Layout plan.

[Goldenraf]

With the exception of the swing out table built from the 8020 Quick Frame extrusions all other extrusions are 15” series – 1.5" in multiple profiles. All of my modules are primarily attached to the floor (except overhead cabinets) so for crash proof design I picked 1.5”. The complete frame strength is related to beams strengths but also to t-slot attachments/joints strength. At some points I used double attachments, such as internal angle and an end connector. The strength of 15 series joints is considerably stronger than 10 series joints. For overhead cabinets I used anchors, the strongest fastener, in order to keep the assembly very strong, I explained why in an earlier post.

I completely relied on the strength of 8020 frames, my fill panels are floating and not provide any strength, in the back side of cabinets I don’t have any fillers. If you would choose to use filler panels for added strength than likely 1” extrusion would be OK, I considered this type of the design but did not like the aesthetics of external bolts and exposed edges, but I am sure it can be done. If you plan to use floor and walls to attached your cabinets than 1” could be sufficient.

Dave coached me earlier that it is much easier to work with one size profile versus multiple sizes to keep your fasteners, bolts, nuts inventory reasonably simple to manage, I absolutely agree.

George.

George,
I agree with you, one size fits all is much simpler, specially when you don;t have local access to the hardware like me.

I have all the pics form your build and I need to plan the 80/20 over my layout (Westfalia or Orangecamp inspired)

I saw the high cabinets you did, but my wife doesn't want sliding doors, she wants hinged doors, I think you did say that you would prefer that too.

One question I have is, how did you anchor the trusts to the floor? Nuts and bolts? this is aluminum and you don't want any galvanic corrosion with the body steel.
My floor is insulated with 1' styrofoam + plywood and linoleum.

Many thanks again!

 

[GeorgeRa]

George,
I agree with you, one size fits all is much simpler, specially when you don;t have local access to the hardware like me.
I have all the pics form your build and I need to plan the 80/20 over my layout (Westfalia or Orangecamp inspired)
I saw the high cabinets you did, but my wife doesn't want sliding doors, she wants hinged doors, I think you did say that you would prefer that too.
One question I have is, how did you anchor the trusts to the floor? Nuts and bolts? this is aluminum and you don't want any galvanic corrosion with the body steel.
My floor is insulated with 1' styrofoam + plywood and linoleum.
Many thanks again!

Actually I like my overhead sliders a lot, I did mention that the access at a time is limited to left or right side but not to both at the same time. I finished the design and have all parts for a flip type of latch constraining both from movement. Sliders definitely weigh less than fully hinged doors. Another reason we selected sliders was the simplicity of implementation, the slider guides were cut a the factory, I snapped them in and was done. Cutting HDPE was trivial.

I use these steel bolts and existing threaded holes in the floor for seat brackets -12 mm and D-rings - 8 mm bolts.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#91180a765/=1287bd1
http://www.mcmaster.com/#91310a566/=1287c1h
See the picture of the galley and the bed. Short piece of aluminum profile is attached to the frame with 2 bolts and a main bolt going through drilled hole in the short piece of the extrusion.

Corrosion wise I would worry about many other aspects of conversion but not this electrochemical issue. The main steel bolt is going to steel chassis - no problem there. For the electrochemical reaction to occur between steel bolt and aluminum profile that steel to aluminum interface would need to be immersed in electrolyte - unlikely. Even if you would have some electrochemical reaction going (0.1-0.2 V driving force), for example you spilled a coke, it would be aluminum going away because it would become slightly anodic against cathodic steel.

Good luck,

George.

 

[lukedog]

It took me a while to select the right floor and we ended up with Mannington Commercial Magna Greystone vinyl floor with felt back http://www.manningtoncommercial.com/product/2108. Floor thickness is 0.080” and the heterogeneous vinyl top is 0.55” which is more than regular vinyl floors. I rejected all shiny surface linoleums do to slippery. Rubber was another option. It has COF >= 0.5 which is considered a slip resistance surface. See pdf. attached. https://www.nachi.org/inspecting-slip-resistant-flooring-commercial.htm

I am planning to use this adhesive http://www.floorexperts.ca/assets/doc/2001.pdf between the vinyl floor and the ¼” Thermo-lite Versatile fiberglass/foam board.

George.

Where are you buying the flooring? How much?

 

[GeorgeRa]

Where are you buying the flooring? How much?

These are my local sources. Mannington Industrial Vinyl from http://www.paulsonsfloorcoverings.com/ for about $180 for 6’x10’
Thermo-lite 1/4“ Versatile from http://www.appliedplasticsmachining.com/new-space-age.aspx for about $240/5’x10’ sheet, this prices includes factory sanded down one side to improve adhesion to vinyl. The reason for the 1/4” Thermo-lite is to provide some insulation on top of the passenger van’s floor, even out holes left from passenger seat brackets and D-rings which will be filled with plywood. I will have a complete coverage except the rear left side electrical cabinets and behind the sofa which is covered by the factory floor. This approach saved me some money on expensive Thermo-lite.

George.

 

[GeorgeRa]

Getting into knocking off some items from my to do list.

Installed the PC fan for the electrical compartment using temperature control device, it is a simple on/off unit. The fan is extremely quiet. It is http://www.blacknoise.com/site/en/p...fans/nb-eloop-series/120x120x25mm.php?lang=EN B12-3. The temperature control unit is http://www.amazon.com/ESUMIC-Temper...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00. And never to forget to keep the electrical diagram current.

Replaced the failed Mornigstar battery temperature probe with the new one.

Extended the cabinet top back to the rear door.

Hein did all HDPE machining on his CNC machine, thank you.

George.

 

[GeorgeRa]

Next project is still in shamble, about 50% completed but with Hein help it is a good start.

George.

 

[GeorgeRa]

My overhead sliding doors have no vibration which was my main concern in deciding which type of O/H cabinet doors to select. The interweaved fishing line into the HDPE sliders within 8020 aluminum channels did the trick for vibration. https://sprinter-source.com/forums/showpost.php?p=302772&postcount=498

However, on heavy deceleration or acceleration occasion these doors moved. I used temporary wedges but they were annoying so I decided to get a simple latches preventing sliders to close or open. Looked for readymade latches but could not found any so here is my homebrewed solution with the CNC help from Hein. Flipping a latching lever takes a second. They seem very inconspicuous, almost feel like a bright color latching levels would be better.

George.

 

[pfflyer]

Nice solution. I was wondering what the pile of parts in post 767 were for.

 

[Roadman]

George,

Wow, these last few postings are complete Sprinter Porn! Nice work! Hein is an amazing resource. You have done such an amazing build! Thanks for sharing.

 

[GeorgeRa]

I am getting ready to place the linoleum in the van. While the fridge is out I am installing the Isotherm Smart Energy Controller (SEC) for the Isotherm Fridge and ran into some compatibility problem, it is not a simple plug in installation. I found that the SEC is only compatible with the Danfoss/SECOP 101N0212 12-24 VDC not with the 12/24 VDC & 100-240 VAC 101N0500 compressor controllers.

Electric circuits were similar but the installation required wiring of the SEC with the SECOP controller. I talked with Isotherm folks and was told that it will work on DC only, after installation I found that both AC and DC power works. I was willing to get rid of not really necessary AC redundancy but on occasion I use AC while batteries are being disconnected.

The original temperature controller is an old fashion capillary electromechanical device with the sensor bulb attached to the evaporator plate. The SEC has the temperature sensor mounted inside the fridge far away from the evaporator plate about 2” above the fridge floor. Having a sensor closer to the refrigerator space which temperature needs to be controlled is likely a better system, I am a little surprise that in the 21 Century electromechanical controls are still used, perhaps they are left over from the WWII inventory

While working on the fridge I replaced the fan with the quiet one. I did a simple comparison test and found that the new fan is about 50% quieter. The test was by finding a physical point where I perceived about an equal noise between both fans, my wife measured the distances to both units and I calculated the noise difference (4.25” vs 6”). The old fan has simple fan blades and ball bearings, the new one has sophisticated fan design for low noise and magnetic bearings. http://www.amazon.com/120x120x25mm-...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00

What I like; a very quiet fan and no clicking startup noise. SEC has built in soft start which makes the compressor noise a little quieter at the start up. Time will tell if there are indeed energy savings, but I predict yes. The new fan has a little over 0.02 A lower draw, not much.

I am still waiting for some flag connectors to make the whole SEC unit with wiring more compact.

George.

 

[GeorgeRa]

More pictures.

 

[GeorgeRa]

Getting ready to place the 1/4” sheet of the Thermolite board http://www.spaceagesynthetics.com/thermoliteproduct.aspxstly followed by linoleum http://www.manningtoncommercial.com/product/2108. I removed the galley, the toilette and the sofa bed. All plywood inserts are in, most of them were a combo of 1/2” and 1/4” plywood, and for some I needed to add 1/8” plywood piece. I decided not to place the extra floor under the electrical and microwave cabinets so one sheet of 5’x10’ and 6’x10’ linoleum will do.

For toilette mount I added a 24” Al 1.25”x1/2” bar to have 2 x 5/16”-18 bolts for attachment but making a second one concealed under the floor still connected to 12mm-1.5 thread factory seat mounts.

I am planning to use 2 thin transparent 4’x8’x0.30” plastic sheets to build a template for cutting the foam board and the linoleum. I could have pick a heavy paper like the Ram Board but transparent template is easier to mark. Any other ideas for a template are more than welcome.

George.

 

[GeorgeRa]

I am almost finished making a floor template from two 4’x8’ 30 mils thick PETL plastic sheets. I will be using this template to cut the 1/4” Space Age sheet and used this sheet to cut linoleum. There is one technique I use often to “manage” curves, angles or difficult to measure directly dimensions. I the case of the floor template the issue was how to cut opening for the wheel well, bending and cutting rather stiff plastic sheet would not be very accurate.

I take a reasonably distortion free picture using a mild telephoto 80mm focal length (40mm in Olympus), never use wide angle and make the camera’s film plane as parallel to the subject as possible. If you have a camera with horizontal and vertical indicators use them. Place a ruler in the same plane.

Import the picture into a CAD and scale it using a ruler. Draw the contour and print the template in the 1:1 scale. Using clear plastic makes it easy to transfer the drawing to the plastic and you done. I found this method faster than cut/try^n method.

Have fun, George.

 

[GeorgeRa]

The over 10’ by 6’ PETL template worked surprisingly well for cutting the base fiberglass foam board and to mark linoleum. The board fit like a glove. I used practically the whole 5’x10’ board. Next is gluing the linoleum sheet, it should fit as well as the Space Age board.

George.

 

[Boxster1971]

Very clever use of clear plastic sheet!

 

[GeorgeRa]

The linoleum is glued in, for the installation without a follow up trim (except wheel well and door step threshold) the PET template was a life saver. The spring brackets holding the door threshold need to be relocated 0.33” upwards to compensate for the base board and the linoleum additional height.

George.

 

[pfflyer]

Nicely done.

 

[irontent]

Looks very nice. Great job on the "precision" install.

 

[GeorgeRa]

While having the sofa bed out I resolved a few nagging issues:

- The latch spring generated noise on rough roads so I added 3 foam covers.

- On occasion the stuff from the sofa bed storage interfered with opening and closing the sofa bed so I added an extremely light weight polycarbonate triple wall ceiling.

- The simple cable for the release mechanism to change from the bed position to the seating position did not work well so I added the Bowden cable and still need to add a release lever on the other end. I modified the 15 series right angle bracket for the Bowden cable by drilling 2 coaxial holes one for the cable and one for the housing, worked great.

I installed this sofa bed in 2013, as I was working on it now there was no one loose screw on the base and I believe it is because I used flanged bolts as recommended, or at least supplied by 8020. I really like the 8020 framing, adding a ceiling storage panel was a trivial task.

George.

 

[Graphite Dave]

What did you use to cut the polycarbonate?

I will use the polycarbonate for the van ceiling and for the shower walls. (If I ever get that far on the conversion)

Also thought that the use of the clear plastic template for the floor was a great idea. Thanks for sharing.