Orton DIY - Headliner removal & Insulation

canadave

New member
Thanks for all of this guys, great help. I removed my headliner without incident, have insulated and now am reinstalling. Having difficulties getting the headliner back in, as it flares out at the front so a bit wider there. It catches as you reinsert the headliner. Is there a trick to getting that wider part back in? it seems wider than the roof at that point. I dont want to break those front corners as I put them back in..
 

randomgood

New member
Just found this thread, lots of helpful info.

Perhaps I missed it but how do you remove the sun visors? I have a 2016 and the sun visors have a d clip covering the bolt on both the passenger and driver side. The outside bolts are free and clear, it's ones located beside on the interior light that have a D clip. I attempted to push it to the side, but no luck. How do you remove these?
 

sprinterPaul

Well-known member
Just found this thread, lots of helpful info.

Perhaps I missed it but how do you remove the sun visors? I have a 2016 and the sun visors have a d clip covering the bolt on both the passenger and driver side. The outside bolts are free and clear, it's ones located beside on the interior light that have a D clip. I attempted to push it to the side, but no luck. How do you remove these?


Push harder. As I recall a flat head screw driver helped. Those d clips are odd because you cant swing visor to side with them on.
 

SprinterKing

New member
Just found this thread, lots of helpful info.

Perhaps I missed it but how do you remove the sun visors? I have a 2016 and the sun visors have a d clip covering the bolt on both the passenger and driver side. The outside bolts are free and clear, it's ones located beside on the interior light that have a D clip. I attempted to push it to the side, but no luck. How do you remove these?
You probably figured this out, but for anyone else that comes across this.

If you grab the clip from the underside and pull it toward you, it will pop up and free.
 

cab7104

New member
Alright, I am struggling a bit - Dave I like your inverter to inverter design but the Cooler/Fridge that I have (CFX-65DZ) specifically calls out not connecting it to a "rapid battery" charger under penalty of death (or at least a broken fridge).

I am trying to think of ways around this and have a question out to the manufacturer since it has its own prioritization circuit for 110V rather than 12V I am thinking as long as it is always plugged into the inverter that the charger is plugged into whenever the van is on it should be isolated. I plan on mimicking your setup - with the plan to add solar at a later date and possibly slightly different battery connection. Really my power users will be the fridge, MaxxAir fan, charging for a laptop, camera, phone, drone, etc., and maybe the occasional electric kettle. The only other solution I can think of would be a 12v socket attached to a relay that pulls power from the van when the key is in the "start" or "running" position and from the house battery when the key is in the "off" position. Thoughts or input from anyone would be welcomed - just trying to figure out the best option before I spend a pile of money and end up cursing myself. :yell:
 

Graphite Dave

Dave Orton
Alright, I am struggling a bit - Dave I like your inverter to inverter design but the Cooler/Fridge that I have (CFX-65DZ) specifically calls out not connecting it to a "rapid battery" charger under penalty of death (or at least a broken fridge).

I am trying to think of ways around this and have a question out to the manufacturer since it has its own prioritization circuit for 110V rather than 12V I am thinking as long as it is always plugged into the inverter that the charger is plugged into whenever the van is on it should be isolated. I plan on mimicking your setup - with the plan to add solar at a later date and possibly slightly different battery connection. Really my power users will be the fridge, MaxxAir fan, charging for a laptop, camera, phone, drone, etc., and maybe the occasional electric kettle. The only other solution I can think of would be a 12v socket attached to a relay that pulls power from the van when the key is in the "start" or "running" position and from the house battery when the key is in the "off" position. Thoughts or input from anyone would be welcomed - just trying to figure out the best option before I spend a pile of money and end up cursing myself. :yell:
Do not understand what a "rapid battery" charger is. I do not connect the refrigerator directly to a charger. The house charger or solar controller may be charging the house battery at the same time the refrigerator is running on 12 v DC. Have not had a problem with that. Suspect everyone that has a refrigerator in a van would be running the refrigerator from the house battery at the same time the battery is charging.

My refrigerators in both the sold Sprinter and the replacement Transit are 12 volt DC/120v AC refrigerators. The refrigerator is wired from the house 12 volt battery through a fuse to the refrigerator. The 120v AC refrigerator power is connected to shore power. Shore power is either real shore power or "shore power" from the vehicle powered inverter. A selector switch selects which shore power is used. The refrigerator automatically switches to 120 volt AC if it is available.

Highly recommend solar. My single 300 watt panel is all that has been required to charge the house battery. I do have a backup method of charging if weather conditions ever force its use.
 

Neil2

Neil2
Said by a pro converter to be about $100 at the dealer and an owner said $900. Another pro converter stated today he "steals every one he can" from the empty vans.
 

cab7104

New member
Do not understand what a "rapid battery" charger is. The house charger or solar controller may be charging the house battery at the same time the refrigerator is running on 12 v DC. Have not had a problem with that. Suspect everyone that has a refrigerator in a van would be running the refrigerator from the house battery at the same time the battery is charging.
Hey seeking some feedback here - since we are going into winter where we live, and we am cheap, we are likely not going to install the fan or solar until spring but I am starting to design out our power system. This is a very rudimentary drawing and still needs wire gauges, a battery monitor, and ability to wire in solar (which I plan to pre-wire while I have the roof panels out for insulation).

Dave, I like your "dual inverter" solution but we won't have a hot water heater so it seems like a bit of overkill for us. Our thought is to install a switch to provide the option of running the inverter from house batteries or the van battery, our thought is the only thing we would run the inverter from the house batteries for is really charging a laptop, camera, drone, or running the electric tea kettle, and all of these uses are more of a "from time to time" application, not every trip. Could the Magnum inverter/charger be wired to "only invert" or "charge and invert" mode or is it all or nothing?

In our trips so far we have found that we end up moving basically every other day, often more frequently due to a trip to to a trailhead, ghost town, brewery, or other sundry exploring that we end up doing so most times larger devices get charged during one of those trips. Due to the restrictions on our cooler/fridge we will keep it powered by the inverter while the house batteries are charging (simple solution even if unnecessary since the cooler has that feature build in). In the spring (or sometime over the winter if I get free time) hopefully we will have a roof rack, fan and 325w solar panel/charger installed so we could remain off-grid almost indefinitely. At some point we might add a water pump but our current setup is working pretty well so no plans to change it at this point. I don't have many fuses drawn in (need to do some more thought on that) so those will be added as well as cut-off switches where appropriate. Thoughts, am I missing something huge? Appreciate the feedback from anyone - this is by far the project that has taken the most of my time and thought just to get to this point. - Craig

 
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whale tale

New member
Great thread thank you! Just removed/replaced the headliner for a round of spray insulation.

One small tip on replacing the overhead light console if you've yanked it out: Separate it into two pieces, insert the cubby part first, and then clip the light in after it. That must be how they do it in the factory cuz otherwise it's a PITA to get it back in the headliner.

 

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