws in to insure it never moves.

 

[canuckcargo]

I got a little carried away and didn't take many pictures again. But here you can see the layers in the floor so far.

I ended up finding 13 sheets of plywood, 200 sq ft of flooring including the underlay
And 16 24"x30" cabinet doors. For 200 bucks on the condition that I pick up ASAP. The guy just wanted the stuff gone.

So having a huge excess of foam floor underlay I decided 2 layers of that as a base might stop some heat transfer through the floor.

Hating the idea of wasting the rubber floor Matt that came with the van I also scraped off all the rotten Carpet underlay glued to it and threw the rubber mat back in hoping it might dampen sound a bit, I doubt it adds much in the way of insulation.

Then a layer of half inch plywood was put down.

I'm quite sure there would have been a better way to do the floor but I think what I did will work just fine. Unfortunately by the time the floor is done I will be short over an inch of precious headspace.

 

[canuckcargo]

Next up was the insulation.
I put a layer of reflectix up and taped the seams.
It will have 1/4" or so of air gap between the next layer but from the research I've done post insulation, my understanding is that I just put up a very expensive vapor barrier with no real insulation benefit.

 

[canuckcargo]

A layer of 3/4" reflective styrofoam was added on top of the reflectix next, it was cut to fit snug and almost looks as if it won't even need anything holding it down.
Although I will probably put furing strips in later.

You can also see another layer of foam underlay I put down on top of the plywood floor.

Also on a side note I forgot to mention the reflectix is held in place with small pieces of double sided carpet tape. It worked great.

 

[canuckcargo]

Using all the underlay scraps I had left, I packed all the ribs and support beams tightly.
I contemplated leaving them open to increase airflow through the walls and possibly help with condensation issues but in the end decided to fill them since I am putting a roof vent in anyways.

 

[canuckcargo]

After a lot of research I settled on a fantastic reversible 3 speed roof vent with thermostat. I'm curious to see if the thermostat will be of any real help or save on much power.

I tested the fan when It arrived
If I remember correctly it draws between 1.3- 3 amps depending on speed. Not bad but also not great.

I installed the vent in the centre of the van right around the end of the bed/start of the cooking area

Pictured is the hole laid out. I drilled the corners as well as a lot of relief holes along the way.

 

[canuckcargo]

I then cut the hole out from the roof side with a jig saw and a fine metal blade. It cut like butter

 

[canuckcargo]

Here is the roof vent ready to pop in.
I ran a triple bead of silicone and screwed it in place.

 

[canuckcargo]

Pictured above is the roof vent installed and ready to be wired.


And that is as far as Ill go with the pictures tonight.

A couple questions

What are some thoughts on putting a plastic vapor barrier on top of the foam insulation like a house has? Beneficial? Or is it pointless?

Will the 14" roof vent be enough, or should I look into modifying one of the windows to open as well?


I'm also starting to get my electrical system together and plan it out.
I'm leaning towards running separate ground cables for everything and not just grounding out to the frame. do you guys recommend running the cables through conduit or just running the wires by themselves?

 

[akrvbob]

You're doing a fantastic job! It's nearly impossible to have too much ventilation!
Bob

 

[Almost There]

Wow, you're going to be way ahead of me on these projects!!

I spent 7 hours scraping as much of the tufts of pink fiberglass insulation off the inside of the fiberglass high top as I could get. Next step is killing the mold I found.

Yesterdays shopping expedition got me the Rustoleum paint I need to cover up some minor rusty areas that I want to take care of, a bottle of goo gone to take off all the Velcro sticky that the PO had used to fasten drapes in place.. , 200 sq. ft of Reflectix, a large roll of metal tape and the 3M glue to attach the bubble wrap to the reflectix. Total bill at H/D - $177.00. Yes, the reflectix is double the price here of what it would be stateside...  

I like the idea of using double sided carpet tape but wonder how it will hold up to the heat come summer time. The bubble wrap had to be ordered online, the stores don't stock the large boxes, should be delivered by the weekend I hope!

Oh, I asked about the resale of the rear heater unit and was told that there's virtually no market for them. I tossed it and the old tires off the Savana in the back of the Montana on it's way out the drive to it's final resting place.... Done, gone, one last thing I have to find time to deal with!!

 

[masterplumber]

Looking good so far. A couple things - you stated you didn't think the Reflectex did much insulating, it doesn't hold the heat in real well, but it does a great job of reflecting heat back so it takes longer to get in. What you did on your walls is basically the same thing I did on my cargo trailer ceiling. Are there better ways? Sure, but for the cost and space used I think it's the best bang for the buck.
You ask about the heaters and heat exchangers - I know there are diesel fired air heaters, but I'm not sure what brands off the top of my head. I'm friends with the Wescotts at Turtleexpedition.com I've traveled and been in both the Turtle IV and Turtle V. The Turtle IV has both and engine exchange heater like you just took out, and a diesel fired air heater that they replaced the original furnace with. They took it through Siberia in the winter. It also had an Espar engine heater and a heat exchanger so they could take an outside shower - no hot water inside the camper. The Turtle V also has both, but the heat exchanger is piped into the camper water system. When I saw it it looked like a flat plate exchanger commonly found at supply houses for hydronic heating systems. They are commonly rated by BTU input and gallons per minute output. I believe Sportsmobile also offered this type of system as an option at one time. They mounted it to the frame rail so it couldn't be used in freezing temperatures due to the domestic side freezing. I knew of one person who moved it inside but it produces a lot of heat - not ideal when in warmer temperatures. The Turtle V has it in an outside insulated compartment. I hope that helps in your search - lots of pictures and links to suppliers on the Turtle Expedition site.