In the Planning Stage

[JustPlainJim]

Hello everyone,

A little about me; I'm 44 years old and live in lower Michigan. I grew up in Elkhart Indiana (RV capitol of the world), so plenty of places to get parts for my van home project. I have a beautiful 18 year old daughter thats attending beauty school and on her way to a great start in life (she is my life).

I love to camp, fish, boating, anything to do with water. I love lighthouses and looking at the stars, planets and such through a telescope. My biggest hobby though is I'm an Amateur Radio (Ham) operator, and that is going to be figured in with my construction plans. I have a wonderful girlfriend of 3 years and hope she wants to share this adventuresome lifestyle with me in the near future.

I've been doing a lot of reading, research and watching a ton of youtube videos for almost a year now.

I have a plan and have time to get ready for my new start on life so to speak.

I was going to use Jim as my username but it was taken lol. If someone wants to come up with an abbreviation thats fine. I thought "JP" or "JPJ", just don't call me late for dinner.....

 

[papas34]

JPJ welcome to the group.
Nice to hear you say such nice things about your daughter.
I'm hanging out near the Lake Havasu, Quartzsite areas for the winter and have seen a few ham antennas......hard to hide them with a rv.
You can find lots of water access to the Colorado River.....not much white water with all the dams, but still worthwhile.

What are your plans? What is your rig? We love photos.

 

[WheelEstate USA]

Welcome Jim.

Quartzsite has a Ham event here beginning Jan 19th. Maybe you can catch it next year in your travels.
Good luck with your van build.

Pics please

 

[Johnny Utah]

Welcome Jim, sounds like you're a fellow planner like myself. I wish you well in getting everything together and starting on your adventure. Do you have your rig already picked out?

 

[JustPlainJim]

Thanks folks for the warm welcome. Looks like I'll have to make plans to visit Quartzsite to meet some of you and check out the Ham events and fellow Ham operators. My mom lives in Albuquerque so I won't be to far of the beaten path.

I don't have my rig as of yet, although I have a really good idea what I plan on getting thanks to this and other websites (google is my friend).

I have a picture of what I'm planning on, but don't know how to post it on the quick reply right here. It is a newer Chevy extended van with a camper hightop installed. It was featured on one of Bob's websites (the install), but I can't find it right now (maybe you know which one I'm talking about). I saw it and fell in love right away. If anyone knows the van and link, can you put it on here or send it to me please?

Thanks again for making me feel at home here. I will probably have some questions in the future.

PS: Scratch that part about not finding the picture or website, here it is.
http://defyingnormal.com/blog/category/articles/

 

[christine]

Oh, that's me! That's my blog, and high top. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Patrick46]

Hiya PlaneJim!!

Welcome from Oregon!!

 

[steamjam1]

Welcome from Norcal!

 

[JustPlainJim]

Patrick and steamjam; nice to meet you guys too.

@ christine: I saw Gypsy and instantly fell in love.
Your setup is what I'm going to do as far as the Chevy extended van and huge camper high top. I figure if I'm going to live in it, then I want the room. I'm 6'-3" tall so the high top is a must.

I'm glad you had such wonderful experience with Fiberine, but they are a long ways away from me and I'm only a few miles from the Elkhart Indiana area so I should be able to find it here. Also I see quite a few vans with big high tops around the area, so I may be able to buy one already done.

If I have any questions I'll send you a PM, Thanks.
BTW, hows your conversion coming along???

 

[christine]

@JPJ
It's coming along. A bunch of freelance work has been consuming my time for the past couple weeks so no progress lately, but we'll be starting up again soon. We're gearing up to install electrical and solar--it's going to be fun!

At 6' 3" you'll have just an inch or two to spare if you put a 30" camper top on your van. Less if you're wearing shoes or if you put lots of thick insulation under the floor and attached to the ceiling. Discountvantruck.com has high tops, and they ship from Indiana.

 

[Patrick46]

I'm 6'-3" tall so the high top is a must.

Sounds like you might wanna just get a stepvan.

Aluminum, so no rust, and lightweight = good fuel mileage

tall enough to stand in, (just gotta get one tall enough from the get-go)

nice and square, so it's easy to build the interior. nor crazy wall angles to deal with.

and because it's already tall enough, then you won't hafta buy nor install a high top unit for it.


plus, stepvans are just so much fun to drive!

 

[blkjak]

welcome from s.w. florida .... blkjak

 

[JustPlainJim]

@JPJ
It's coming along. A bunch of freelance work has been consuming my time for the past couple weeks so no progress lately, but we'll be starting up again soon. We're gearing up to install electrical and solar--it's going to be fun!

At 6' 3" you'll have just an inch or two to spare if you put a 30" camper top on your van. Less if you're wearing shoes or if you put lots of thick insulation under the floor and attached to the ceiling. Discountvantruck.com has high tops, and they ship from Indiana.

@ christine; That sounds perfect, it sure beats walking around hunched halfway over or crawling around on knees.

Good luck on the rest of your build. I'm interested to see your setup also.

Mine will have bed in the back, Galley (kitchenette) on passenger side by the side doors (forward of bed) and haven't decided on the rest of the van layout yet.

Take Care Jim