Layout plan.

GeorgeRa said:

Indeed, but you need to have access hole for gravity water feed which I don't have. In my case the tank is under the floor in the cavity under the sliding door. For the gravity fill method I would need to penetrate the floor, or the upper wall in the sliding door step are have some kind of fixed or swinging u-tube device allowing gravity feed. When my original concept of running a large diameter filler hose from the tank into the engine compartment did not work out I picked the pressure fill method thinking that that it will be the least complex, time will tell. I already have 1/2" shore water hose in the engine compartment so using that hose to for pressure fill method was a natural progression.

Once done, the fill of the fresh water tank will be very easy with just two electrical switches or perhaps even one switch.

George.

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do you have aux batteries? If so where did you locate them? Your water tank location is exactly where I was planning to locate my batteries.

Legwound said:

do you have aux batteries? If so where did you locate them? Your water tank location is exactly where I was planning to locate my batteries.

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I have 2 http://www.fullriver.com/products/admin/upfile/DC115-12A.pdf batteries. One will be mounted in the factory auxiliary battery tray and the second one in the rear left electrical/electronic cabinet being designed. The batteries are connected in parallel with 1/0 cables.

The tank is 5.75” deep and its fit is reasonably tight, perhaps the cavity is slightly over 6”. The batteries I am using are about 6.8” so fit for these batteries could be questionable unless road clearance is sacrificed.

My van has the option of the smaller DEQ tank in the lower right/front quarter of the engine bay giving me full space under the sliding door.

George.

I just got side moldings fasteners and sealed the sliding door side, without the front pillar and door, today. On 144” WB I used 31 fasteners total excluding front pillar and front door. I decided to use DAP Butyl Flex Rubber Sealant by DAP to allow potential future removal.
I was able to do the sealing job on the rear fender without removal of the rear wheel well trim. Hopefully, tomorrow I will do the left side.

George.

Fasteners and the dealer.

There are multiple ways to tackle the 80/20 use for conversion. My preferred way is to order precut and tapped extrusions. For my builds I selected to use factory fasteners to speed-up the process unless a custom component is necessary. I understand that there is considerable saving if I would cut and machine by myself, but, in my situation I can justify this extra cost. I would have difficulties to cut to 1/32" accuracy and precision.

I attached the 80/20 RFQ form for my next cabinet for microwave and pantry and to finish the galley.

George.

My electrical diagram went through a few revisions and this is my last cut at it. Now I am ready to design electrical cabinet which will go in between the sofa bed in the rear left corner. In my current design I have very limited vertical, eye level, cabinet surfaces so location of some of the switches and gauges is challenging. My distribution panel will be accessible through the rear door and for some components I will use it as a switch panel. The easily accessible switches will be for all lights, water pump, and toilet.

Espar D2 thermostat and the Intelletec battery disconnect control panel will be located on the inner front of the rights side overhead cabinet.

At this time I am connecting the house batteries directly to MB charging circuit, if necessary I will add an intelligent disconnect.

George.

I just calculated the future weight of my additions at 1160 lbs. dry minus 426 lbs. for removed seats (1x4, 2x3) would be around 734 lbs. net which is well within the limit of a 144” passenger van. Full fresh water, grey, hot water and toilet tanks would add about 300 lbs. which would still be within a limit.

George.

I am finalizing my overhead cabinets and most likely have three, about 5’ long, units with sliding doors. I compared 15 versus 10 series 80/20 profiles and different material for filling panels. As is in all 80/20 frames the strength of units is almost independent of panels’ material chosen.
In my current choice, which I copied from this forum, I am planning to use the corner joints which are heavy and expensive but elegant. On series 15 these corners cost about 1/2 of the total 80/20 bill and weight 8 lbs., wow. There are other ways to joint 3 extrusion corners but none are as good looking as these heavy chunks of aluminum, see attached picture.

I am leaning toward HDPE to match other cabinets and 10 series or 15 series without round corners.

George.

GeorgeRa, thanks for sharing all this, especially the detail you provide.

Good info. I vote for 10 series with round corners for the overhead cabinets.

Recently I had a little time to get back to the Sprinter project and finished the shore power hook-up. Instead of using a popular 30A Marinco style twisting plug I decided to use a newer product, the SmartPlug with built in thermal protection and much easier insertion, the plug is self-aligned and no rotation is required. I still need to make a cable with SmartPlug female and RV 30A male.
The shore power inlet is mounted to the OEM hitch using McMaster Al junction box http://www.mcmaster.com/#75895k13/=px990m and http://www.mcmaster.com/#8302k191/=px99fs liquid tight cable grip. I drilled and tapped 2 holes (5/16”-20) on the hitch side plate and used sealant between the box and the hitch.

George.

more pictures and the template for SmartPlug hole pattern

Adding drawing for Smart Plug to McMaster Enclosure

I'm on phone so can click thanks - nicely done! I might have to borrow your idea


.mobile

GeorgeRa said:

I am finalizing my overhead cabinets and most likely have three, about 5’ long, units with sliding doors. I compared 15 versus 10 series 80/20 profiles and different material for filling panels. As is in all 80/20 frames the strength of units is almost independent of panels’ material chosen.
In my current choice, which I copied from this forum, I am planning to use the corner joints which are heavy and expensive but elegant. On series 15 these corners cost about 1/2 of the total 80/20 bill and weight 8 lbs., wow. There are other ways to joint 3 extrusion corners but none are as good looking as these heavy chunks of aluminum, see attached picture.

I am leaning toward HDPE to match other cabinets and 10 series or 15 series without round corners.

George.

Click to expand...

I am very picky regarding rattling and sliding doors on overhead cabinets could rattle, I will know for certain once my O/H cabinets are finished. HDPE would likely rattle less than lighter but more rigid double wall polycarbonate sliders. I like the simplicity of the sliding doors and begin to think what if they would rattle.

So here is my plan B. The 80/20 slide tracks are 0.275”/15 profile and 0.281”/10 profile so with 0.250” or 0.236” (6mm) slider material the gap could vary from 0.025” to 0.045”; perhaps sufficiently large for sliders to rattle. So potential solution is to reduce that gap by placing a low friction material between the sliding door and the track, for example:

1. Drill small holes (1/16” dia.) through the sliding doors 3/16” away from upper and lower edges every 2” to 3”. Countersink holes on both sides.
2. Thread a nylon or PTFE (lower friction) fishing line both direction on both sides of the slider and terminate it with a knot on one end. Thread a line on the top and the bottom.
3. Fishing lines are available in multiple diameters so fine tune is possible.

Well tune size of the nylon line could eliminate rattles and provide sufficient friction so cabinet doors would stay in place.

Did anyone used this concept?, thoughts?

George.

Sounds brilliant.

Airstream Westfalia has slatted sliding doors. Some of the rail slots have a stiff vinyl plasticky edge (like on top of each prong of the "U" shape) which hold the door. In addition, on one cabinet a strip of self-adhesive felt was placed between the cabinet and the end of a closed sliding door.

Maybe felt strips or pads in certain places might work--they're cheap and easy to replace. Figure out where doors might be when closed and maybe felt between the edge of sliding door and something? Could a strip of felt be put inside the slot where sliding door goes?

Alternative might be those self-adhesive cabinet door bumpers--but might be too unyielding.

In any event, my ideal cabinet interior would be felt-lined as stuff inside the cabinets tend to squeek and rattle against the cabinet interior-- those foam cup holders work on some cans. p

I was planning to use the polycarbonate as well- my only local source has 8mm, but not 6 mm thickness. So, I was considering cutting a kerf into the middle of the panel (between the two walls) then flexing the walls inward to squeeze them into the channel. Depth of kerf should adjust/control friction on the channel. Haven't tried it yet- you are way further along than me.
Also planning on an LED strip inside the cabinet (nice glow through the panels when on), and perhaps lining the cabinet with 1/8"white closed cell foam to diminish rattling, and increase visibility of contents.

Danny van said:

Also planning on an LED strip inside the cabinet (nice glow through the panels when on), and perhaps lining the cabinet with 1/8"white closed cell foam to diminish rattling, and increase visibility of contents.

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A little off topic but if I didn't have the factory headliner I was thinking of installing smoke plexiglass on the ceiling with Christmas type lights behind it. Would look like stars when lit up. Friend of mine did that in his drop ceiling in his theater room. Looks pretty cool.

Danny van said:

I was planning to use the polycarbonate as well- my only local source has 8mm, but not 6 mm thickness. So, I was considering cutting a kerf into the middle of the panel (between the two walls) then flexing the walls inward to squeeze them into the channel. Depth of kerf should adjust/control friction on the channel. Haven't tried it yet- you are way further along than me.
Also planning on an LED strip inside the cabinet (nice glow through the panels when on), and perhaps lining the cabinet with 1/8"white closed cell foam to diminish rattling, and increase visibility of contents.

Click to expand...

I have a piece of 8mm Macrolux polycarbonate panel which is .315" thick. The slot in 15 series 80/20 is .320". Macrolux fits in the slot without any cutting and is tight enough that I do not think it would rattle.

Thanks Dave, I was planning on using 10 series for upper cabinets- may have to revise that....