my 2005 Astro AWD conversion

[anm]

I ave a friend who lives full-time in a Astro AWD and wanted to be able to go wherever he wanted. So he put a 6 inch body lift on it and 35 inch mud tires. H goes wherever he wants!!

He also has 280 watts of solar and a motorcycle. He's married and they both fulltime in it so they set up a very elaborate camp and basically just sleep in the van.

I'm not going to that extreme, but I'm pleased to see that some people are! I was happy with the Astro's performance on its maiden voyage. There was a moment when I honestly thought I was going to get stuck, but the AWD did what it's supposed to do and got us out. It would have made a good Chevy ad!

As soon as I can I will have 100 watts of solar and a couple of t105 house batteries. My plan is to keep the house system separate from the starting system, but I will have an emergency plan just in case either battery goes dead.

I'm going to do everything in the van, so I want to make a hinge down table at the back for setting the stove on and doing food preparation. I'll probably come up with a tent-type arrangement that hooks on the open rear doors so I can use it as a shower, and possibly toilet, as well as for cooking (not all at once of course ). It'll probably just be a tarp and bungees.

In my case, I just have to accommodate myself, which makes it simpler though lonely sometimes. My wife died a number of years ago.

 

[akrvbob]

Andrew, the Astro has a real cult following and people do some pretty amazing things to them. They really are a great little platform to start with. There are numerous Astro/Safari forums where they discuss every possible kind of modificaions and someone there has had your problem before and will walk you through the fix. I built a shelf unit for a friend's Astro and she wanted to cook inside. So I made a super simple slide-out shelf that she sets here butane stove on to cook. Here's a link to a post on that build:
http://www.cheaprvliving.com/converting-astro-mini-van/

Also, give serious thought to turning your passenger seat around. It's just as simple as undoing 4 bolts, turning it around and re-bolting it. It gives you a GREAT reclining lounge chair and opens up you living area.

Also bear in ind the very low roof height. If you make your bed too high every time you sit up you will bang your head. We made my friends too high and she had to cut the legs down when she got sick of banging her head.
Bob

 

[anm]

Andrew, the Astro has a real cult following and people do some pretty amazing things to them. They really are a great little platform to start with. There are numerous Astro/Safari forums where they discuss every possible kind of modificaions and someone there has had your problem before and will walk you through the fix. I built a shelf unit for a friend's Astro and she wanted to cook inside. So I made a super simple slide-out shelf that she sets here butane stove on to cook. Here's a link to a post on that build:
http://www.cheaprvliving.com/converting-astro-mini-van/

Also, give serious thought to turning your passenger seat around. It's just as simple as undoing 4 bolts, turning it around and re-bolting it. It gives you a GREAT reclining lounge chair and opens up you living area.

Also bear in ind the very low roof height. If you make your bed too high every time you sit up you will bang your head. We made my friends too high and she had to cut the legs down when she got sick of banging her head.
Bob

What I've done with my shelf and bed is very similar to what you did for Katie! But I made the shelf a bit narrower, just the width of the five gallon Reliance water bottle, and the bed a bit longer. I already knew I wanted to be able to sit on the bed so I also made it lower.

I have thought about turning the passenger seat. Some guys on astrosafari.com have built a rotating base for the passenger seat. That would be ideal, but I will do it one way or the other.

I've looked at both astrosafari.com and astrosafarivans.com and they do all kinds of things to them, Corvette engines, 4WD transfer case (with high and low range and neutral (for better fuel economy)) instead of the AWD, swap transmissions, humongous wheels. Anyone with an Astro or a Safari must join those websites. They can supply all the technical expertise you will ever need.

 

[akrvbob]

My friend with the 6 inch lift has a swivel base for his seat because they are a couple and she wouldn't ride backwards while they are driving. He bought the swivel base online, it was expensive, $160 but it was easy. I've ridden backwards with my other friend Katie for a couple hundred miles and it isn't bad. She bolted on a seat belt so it is even legal.
Bob

 

[anm]

My friend with the 6 inch lift has a swivel base for his seat because they are a couple and she wouldn't ride backwards while they are driving. He bought the swivel base online, it was expensive, $160 but it was easy. I've ridden backwards with my other friend Katie for a couple hundred miles and it isn't bad. She bolted on a seat belt so it is even legal.
Bob

I just tried unbolting and turning the passenger seat around. It's easy to do, just 4 nuts, and then lifting it to rotate it. The lifting it is the hardest part! I looked at some of the seat swivel plates available and then measured my seat and found the hole spacing is different! If I decide to get one I will have to call them first and find out if they can drill new holes in it. It would sure be nice having a recliner in my living room...

 

[akrvbob]

Everyone I know who turned their seat around says it is the BEST thing they did in the conversion.
Bob

 

[Bdog1]

+1 on the swivel seat. Best mod contender.

Shop around for the base. There is a huge price range out there. I did one lately for a friend. Think I paid $50 at RV surplus.net. The bolt pattern had to be modified and I always over reinforce the floor!

 

[anm]

+1 on the swivel seat. Best mod contender.

Shop around for the base. There is a huge price range out there. I did one lately for a friend. Think I paid $50 at RV surplus.net. The bolt pattern had to be modified and I always over reinforce the floor!

Thanks for the tip about RV Surplus, they do indeed have swivel seat bases for $55!

 

[anm]

My latest enhancement to my Astro van is a cooking table. On my trial run I set the stove on the floor by the side door, which I didn't like. After I got home I made a folding table in the back of the van, it effectively creates space where there was none. The following pictures show it:

The table folded up:

And down:

My stove on the table:

I used a gate latch to prevent the table from being accidentally collapsed:

As I was building it, it occurred to me that I could make a full-width platform and have a gate latch on both sides. It would effectively add almost 3 feet to the length of the van. Throw a tarp over it to enclose the area, and viola, I could haul a string quartet around with me!

 

[akrvbob]

Very, very good! You have very creative ideas!
Bob

 

[anm]

My latest pictures are all to do with the bed which is almost a twin size (39x75). I decided to utilize Bob's idea and used a plywood backing for each cushion, set the foam on it, and stapled the fabric around it. I used screws and threaded inserts to attach the two seat cushions (I tend to over-engineer everything).

I cut three pieces of11/32 plywood, two to cover the bed fore and aft, and one for the table. I rounded all edges and corners to prevent it from wearing through the fabric:

I made the threaded inserts from 1/4" fender washers, rivnut inserts, with four holes drill for attaching them to the plywood. Four of these for each piece of plywood:

I laced the fender washers on with stainless steel safety-wire, the threaded insert drops into a hole drilled into the plywood:

and this is bed mode, the center piece just sets in there and seems secure enough:

and table mode:

The mattress is three inches thick, consisting of two inches of 'high density luxury foam' (almost the cheapest they sold!) with one inch of memory foam glued on top. I was concerned with it possibly being too thin but initial tests indicate that it is more than up to whatever I get up to.

In the pictures you can also see the Blue Seas fuse block that Bob recommended. I did quite a bit of searching, and I have to say that it seems to be the best (as in, it has all of the features) available. I have some more to do on the wiring, a couple of accessory outlets (we can't say cigarette anymore can we?), and led overhead lights. I still need a good house battery and a solar panel, but that'll have to wait 'til my finances recover from everything I've done so far.

The fabric I chose was heavy waterproof UV protected outdoor canvas, international orange. My fondness of orange stems from my time in Scotland where if I wore orange, people would assume I was a supporter of the Orange Order, which I am emphatically NOT, thus I never wore orange. Now I can and I feel liberated!

 

[anm]

Today was spent chasing down a new battery. I thought the old one seemed rather lethargic and this morning it wouldn't start. I got one from Wally World with the 5 year guarantee. I also kept the old one. I'll try to charge it and then take it to Autozone and have them test it. Who knows, maybe I could use it for a few months as a house battery. There's a big difference between having enough power to start a van and having enough to light some LEDs and occasionally charge my camera batteries or phone.

After getting the vehicle battery sorted out I tackled the house wiring. I added 2 accessory (aka cigarette lighter) sockets, one on each side of the van, each going to a separate fuse on the fuse block, and I also added the led house lights (dome lights), both wired together to their own fuse. I'm a little concerned about the LEDs lights that I got, they're arrays of 48 LEDS and they get warm. I thought they were supposed to be cool. I couldn't get it all completed since I was missing various crimp on connectors. I'll get those tomorrow and hopefully I'll be done, other than the house battery. For now I'm thinking of putting in a continuous duty solenoid and charging the house battery off the alternator.

I'll take some more pics of everything and try to post them tomorrow. I'm tired, been working my butt off, gonna have a shower and then bed...

 

[anm]

Here are some added pics:

This is a shot of the plywood backing on one of the cushions, you can see the four threaded inserts and the fabric stapled to the plywood:

One of the Blue Sea cigarette lighter sockets:

I just got a 7" piece of 1x3, sanded the edges, drilled a 1-1/8" hole for the socket, and mounted it, and then attached the wood to the van with two screws. The metal piece it's attached to had a large hole that I ran the wires through:

Here's the one on the sliding door side:

and the one on the driver's side:

and the completed fuse block:

Unless you take precautions, I suggest you use the Blue Sea fuse block for these reasons:
1. It has a cover to prevent accidental short-circuits. I found other, cheaper fuse blocks but none of them had any kind of physical protection of the 12 volt connections, so if you use them you should put them into some kind of box does offer protection.
2. As well as having the fuses and terminal screws to attach the positive leads to, it also has a ground bus for the negative leads. This makes for simpler wiring since the negative leads don't have to be run to a make-shift central ground screw somewhere.
It's a simple and elegant solution...

 

[akrvbob]

I'm a BIG fan of the Blue Sky fuse box.
Bob

 

[anm]

A bit more about my wiring:

All of my wiring is done using white 16 gauge 2-conductor zip cord from Lowes. If I had known about the red/black automotive grade zip cord before starting I would have used it instead. But I've used regular grade zip cord before and I don't anticipate any problems. Since all of my wiring is surface mounted (my van interior is my attempt at a techno-punk decorating style lol), if any problems do crop up, it's not going to be too difficult to re-wire it.

I also have a pure sine wave inverter that I want to wire up to the fuse block. I currently use it with a cigarette lighter type plug, but that is not the best solution. The inverter is good for 400 watts max, at 12 volts that works out to be 33-1/3 amps max, not counting losses and inefficiencies. I'll fuse it for 30 amps, and it looks like I'll need 8 gauge wire to connect the inverter to the fuse block, and I'll have to keep it as short as possible. The inverter is able to handle a small computer. I'm going to try to come up with a roof-mounted, directional wifi antenna. I've read about a home-made version referred to as a 'cantenna' since it's a wifi antenna mounted inside a tin can (empty of course ). I have read of people getting a couple of mile range using a cantenna. It should be good for stealth Internet at BK, especially since there's often a BK near Walmart's free prking. Here's a link: cantenna

I recently had to replace the Astro's starting battery, and my intention was to use the old battery as the house battery until I could afford something else. But after examination of the battery, i.e., charging, discharging, monitoring its voltage I decided it was not worth it. So for now I'm running the house off my jump start battery (I think it has a 7ah sealed lead-acid battery). I've had the jump start battery for a year or so, and I've used it for jump starting on numerous occasions, as well as powering electronic gear via the inverter, it has been very reliable. But I'll try and pick up a marine deep cycle battery from Walmart next month.

 

[akrvbob]

I would wire the inverter straight to the battery and not to the fuse block.
Bob

 

[anm]

I would wire the inverter straight to the battery and not to the fuse block.
Bob

That's an idea, but I hate the idea of it having no protection...

 

[DC Fuse]

anm, consider treating your inverter and it's wiring separate from your 12 volt system. It needs to be as close to the battery as possible.

Now the good news - your inverter itself should have a fuse built in!
Look at the back and you'll see one of those newer style fuses or it's possibly inside inverter. Still have directions for inverter? Take a look.

I myself always fuse to the point of redundancy so you could get a Blue Sky inline fuse (30 amp) attached at the battery and the one on inverter for safety.(both ends fused)

---

anm, consider using a fuse at the battery for your 12 volt system too.

This will give you the most safety possible. For example, say your main fuse at fuse block blew. This would leave the wire still hot back to battery and that could be where the problem lies causing a potential fire. Safety issue. My wire run is ten feet from batteries to fuse block so i did both ends.

 

[akrvbob]

DC Fuse has very good advice. Put the inverter as close as possible to the battery and use 110 extension cords to your appliances. If you want redundancy just put a in-line fuse directly to the battery positive post and then crimp the wire to the inverter to it.
Bob

 

[anm]

anm, consider treating your inverter and it's wiring separate from your 12 volt system. It needs to be as close to the battery as possible.

Now the good news - your inverter itself should have a fuse built in!
Look at the back and you'll see one of those newer style fuses or it's possibly inside inverter. Still have directions for inverter? Take a look.

I myself always fuse to the point of redundancy so you could get a Blue Sky inline fuse (30 amp) attached at the battery and the one on inverter for safety.(both ends fused)

---

anm, consider using a fuse at the battery for your 12 volt system too.

This will give you the most safety possible. For example, say your main fuse at fuse block blew. This would leave the wire still hot back to battery and that could be where the problem lies causing a potential fire. Safety issue. My wire run is ten feet from batteries to fuse block so i did both ends.

---

Yes, my plan is to fuse the battery, at least as close as I can get to it...

---

DC Fuse has very good advice. Put the inverter as close as possible to the battery and use 110 extension cords to your appliances. If you want redundancy just put a in-line fuse directly to the battery positive post and then crimp the wire to the inverter to it.
Bob

I will follow both your advice Bob and DC Fuse's and put the inverter next to the battery. If the inverter itself is fused I won't put a fuse between the inverter and battery, but if not then I will...