shouldbeasy's 'home away from home' 2017 4x4 Sprinter build

Midwestdrifter

Engineer In Residence
Very nice build.

I would echo Hein's concerns. Most of the items you have mounted under the hood will probably be okay, except the fuse block. Besides the corrosion issue, wind blown water will eventually work its way into all the small crevices. When it freezes, it could well do terminal damage to the fuse block. I have seen my share of ATC fuses melted/burned by high resistance and/or loose connections.

I would suggest getting a water tight (put a drain at the bottom) electronics project box, or a small pelican box knockoff. Mount the fuse block inside. and use sealant, or liquid tight cord grips for the wire entry. At a bare minimum I would pack all the crevices and terminals with high quality marine rated dielectric grease (they thick stuff).

All modern vehicles with fuse blocks under the hood have them protected by a water spray proof box.
 
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These are marine rated items and I've not had any issues on my 4Runner using them - not sure why it's come up a couple times just now but it's not like the electronics are out in the elements. They're in the engine bay with everything else.

I've made sure to add dialectic grease to the Weatherpack connectors and will do so with the blade fuses as well - certainly no plans to move the fuse block, relay block or breakers.
 

Totaled108

Captain Slow
That’s a really nice build, shouldbeasy!
Am solar does great work. I’ve been running a setup they sold me for about 6 months now.
Are they advising you on the best setup for your need?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
That’s a really nice build, shouldbeasy!
Am solar does great work. I’ve been running a setup they sold me for about 6 months now.
Are they advising you on the best setup for your need?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks!

Yep - Garret over at AM Solar helped me pick out the required items based on what my charging circuit and load demands are. Hoping it goes together smoothly when it comes time for the install!

I think the next item on my list is the shower - once it's in place I can start mounting things around it... but it's a big project (aren't they all??).
 

Totaled108

Captain Slow
Excellent!
I wanted to touch on your interest in installing the Dual Top inside the van. If you have the room, by all means, install it inside.

With the location we’ve chosen, off roading is limited a bit. But I don’t plan on any road rougher the some light logging roads to get to a trail head now and again. If you’re planning on doing a good amount of off roading, an inside installation would be much better.

I understand it’s a known ‘fact’ that the Dual Top, when placed under the sprinter chassis (170” non-EXT) the spare tire must be displaced. There’s may be another way.

Here’s my experience...

I have the Dual Top unit installed under the van, spare tire remains in stock location. So far it’s been this way for about 4 months and ~5,000 miles and working well.

I am bending the clearance requirements at one end of the unit. The clearance is supposed to be around 7” (if I recall correctly) and I’ve allowed about 4.5”. I do believe this clearance is to allow removal of the intake side cover to do any in-place repairs. The needed clearance is quickly gained back by removing two bolts and rotated the sway-bay out of the way. [emoji1360]

It’s been down to around -19F here each night for close to a week. The Webasto has no issue keeping the interior warm. The water supply lines run to and from the unit inside the air intake, which prevents these lines from freezing. When the heat is on, the water in the boiler will remain hot, even to very cold temps.


I’m not living in the van at the moment, but am out in it, quite a lot during this extreme cold snap, doing work. I have done a few successful multi day trips in sub freezing temps.

It will even fire up after the entire system has been off for a couple days, meaning it’s starting easily, on first try in VERY cold conditions.

My winter tank (35gal) is located under our couch/bed, so when we will be living in the van, the warmer temp we will be keeping the inside, will prevent freezing on the water in the tank. Our summer auxiliary tank is left completely empty in the winter.

I have emptied the entire water system just before the mercury dropped, about a month ago.

I’m really happy with this unit. ??

There’s lots more to delve into with this unit, if you’d like.

 
Awesome! I'm glad someone else has had luck with it! I don't know many / any others who have the Dual Top Evo units.

I think I'll try to tuck it inside... Drivers side exhaust exit - my next task is to tear up the floor and get things hard mounted to steel.

Also time to wire up my electrical system - first step is to find a location for the batteries... I might cut a hole in the floor, recess the batteries to lower the center of gravity and to hopefully offset some of the weight that's going WAY up top on the roof (AC unit is not light!!).
 

OffroadHamster

Well-known member
Awesome! I'm glad someone else has had luck with it! I don't know many / any others who have the Dual Top Evo units.

I think I'll try to tuck it inside... Drivers side exhaust exit - my next task is to tear up the floor and get things hard mounted to steel.

Also time to wire up my electrical system - first step is to find a location for the batteries... I might cut a hole in the floor, recess the batteries to lower the center of gravity and to hopefully offset some of the weight that's going WAY up top on the roof (AC unit is not light!!).
I considered mounting my batteries "in" the floor via cutting a hole and welding a battery box to the bottom of the hole and having an access hatch in the top. With my modest welding skills I decided against it as the finished product would not look as tidy as I would have wanted. I hope you do this so I can glean some inspiration for my next remodel of the van.
 

Paul_E_D

Member
I considered mounting my batteries "in" the floor via cutting a hole and welding a battery box to the bottom of the hole and having an access hatch in the top. With my modest welding skills I decided against it as the finished product would not look as tidy as I would have wanted. I hope you do this so I can glean some inspiration for my next remodel of the van.
I have this arrangement for 2 group 31 batteries. Previous owner did it. He fabricated fiberglass battery boxes with drain/vent out the bottom. It's a nice feature. But I have now installed a slideout fridge covering one of the hatches, so servicing that battery has become a bit of a pain. Luckily that doesn't happen often.

Bottom line, I'm not sure it's worth the effort for the payoff.
 

OffroadHamster

Well-known member
I have this arrangement for 2 group 31 batteries. Previous owner did it. He fabricated fiberglass battery boxes with drain/vent out the bottom. It's a nice feature. But I have now installed a slideout fridge covering one of the hatches, so servicing that battery has become a bit of a pain. Luckily that doesn't happen often.

Bottom line, I'm not sure it's worth the effort for the payoff.
If they payoff is more interior space and the ability to run a large FLA bank without hanging batteries where they will reduce ground clearance, then I think the payoff is worth the servicing hassle, at least for me.
 

Totaled108

Captain Slow
How’s the build coming along? We needs the motivation to move forward. [emoji12]

With regards to AH banks, mine is sort of average with two 160ah, 12.8V LiFeP04 batteries. The deepest discharge thus far reads 171ah, with about 55-75ah of usage after a cold day and night of normal heat, fridge, cooking and water usage. [emoji1360]

AMSolar sure has the best setup/kits I’ve been able to dig up, for our needs anyways. ⚡ Weighing in at 220lbs including all components, 2000w inverter/converter and all the wiring, switches and sub panel (not the 4, one hundred watt panels, though the wiring and combination box from the panels was included in the weight). I’d buy from them again in a heart beat.
 
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I've been super sick with the flu and feeling it for like 6 weeks now! Ugh! Ridiculous! Combined with my back issues it has not been fun!

Unfortunately I don't have anywhere to work on the rig inside and it's been quite cold and we've also got a lot of snow on the ground. A few chinooks have rolled through but it hasn't been warm enough to remove all the snow.

I've been doing some emailing regarding the fine tuning of each set up - I am going to get the inside and roof rack started as soon as I can as I need them done as it's the bones of the build.
 

Totaled108

Captain Slow
Oh boy. I hope you well soon.

I’ve been having the same issue with not having an inside location to continue work on our van. We have had way below freezing temps for about a month now, with snow around 5-8inches on the ground almost the entire time.



The silly thing is, we have a two car garage and a large barn/shop, but the tallest door is 8ft. [emoji15]

I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, I do fire up the Webasto if I’m going to be in the van working for better part of the day.
 
So, I had a good trip to a number of fabric stores with my Ma yesterday and found a couple fabrics that will work really well with the van. I'll also be integrating some leather accent pieces which should look great and add some colour to the aluminum shelving and dark blue of the van - also working in the front seats to make it a cohesive theme.

Only question I have in my mind is what to use for the roof panels - what is the ideal material that's nice and thin to glue a bit of quilt batting and then glue some fabric to? As mentioned, nice and thin along with being able to cut to size is crucial... Any suggestions?

I've been thinking about my insulation issue as well and the 600L Thinsulate is a great option and I think I'll work with it along with spray foam in areas which are hard to fit with a cut piece of foam.
 

Rockclmbr

Member
So, I had a good trip to a number of fabric stores with my Ma yesterday and found a couple fabrics that will work really well with the van. I'll also be integrating some leather accent pieces which should look great and add some colour to the aluminum shelving and dark blue of the van - also working in the front seats to make it a cohesive theme.

Only question I have in my mind is what to use for the roof panels - what is the ideal material that's nice and thin to glue a bit of quilt batting and then glue some fabric to? As mentioned, nice and thin along with being able to cut to size is crucial... Any suggestions?

I've been thinking about my insulation issue as well and the 600L Thinsulate is a great option and I think I'll work with it along with spray foam in areas which are hard to fit with a cut piece of foam.
I just finished a section of my ceiling and used 5mm plywood with 1/8" foam stapled to the plywood, all covered with the charcoal tweed fabric. I stretched it tight over all four edges and stapled/glued from the back side. The center of the fabric will tend to droop if not secured, but since I had to screw the ceiling panel to a few wood braces I added to the ceiling crossbeams, this worked just fine.
 

Attachments

I'm trying to avoid wood at all costs and so I'll pass on the plywood for now... Good to know it's worked well for others in the past though. A solid back up plan if I can't find any plastic pieces that will work...

Thanks!
 

eat_the_food

New member
So, I had a good trip to a number of fabric stores with my Ma yesterday and found a couple fabrics that will work really well with the van. I'll also be integrating some leather accent pieces which should look great and add some colour to the aluminum shelving and dark blue of the van - also working in the front seats to make it a cohesive theme.

Only question I have in my mind is what to use for the roof panels - what is the ideal material that's nice and thin to glue a bit of quilt batting and then glue some fabric to? As mentioned, nice and thin along with being able to cut to size is crucial... Any suggestions?

I've been thinking about my insulation issue as well and the 600L Thinsulate is a great option and I think I'll work with it along with spray foam in areas which are hard to fit with a cut piece of foam.
There's a sheet-good product by the name of Thermo lite board [made by SpaceAge iirc) that might work well for you application. Comes in standard sheet-good sizes, is reinforced with fiberglass so is very light and dimensionally much stronger that equivalent thickness in ply. I used it for base flooring in my build but had enough left over for wall panels and they worked great. Upholstered them in the standard panel fashion and had no issues.

Always a good feeling to know that the material wont rot or deteriorate over time like wood can.
 
I'm using corroplast for my ceiling. Very light, easy to work with. I haven't glued the fabric on yet so I can't tell how well that will work. On thing thing about the ceiling is that you really don't need strength. And you only need enough rigidity to keep it maintaining a consistent shape so it looks nice.
I am assuming that you don't fasten anything to it. I am only mounting some 2.25" flush puck lights in mine.

A couple things to note:
1. corroplast has channels in it that run lengthways so it naturally curves across the width. For me that isn't a problem because 48" across the ceiling is all I need. I am angling the top few inches of the wall in to meet the ceiling, the edge of which will be 3" in from the edge of the wall. This will give me a natural wiring duct.
2. The air space in the corroplast acts as an insulator to some extent. I am going to seal the ends with some type of sealer and since the air channels will be going horizontally the amount of convection will be negligible. Essentially I will have a dead air space bridged by plastic ribs.
3. My insulation in the ceiling is thinsulate which is not being held up by the corroplast, but even if it was the weight is pretty low and I might even end up with fasteners in every roof rib so again, no structural requirement for the corroplast.

YMMV, as I haven't yet proven that the adhesive/fabric/corroplast with have a satisfactory outcome.
 

230321a

Member
Looking forward to you pictures.

QUOTE=julie777;623282]I'm using corroplast for my ceiling. Very light, easy to work with. I haven't glued the fabric on yet so I can't tell how well that will work. On thing thing about the ceiling is that you really don't need strength. And you only need enough rigidity to keep it maintaining a consistent shape so it looks nice.
I am assuming that you don't fasten anything to it. I am only mounting some 2.25" flush puck lights in mine.
 

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