Building the Escape Pod
With four bikes in the back of the van, and living space up front, there’s not much room for a bed. The only option is to mount it above the bikes using removable panels. Continue reading “Finding space for a bed in a bike hauling van”
The bed panels and rails that we ordered from Overland Sprinters have arrived, and now we need to fit them to the van. Continue reading “Bed panels have arrived!”
We’ve fitted the fabric and bamboo walls into the van. They are held in place with flanged l-track. The van is starting to look more civilized. Continue reading “Walls are in!”
I realized I’ve never sprayed with a proper spray gun before, only with rattle cans. I’ve also never worn a NIOSH organic vapor mask before. Wow. What a difference! Continue reading “Contact adhesive: foam to wall panels”
Horse stall mat, vinyl coin matting and closed cell foam make a good sound damping combination over the factory wood floor of the van. Flanged l-track holds the three layers in place.
Continue reading “Adding sound and heat insulation to the floor”
Our van will have different ‘zones’ inside – a garage area for bike storage, a bed area, a living area and a driving area. One way to differentiate these is by changing the wall covering in each area.
We moved the passenger seats towards the back of the van, and added l-track to hold down an additional floor layer on top of the factory floor. That meant several big changes to the factory wood floor insert.
Logistic track (also called l-track or airline track) is an extruded aluminum strip that has holes drilled through it at 1″ intervals, and an inverted “T” cross-section cut out through its length. Connectors slide in through the holes and then lock in place with a spring or a bolt. That makes it easy to configure to support any load you want to carry. Continue reading “Logistic Track – the super-connector”
We’re using several layers of insulation on the van walls and floor. Different products have different insulating properties – either heat or sound insulation – and so we need to use a bit of a sandwich.
The main heat insulation is Thinsulate – pretty much the same stuff as in gloves and coats, but 1-1/2″ thick and specially designed for use in vehicles. It stops noise as well as heat loss. We got this through Hein, another person who has converted a Sprinter van. He couldn’t find a supplier who would sell to him, so he became a supplier and now he sells it to other DIY-ers! He also sells it on Amazon. Continue reading “Insulating – beating the heat and noise”
It’s really easy to take the inside out of a Sprinter van. I’m not sure if that’s a compliment. There are lots of plastic pieces that just unclip.
We bought a Crew van, so it comes with a headliner, rear door inserts, and plastic panels on the walls up to the mid-line. The areas that would be windows in the back are just bare metal. The passenger van comes with more paneling, covered in vinyl. The passenger van also has more windows, which we didn’t want. Continue reading “Stripping (the inside of a Sprinter)”