Sassypickin's Van

[Seraphim]

Looks good. Makes me miss my old Intervec Class B

 

[akrvbob]

That's going to be a very comfortable, cozy home!
Bob

 

[GypsySilver]

wow - you are doing a great job Sassy! Can't wait to see it all done

 

[sassypickins]

Thanks, Seraphim, Bob and GypsySilver!

FLOORING

The van floor was already started when I bought it. There's a layer of foam underlayment, then 3/4" plywood. I didn't photo it, but I did fill in all the gaps at the edges of the plywood with bits of polyiso, just slicing pieces to fit with my utility knife. Then I taped over it all with silver tape.


I saved and reused all the carpet that had been laid in over the bed platform.


I can't believe it, but I managed to use every last bit of it on the floor. It was like a jigsaw puzzle at the end LOL.


Then I glued it all down with carpet adhesive and let it dry overnight.


Then, I laid down another layer of foam underlayment, this being sealed and functional as a vapor barrier and water stopper for those inevitable spills down the road.


I had enough laminate flooring left over from my house project to use in the van. I know it's not the best option, but at this point it was free. The van floor is not perfectly rectangular, so after working a few rows in, I could slide the grouping around a little to create a good enough looking run. I chose to make the run lengthwise rather than across to minimize the cuts. I liked that it all snapped in place and I used no glue.


I reused the metal edges that the previous owner had screwed down over his rubber flooring mat. (At first I thought was it was that aluminum diamond plate stuff but it was rubber - very neat stuff and I'm giving it to helinwheels for her rig). And, I had some roof drip edge around so I used that along the floor at the back door and just screwed it down over the flooring into the plywood.

Overall, the floor looks nice, is super easy to clean, allows bins to slide easily (almost too easy ha!) and I can put down little rubber backed rugs to keep my feet warmer if I want to.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Next up:
WHERE TO PUT ALL THESE PLASTIC DRAWERS?

 

[janncoo]

Can you tell me about your beds. What are frames built out of. Maybe the dimensions. Jan

 

[cdiggy]

Jan... Sky is the limit. I have a step van that is 6'4" side to side which is perfect for my shirt height. It is made from aluminum plate 1/8" thick and braced with aluminum c channel. It is actually a lid to a giant box in the back of the truck that I store all my tools in (the lid is hinged so I can get to tools from inside or use the cargo doors to reach from the outside. The box has a quality padlock and hasp because it typically gets parked at remote trailheads.
But the sky is the limit. Figure out what you want by spending a few overnights in the van to figure out a general layout that suits you and go from there.

 

[janncoo]

cdiggy, thanks for the info. I have a conversion van with electric fold down bench seat in back but seems like a waste of storage area and a lot of weight. I liked sassypickins bed under a bed concept and think it might be something I'd be able to do. Actually I just want sassy's van Jan

 

[sassypickins]

@cdiggy ~ your bed sounds similar to one I built in my step-van home years ago. It was a full 6 x 6 1/2, almost decadently luxurious. I put a plywood wall across the middle underneath and like you, used the back half as my garage and accessed it from outside.

@janncoo ~ shoot, now I have to keep an eye on my van LOL. I'll do a bed post after the cabinet one I want to get done today before I go on a short trip. But I am curious to know more about what you envision for your van. Are you thinking you might want to completely remove the van fold-down seat and build a lengthwise bed? Would you need it to be a pullout like mine so that always or sometimes it's for two people and then converts back to a day couch? Or are you thinking of leaving it across the back but still having it convert back to day couch? What are your interior available width and length? Height? What do you envision storing under? Full height bins or the lower, long bins that slide under beds? Am I hijacking my own thread? ha ha ha ha I guess I can do that, right?

 

[sassypickins]

KITCHEN STORAGE

Based on what I needed to store and where it might best fit, and considering weight distribution and ease-of-use, I decided to use plastic drawers, not because I love plastic, but because I had some in the house and knew how lightweight they were. I scrounged up others from garage sales and craigslist for $3 to $5 each. I also scored a little cupboard at a thrift store for $5 that I thought might work for the sink. I knew I wanted a couple of the shallow drawer sets for all the kitchen utensils and all those little things that help with cooking and food storage.

I had an idea from my measurements and paper planning that I could get a certain configuration of drawers to work on the passenger side and after propping everything up to take a look, I confirmed it would work.


I used one of the sides of the sink cabinet that was in the van when I bought it, and part of the bed platform, and fashioned a kitchen countertop. It got glued and screwed and fastened to the van frame with L-brackets.


The drawers are screwed to two horizontal 1 x 2 nailers I installed behind them into the van frame. I used washers between the screw heads and the plastic to help keep the plastic from ripping. Then I splurged on a roll of black sticky-backed shelf liner and worked in ultra-slow motion to get it to go up the side and over the top of the kitchen counter smoothly.


My stainless steel salad bowl sacrificed itself with a little help from PatSchum to become my sink. This jug underneath is not the final gray water tank; it was too flimsy. And I have switched to a smaller, more rigid water container for the counter and when parked, I put it on top of a small drawer unit there at the end. It has a spigot and it does the job. I will make some shelves under there as the need unfolds.


I have not done anything in the top half of my van yet. I don't really want to start screwing holes in the hi-top, so I'm playing around with some ways to get screw-free storage up there.

Next up:

WHERE TO SLEEP?

 

[akrvbob]

Really, really great job! I'm very impressed with how practical and cheap it is! Very well done!
Bob

 

[janncoo]

I have the idea to remove the van's bench seat and use your idea for the bed. Need the narrow aisle between the beds to make it easier for one getting up during the night for potty call. I like the idea for a little heighth to the beds for ease on the knees when getting up and the van is a hightop so I don't think it will be a problem. Will look forward to your bed post. I have that same salad bowl I use for a sink but it hangs on a wall in the cargo trailer. Jan

 

[sassypickins]

@Bob ~ Thanks again. I tried to heed the advice I got here about insulation, to keep the build on the cheap, to keep some parts flexible so changes could be made later, etc.

@Jannecco ~ Bed build follows; hope it will help when you start measuring your available space. If you're going to use 2 x 2, each is really only 1 1/2 x 1 1/2. Other than that, just start adding up everything you want to do until you're sure everything is accounted for and everything will fit in or under and that extra 1/4" here and there helps a lot for ease of sliding things. I had to drag my knowledge of fractions out of the back recesses of my mind and was very glad for my pencil eraser. Yes, the aisle is a prime reason for using this design and it has paid off! It is just wonderful to be able to get up normally in the night and go to the back of the van where the bathroom is. I don't know that I could crawl over my hubby any more without doing him bodily harm ha ha!

WHERE TO SLEEP?

I posted some bed photos in response to Gaunt Dusk's request on his "The Great Debate...on beds!" post, but here they are again to keep everything together in my build thread.

Here's both beds out:


And the small bed under the couch/bed:


In thinking through layouts, my first idea was to build one bed across the back that would condense to a day couch and extend frontward to make a big bed. That was ok and would have provided some kind of 'square' space in the middle during the day, but I wanted to imagine other possibilities. I ended up on Excel doing up some layout plans... I know there are programs to do that but I did ok with Excel... I made two narrow beds across the back and tried to squeeze an aisle between them there. It was only about 7" inches wide and I couldn't see that working too well. Both those designs would have made entry/exit at the back doors impossible or very difficult. One big bed across the center of the van could have worked. I've seen photos of one that works well for the couple who built it. Their bed turns into two opposing 'couches' during the day, but at night it cuts the van in two, and one person still has to crawl over the other to get to the bathroom. I toyed with building a front bench seat to replace the driver/passenger captain's chairs, one that would fold out flat and become a bed. That was complicated and impractical.

Then it occurred to me to do a couch/bed with a trundle bed under that, when in the couch position and combined with the swivel passenger seat, would make a great living space! I realized that with the trundle bed out, it would still provide entry/exit at both the front and back, it would be easy enough to hop in the driver's seat and take off if need be. Also, as I mentioned, it would allow us both to easily rise during the night to heed the call of nature.

The van walls in the middle area are quite straight, so I did not have to do any fancy fitting. After accounting for everything that needed to stack under, plus the mattress thickness, I knew the couch/bed's height might be a comfort problem during the day. It would be higher than a normal couch. But hubby is tall and he said it would not bother him, and I could use a footstool if I felt the need. The inward curve of the upper wall also would be a problem. How would I make a day couch backrest that would have a comfortable slant when the wall curves the wrong direction?

How long would each bed need to be? The couch/bed would begin at the back of the driver's seat when it was in it's furthermost back position with the backrest extended backward, as this is where that seat must be if hubby's driving. That bed would need to be at least 77" to give him 5" extra for toe wiggle room. (I ended up making it longer so I could put the cooler on the end.) Mine would need to be about 69".

How wide? For each of us to be able to turn on our sides and do a little curl up, his could be no narrower than 32" and mine 27". The available width was 69" so I would end up with about a 10" aisle. Should work ok.

Mine, when pulled out, had to be high enough to slide over the top of the AGM battery box that would be built at the floor next to the kitchen counter. The bed's length determined the length of the kitchen counter, as I wanted the kitchen unit to have a ledger on it to support the end of the bed.

My bed would have to slide straight out from under the big bed about 10" and then toward the front of the van for a few inches, and then out the rest of the way and on over to the side door - this to clear the kitchen unit. That meant only two of the three front legs on the big bed -- the middle and front ones, would have to be positioned after the small bed was in the out position. The position of the middle legs on both beds would take into account the widths of the under bed bins.

Both driver and passenger seat backs would be fully upright at night and would make good backrests for bedtime reading and computing.

The couch/bed mattress would stay there. The small bed mattress would come off the small bed during the day and become the couch backrest. That would mean slicing it to about an 18" length and a 9" length and sewing both into a case that would bend so the smaller section would rest behind the larger section when acting as the couch backrest, yet stay together at night to be suitable as a mattress. Hmmmm. I'm not great with a sewing machine, so, like Scarlett O'Hara, I decided I'd think about that later.

The couch/bed construction was straightforward. I bought several 2" x 2" x 8' lengths for framing and legs, and I had on hand, from the previous owner's build, 3/4" ply for the platform. I made one back leg shorter to accommodate the wheel well and left two front legs portable. (I have a bin with various bits of wood for leveling things, so I just keep these legs in there.) I inset the front legs so as not to trip up on them. That meant putting the middle cross support in a certain spot so that leg, when positioned under it, would allow room for bins to slide by on either side. Every leg and cross support was corner braced and everything was glued and screwed. The back legs were lag screwed into the van frame after locating and pre-drilling the holes.


I added some plywood gussets to strengthen the legs of the smaller bed, since it would be moved a lot. I inset the back legs to account for the side entry well, and left legs off the end altogether since it rests on the kitchen unit ledger. Again, the center cross brace had to be in a certain spot so that its legs would not interfere with the bins when slid and locked under the couch/bed. I had some 5/16" plywood around and, after testing its strength between the cross sections, decided it would do for me.



Since using this system several times, the things I knew would be a little problematic have come true. When the small bed is under the couch/bed, the front weight of the couch/bed rests on it. That makes it hard to slide the small bed out. I am thinking about screwing a rope chain from the couch/bed front corner up to the cabover frame to take that weight off. I might screw guides on the floor for the bins so I don't have to maneuver them around so much. As for the couch/bed backrest, I have not tackled cutting up the small bed's mattress yet. Later LOL.

I also have banged the back corner of the small bed into the kitchen unit enough to scrape the shelf liner. No big deal; black duct tape makes an easy repair.

Overall, this sleeping/lounging system works great so far. I still have to drill vent holes in both platforms so the mattresses won't collect moisture.

Up next:

WINDOW COVERINGS AND CURTAINS

 

[gypsychic]

Sassy.

Thank you so much for the detailed description of your thought process in working out what works for you. I love your van!

GypsyChic

 

[janncoo]

Thank you so much for the pics and build details. It is very helpful to see the layouts folks come up with to fit their needs and the redesigns to improve on the layouts. Jan

 

[sassypickins]

You're welcome, ladies. I appreciate the comments and I would be thrilled if anything I've done or shown was helpful to anyone else. Time for me to do some pay it forward!

 

[Theadyn]

Can't believe I've missed this til now, awesome!!! And so many great ideas utilitzed.

 

[sassypickins]

Thanks, Theadyn!

 

[sassypickins]

This hi-top is insulated. It is smooth double-wall with an inch of insulation between. This summer when it was in the high 90's here it was mildly warm to the touch in full sun at mid-day whereas the windows behind the reflectix were blazing hot. Based on that I decided the hi-top did not need any further insulating.

4" wide horizontal frames run along each side of the van at the roofline where they meet the hi-top and these do need insulating. I will get to that when I figure out what I want to do with that area. I'll probably add a couple of runs of polyiso there and either build long little open shelves and/or cupboards going upward into the hi-top space.

Last weekend we were in freezing and windy weather, and with reflectix on all the windows and additional curtains over the back doors and dividing the living area from the cab area, we were very comfortable overnight with just sleeping bags and one extra blanket and in the morning were comfortable getting up and around. If we had stayed in the van longer that morning I'd have fired up Mr. Buddy for a few minutes, but we left to do things.

Hopefully these are good signs that the van and hi-top are well-enough insulated, although I do plan to insulate the front doors.

 

[akrvbob]

Assuming you have a heat source, as the warm air rises it accumulates at the roof. But then it stratifies all the way down to the floor. The roof will be very hot, hopefully the middle will be just right, and the floor will be cold. You want that middle layer of just right air to stay in the van and so you need to insulate the walls. When it comes to insulation:

1) The ceiling is very, very important.
2) The walls are important
3) The floor is a bonus if you have the money.

Bob

 

[KayakGirl]

You are doing a marvelous job!! [/align]