Cummins Canoe (A Stepvan Story)

[GntlStone]

Saw this and thought of you POG.
5900 original miles!
1994 P30

https://longisland.craigslist.org/cto/d/riverhead-step-van/7427642838.html

Only bad part, $25,000

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Oh wow, it's beautiful! It is quite expensive, but it is basically brand new. Too bad it's not diesel. I did enjoy seeing it though, thanks!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

I know many are probably wondering, and quite frankly, so am I, but I have compiled a road repair list and analysis for 2021. This is a list of all the breakdowns we had, down time, and the funding it took to get back on the road.

$10/14 hours - Turbo falling off #1
Weld broke on turbo adapter flange. Paid Mitch the farmer to weld it back on.

$20/6 hours - Turbo falling off #2
Mitch did a good job welding, but the metal was too thin and piece broke again. I won that bet. Threw it out and paid fabrication shop to make beefy custom one.

$83/140 hours - Broke a clutch hydraulic line. Replaced with aftermarket stainless lines from the interwebs that won't ever be a problem again.

$167/60 hours - Clutch disk hub separation. My fault for beating the crap out of it when the clutch line broke thinking I can reverse uphill out of parking spot with no clutch pedal. Hiked 12 miles to get new clutch assembly.

$115/6 hours - Clutch master cylinder piston ruptured. Old plastic, oh well. Got good at driving without clutch for 29 miles to parts store without stopping. I only park on hills now.

$13/2 hours - Cracked fuel line. A barbed coupling and clamps, no worries.

$1/1 hour - Flat tire. Plugged.

$145/16 hours - Fan pulley explosion #1. Replaced belt tensioner and pulley.

$1/1 hour - Flat tire. Plugged.

$1/1 hour - Throttle cable fell off. Cable tied it back on, permanent fix?

$696/90 hours - Fan pulley explosion #2. Belt tensioner wasn't the issue. Replaced fan hub bearing, fan spacer, and pulley. Easy 1 hour fix, but had to wait a few days for the fan hub bearing from Cummins dealer, yea that one hurt the wallet.

$441/54 hours - Pothole that almost reached to the bottom of the earths crust, near the mantle. Replaced upper and lower control arms, bushings, balljoints, tie rods, packed the hub bearings, and got an alignment(eventually). This price also includes buying the junkyard dag an ice cream sandwich.

$1/3 hours - Fuel injector washer burnt up. Replaced copper washer.

$32/120 hours - Engine cylinder head crack. Brazed the crack and filled coolant with block sealer. Not a crippling repair, but had to stop and fix it at some point. Might not be 100% fixed, time will tell and we may need to revisit this one.

$0/4 hours - Shock mount broke, I welded it back on right quick.

So in total, spent $1726 in repairs over about 16,000 miles. That comes out to a little over 1 penny per mile. Not too bad for 14 breakdowns. Oh geez, that's a lot of breakdowns. That was 518 hours, or 21 days of down time. Good thing I'm patient. What would happen if I wasn't handy and had to get mechanic shops to fix all these? Lets break that down with some guestimations. Some repairs require the vehicle to get towed. I'm going to give this van credit where credit is due and say that even some of the crippling injuries, she was still able to drive, because I did actually drive it under those conditions. Also, what do mechanics charge? $75/hour? $130/hour? Varies between regions, lets say $100/hour.

I roughly estimated about 39 hours of mechanic labor. Works out to about $3900 in labor plus 4 tows at $250/tow. Add in the parts already paid for and now we're talking $6626! And then there is wait time. Most shops had say a 2 week wait time to get a vehicle in to look at it. Some shops might have looked at stuff the same day, so we'll cut it in the middle and say 1 week on top of actual shop time and part wait time. That's about 118 days of down time if we had used shops for all repairs. Where does one go while vehicle is in shop? Hotels? Street bench? Under a bridge? These numbers could be more or less, I'm just speculating as there are too many variables, take it with a grain of salt. But boy, if these numbers are somewhat accurate, I really feel for others who have to depend on others to fix things. It's a real eye-opener for sure.

So all in all, we had breakdowns yes. Could have been worse, hopefully this year will be better. We saved approximately $4900 and 97 days of waiting around. I'm fortunate that I have the skills to make the repairs and have a vehicle to live in while I wait for parts to arrive and make repairs, so the waiting department really was negligible as I still was being productive. Also helps to have such an easy vehicle to work on. What to take from this? Every vehicle will breakdown, some more than others. Older vehicles will break down more, but parts are cheaper and one could maybe fix them on their own. Maybe don't buy an older vehicle if you can't fix it on your own? But if a new breaks, you'll need more money. Hmmm, maybe I should do the same comparison, say if I had a Mercedes Sprinter with the same repairs. But who is going to be able to afford that?!?

 

[rvwandering]

Thanks for the repair list. I've been wondering how much you had put into the step van. Not bad at all! But like you said, it's a good thing you're handy!

 

[mudbunny]

The good news is all those problems have been found and fixed. Not saying there might not more but the list has been shortened drastically. Hoping for trouble free travels this year.

 

[bullfrog]

The important point here is you need to choose a vehicle you can fix, have the knowledge and tools as well as be able to get parts and carry or access space to do it. I hope HOWA gets a home base where nomads can have a facility to visit and get major repairs or builds done in time of need. It is good to be self reliant but for many here that is not possible. Thank you to all those that help and enlighten those thinking about what they will face as a nomad.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Thanks for the repair list. I've been wondering how much you had put into the step van. Not bad at all! But like you said, it's a good thing you're handy!

This is just a repair list. Obviously put a lot more money into it during the actual build. But with the build, all I can be thankful for is all the dumpster treasure I was able to get.

The good news is all those problems have been found and fixed. Not saying there might not more but the list has been shortened drastically. Hoping for trouble free travels this year.

There will always be more, but I'm ready!

The important point here is you need to choose a vehicle you can fix, have the knowledge and tools as well as be able to get parts and carry or access space to do it. I hope HOWA gets a home base where nomads can have a facility to visit and get major repairs or builds done in time of need. It is good to be self reliant but for many here that is not possible. Thank you to all those that help and enlighten those thinking about what they will face as a nomad.

I would love to volunteer for a service like that. Problem is with the location of this home base. Where would it be? I'm assuming somewhere in the southwest. But usually these large crippling problems happen everywhere else. But yes, a place where people can get cheap, quality fixes would be nice.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

It's been a few weeks since we fixed all 20 coolant leaks, the big one being the cracked cylinder head. Good news to report, not one drip on the ground in 2 weeks! The cylinder head crack braze repair was weeping, so I took a product called Blue Devil Block Sealer and poured it right into cylinder head through the temp sensor port and ran the engine for 45 minutes and drove it for an hour. I was skeptical and unsure of what this mysterious fluid would do. I took others advice and isolated all the auxiliary coolant stuff from the engine. This fluid flowing in the coolant in just the engine and radiator seemed to do the trick. Going to leave it just like that for a few months and then might flush the coolant and refill with all new coolant and plumb all the coolant lines back the way they are supposed to be.

On my quest to perfect the crazy auxiliary coolant setup, the system was having trouble with the old 3 way manual ball valve setup. That valve was just above the radiator cap, which caused air to get trapped there. I would have to cycle the valve every time I fired the Espar boiler up to bleed the air out. Interesting enough, this was not a problem when the engine was heating the coolant auxiliary loop. And the automatic air purge valve was hiding other issues, not cooperating with the radiator cap and stuff. So I ripped all that out and found this valve, which they call a heater core bypass valve.

This isn't technically a 3 way valve, but I made it into a 3 way valve. Fluid enters the valve through the "in" port from the Espar boiler. From there, the valve either directs flow left or right to "1" and "2". On the right, or "2" side, there is just an extra port that I just plugged. Port "1" goes the engine block for to heat the block on cold mornings. Port "2" goes to the auxiliary loop that works the cab heat, hot tub heat exchanger, rear air heater, and water heater, in that order. The old setup used to heat the water heater first, but that was really dumb, so I plumbed it the other way around while I had it all ripped apart. This winter I got tired of waiting an hour for the water in the water heater to get hot enough so I could finally get heat in the cab.

On the climate control panel there was an knob that used to work a damper that allowed you to choose inside or outside air. There are so many air gaps in the cab that it was really useless so that got ripped out when I first got the van and sealed the outside air inlet with duct tape. So I got some throttle cable from the auto store and hooked that up to that 3 way coolant valve. Now I can switch what the Espar boiler heats right from the driver seat! It's so simple and easy, I don't know why I didn't think about doing this before!

I hung this tank from the passenger side mirror when I was diagnosing the air lock problem in the coolant system. Wasn't planning on installing it, but during the diagnosing, I thought it would be really nice to have the tank so you can have a visual check to see if you had coolant flow. Also was going to need it since we separated the auxiliary coolant system from the engine and didn't have the radiator. So found a sweet spot next to the passenger footwell. So nice to just drill holes through the exterior body and through some bolts in. It was tight for the hoses under the floor because the wheel well was there.

The hose on the right only had about 2" of clearance so I got lucky and really needed these 90 degree hose adapters. The results are everything I wanted. Been driving around and it works great, every time! Only downside right now is that there is no heat when the engine is running. I have to fire up the Espar boiler to get heat. But hopefully that is temporary while we check to see if that cylinder head repair will hold up. At some point I'll post a schematic of the coolant system. It's kind of a mess without that, and there have been so many versions, I have chicken scratch notes everywhere.

 

[Jraulpilot1983]

Pandemic. Riots. Forest fires. Murder hornets. Economic collapse. Gee willy, things have really hit an all time low. It's worse now than back in 2012 when zombies were out and about and the world was going to end, according to certain calendars. Maybe they were 8 years off.

But that was back when I got a military truck to ride out the apocalypse, which didn't happen, so I was stuck with a really cool expedition vehicle. I have a thread on that mess if ya'll are interested. That's been fun and all, but this pandemic quarantine got me thinking again. Employment hanging like a big unknown, and cost of housing and taxes and such increasing due to the craziness that's happening, maybe it's time to go full-time on the road? Will need something more appropriate. Something to walk around in. Easy to maintain. And won't end up as a giant rust bucket. Why not a step van!

[size=small]Studying step vans in their natural habitat. Getting motivation and ideas.
[/size]

[size=small]After months of self debating during quarantine with an unknown future, I settled on the specs in a van I was looking for. Diesel, manual transmission with overdrive, driver and passenger doors, rear barn doors, solid metal roof, and not being too ridiculously long where I can't fit into parking lots and such. So after 22 hours of driving, we ended up with a 1993 P30 Grumman 15' with 4BT Cummins engine and NV4500 transmission. Only thing we didn't get that we wanted was a partition wall/door between the cab and storage area in back. She could also use some 4wd, since this 2wd almost got us permanently stuck in the sellers field where it was parked. We'll add that to the list of minor things to do.[/size]

[size=small]

[/size]
[size=small][size=small]The day of purchase.
[/size][/size]


Sitting in a field for who knows how long, it was very dirty, had some surface rust on chassis, missing part of the passenger seatbelt, missing an inner fender well, and something was not right with the overdrive gear as it feels like it's just not there like we're in neutral. But it cold started right up and drove well up to almost 60mph. Made the 700 mile drive home on one tank, without overdrive, so that was a huge plus! The possibilities are endless! So many ideas, my mind is racing around in circles, or maybe figure 8's. But before we can get to the cool build stuff, we need to park her, and do a full on cavity search to see exactly what we have and what kind of hole we potentially dug ourselves into. The future is uncertain, and so is this build. After all, this thing was built by the company that made the Apollo Lunar Lander and now makes canoes. Canoes. Cummins powered. Hmmm...


[size=small][size=small]Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the Cummins Canoe![/size][/size]

A very good start to your "project".
Those aluminum Bodies are tough. Looking forward to the outcome of "the built".

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Yep, this thing is pretty tough. But the outcome will never end as long as things keep breaking on me!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Is spring here yet? Boy, it's cold, but good thing for the diesel heater! Staying nice and toasty inside!

Doing my best to keep the batteries charged up. But If the diesel heat isn't running inside, the battery compartment drops below 5 degrees Celsius and the batteries are locked out of charging. No point in cleaning off the solar panels if they won't take a charge.

When I open the door to let heat in, and the batteries are super cold, they aren't happy and take forever to warm up when it's really cold, like maybe the next day they will fully warmed up to take a charge.

Solution, battery heater! But the pad heaters made for lithium batteries almost cost as much as the batteries! Through some research, I found another solution at a fraction of the cost. Picked up a tank heater pad, the ones you stick to your black/gray tanks to stop your waste from freezing. Figured if it was good enough for crap, it would be good for batteries!

Snuck the heat pad right along the sides of both batteries. Didn't use the peel and stick, just friction and some tape holds it in place. Heat pad has built in thermostat so I just had to wire it up to a fused circuit and good to go. Now I can turn that on and the batteries will always be warm enough to operate efficiently! It draws 78 watts, hopefully the duty cycle is low and doesn't pull more power out of the battery than we're trying to put in!

 

[kklowell]

That looks like a good solution to the problem. Hopefully it stays sunny so the panels work.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Yep, was only like $30 on the interwebs.

 

[Calypso]

Is spring here yet? Boy, it's cold, but good thing for the diesel heater! Staying nice and toasty inside!

Doing my best to keep the batteries charged up. But If the diesel heat isn't running inside, the battery compartment drops below 5 degrees Celsius and the batteries are locked out of charging. No point in cleaning off the solar panels if they won't take a charge.

When I open the door to let heat in, and the batteries are super cold, they aren't happy and take forever to warm up when it's really cold, like maybe the next day they will fully warmed up to take a charge.

Solution, battery heater! But the pad heaters made for lithium batteries almost cost as much as the batteries! Through some research, I found another solution at a fraction of the cost. Picked up a tank heater pad, the ones you stick to your black/gray tanks to stop your waste from freezing. Figured if it was good enough for crap, it would be good for batteries!

Snuck the heat pad right along the sides of both batteries. Didn't use the peel and stick, just friction and some tape holds it in place. Heat pad has built in thermostat so I just had to wire it up to a fused circuit and good to go. Now I can turn that on and the batteries will always be warm enough to operate efficiently! It draws 78 watts, hopefully the duty cycle is low and doesn't pull more power out of the battery than we're trying to put in!

I was having some of the same concerns about solar, and batteries and colder temps.

I’m thinking about putting in in floor heated pads in walkway and under water storage areas, but guess it would be a good idea to do battery bank area as well. Here we open cabinets move things away from walls when it gets wicked cold so air can get to pipes, I imagine that’s the same concept here.

I know the Lit Ion batteries are the “best” but does that include subzero freezing conditions? Would a deep cycle or marine be good or are these batteries different as they aren’t cold cranking a car?

Can’t you charge the batteries off the cars alternator? Yes it uses gas but it would keep them from drying out or whatever that’s called when you basically fried it’s ability to hold charge, wouldn’t it?

People here keep saying solar is too expensive, that I need a generator. Which I just don’t get their logic. Solar is passive energy and silent and clean and free. Although I do live in an economy based on oil here, solar steals their jobs, or something.

May I ask where you live? I. Trying to read through your Canoe thread, it’s very helpful… I love all the pictures. It’s just a lot to process.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Anything heated using electricity will be unpractical unless you run a generator or plug into the grid. Diesel is the way to go. Some people have done hydronic floor heating, but you'll have to sacrifice even more height for that. I just installed a heat pad for my house batteries. We'll see how that works out.

Don't have any plumbing outside. Put your heater in the same compartment as all your plumbing.

LiFePo4 batteries are the bees knees. But yes, they have some serious drawbacks. You cannot charge them when they are below freezing or else they will blow up. So you should have charger lockout protection and find a way to keep them from freezing. If the batteries are inside your living space, you'll be fine. Lead acid batteries don't have a problem with the cold. But unless they are sealed, they will leak gas so they should be outside. They also weigh twice as much as LiFePo4 and you'll need twice as many batteries to equal the same power as the LiFePo4 batteries. No matter what batteries you go with, just realize all the pros and cons and what works best for you. They all can be dangerous and demand our respect.

A good solar setup goes a long way. But it's expensive, especially if it's not done properly. A good setup will automatically take care of the batteries and you won't have any issues. And yes, there are many ways to charge your house batteries from your alternator when you're driving.

There are lots of good threads already on this forum with all of your answers. You have to read lots and try to retain everything. Good luck, I'm working on that too! Right now I'm spending the winter various places between NJ and VA. Enjoy the build thread. I mainly did it so I have record of what I did so I can look back at it in the future. It escalated more than I thought, oh well. You should make your own to document your conversion. Photos are good and people will help you along the way as they have helped me.

 

[Calypso]

Anything heated using electricity will be unpractical unless you run a generator or plug into the grid. Diesel is the way to go. Some people have done hydronic floor heating, but you'll have to sacrifice even more height for that. I just installed a heat pad for my house batteries. We'll see how that works out.

Don't have any plumbing outside. Put your heater in the same compartment as all your plumbing.

LiFePo4 batteries are the bees knees. But yes, they have some serious drawbacks. You cannot charge them when they are below freezing or else they will blow up. So you should have charger lockout protection and find a way to keep them from freezing. If the batteries are inside your living space, you'll be fine. Lead acid batteries don't have a problem with the cold. But unless they are sealed, they will leak gas so they should be outside. They also weigh twice as much as LiFePo4 and you'll need twice as many batteries to equal the same power as the LiFePo4 batteries. No matter what batteries you go with, just realize all the pros and cons and what works best for you. They all can be dangerous and demand our respect.

A good solar setup goes a long way. But it's expensive, especially if it's not done properly. A good setup will automatically take care of the batteries and you won't have any issues. And yes, there are many ways to charge your house batteries from your alternator when you're driving.

There are lots of good threads already on this forum with all of your answers. You have to read lots and try to retain everything. Good luck, I'm working on that too! Right now I'm spending the winter various places between NJ and VA. Enjoy the build thread. I mainly did it so I have record of what I did so I can look back at it in the future. It escalated more than I thought, oh well. You should make your own to document your conversion. Photos are good and people will help you along the way as they have helped me.

Thank you! I will do that. I am sorry if I overtook the tread. I need to learn the “rules” of forums. I think you’re right I should try to keep it all in one location so it’s not jumping all over everyone else’s feeds. That way I can easily refer back to it. Thank you again for your patience and help.
Caly

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Been thinking a lot about the couch. It's nice to have, but it sure has its faults. I thought I took good things and left out the bad things about other van couches. Right now, the couch doesn't get enough support for your legs while the butt cushion keeps sliding off. I didn't get it right, but came up with a solution!

First step, add some nutserts to mount supports.

These support legs lock up and fold down when you pull up on them.

Mounted a simple board and now we have extra fold up support! Feels much better to sit on. Can now sit cross legged without falling out of position and can lay down and actually sleep on the couch with the extra width.

Easily folds down out of the way when not needed or in the way. Can access drawers when you flip board up. Also added a recessed handle to access under couch.

Not much storage space under here, but space is precious when living in a van! Got shock support too hold up plywood when accessing stuff under there.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

When I do laundry, or take a shower, I always end up dropping things all over on random things to try and dry. Not anymore, we got a solution for that! Also, the electric cab air conditioning stopped working. And I got carried away with other stuff. So glad everything mechanical is going great! I do need tires really bad though.

Moving to the big leagues! Found a retractable clothes line to stretch across the cab for easy drying. The original fan stopped working, so I replaced it with another fan.

The original electric air conditioner has seen better days. Cleaned it out, greased the bearing, and she is almost good as new!

Mounted old fan for the passenger. Power to both fans is wired to one switch on the dashboard marked "A/C". Each fan has it's own 3 position switch for off, low, and high.

Had an old Maglite and charger laying around from many years ago. Figured it could live a good life here. Just hardwired it up behind those other charge ports for the intercom and dash cam systems.

I use tools way too much, thanks to all these breakdowns! So I got some wrench holders. Makes great use of wall space and more organized than being thrown in a drawer. Also mounted a bunch of storage baskets everywhere.

More baskets! Finally, somewhere to put all the spices and stuff. Also been meaning to hang this magnet thing. I didn't trust the knifes floating around up there, so I left the sheathes on them. Hooks on the wall and bungee cords do great at keeping the cooker in place while cooking and driving.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Annoying things keep pecking at you sometimes. Not big things, it's the little things over time that get to you...

The biggest small annoyance has been the upper cushion for the couch. It always falls down when driving. And when you sit there, you're always fighting it off the back of your head. Thought of all kinds of solutions. Bungee cord was always at the bottom of the list since I figured having a thick, round cord digging into your back would always be uncomfortable. Until I discovered flat bungee cords! Works great!

I was on a bungee kick. Got these above the kitchen table for extra light storage like clothes and stuff.

And in the cabinets above the kitchen table finally got shelves and organization.

And shoes! Made this shelf only half deep so tall muck boots can be stored in there. Also picked up this acrylic stick on mirror.

And the library cabinet has all the books, movies, and games organized. Don't forget the road atlas!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Winter is the worst. Why? Because I can't drive with the doors open! And when it's nice out, don't want things falling out of the cab...

The side doors flip flop and make terrible noises. Made some door bushings out of some nylon pieces laying around that were supposed to be sliding door bushing. I couldn't figure out how they were supposed to work, so they got cut up and drilled and tapped some holes and this is what I came up with. Instantly silences the door while driving and in the wind!

Also found a sweet spot to store a camp chair and shower platform.

The tires are really old and going bald. Don't want to risk getting stuck. Buy six new tires? No way! Just get these traction boards when they're on sale instead!

Found these tow hooks that off a 1990's Chevy pickup or suv. Just simply needed to drill holes in the chassis. They fit great on the step van! Now I sleep better at some of the backroad BLM campsites and know that in a pinch, the van can get pulled out.