ptheland
2013 144" low top Passgr
My Sunday began with buttoning everything back up. Put the seat back in. Attached my new cable properly to the bus bar (without a fuse) so I could close up the battery area. Yes, I'll have to get into that again once the fuse arrives, but that's the breaks. And in the mean time, the cable will be dead, so that's fine. I'll need to move the van around, so I have no choice but to get the electrics back in operating order.
But the real job of the day is to attack the flooring. The lift installation manual calls for 1/2 inch plywood under the lift base. The stock corrugated plastic flooring isn't going to be a suitable substitute. My initial plan was to cut out a bit of the floor to make room for the plywood. But that still leaves the gaping holes from the seat bases as an obstacle to navigation. I decided to do the job right and replace the floor. That way I'd get the right base under the lift and have a much better looking product at the end.
So my tie down rails have to come out. Since I lack 8 foot long arms with 3 elbows needed to do that job by myself, I call in a friend to assist. It doesn't take long to get the tracks out. Way faster than installing.
I also didn't like the way the rear track set. It tilted to the rear of the car. Getting the floor out let me see the problem. I had initially picked the track location based on aesthetics as much as function. But I missed the fact that my selected spot was right where the ripples in the floor flattened out for a cross member under the floor. Part of the rail was sitting on the flat spot in the floor, and part was on the higher ripples. I'm going to move the tie down rail about an inch toward the front of the car so that it will sit flat on top of the ripples. It's still well within my required distance range, so that's not a problem. I'll have to do something to fill the holes I made earlier. Perhaps some rubber plugs.
I took the time this time to photograph the under side of the flooring for posterity. There are some extra strips around the seat bracket holes. These sit in a low spot of the floor to support the open edge of the flooring around the bracket holes. I'll do something similar to support the flooring in the same area.
I forgot to take any photos of the next step. I laid some OSB out on the ground, then put the original floor on top so I could trace the outline of the floor onto the OSB for cutting. A bit of woodworking ensued which resulted in a wood floor.
That tongue of wood sticking out over the step is roughly where the lift will go. Once I nail down the exact spot for the lift, I'll trim the wood to fit. It will sit about 4 inches over the step. I've got an idea for support under that. But that will have to wait for the next installment. Let's just say angle iron is involved. The only hole in this part of the floor is for the d-ring tie down visible in the photo.
The floor is too big in this area for a single piece of plywood. The van is about 60 inches wide inside at the floor, and the tie down rails are about 54 inches apart. I thought ahead this time and made sure the seam between the two sheets of plywood was at a high spot in the floor ripples so that the edges of the wood were well supported. Otherwise I'd need to put some filler strips in the low spot to support the edges.
I'll still put a filler strip in the three wider and deeper strips where the seat brackets were. That's particularly important for the door side strip, as the edge of the lift will be right in the middle of that strip. The bolts for the lift will be right in line with the old seat brackets.
The next steps will be to cut about an inch off the rear of this piece so I can move the tie down rail forward a bit. Then I'll decide on the exact location for the lift and do some more drilling. The angle iron support for the front edge of the lift should be interesting. And then its on to some finishing touches - the vinyl flooring being the most obvious.
But the real job of the day is to attack the flooring. The lift installation manual calls for 1/2 inch plywood under the lift base. The stock corrugated plastic flooring isn't going to be a suitable substitute. My initial plan was to cut out a bit of the floor to make room for the plywood. But that still leaves the gaping holes from the seat bases as an obstacle to navigation. I decided to do the job right and replace the floor. That way I'd get the right base under the lift and have a much better looking product at the end.
So my tie down rails have to come out. Since I lack 8 foot long arms with 3 elbows needed to do that job by myself, I call in a friend to assist. It doesn't take long to get the tracks out. Way faster than installing.
I also didn't like the way the rear track set. It tilted to the rear of the car. Getting the floor out let me see the problem. I had initially picked the track location based on aesthetics as much as function. But I missed the fact that my selected spot was right where the ripples in the floor flattened out for a cross member under the floor. Part of the rail was sitting on the flat spot in the floor, and part was on the higher ripples. I'm going to move the tie down rail about an inch toward the front of the car so that it will sit flat on top of the ripples. It's still well within my required distance range, so that's not a problem. I'll have to do something to fill the holes I made earlier. Perhaps some rubber plugs.
I took the time this time to photograph the under side of the flooring for posterity. There are some extra strips around the seat bracket holes. These sit in a low spot of the floor to support the open edge of the flooring around the bracket holes. I'll do something similar to support the flooring in the same area.
I forgot to take any photos of the next step. I laid some OSB out on the ground, then put the original floor on top so I could trace the outline of the floor onto the OSB for cutting. A bit of woodworking ensued which resulted in a wood floor.
That tongue of wood sticking out over the step is roughly where the lift will go. Once I nail down the exact spot for the lift, I'll trim the wood to fit. It will sit about 4 inches over the step. I've got an idea for support under that. But that will have to wait for the next installment. Let's just say angle iron is involved. The only hole in this part of the floor is for the d-ring tie down visible in the photo.
The floor is too big in this area for a single piece of plywood. The van is about 60 inches wide inside at the floor, and the tie down rails are about 54 inches apart. I thought ahead this time and made sure the seam between the two sheets of plywood was at a high spot in the floor ripples so that the edges of the wood were well supported. Otherwise I'd need to put some filler strips in the low spot to support the edges.
I'll still put a filler strip in the three wider and deeper strips where the seat brackets were. That's particularly important for the door side strip, as the edge of the lift will be right in the middle of that strip. The bolts for the lift will be right in line with the old seat brackets.
The next steps will be to cut about an inch off the rear of this piece so I can move the tie down rail forward a bit. Then I'll decide on the exact location for the lift and do some more drilling. The angle iron support for the front edge of the lift should be interesting. And then its on to some finishing touches - the vinyl flooring being the most obvious.