Vannautical engineer
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2021
- Messages
- 155
- Reaction score
- 16
It's cold, and I'm trying to avoid doing a lot more work on the van until the weather breaks in a week or two. So here is where I'm at with my van build for anyone interested. I have around 300hrs of work into it at this point.
I wanted to build a van that's small and gets good mileage since I plan to travel a lot in it, not stay in one place very much. I also wanted something small enough to be able to drive into a city and park with no problems.
But at the same time, I wanted it to be a real build and to not skimp on many amenities compared to a full size Transit/Sprinter. (Except for a toilet, there's just no room, and I have really little desire to mess around with emptying a toilet.)
Had to pull the fuel tank in order to tap into it for a gasoline Webasto heater. (Just noticed I still had the welder sitting around when I was doing this. Don't worry, I was not doing any welding around the open fuel tank.
)
I drilled into the top of the fuel sending unit to add a standpipe to pull fuel out of the tank. Note that if you do this, you need to buy a special stand pipe. The one that comes with most of the Webasto kits is only meant to be installed into a metal tank, like on a semi truck. I can dig up the link on ebay for anyone who needs it. I wanted to drill through the sending unit instead of the tank itself so if anything goes wrong with the hole, I don't need to replace the entire tank. Drilling holes in a plastic fuel tank just gives me the creeps.
Had to bend the standpipe around the fuel pump to allow it to get right to the bottom of the tank. This is before I trimmed the standpipe to the right length. Also note that you need to measure the distance that the fuel sender compresses down into the tank when it's installed and trim the standpipe that much shorter to compensate. Most people recommend trimming the standpipe a little short of reaching the bottom of the tank so the heater doesn't run the tank dry. I decided to get it as close as I could to the bottom of the tank so I had the option to use all the fuel in the tank to stay warm if I ever needed to in an emergency. If I run out of gas from using the heater, that's on me. Also important to keep it away from the fuel level sender float so it doesn't get in the way of that moving up and down.
Webasto installed. I thought a lot about the best placement for it because space is at a huge premium in such a small van. I settled on the area right behind the driver's seat. The floor steps down right here and it's just about the perfect size spot to put the heater. Note that to do this on a Transit Connect cargo model, you need to remove what they call the "van floor extension" which is a big sheetmetal brace that extends the cargo floor forward about 6 inches at the front. It doesn't seem like this brace is present on the passenger wagon models, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't play a factor in structural rigidity or crash safety. It seems like it's just there to give the cargo model a little more floor space. Ultimately I decided it was worth it to remove it.
This is the liquid heat exchanger that I'm hoping to use to get hot water from the engine coolant. It's mounted underneath the floor just ahead of the spare tire. I posted about this in another thread where I was asking about the max temperature of a polyethylene water tank. Basically it will have coolant flowing through one side, fresh water through the other, and I have a temp sensor on the coolant inlet side to monitor and regulate the temperature it runs at. In this photo, only the coolant hoses are connected, but it will have pex lines going to it for the fresh water side. Lots more to say about this, but for now I just hope it works the way I'm expecting.
The whole van is insulated with Thinsulate. The floor is using AU4002-5 Thinsulate, which I guess is more resistant to being compressed like it is here under the floor, but we'll see. I know it will still be somewhat compressed and less effective, but with a van roof as low as this van has, I did not want to sacrifice headroom by building a thick floor with things like rigid foam insulation. I know there a lot of opinions about insulating under the floor. I did not really do this for heat retention as much as I did to keep the road noise down and reduce condensation forming on the inside of the steel van floor. I had enough spare insulation, so I just pulled the front seats and ran it all the way into the front footwells.
Jumping ahead a little bit, here's once I got a lot of the structure inside built. The fresh water tank is under the bed and is held in place by a ratchet strap that goes through the plywood floor. Also have a refrigerated cooler over there on the right. I did not want to deal with the mess or the lingering fumes of using spray adhesive to hold the Thinsulate to the walls and ceiling, so for now it's just held in place by tape around the edges. But eventually I'll have 1/8" plywood on the walls and ceiling that should hold it in place well enough. Overall I'm just not a fan of attaching things permanently to the body of the van with spray adhesive in case it ever needs body work in the future. The whole van is being built with servicability in mind. I want everything to be able to be removed pretty easily if it's necessary. The bed and the cabinet are all bolted to the floor with 1/4"-20 bolts and threaded inserts into the floor. I didn't want to just drive pocket screws into the floor, because then I could only take the bed and cabinets in and out a few times before the threads in the wood would probably strip. I have already had to take the cabinet on the passenger side in and out a few times to get to various things.
Didn't want to compromise between having a long enough bed and the ability to recline the driver's seat, so at the front of the bed I have this 2x6 that's on a hinge to extend part of the bed a few inches longer with the driver seat reclined forward. Then it can flip up like this to allow the seat to recline back. Not sure how this will work as far as cushions go, but I'll figure something out. The floor is just vinyl sheet flooring. I know some people like to do plank flooring, but again, I want to conserve every fraction of an inch of headroom I can, so the thin vinyl sheet flooring is good for this.
This is about where I'm at now. This overhead storage bin took way more work than it was probably worth. I am not a carpenter, so I struggled with building something like this with all the complex angles. But I like how it looks, and I really wanted it to be angled inwards towards the bottom so it wouldn't intrude so much into my space. I think I'm just going to leave it open like this. The bottom of it is slightly angled down towards the wall, so that and the lip on the edge of it should keep most things from falling out when going around turns.
So there you go, hoping to have it to a point where it can at least be used by spring.
I wanted to build a van that's small and gets good mileage since I plan to travel a lot in it, not stay in one place very much. I also wanted something small enough to be able to drive into a city and park with no problems.
But at the same time, I wanted it to be a real build and to not skimp on many amenities compared to a full size Transit/Sprinter. (Except for a toilet, there's just no room, and I have really little desire to mess around with emptying a toilet.)
Had to pull the fuel tank in order to tap into it for a gasoline Webasto heater. (Just noticed I still had the welder sitting around when I was doing this. Don't worry, I was not doing any welding around the open fuel tank.
)I drilled into the top of the fuel sending unit to add a standpipe to pull fuel out of the tank. Note that if you do this, you need to buy a special stand pipe. The one that comes with most of the Webasto kits is only meant to be installed into a metal tank, like on a semi truck. I can dig up the link on ebay for anyone who needs it. I wanted to drill through the sending unit instead of the tank itself so if anything goes wrong with the hole, I don't need to replace the entire tank. Drilling holes in a plastic fuel tank just gives me the creeps.
Had to bend the standpipe around the fuel pump to allow it to get right to the bottom of the tank. This is before I trimmed the standpipe to the right length. Also note that you need to measure the distance that the fuel sender compresses down into the tank when it's installed and trim the standpipe that much shorter to compensate. Most people recommend trimming the standpipe a little short of reaching the bottom of the tank so the heater doesn't run the tank dry. I decided to get it as close as I could to the bottom of the tank so I had the option to use all the fuel in the tank to stay warm if I ever needed to in an emergency. If I run out of gas from using the heater, that's on me.
Also important to keep it away from the fuel level sender float so it doesn't get in the way of that moving up and down.Webasto installed. I thought a lot about the best placement for it because space is at a huge premium in such a small van. I settled on the area right behind the driver's seat. The floor steps down right here and it's just about the perfect size spot to put the heater. Note that to do this on a Transit Connect cargo model, you need to remove what they call the "van floor extension" which is a big sheetmetal brace that extends the cargo floor forward about 6 inches at the front. It doesn't seem like this brace is present on the passenger wagon models, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't play a factor in structural rigidity or crash safety. It seems like it's just there to give the cargo model a little more floor space. Ultimately I decided it was worth it to remove it.
This is the liquid heat exchanger that I'm hoping to use to get hot water from the engine coolant. It's mounted underneath the floor just ahead of the spare tire. I posted about this in another thread where I was asking about the max temperature of a polyethylene water tank. Basically it will have coolant flowing through one side, fresh water through the other, and I have a temp sensor on the coolant inlet side to monitor and regulate the temperature it runs at. In this photo, only the coolant hoses are connected, but it will have pex lines going to it for the fresh water side. Lots more to say about this, but for now I just hope it works the way I'm expecting.
The whole van is insulated with Thinsulate. The floor is using AU4002-5 Thinsulate, which I guess is more resistant to being compressed like it is here under the floor, but we'll see. I know it will still be somewhat compressed and less effective, but with a van roof as low as this van has, I did not want to sacrifice headroom by building a thick floor with things like rigid foam insulation. I know there a lot of opinions about insulating under the floor. I did not really do this for heat retention as much as I did to keep the road noise down and reduce condensation forming on the inside of the steel van floor. I had enough spare insulation, so I just pulled the front seats and ran it all the way into the front footwells.
Jumping ahead a little bit, here's once I got a lot of the structure inside built. The fresh water tank is under the bed and is held in place by a ratchet strap that goes through the plywood floor. Also have a refrigerated cooler over there on the right. I did not want to deal with the mess or the lingering fumes of using spray adhesive to hold the Thinsulate to the walls and ceiling, so for now it's just held in place by tape around the edges. But eventually I'll have 1/8" plywood on the walls and ceiling that should hold it in place well enough. Overall I'm just not a fan of attaching things permanently to the body of the van with spray adhesive in case it ever needs body work in the future. The whole van is being built with servicability in mind. I want everything to be able to be removed pretty easily if it's necessary. The bed and the cabinet are all bolted to the floor with 1/4"-20 bolts and threaded inserts into the floor. I didn't want to just drive pocket screws into the floor, because then I could only take the bed and cabinets in and out a few times before the threads in the wood would probably strip. I have already had to take the cabinet on the passenger side in and out a few times to get to various things.
Didn't want to compromise between having a long enough bed and the ability to recline the driver's seat, so at the front of the bed I have this 2x6 that's on a hinge to extend part of the bed a few inches longer with the driver seat reclined forward. Then it can flip up like this to allow the seat to recline back. Not sure how this will work as far as cushions go, but I'll figure something out. The floor is just vinyl sheet flooring. I know some people like to do plank flooring, but again, I want to conserve every fraction of an inch of headroom I can, so the thin vinyl sheet flooring is good for this.
This is about where I'm at now. This overhead storage bin took way more work than it was probably worth. I am not a carpenter, so I struggled with building something like this with all the complex angles. But I like how it looks, and I really wanted it to be angled inwards towards the bottom so it wouldn't intrude so much into my space. I think I'm just going to leave it open like this. The bottom of it is slightly angled down towards the wall, so that and the lip on the edge of it should keep most things from falling out when going around turns.
So there you go, hoping to have it to a point where it can at least be used by spring.
