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More good progress today on the walls, wiring, and water. We also had a couple problems that wasted a bunch of time to fix. Far more progress than frustration, though.

The second piece of driver’s side wall went in today. As we were doing it we also installed two 12v sockets that are now fully wired, one near the rear door and one near the head of the bed. I also wired the fan, which I had overlooked in much of my other wiring.

With all of the wires run, I spent a little time cleaning up the mess so they all run cleanly together.

While I was working on the wiring Sara was prepping our water tank with a little foam padding for where the straps will hold it.

The tank is now essentially installed. We changed our mind on one small piece so we had to paint it tonight and we can finish in two minutes in the morning. With the tank installed we ran our water hose forward under the toilet cabinet. I’m afraid I wasn’t very good with pictures again, but we secured the line with some plastic brackets and routed it down the wheel well and through the edge of the toilet cabinet where it runs forward to what will be our galley.

For those keeping track (I know I am), it was two more trips to Ace, one to another hardware store, and one to O’Reilly Auto Parts.

More progress today and we are on the cusp of some significant installations.

I spent more time on the refrigerator cabinet adding some pieces to help secure it to the wall. The cabinet has been built for a while but I didn’t have a plan for actually mounting it. Today I put in a furring strip and a couple brackets that will secure it to the wall.

After working on that cabinet I focused on the wiring that will go behind the cabinet and will otherwise be necessary to put it in. Unfortunately I realized that somehow in Spokane last week we got only 12 ga. wire when I thought I was getting one length of 12 ga. and one length of 14 ga. Not a huge deal – 12 ga. is a heavier wire – but it is a waste of a little space and weight as it is just unnecessary for most of the things I’m wiring. I also didn’t have connectors for 12 ga. wire so that was another trip to Ace.

The wiring behind the refrigerator is looking like a bit of a mess. I have one AC wire for the microwave, one wire for the fridge, one for the lights, and one for a 12v socket. With that many wires it would have been nice to have a little smaller wire to work with!

Sara spent much of the day prepping other pieces.

She painted the frame for our water tank and kept adding polyurethane to the walls. One wall was dry enough to put in so that made some progress on the passenger side. With the wall in we could also put the water tank in place. I want some different screws to install the frame so that will be another Ace trip tomorrow. (I only made two Ace trips today!) Once the tank is in place we can run the water pipe forward to where the sink will go and running that pipe will let us put the toilet cabinet in.

So many of our installations have been temporary, but I think we are about to have some things that stick. Most of the prep work has been done so we can start actually putting things in where they will go. Exciting times!

Although I don’t have any amazing progress to show in pictures, it was a productive day. That’s a nice feeling after a couple frustrating days.

I finished up most of the heater work that I can do until I get the auxiliary tank fitting from Ford. The wiring is essentially all in place and the air intake hose under the van is secured. The base of the refrigerator cabinet is fully cut/drilled to accommodate the wiring. I just need to run the fuel line and secure the exhaust when I get the part and it will be done.

I also finished the refrigerator vent. The tubing is siliconed in place and the gate mechanism is secured to the floor. I cut the refrigerator base to bridge the valve because it has to run into the next cabinet. The cable appears to work well so we have a fridge vent that we can remotely open and close, whether because we want to control the temp or perhaps because we are on dusty roads.

Sara was busy cutting and finishing the next two wall pieces along the bed. She cut everything, including the angles for the wheel wells, and then drilled all the holes that will mount the pieces to the walls of the van. She stained them both and put a first coat of polyurethane on the back. We have reverted to oil-based polyurethane so it takes a while to cure. Fortunately we don’t have to put them in right away.

As part of that process we removed the front bed posts so I repeated my modification of the bed brackets. Now if we ever have to remove the bed posts again we don’t have to remove the floor brackets.

I started to build a small electrical box on the passenger side of the van where we will have a sub-panel.  I already have a fairly heavy wire running across the van so I plan to feed four circuits with that wire. The panel will have fuses for the water pump, the toilet fan, one set of four LED ceiling lights, and one 12v socket. I will likely crunch the numbers again, but I should be able to power all of this with my current feeder wire. Unfortunately in this process I realized I ordered the wrong fuse box so now I have to wait on another delivery from Amazon. I understand a little more about 12v DC systems from the experience so I guess the effort was not wasted.

Finally, we finished up the toilet cabinet and vent. I think the toilet vent is the last hole we have to drill in the floor. I am using the same technique as the refrigerator vent. I drilled the hole and then put a flexible PVC coupler into the hole with a ton of silicone. That should protect the entire insulation sandwich in the floor from any water penetration. This particular coupler is also the perfect size for the vent tubing provided by the toilet manufacturer. To finish the cabinet we drilled the hole in the base where the tube will go through and we cut some holes in the edges because the water line from the tank to the sink needs to run through/under the toilet box.

We managed all of this and I only had to make one trip to Ace. I did forget a couple things so I already have a mission tomorrow, but by then we will be probably have some other projects ready to go as well!

We made progress today on a number of projects.

The heater is mostly in place – now screwed to the floor and wired with the main electrical harness. The frame surrounding the heater is the base of the refrigerator cabinet.

I decided to enlarge the hole in the floor to give us some more room for the various clamps holding on the exhaust and combustion air hoses. I did not cut through the van floor any further, but just enlarged the hole on top. That required installing some new aluminum heat shielding with silicone. It is now all in and ready for the final wiring and plumbing. Hopefully Ford will get me the port for the auxiliary fuel tank connection soon and I can finish it up.

I did not take a final picture – the fuel line is also attached and just waiting for something to drink.

I also drilled the hole for the refrigerator vent.

As I mentioned yesterday we are using a Valterra Waste Valve with a cable. That will give us the ability to remotely open or close the vent as necessary. Each side of the waste valve has a 3″ slip hub. The slip hub going though the van floor fits snuggly into a 3″ flexible pvc coupler that is set into the floor with silicone. The slip hub poking up will get fitted with a flexible irrigation pipe (at least that’s the current plan) that will run directly up to the refrigerator coils.

This is the slip hub that fits down into the coupler in the floor.

Here is what it looks like when you core the van floor! Vinyl, plywood, reflectix, foam insulation, metal floor.

We also put in the second wall that had been drying while we were snowboarding over New Year’s. That was unnecessarily frustrating and I’m not entirely thrilled with how our walls are turning out, but I’m sure we will make it work. Sara started cutting the next section of walls that will finish the walls next to the bed. Beyond the bed will be cabinets and/or other kinds of walls so we will be doing something different there.

Today was a very successful [shopping] day.

1) Thunder RV for a Valterra 3″ waste valve with flexible cable. This is not going to be used for any part of the toilet, but rather I am going to use this valve in order to control the refrigerator vent. A refrigerator needs some cool air circulation over the coils, which necessitates another hole in the floor. Of course, we sometimes might want to close that hole. Other people have devised rube goldberg contraptions for their vents, I just bought mine. This particular model includes a cable so I can open and close it from a remote location. Thunder RV did not have one other part I needed so they recommended I call Curt’s RV. Curt did not pick up the phone so I left a message.

2) O’Reilly Auto Parts to pick up the 1″ exhaust pipe I ordered yesterday. The heater comes with a 1m exhaust hose but it says you can extend it up to 2m. I am not 100% sure where I am going to route the exhaust, but I strongly suspect I’m going to need 2m. I also picked up a heat sheath that I can use for areas where the fuel line and/or electric wire comes close to the exhaust.

3) Ace Hardware for a 3″ hole saw. I need this size hole saw for the outlet of the heater as the heat duct will run from our refrigerator cabinet into our wardrobe to either heat the wardrobe or to get ducted out to the rest of the van.

4) As I was driving home from Ace, Curt called. He had the part I needed to complete my refrigerator vent so I turned around and headed out to Curt’s.

5) As I was leaving Curt’s, Sara texted saying we needed more polyurethane. Walmart has the cheapest and was right on my way.

6) Now that I had all the parts for the refrigerator vent I could determine what parts I needed to put through the hole in the floor so I stopped back at Ace. They were not surprised to see me. This is at least the fifth time I’ve left the store and come back within an hour. Ace did have one part I will use to put through the floor, but not the 4 1/8″ hole saw I needed.

Back at home I got just a little work done before I had a session with my personal trainer.

7) On my way back from working out I stopped at another hardware store and found the correct size hole saw for the refrigerator vent. Now that’s a successful shopping day!

After working our Sara and I were feeling guilty about the dogs not getting enough exercise so we drove out to the foothills to take them for a nice walk in the woods. Then dinner, then a show, then…what happened to the day?!

I did take a bit of time to paint the exposed metal on the heater hole and to shield the exposed floor with a ring of aluminum. I coated the whole thing in silicone as a sealant and adhesive to hold in the aluminum.

I promised at least one picture a day but I don’t have much work to show. I should have done a GPS track of my shopping adventure. Here is a picture of my current hole saw collection! I am pretty well stocked between 3/4″ and 4 1/8″, but I’m sure if I need another hole it won’t be a size I have.

 

Today was not a great day.

The heater location is causing some challenges that I have not yet solved and it was frustrating to think about it today. The primary problems are: 1) access to the heater under the refrigerator cabinet is very limited. If something goes wrong I’m not sure we will be able to access the heater, and 2) the area under the van is so constricted I’m not sure how I can safely route the exhaust away from the fuel line. The fuel line enters the pump within 1″ of the exhaust so it is not as if I need to maintain a huge distance, but I’m just not sure how it will play out when things get permanently mounted.

After getting thoroughly frustrated by the situation, I decided to just rebuild part of the refrigerator cabinet. Originally the cabinet sat 6 3/4″ off the floor and that lower area was filled with a large drawer.

The drawer took us a ton of time to build because it had to fit around the wheel well (and it was our first one).

But if the heater is going in there, I want more room than 6 3/4″, though that would be enough to clear the heater body itself.

Anyway, I ripped off the base of the refrigerator cabinet and made a new one. I eventually realized that if I just made it a foot high, I could still have a drawer above the heater. Because the drawer can be removed, I will have a full 12″ to mess with the heater if necessary. That means I am only wasting a little space while still giving me plenty of room to access the heater. This made me feel a lot better than either limiting my access or wasting a large amount of space.

Making the base was relatively easy. Remaking part of the base after it fell off the table and broke was also relatively easy, though maddening as you can imagine.

As we have learned much more about building drawers now, the drawer was also reasonably quick to build.

I will also be going to bed a on a  slightly positive note because I think I solved part of the problem under the van. I figured out how to make a bracket to hold the fuel pump that I think will keep the fuel line away from the exhaust. I ordered some additional exhaust tubing from the auto parts store today and it should arrive tomorrow so I will be able to see how it all fits together. The last major step will be to drop the fuel tank in order to access the auxiliary port. For that I am just waiting for a part from Ford for the fuel tank fitting.

It’s time to focus on getting some heat in the van. We had previously ordered an Espar Airtronic B1LC heater. The cool thing about these heaters is that they run directly off the fuel in your gas tank. The Ford Transit tank even has an auxiliary port so it is not hard to add the fuel line to the existing tank.

People put these heaters in various locations with the space under the passenger seat being the most popular. Unfortunately on the Transit this location is not without its challenges because the underside of van beneath the seat is not a very clear area. It takes some pretty creative arranging to make it work. It also requires the fuel line and the electrical line to the pump be  strung all the way across the van, over the van exhaust and drive shaft.

I spent a good part of the day reading all the material that came with the heater, looking at the parts to understand what they do, and reading and watching some videos online. I also spent a bunch of time on the creeper under the van and measuring and thinking.

Now I know why it is called a creeper!

I finally decided to put the heater in a different location than under the seat. Our refrigerator is going just in front of the driver’s side rear wheel well. I built it about 7 inches off the floor and was going to put a drawer underneath. Instead, I’ve decided this is the best location for the heater. I will be able to easily route both the induction air and the heated air from/to places that make sense. The area under the floor is relatively clear (it was actually not as clear as I first thought, but it still works pretty easily) and it is directly behind the gas tank. This should make the plumbing very easy.

I think drilling these holes was scarier than the fan or window I installed because it feels like there is more at stake. This is an optional mounting location so it somehow feels like I could get it wrong. The other holes were pretty standard in where they went so I didn’t feel like I was make a monumental decision. Anyway, I drilled my first hole…and decided it was in the wrong spot.

The open area under the floor I hoped to use was a little too far into the middle of the van. It was still under the refrigerator cabinet, but it would have put the body of the heater nudging the outside of the cabinet. Good thing I only drilled a tiny pilot hole to check my location. I guess I can just fill it with silicone! Plan B was a narrower opening between two reinforcements under the floor so I moved it there.

This will make it slightly harder to work on if anything goes wrong later, but it puts it in a better location in the cabinet. After I drilled out the holes I decided to completely cut out the floor area around the air intake and the exhaust ports on the bottom. I will mount the heater to a plate that was included with the kit and secure the plate to the floor. This should give me the ability to unhook the heater from under the floor if I need to remove it.

Once I have everything arranged I will make a metal ring to surround the hole and protect the insulation. I will probably just slather a ton of silicone in there to seal it all up nicely. I’ll also paint the metal to prevent rust.

 

We managed to make it to about 12:02 before a New Year’s kiss, a little champagne, and then off to bed. We wanted to get up and snowboard this morning before the long drive home.

Even though we did not party or even stay up that late, it wasn’t an early start. By the crack of 10:00 we were on the lifts in the beautiful blue sky. It was a cool scene with fog filling the entire Lake Pend Oreille valley and the surrounding lowlands. The top of the ski area rose up out fo the fog for most of the morning and we enjoyed the bright sun. The temperature difference between the top in the sun and the bottom in the fog was striking.

The fog ate up the bottom of the area so it looked a little like a ridge to nowhere.

The sun made up for the fact that the snow had really firmed up and Friday’s storm totals were pretty firm. Not the most fun on a snowboard in most of the terrain, but we still found plenty of places to have fun for a couple hours.

One the way home we made a quick stop in Spokane for a few more supplies and then kept heading home. The weather was much better this trip than on the way up. Tomorrow it is back to work on the van. Now that we have hit the slopes we are going to be longing for more so we need to get the van in sufficient condition to hit the road for longer trips.

With no new snow overnight there was no need to rush out to the slopes, so we didn’t. Then even after getting up late we had a little snafu with the oven – it was stuck locked after self-cleaning. How do three red-blooded American males face such a situation? With the internet, a bent coat hanger, and cell-phone flashlights, of course.

When we we finally got out we found a gorgeous sunny day.

It was still cold so the snow remained fairly soft where it had been cut up the day before. Not exactly powder, but it was mostly soft all around. We again went pretty much end to end and found some good snow to play. Despite the late start and a stop at the condo for lunch we still had a reasonable day. Sitting in the hot tub last night for an hour or so must have helped with the sore muscles because I wasn’t very sore at all today.

Now we are just waiting for the clock to strike 12:00 so the kids can celebrate the new year and we can go to bed! Man we are getting old. Fortunately the neighbors put on a heck of a show for us. It was better than many small town shows I’ve seen.