my 2005 Astro AWD conversion

[anm]

...
And they are bigger and can be thicker too,
...

If anything makes them unsuitable for my application it will be that, the wooden shims for pre-hung doors are the perfect taper, thickness, and width, they just need to be shortened...

 

[Luisafernandes]

You may have future problems with the wood rotting. Those plastic shims come in different sizes.
Here's a link I found;
http://www.solarstop.net/mrshims/alumplastic.asp

 

[anm]

You may have future problems with the wood rotting. Those plastic shims come in different sizes.
Here's a link I found;
http://www.solarstop.net/mrshims/alumplastic.asp

I'll look at what they have, I prefer to have plastic rather than wood, but so far I can't fault the wood.

 

[DC Fuse]

anm, here is a Amazon link for several types available.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_3cugzul6fr_b

 

[kevinmadison]

Thats lovely!!! I fall for her!!!

 

[masterplumber]

I usually keep a stock of plastic and wood shims for various building projects. They usually have shims in a couple places at Lowes and I don't recall which place they keep the plastic ones, but if you ask in the door/window area they can tell you. Your conversion looks great BTW!

 

[anm]

Thanks @kevinmadison and @masterplumber!

I didn't know they had plastic shims, I've never seen them. I'll try them tomorrow...

 

[anm]

They usually have the plastic shims by the chainsaw area at home depot or lowes. And they are bigger and can be thicker too, but should be easy to cut.

I found them in Home Depot! They're just about the same dimensions as the wooden shims and a dark grey, almost black (no painting required!). I'll make up four shims for my solar panel from them and swap them out...

 

[Luisafernandes]

Just glad I could help : )

 

[anm]

Does a conversion ever get done? This morning I decided to post some pics and info on my solar system; I want to call it done, even though it probably isn't. I'll go over what I've done to it first.

I originally put a single 100 watt Renogy solar on the roof rack, and I was going to try it. But then after talking to people here, a single panel seemed like underkill (is there such a word?). With just one panel I had noticed a marked improvement with the van's interior temperature (it is shading the roof after all) and since it seems like overkill is difficult to achieve with solar panels, at least on a small van, I decided to add a second panel:

The roof rack normally comes with just two cross bars but I had already gotten two extra cross bars from my friendly neighborhood junk yard; I mounted the second panel exactly like the first. These two panels completely fill the roof rack so if I needed to add a third it would have to be installed in front of the roof rack, over the cab.

I also decided to replace the charge controller, I got an EPSolar VS2024BN which as near as I can tell is the same thing as the ViewStar and the Renogy LCD. Before buying it I went to the EPSolar website and downloaded the Operation Manual for it, it's pretty impressive being able to configure everything (a little too impressive as you'll see in a minute). The charge controller is a simple swap with the original Renogy PWM charge controller though two of the mounting holes needed to be relocated. In ten minutes the VS2025BN was in place and working:

The first thing I discovered was that unlike the Operation Manual the actual EPSolar VS2024BN has no user defined battery charging profile! That was the frikkin reason I bought it! I decided to muck around with it anyway since it did have a built in meter and could display volts and amps from the solar panels, into the battery, and to the 'load', which put it way ahead of the Renogy 30 amp PWM charge controller. As I was scrolling through the charge phase settings I noticed that some could be altered, then I noticed that the 'Gel' battery type didn't have an equalize phase (which was what I wanted). So even though my battery is an AGM I set the type to 'Gel', set the 'Boost' to spec and set the 'Float'. Even though the 'User' defined battery type was missing, my immediate concerns taken care of and I could do all that I wanted using the 'Gel' battery type. I bought the VS2024BN with the remote temperature sensor so I taped it to the side of the battery. It's a work-around, NOT a fix.

I am in communication with the seller about this discrepancy with the 'User' battery type. One thing I noticed when I looked at my pictures is that even though I bought a VS2024BN charge controller, what I got was a VS2024N. I am raising this point with them...

 

[anm]

I've been in touch with the supplier of the EPSolar VS2024BN and they said that it was an error in the eBay listing and that they should have listed it as the VS2024N. They apologized and are going to make it up to me by sending me a VS2024BN...

 

[Bela's Mom]

Your van and solar all look great. I hope your new controller works out well for you. It's fun doing this yourself, isn't it?

 

[anm]

Your van and solar all look great. I hope your new controller works out well for you. It's fun doing this yourself, isn't it?

Thank you Jo! Yes, it is enjoyable, I just hope I don't get it done...

 

[anm]

My last major piece of furniture is a set of shelves for books and other things. I decided to put the on the opposite wall from the bed, and try to make them extend no further than the wheel well.

I always start with templates when custom fitting something. I cut some strips of heavy cardboard to 9 1/4" wide and 48" long, the width matches the lumber I would be using 1x10's. Then cut and trimmed the pieces of cardboard to fit:

I decided I could make better use of the space formerly occupied by the jack (which is now under the passenger seat), so I cut the bracket off with an ankle grinder:

Then I traced all of the cardboard templates onto the 1x10 lumber and cut them out. I didn't take a picture of all of the pieces, I just forgot to. Anyway, all joints are mortised and glued and nailed.

Here's the completed shelves ready to paint:

and sitting in the van:

And this is how they look after painting and installation:

 

[Bela's Mom]

Very nice work!

 

[Lafnbug]

If it weren't for the charge controller and paper towel holder location, I might suggest finding a way to use your center bed cushion as a backrest in that area!

Great execution. Thanks for sharing.

 

[anm]

Very nice work!

Thank you Jo!

---

If it weren't for the charge controller and paper towel holder location, I might suggest finding a way to use your center bed cushion as a backrest in that area!

Great execution. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, I'll have to think about that...

 

[rcundiff]

This looks great! What an inspiration.

 

[anm]

...
The first thing I discovered was that unlike the Operation Manual the actual EPSolar VS2024BN has no user defined battery charging profile! That was the frikkin reason I bought it! I decided to muck around with it anyway since it did have a built in meter and could display volts and amps from the solar panels, into the battery, and to the 'load', which put it way ahead of the Renogy 30 amp PWM charge controller. As I was scrolling through the charge phase settings I noticed that some could be altered, then I noticed that the 'Gel' battery type didn't have an equalize phase (which was what I wanted). So even though my battery is an AGM I set the type to 'Gel', set the 'Boost' to spec and set the 'Float'. Even though the 'User' defined battery type was missing, my immediate concerns taken care of and I could do all that I wanted using the 'Gel' battery type. I bought the VS2024BN with the remote temperature sensor so I taped it to the side of the battery. It's a work-around, NOT a fix.

I am in communication with the seller about this discrepancy with the 'User' battery type. One thing I noticed when I looked at my pictures is that even though I bought a VS2024BN charge controller, what I got was a VS2024N. I am raising this point with them...

They have sent me the correct VS2024BN charge controller. This one has the user defined battery type where all parameters can be set by the user, namely me! After getting it, I had it installed 20 minutes later, and in another 45 minutes and I had the parameters set to what I wanted. The real test will come tomorrow... watch it rain...

 

[amwbox]

As always, I'm very interested in the sorts of solar power numbers people are seeing in the rain!