I'm (almost) officially a (step)vandweller again!!

[Willy]

Almost ready to live in!

 

[Willy]

Good enuf for now, I made the front bench a bit wider and, at 6' 4" long, a tallish guy can sleep on it. Have my medium sized extractor fan in the top left back corner of the bed and my 1000W inverter under the shorter 'bed' step. I put the steps in for my dog Coco, who's gettin' on in years, so sue can come and snuggle.

 

[Willy]

Well, the last of my photos, for now, but more coming cuz not finished with the build. Saved a pile of money by getting those entertainment units, and the excess wood from them was put to good use. The wood is also of higher quality than what I can generally afford to get.

 I also decided to give an MPPT charge controller a shot and will see how it does during cloudy weather.
 

 

[karl]

Lookin' good!

Thanks for the pics.

 

[BC Guy]

Great work. I was about 2 blocks from H4H today and I did not even think of it. Duh.

 

[masterplumber]

Looking Good Willy! I like the major use of recycled material. If I ever do another build I'd like to try that approach and see just how cheaply I could build it.

 

[Willy]

I shoulda mentioned that the cost for me was in Canadian dollars so, that being the case, those 2 entertainment units came to abt $50 US. I also truly suck at finish carpentry, so pre-made stuff is a real bonus. H4H is an awesome place to pick up cheap construction materials seeing as those sheets of 4'x8' laminate would've set me back anywhere from $60 to $100 EACH were I to buy them at Rona.

Looks like I still have plenty of work ahead, but I can live in the rig at the same time, seeing as the major stuff has been done. Next thing is gonna be my tearing down the ceiling panels and replacing the pink fibreglass insulation with rigid foam. Then, I'm gonna use 2 sided foam tape between the aluminum ceiling panels and the ribs. Got a whole pile of plastic rivets to help hold things up (yet again at H4H); now just gotta pull out all those crummy composite plastic rivets holding the panels up.

As an aside, and don't know if I mentioned this, it cost me about the same in fuel to drive this rig (350 w 3spd auto on propane) from Abbotsford to Osoyoos as it did to drive my truck (F-250 4x4 w, 4spd auto and 351 W, gas). . and with the stepvan having a dragging brake and 1 cylinder barely firing (plug wire that wuz hooped and replaced the caliper). That's not bad at all, given that I'm also carrying more stuff. ..Willy.

 

[karl]

Sounds like you have moved up in comfort AND economy, whats not to like?

I often wish there were a H4H type of store in my area, on the other hand, being in the trades offers me some bargain/free stuff as well.

I really like repurposing and salvage for lots of stuff. Probably gonna miss having sheds full of junk when I sell my sticksn' bricks....but not the taxes and maintenance.

Keep sharing your progress- I'm a Steppy junkie.

 

[Willy]

I'm seriously thinking about swapping the tranny for either a 5 spd standard or a 4 spd auto (w. lockup T converter). Leery of the standard cuz of my left leg but, if worse comes to worse and the leg get's screwd, I can always use it as a 'crashbox' and get to help. Also wanna get it weighed and, if it turns out to be 8800 lbs (or less), I might convert it from duallies to single wheels. I dunno.. hear it gives better MPG w. singles, but haven't really studied up on it. ..Willy.

 

[sassypickins]

Ok, I'm drooling.

 

[highdesertranger]

very nice Willy. the super singles will give you better gas mileage. but then you will have different rims in the back than the front. are you planning on changing the front too? highdesertranger

 

[karl]

Thirsty gained almost 2 mpg on the highway with the OD( 4 spd auto) and lockup. No noticeable difference 'round town over the 3 spd.
Sure is nice to be able to listen to the radio on the highway and not be turning 3500 rpm.

I like to shift for myself, and I hear you about the left leg- stop and go can get real old with a wore out knee. I'm reasonably satisfied with the auto.

No doubt four wheels roll easier than 6, but I don't get near as much roll and sway as I did with my SRW. Don't know about the supers.

 

[Patrick46]

Nice job man!!

Looks great!

 

[Sagan9]

Hey Willy,

The step van looks great and I have a few questions.

You mentioned you got the same distance for money out of the step van as you did out of your truck... what was the MPG of your truck?

Are you planning on piping into the propane to power a stove in the step van?

What were the dimensions inside your van, before and after you put up the walls (especially interested in height)?

You mentioned using Rock Wool for the insulation... was that all you used? And just how effective is its for sound deadening?

Keep up the good work

 

[Willy]

very nice Willy.  the super singles will give you better gas mileage.  but then you will have different rims in the back than the front.  are you planning on changing the front too?  highdesertranger

  I was thinking about replacing the front spindles with ones from/for a 1 ton with singles. Would just put singles on the rear, with the drum hanging out, till I could swap it out for a proper SWD rear. I also have 4 new 16" tires on Ford 8 bolt (single) rims. I think that they would fit on the Chev.

 * Sagan9* Regarding the MPG, my truck was getting 11-13 mpg going through the mountains. I fully intend to tap into the (unused) vapour port on 1 of my tanks for both a stove and a furnace. I'll have to get back to you on
the interior dimensions but, off the top of my head, I'd say it's around 6'1" tall, 14" from the back of the drivers' seat, and abt 6'4" wide.. and that's AFTER the interior walls/insulation were put in. The insulation I used is called Roxul (just looked it up), and one of the selling points for it is the ability to 'absorb'/deaden sound. So far, I've found that to be the case. Unfortunately, the place I bought it from didn't have the rigid board version of Roxul ( THIS ), so I had to use batts and cut them in half (to 1/2 the thickness) in order to use in my walls. This gave me R-8, which is sufficient, and is equivalent to polystyrene.. though MUCH cheaper. ..Willy.

 

[highdesertranger]

willy what rear axle do you have. also on the front I believe you can change the hub and rotor I believe the spindle is the same. check this out before buying anything. karl that is very true about the roll and sway, a dually is much more stabile also gets much better traction and there is the safety factor in case of a blow out. it's also very easy to change a dually tire you don't have to pick the vehicle up very high, but them damn rocks like to get caught between them, with a dually now you have 6 tires to worry about. so it's kinda of a trade off. pluses and minuses to everything in life. highdesertranger

 

[Willy]

OK.. I did a bit of measuring annnnd.. it's 6'1" high inside and 78 1/2" interior width. Can't remember wut the gear ratio is, but it's a bit taller than the F-250 has, which definitely makes for highway gears. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to go up steep backwoods inclines, due to the unmodified engine running on propane. Luckily, it still has the original gas tank mounted under the rear, so could convert it to dual fuel. Ideally, I'd like to bump up the compression and get back some of the power lost cuz of propane. ..Willy.

 

[karl]

The ford rims will fit the Chevy (assuming the Chev is running 8 lug 16" rather than 10 lug 19.5"s) just the center hole is larger.

HDR- ya, you're correct on all counts- I added 2'' spacers between the duals so I could run single chains, the added bonus was it doesn't throw rocks like it usta.
Think you're right on the front hubs.

Willy -If you do change to a 700 transmission, it's 1st gear is a tad lower than the 400 to give a boost on those inclines.
Sounds like you may have a taller final drive than my 4:10....didn't think they used less than 4:10.....had a '78 with 5:32 and 350/400 combo and 20,000 # gvw - 6 mpg on a good day!!!!!

 

[Willy]

I worked it out yesterday and I got abt. 6.4 mpg over the mountains to Osoyoos. That works out to getting 11.43 mpg on gas, so propane pays off here. That's also with the dragging brake and hooped plug wire.

That 700 tranny, if it's a bolt-on proposition, sounds good. Just have to wait till pick-s-part has a sale on 1. ..Willy.

 

[highdesertranger]

yeah once that plug wire is repaired you should notice a significant increase in mpg. highdesertranger