Greta Van Blau- '16 144 low roof 4x4 project.

OffroadHamster

Well-known member
Honestly, it took me less time to replace the line and bleed it than it took me to figure out a way to keep my mutt from chewing on the van. Actually, I havent even solved the latter, she is temporarily barricaded from the side yard which is not a permanent solution as she now does her business in an undesirable spot.

Shes still alive because she keeps the rats out of the van and is the only reason they didnt eat the wiring out of my wife's 450sl
 

OffroadHamster

Well-known member
Started this project yesterday. Im out of gas or i would have it welded up already. Going to be a game changer for space in the van.


 

Boosie

New member
Hey Hamster! Love that color! I bought the 2017 144" 4x4 crew. My partner and I are loving it. We haul bikes under the bed, or skis, and have had lots of great adventures! I have gone with a minimalist approach that works great for us. Here's what I have installed so far: Adventure wagon rails and movable bed, Eberspacher diesel heater with High Altitude kit (figuring out the wiring for this was immensely challenging), swivel seat for passenger side, sound proofing and insulation, marine plywood walls coated in black rhino liner at bottom, and upholstered along the top, rails along the ceiling for attachment points and to hold up the ceiling (currently working on wiring the lights in the bamboo center piece, and upholstering the corner pieces. I kept the factory head liner and cut it up to reuse the edges. On the exterior I had aluminess roof rack and ladder, owl van engineering rear tire carrier, and BF Goodrich LT 265/70 R17s with Method MR 701s. I have rails attached to the roof rack to hold a goal zero solar panel, and I bring along a portable Goal Zero Yeti lithium battery. I have the auxiliary battery also, and I bought the Adventure wagon wiring harness, and wired the back with multiple power outlets, and a subwoofer.

After I finish the ceiling, my nest project will be rigging up an outdoor shower system, building some boxes over the wheels for storage, and installing some slide-out racks to make bike access easier.

I plan on selling my 3 seat bench seat (which we have never used), and a swivel I bought for the driver's side but never installed (my legs are too short for the swivel without removing the base and all of the wiring I installed).

I look forward to seeing what decisions you make on your install!

I would upload some pics of my build but don't know what file type I can upload- jpegs won't upload.
 

IPT

Active member
LIGHTS!!!!

VC Pod mounts with ****ty nilight pods and a nilight bar. Cheap and bright. Hopefully they last a year or two!



You went with pods and the bumper mount bar. I see conflicting thoughts on blocking that space. How do you like the hood mounts? I'm contemplating going that route, or maybe even two pods projecting out of the step area (to maintain airflow and still have the step usable). In hindsight any thoughts or suggestions were you to do it again?
 

mmusgee

New member
Well...after waffling over tops I put a deposit on a CCV top that will be going on in the middle of June and I will be picking it up July 7th if all goes according to plan. Opted for the arctic insulation, paint match and the maxxair fan.

I know there is some bad press out there for CCV, but after thoroughly reading through all of it and after seeing countless SMB top failures I decided that CCV was my choice. The anger and vitriol of the couple of people who have had deep problems with CCV doesn't represent how I would handle such problems nor would I enumerate them on the web before I resolved the issue to my satisfaction. I think a lot of people have a very low tolerance for disappointment and stress and when something doesn't go right their knee jerk reaction is to spew their anger all over the web.

Mostly my choice is tied to my sensibilities as an engineer. I have a fundamental problem with removing all of the hoop supports and cutting out everything behind the B-pillar in a vehicle my family will be traveling in. It bothers me in the same way that people bolt aftermarket seats directly to the sheet metal with only a large washer behind it. A 100lb chair with a 150lb person can develop 7-10,000lbs of force in an accident. Now ask me what the tear out force of a 2" washer through 20ga sheet metal is. My decision has more to do with engineering fundamentals than brand perception and other peoples experience.

As for current progress..... I finished with all of the thinsulate. A couple of tips for anyone new to working with this stuff

1: Dont unroll it until you are ready to cut. It cuts very nicely before it has lofted. After it lofts up its kind of a pain. Keep it rolled when you are not cutting it.
2: Lightly "score" it on the unskinned side with a sharp razor knife. Draw the knife at as low of an angle as possible to prevent the tip of the blade from catching the insulation. This gives a nice line to follow with...
3: A pair of high quality fabric shears! Dont use those crappy ones in your tool box.
4: when pulling insulation through the B C and D pillars run some string through a socket and tie it off so that when you hang the socket from the string it is parallel to the ground. Drop the socket on the string down the pillar and poke a small hole in the strip of insulation. Poke the socket through and then twist it so that it acts as an anchor or grappling hook. This prevents the socket from pulling out half way up the pillar and allows you to really stuff a nice thick piece of insulation in the pillars and still be able to pull it through. I tried using a flexible snake to push insulation through and its a huge PITA. Pulling is the way to go.
5: I used aluminum tape to tape any seams in the insulation so there would be no air gap. Probably unnecessary but will also help keep the insulation from shifting away from neighboring pieces if the contact adhesive ever starts to fail.

A couple of pics (and yes I did cut one ceiling panel too wide. Im not fixing it!)





Up next is the sub floor and insulation (including a heavy application of butyl sound deadener), radiant barrier and ceiling lights.

Also need to get to removing factory roof rails for the CCV top.
Nice built out!
We also need to remove the factory roof rails on the van for the SMB penthouse install next month. How did you plug and seal the holes?
 

OffroadHamster

Well-known member
Van compass plugged them with some crappy panel plugs and dicor lap sealant, which incidentally does not play well with a number of plastics, panel plugs included. My headliner suffered when they leaked.

I removed all of them, replaced with some nylon panel plugs and sealed them with good old silcone. Been fine for a couple years now.
 

wecnal

New member
@OffroadHamster - found this thread on google while researching water heaters. Curious if you still have/are using the Bosch? Still love it?

I've been going back and forth on a 12v one, an engine-coolant recirc one, 110v, etc. For the price of the Bosch and how highly you spoke of it, it seems like a super low cost solution (and one that if I don't like it I'm only out $150 and not like $500+).

Also, I loved to see that it took less than 20 minutes to get up to temp. Initially I was concerned about the power draw of a 110v one, but it seems that it would have a minimal and easily-recovered draw on the batteries.
 

OffroadHamster

Well-known member
@wecnal I typically heat while under way so as not to pull the batteries down. Once hot, maintaining temp for 24 hours doesnt draw much.

I recently upgraded to 280ah lithium bank. Straight from china $380 shipped after a $79 refund for shipping delay. Running in concert with a Daly 200A BMS. I still have 1 92ah SLA under the hood in parallel with the new lithium bank but only because my back is out of sorts and leaning over and plucking that monster out of the engine bay feels like a painful proposition at the moment.



Also, finally have my owl racks completely sorted out with upgraded pinned connections between the steel hinges and aluminum rack. Replaced all provided stainless hardware with graded metric hardware. Shimmed verticle hinge mount (they are severely oversized and their suggestion to tighten them to pinch them together goes against every design engineering bone in by body). All that said, small tweaks and they are mostly a fantastic product. I also have a strut fabricated that supports the boxes from moving in and out and flexing the door panel which is not pictured here.




Also recently discovered I can fit 16' lumber in the van :rad:

 
P

Patrick walsh

Guest
pretty sweet 16’s

@wecnal I typically heat while under way so as not to pull the batteries down. Once hot, maintaining temp for 24 hours doesnt draw much.

I recently upgraded to 280ah lithium bank. Straight from china $380 shipped after a $79 refund for shipping delay. Running in concert with a Daly 200A BMS. I still have 1 92ah SLA under the hood in parallel with the new lithium bank but only because my back is out of sorts and leaning over and plucking that monster out of the engine bay feels like a painful proposition at the moment.



Also, finally have my owl racks completely sorted out with upgraded pinned connections between the steel hinges and aluminum rack. Replaced all provided stainless hardware with graded metric hardware. Shimmed verticle hinge mount (they are severely oversized and their suggestion to tighten them to pinch them together goes against every design engineering bone in by body). All that said, small tweaks and they are mostly a fantastic product. I also have a strut fabricated that supports the boxes from moving in and out and flexing the door panel which is not pictured here.




Also recently discovered I can fit 16' lumber in the van :rad:

 

OffroadHamster

Well-known member
Tinted the front windows with Stratos 15 and the windshield with Stratos Airblue 80. Definitely cooler in the cab and the privacy nice. Suck it Johnny Law.




Loving the Lithium batteries. At low SOC they will suck down 125A from the alternator. And they keep my fickle inverter happy with their voltage profile. No more beeping at me when pushing a big load because the voltage is being pulled below 11.4V
 

TurboGus

New member
Thanks for the details on this. I have a Transit CCV pop top and my fan rattled on just about any Colorado road. With your mods it's almost completely silent now.
 

OffroadHamster

Well-known member
I managed to kill my starter battery recently and lock myself out in one fell swoop. It was agonizing. Ive fully fool proofed my van to resolve the issue while adding some anti theft capacity.

My jumper switch was kind of kludgy and was under the hood of the van which is a minor inconvenience until you cant get under the hood and then it is a major inconvenience. My keyed drivers door, the stupid arm fell off the solenoid again and I couldn't get in with the hard key.

I moved the jumper switch to the drivers seat base (I know what you are thinking, how does this help you if you cant get in the van...it doesnt, read on... but it allows me to jump the truck without getting out of the drivers seat. This guy directly connects my house lithium bank to the starter battery + cable.


I also added a sealed marine switch that severs as a starter interrupt thats "slightly" more difficult to locate than main disconnect in the drivers footwell. Not going to post a picture of its location for obvious reasons.

Also added an external pull for the hood release which is super stealth and a momentary switch to give the van power from the house batteries so I can use the FOB if the whole shebang dies on me. Hide-a-key box now has an extra set of key batteries stored with it.

I am never getting locked out of the van again.
 

OffroadHamster

Well-known member
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Had a lot of fun and shenanigans in the snow for new year!


Family time!




Dad Time!



The van has taken a back seat recently to a "remodel" of my race car. Rebuilt the center and rear differentials, replaced wheel bearings, backing plates, swapped from 4/2 pot rally calipers to brembos and on and on. Bigger turbo and an E85 tune should take her up another 100hp or so.



A small wheel painting project just for kicks...






 

OffroadHamster

Well-known member
The other kid is my ski buddy's son, but both of my daughters ski. My 7 year old can follow me anywhere up to a west coast black diamond, and my 5 year old is just mastering her parallel. Both have been on skis since around 18 months.

The Subaru is my project car with my girls. They help me roughly 30-45 minutes at a time. They can identify almost all of my tools by name now, know which way to turn a wrench and are slowly learning what the components of a car are. When the car is running we go to cars and coffee on Saturday mornings. The rest of the wrenching I do between 8pm and 1am while they are sleeping.

Ive found that the only way I can support my hobbies is by getting the kids involved so my wife can do what she wants. They wrench, ski, backpack, hike, and rock climb with me. When my oldest reaches 10 I will start to take her backcountry skiing, and begin initiating her into some mellow mountaineering. I have a long range goal of a winter trans-sierra trip with them....probably 10 years out.
 

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