Another week goes by....I've been doing more project management than project construction.
My water tanks arrived.
The first of what should/hopefully will be four Arctic Tern windows arrived awhile back.
I ordered just one window initially to check the quality and to check that I will be able to actually install them in the locations that I would like to (see the white patterns on the exterior and brown pattern in the pics below). The quality definitely checks out, my installation is still under question. Three of them are hopefully going to go into the sides of the fiberglass high top, which with my elevated floor, will give me a view straight out of the three windows. I will be removing the two gull wing Westfalia windows.
In order to install the windows in the stepped shape of the high top I have to create a flat surface. I am thinking of doing that with a split jamb wood layup, with the exterior and interior jambs epoxied to the fiberglass top and screwed to each other through the fiberglass. The first step of which is making templates...a little more fine tuning to do to get rid of the daylight creeping through under the template at the top.
In addition to the windows, I am dreaming about insulating the fiberglass high top with XPS. On the exterior the XPS will go above the fold in the fiberglass and on the interior the XPS will go below the fold. The XPS will get epoxied and screwed with
foam fastener washers to the fiberglass high top. Then on the exterior I will build up a new fiberglass shell and on the interior I will finish out the foam with 1/8 Baltic Birch Ply. That's the dream I am operating under/researching right now anyway.
I was mocking up some different thicknesses of foam while I was figuring out the thickness of the split jambs. 3/4 inch foam with a 2 inch thick jamb seems to maybe solve the myriad of issues. The pink stuff is just 15psi foam. I will use at least 25psi foam (which I can get locally) and would like to get an even higher psi, but availability in small quantities so far seems to be difficult.
The electrical plan is the final thing that I've been working on this week. I calculated most of my loads and based on the desire to go three nights and four days of boondocking without having to move, it looks like I will need and can fit 400w or solar with 450Ah of lithium. I am going to be dual fuel..diesel and electric. I think I finally figured out a nice solution to installing the batteries and inverter to get them well ventilated and keep them located for properly weighting the van.
I'm not an electrician, so I've been in touch with several professional electricians in order to find someone for hire to go over my system design prior to ordering/installing and flipping any switches. I've successfully retrofitted two solar systems into my vans before, but this is a much larger project with greater ramifications and I want/need some over sight.
I think I've decided to stick with one manufacture for all of my primary electrical components in order to hopefully avoid some of the less then desirable, even poor compatibility that I so frequently read about with these systems. Victron having the most extensive line of components, enjoying a good reputation for quality and having extensive online documentation and support seems to have risen to the top of my list.