So I just bought a new (to me) Van!

[CoolBlueDude]

A quick update on the progress of getting the van Seats out.   I was able to get the second captain chair out of the back this morning. Small progress but it only took about five minutes. I didn't think I was going to be able to get to it. I'm not a contortionist. But I managed to get it out. Now I've got to try to get the bases out or figure out away to utilize the bases or repurpose them in some way. Battery holding spaces??

Here's some pics I just took of the inside enjoy. I've got to resize the pics and then I will upload them in a few min. For those of you who want to see the video of me actually taking the seat out and see how light and easy it was I'm going to post a video on Annabella Chipoo YouTube channel in a bit.

Here are the resized pics:

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[CoolBlueDude]

@thisworldisn'thome Here are the pic's I promised from yesterday of the inside of the van.
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[CoolBlueDude]

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Here are the pics of the bottom plates for the back captains chairs that are anchored to the van with I'm assuming nuts and bolts.  These pics show the bolts and one for the seat belt anchor bolt I can't get off either. 
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[user 37446]

"I'm learning that I need to be more aware of others financial, emotional, physical, etc limitations... And being considerate of others financial situations..."

No problem, and you are surely not being unkind... It's my problem that I ran out of data before I ran out of month. 

Your willingness to post he pictures and answer the questions shows that you care about others. :shy:

 

[Gary68]

wouldnt happen to be in the portland,or area would you? cause i will get those seats and belts out and drive off with them?

 

[CoolBlueDude]

wouldnt happen to be in the portland,or area would you? cause i will get those seats and belts out and drive off with them?

No I'm not, BUT Portland, OR is exactly where I'm going to be heading as soon as my lease is up at the end of Sept.  I wish you could get them out and take them.  Probably going to have to get a professional shop to get them out for me.

 

[frater secessus]

No problem, and you are surely not being unkind... It's my problem that I ran out of data before I ran out of month. 
Your willingness to post he pictures and answer the questions shows that you care about others. :shy:

There are ways to squeeze the most out of a skinny internet connection if you find yourself bumping the limits.  For example, I cancelled my ISP as an experiment and am running everything off one of those $5/mo 3G flashed devices in this other thread. It makes bandwidth conservation mandatory  

On mobile the easiest way to do it would be to run Opera with Data Savings enabled (low image quality) and ads blocked, or Chrome with the Data Saver turned on.
On laptop it would be Opera as described above or  Chrome with the Data Savings plugin and an adblocker like uBlock Origin.

More extensive/rabid thoughts on bandwidth conservation over here.

 

[highdesertranger]

somebody else was asking for seat just a few days ago, I can't remember who. anybody? highdesertranger

 

[Ballenxj]

Hey everyone!  I've been watching ALL of your YouTube videos I'm sure...lol.  So here is my story.  About 5 or 6 months ago I believe I saw a van (1995 GMC Vandura G2500) sitting at this hole in the wall dealership that looked like it was about ready to go out of business...I'm sure you have seen them. 
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This Tuesday I went to have it looked over.  I got a quote from the mechanic and armed with that quote and knowledge of what exactly needed being done to get the van road worthy I went back to the dealership with cash in my pocket.

I talked with the owner of the dealership and showed him my printed quote and the issues it has and the owner immediately got defensive but took $200 off the asking price of $2,000.  I negotiated it down further as there is about $1,000 of work and tires needing to be done to get it road worthy and I couldn't give him $1,800 plus taxes.  I negotiated it down to $1,650 and with taxes I paid $1,800 even.  Spent $46 on getting it registered and a new tag for it.

I've got an appointment on June 7th 2017 to get it back to the mechanic to get it worked on and fixed.
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(Will post pics once I figure out how- my other pics show up upside down for some reason and I can't get it to post right side up no matter what I do)

KOOL DUDE! You can't go too far wrong with a Chevy of that vintage. I had that same year with about the same amount of miles on it, (see avatar) till I gave it to my daughter. Good luck with it. [/quote]

 

[user 37446]

Yep, sound drivetrain, good platform, good use of the mechanic to get the price down.

I'm on T Mobile 3G for $10 a month (data) so I can get some non-picture heavy things when I am away from wireless. Thus I have to wait for a coffee shop to see your excellent progress!  What are your ventilation and electrical plans?

 

[CoolBlueDude]

somebody else was asking for seat just a few days ago,  I can't remember who.  anybody?   highdesertranger

Yeah I believe I read that post and I reached out to them to see if they would be interested in getting them but haven't heard from them since.

 

[CoolBlueDude]

Yep, sound drivetrain, good platform, good use of the mechanic to get the price down.

What are your ventilation and electrical plans?

Thanks.  Well that is a great question!!  My dog and I both can not stan the heat and I can't sleep if I am too hot.  Keeping Annabella cool when she gets over heated is crucial and having something to allow me to sleep is top priority.  

I'm just not sure what kind of solar power I will need to be able to run an ac unit? This is all new to me but I know there are people smarter than me on here that may be able to help me pick the right setup for us. I just don't think a vent by itself is going to be enough for us.

Follow that up  with the fact that her food is refrigerated means I have to get a refrigerator as well that runs pretty much full-time. I'm sure I'm looking at needing a lot of solar power to produce enough energy to run these things?  But I'm no expert.  I have no idea what I'm doing or how much $$$ it is going to cost me?

At least now you know what my thoughts and needs are.  Its going to be quite expensive I'm sure and I still have to save money to live on until I can find work I can do.  This is going to be a very tough challenge.  The only silver lining I see right now is the fact that I'm very excited about the van life. Knowing this community exists is a great confidence builder.

 

[user 37446]

***, you've asked about ventilation (the forum posts tend to agree that the powered exhaust fans, about 14" by 14" square, cut into the top are the best means to control temps, humidity and odors.  There are 2 major brands and many are using the Fantastic Fan, of which there are several models. Your price point will determine which you want.  There is also the Max Air brand which I believe has a shroud so you can operate it in rainy conditions. Look up both on the heating and ventilation sub forum.

Next is A/C.  Unfortunately, without a portable generator (most use a type of inverter generator, there's more choices now other than the top two of Honda and Yamaha) of appx 1500-2000 watts, you cannot do it.  There's a Canadian YouTube poster whose handle I don't remember, who runs a high efficiency 5000 btu window air conditioner off a 1000+watt I believe.  Search for "vandweller air conditioning" and you will find it.  Costs vary by brand, $500 on the low end to about $1,200.

Third is a 12 volt compressor fridg, of which there are two main varieties and proponents of each.  There are many threads about these units and they are very efficient.  You won't need a lot of battery power ( even a 100 amp AGM or certainly two 6v golf cart deep cycles will support that running 24/7.  Costs vary by size but figure $400 up for new.  Amazon has lots of reviews on both the generators and the compressor fridges.


Read up on the cooking and heating/cooling and electrical subforums.

 

[rvpopeye]

Yup ^^agree with TWIH above post !

You will need a lot of panel watts and a large battery bank to play the AC from solar only game . Roof space and interior space will be tough to find for that.

Roof Vent Fans and travel to cooler places might be your best bet on this for "too warm" weather.
A small home type AC and a 2000 w genny could be a possibility though .

A much smaller solar system will however run one of the 12volt Danfoss based Fridges and charge/run most typical devices you might have.

 

[CoolBlueDude]

***, you've asked about ventilation...

Thanks TWIH & RVPOPEYE!!  Your posts were full of good info for sure.  

FYI I was able to get the bed and frame out but couldn't take the bolts out...used a hammer and a friend.  The bed was hard but we got it done.

We got a lot of stuff done today and I'm going to edit and post the video of today's work probably this week.  I just posted a new video of me taking out the seats.  Here is the link if anyone is interested (I tried to set the video rate to 144p so hopefully it opens at that frame rate for everyone):  

Tomorrow is my visit to the mechanic shop.  Gonna be a long day, but I'll try to get some video and pics.  

I'll resize the pics I took of the bed removal we did today and post them here for you all soon- I get too distracted and it takes me forever to resize these pics.

 

[Gary68]

if you sign up and down load your pics here http://imgur.com/
you can just use their shared options/forum and just paste them here

 

[CoolBlueDude]

if you sign up and down load your pics here http://imgur.com/
you can just use their shared options/forum and just paste them here

I signed up on Imgur and wasn't sure what I needed to do so I posted a bunch of pics on there and copied the link I guess to post here? I'm not sure if that is what you mean or not?

Here is the link to the pics of the bed tear out...video will be edited and posted soon.  Enjoy ? 

 

[Gary68]

when your cursor is over the pic there will be and arrow in the upper right,put cursor on arrow and it will drop down options,click on get shared links,click copy on bbcode/forum it autosaves link come here ctrl-v to paste the link in post,done

 

[CoolBlueDude]

when your cursor...

Ohhh okay, I was doing all of this from my iPad not my laptop.  I'll try it on my laptop.  Thanks.

 

[CoolBlueDude]