Cummins Canoe (A Stepvan Story)

[rivertrader]

I would start out with replacing all fluids/filters everywhere;
-trans oil
-engine oil
-rear diff lube
-radiator coolant
-brake fluid/flush
-p steering fluid
-oil, fuel, air filters

Then I would tackle the rubber;
-check tire date codes (over 7 years replace)
-belts
-hoses
-wipers
-door seals
-vacuum lines

After that, I would look at all replacables;
-brake pads/discs/drums
-coolant thermostat
-water pump
-having injectors cleaned
-exhaust
-brake lines
-battery/electrical connections/grounds
-lighting/wiring

Spending a few more hundred $$ upfront, and getting it completely reliable will save you potential thousands $$ later at a repair shop, not to mention the hassle of a breakdown in a desolate area, or being without a place to stay while in the shop. You can build out the van however you want, but securing it's reliability is paramount to keeping the good times going....have fun !

 

[rivertrader]

I agree completely get to get the preventative maintenance up on it it'll go forever

 

[Calypso]

Looks like you’ve been very productive and being a Sherlock Holmes, solving all the issues.

 

[rivertrader]

Looks like you’ve been very productive and being a Sherlock Holmes, solving all the issues.

It's all good just take the all out of the issues. I will continue to accept that as a compliment River

 

[frodo2222]

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.
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[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]

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

That is FANTASTIC! the 4bt might be a bit low in power but you are driving a wall down the freeway sooo..I have the 6bt in my truck and it is fantastic..Specially the fuel MPG!! Congrats

 

[frodo2222]

She drives, sure. But she needs a lot of loving. We got a step van because they are much easier and cheaper to maintain than a regular van. We sacrificed power and fancy options for simple reliability. Hopefully it was a smart move and won't need the emergency money. Luckily, I can do all the mechanic work myself so that saves a boat load, erm, van load of money. No way I could afford a mechanic to do all the stuff we're about to do to this thing. Breaking down is always in the back of my mind. I try to get it out of my head by being willing to accept breakdowns as "extensions of adventure". But like you say, I think it boils down to the fact that any vehicle can breakdown, no matter how old or new it is. My methodology is just to try and stick to something with good track records and then roll the dice.

But please, throw me some suggestions. The only bad criticism is no criticism. That's how forums work, right? Everyone has been telling me to be mindful of weight. It's a careful balance. Wood studs are heavy. Aluminum studs are expensive. We'll see during the build where we can save weight.

That military truck is my daily driver/work truck. Driving that around while I fix up the van.

The ONE thing I would do just to be sure B$ doing anything else is a oil test, that will tell you a lot about the engine and what it may need if anything of course its a Cummins soo.. but better safe then sorry..my 93 6BT did oil test everything Great so then I fixed up it's now on 360 thou and still trucking

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Yep, we're keeping up with maintenance, but stuff just happens. It's the nature of a house on wheels. The B series Cummins are great to work on. We just had bad luck in the beginning with the wrong size dipstick, oh well. Check to make sure your dipstick is the right length before you buy a vehicle! And no need for oil test anymore with the new engine!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Ok, so the tires were really bad. Like even for my standards, and JB Weld wasn't going to help! They had to go. Some other electrical odds and ends.

Unfortunate that I had to buy 6 of these, but if the tires are too old or worn out, you really need to get new tires. Hopefully these will treat us well over the next few years with minimal plugs.

Sometimes when the van has been sitting for awhile, you can tell the starter battery isn't fully charged when you go to start the engine. It always started, but the hesitation on some of those colder days is unnerving. So I thought about getting a small solargizer and mounting to the hood to always keep the starter battery topped off. But those are quite expensive and there is already a sizable solar setup on the van, so why not just use that? So I picked up an Amp L Start. This little device charges the starter battery off of the house batteries once the house batteries are charged and the voltage is high enough to activate the Amp L Start and start charging the starter batteries up to 15 amps, depending on how much the starter battery needs charging.

The Amp L Start is all automatic, but I like control of things, so it's now on a switch. Got a whole bank of switches now just outside the electrical cabinet. These switches are on the side of the kitchen table seat, so initially people were sometimes accidentally hitting the switches on and off with their legs. to solve that, found these switch guards at an old school electronics store. The switches control the fridge, air compressor, battery heater, and Amp L Start. One of these days we'll label them, but for now the colors make sense to me.

 

[Calypso]

Ok, so the tires were really bad. Like even for my standards, and JB Weld wasn't going to help! They had to go. Some other electrical odds and ends.

Unfortunate that I had to buy 6 of these, but if the tires are too old or worn out, you really need to get new tires. Hopefully these will treat us well over the next few years with minimal plugs.

Sometimes when the van has been sitting for awhile, you can tell the starter battery isn't fully charged when you go to start the engine. It always started, but the hesitation on some of those colder days is unnerving. So I thought about getting a small solargizer and mounting to the hood to always keep the starter battery topped off. But those are quite expensive and there is already a sizable solar setup on the van, so why not just use that? So I picked up an Amp L Start. This little device charges the starter battery off of the house batteries once the house batteries are charged and the voltage is high enough to activate the Amp L Start and start charging the starter batteries up to 15 amps, depending on how much the starter battery needs charging.

The Amp L Start is all automatic, but I like control of things, so it's now on a switch. Got a whole bank of switches now just outside the electrical cabinet. These switches are on the side of the kitchen table seat, so initially people were sometimes accidentally hitting the switches on and off with their legs. to solve that, found these switch guards at an old school electronics store. The switches control the fridge, air compressor, battery heater, and Amp L Start. One of these days we'll label them, but for now the colors make sense to me.

Now you have ease of mind with the tires… which can be priceless.
My van has this red switch on the floor which must be turned before starting the engine. Cant remember what it’s called. I know with my jeep it drained out due to the electronics when I didn’t go anywhere for forever the past few years.

One of the vans I had looked at before had that wristband that had to be used to unlock doors and start engine. It did t have keys. I think it’s a FedEx thing. But it would of always had a drain on the battery, so the guy just kept it out when he wasn’t using it. I thought I’d have to disconnect that if possible, not sure much for the battery drain, but because I’d forget about the wristband and lock myself out or lose it.

I need to read up more on car and leisure batteries.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

The switch you speak of if a battery disconnect switch? Switch that completely disconnects the starter battery in case of parasitic draws.

Sometimes people put smaller, hidden switches to use as security kill switches. They usually just cut the power to the ignition or a power control relay so the vehicle won't start.

 

[AmargosaWayne]

I have the same tires on my cargo van.

Do you use tire covers when the step van is sitting for a while? Keeping the UV rays off helps the sidewalls last.

I also had the same tires on my Tioga Class C. Recently had to replace six.

 

[AmargosaWayne]

"Solargizer" Hadn't heard that term before.

Solar generators and solargizers.

I had enough roof space to add a 200 watt array that charges the vehicle and house battery when sitting. Separate from the 400W array primarily for the refrigeration bank.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Oh nice. I've never used the Kumho's before. How do you like them? Not a bad idea to cover the tires. I wear out the tread before dry rot happens. But yes, replacing 6 tires at one time hurts.

The small solar panel units that are made to trickle charge your starter batteries are known as solargizers, or that's what I've been used to calling them. They are very common on military trucks that do a lot sitting around. How does everyone else keep their starter batteries charged up?

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Roadtrips are good for the soul and bonds between friends! But in order to play, there is always work to get done! Also glad the van has 6 belt seats.

"Business business business..."

The good thing about having other people travel with you is that when you need a break from driving, you can switch drivers and sit in the back and play some Mario Kart! Super extra convenient when everyone can drive manual too!

Ran the hot tub. One night it got down to about 12 degrees F. I had my doubts if the hot tub would work. Filled with some 55 degree well water and in about 5 hours had 100 degree hot tub water. To help achieve this we added a tarp and moving blanket on top. It was very cool watching all the steam come off this mess.

The pump and heater ran non stop full power in order to keep up, but the temperature was going down about a degree per hour once we removed the tarp and blanket. We think we were losing heat through evaporation so we tossed in some soap to make some bubbles and that actually worked. Could also use some type of insulation under the tub. Right now it just sits on a tarp. Need a better way to regulate temperature other than manually opening and closing valve on inlet hose in hot tub. Would also like a system to regulate temperature during the day when not in use so when we need to use it, no need to wait hours for it to come up to temperature.

 

[bullfrog]

Party on! LOL!!!

 

[Calypso]

Love the to do list. Wondered what your layout was on the inside.

I have tons of the Reflectix for the floor, I’ll swap ya for a soak.
So are you pumping that through your diesel espar heater?

I used to use this electric water heater coil thing that I’d put in a mug with an egg to boil it when traveling … maybe if you got a ton of those.

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

So glad the to do list isn't longer as I already have my hands full!

You can swing by anytime for a soak in the hot tub! Just bring a jug of diesel and you got your ticket in!

The passenger seat is more than just a seat, it's the hot tub control center. To heat the hot tub water I connect two hoses to these brass quick disconnects, one in and one out. The pump sucks water out of tub, through a filter, through pump, through a heat exchanger, then back into the tub. The heat exchanger is behind the pump, under the seat where you can't see it, I'll get a better photo for the next post. The heat exchanger is a simple stainless steal plate design with four threaded holes, two for coolant in and out, and two for water in and out. The two fluids never mix, but due to the interchanging plates inside, heat is transferred from the hot coolant to the cool water. Coolant is constantly reheated by the diesel Espar hydronic heater. Lots of hoses, kind of complicated, working on drawing a decent schematic so people might understand how I did it all. The pump is activated by the switch and the 12v outlet is used to run air pump to inflate hot tub.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_heat_exchanger
Electricity is the most efficient form of heating as 100% of the energy you put in is transferred to heat. But at the same time, electricity is very inefficient for mobile dwellers since we can't carry so much electrical energy in a small package. Hence why diesel is used, much more Btu's available in a gallon of diesel versus a large battery bank. Those electric coil water heater things are great, but to heat up 250 gallons I would need like 1000 of them!

 

[Calypso]

I’m not sure I can help you “get babes”, I was a good wingman back in the day. But totally there for the cure cancer and trip to Mars… I’ll bring my towel (HGTU reference).

The seat/Hot tub thing is amazing .. you’re such a dork, it’s great!

 

[PlethoraOfGuns]

Haha, no worries about being the wingman, the hot tub does all the work for me. The whole time building up to the actual functioning hot tub, I was like Kevin Costner hearing voices...

 

[Calypso]

So what if you made a big egg boiler? Run it off a generator? Even if it’s just to keep it from freezing. And wouldn’t Reflectix base and cover help? Isn’t that the whole thing about it? You could lift it off the ground a bit on a base of 4x4 and and marine paint coated plywood, then Reflectix on top of that? a base that you could breakdown and store under the van or something. Right? Get it off the cold ground. Right? Idk
I have a few friends here who have wood fire heated hot tubs, and there’s nothing better than coming back from skiing or snow machining or mushing and popping into an outdoor hot tub.
I lived in Japan and went to the onsens (hot springs baths) and winter was my favorite with snowflakes falling down .. and at night. Ahhhh… that’s a rough life there, eh?