Again, the cabinets gave me fits at times, but little by little we came to terms and things began to fall into place. In Part I, I mentioned that I would cover the extended section of the van more fully, so here we go...
I decided that I was going to build the rear cabinet inside of the rear rib area instead of attaching to it from the side. This allowed me to bolt the rear cabinet directly behind the rib making it almost impossible for it to move in a forward direction, or any direction, and that I would then attach my two side cabinets to the rear cabinet which would give them a solid anchor point yet also being removable if needed. It was a bit challenging, but in the end, it worked out well...
As you can see from the photo below, I built the rear cabinet support and mounted it to the back of the last vertical rib. I had worked out the height of the cabinet already, but there's something you might not think of until it's too late, remember to leave enough room to access the rear door latch above the finished cabinet surface so you can exit the van through the back if needed...
I built the two side cabinet structures using 2X2's, and I decided to leave a standard inside house door width between the cabinets, about 28 inches. I wanted to get as much cabinet space as I could, but I'm a big guy, and if you can't function in the space between the cabinets then it will make it difficult to do things like looking through the cabinets or doing dishes. This amount of space has worked really well for me. I can sit and f unction comfortably on a stool in the back section without feeling crowded...
Notice that the height of the cabinet structure, along with the clearance needed to access the rear door handle, was also factored into the position of the side stringers. I ended up not having to attach the cabinets to the stringers, but they were there just in case I did...
I didn't drill and bold the cabinets into place at this point because I felt it was best to wait until the cabinets were complete and ready for final installation...
Next I built the shells for the two upper cabinets. I decided early on to do three things. One was to not take the cabinets all the way to the ceiling. I wanted to leave enough space to create cubby holes and storage for small items on top. Another thought was that I wanted to make the upper cabinets slightly less deep than the bottom cabinets so as to leave a ledge all around the lower cabinet area, and I wanted a large open area under the top cabinet, about 8 inches tall, for everyday 'thing' storage...
I wasn't sure if I would need to attach the upper cabinets to the wall or not, but I made them tall enough that I could use angle brackets attached to the sheet metal at the top of the wall if needed. I ended up not having to add an y additional support, but it was nice to have that option...
I also decided to move the original location of the house batteries up closer to the solar panel controller, electrical, which would also make them easier to access for regular maintenance. I bought two wet cell 6V, 235Ah DuraCell golf cart batteries for m y solar setup, which means they should be stored in a sealed container and vented to the outside of the van. I created a box in the front of the long cabinet, sealed it with plastic and added polyurethane foam panels on all sides. After the cabinets were completed I drilled a vent hole through the cabinet and into the battery box which vented to the outside of the van...
I took a break from the cabinets for a while, a friend came over to help out, (Thanks Felicia!), and we worked together on building the roof rack for the solar panels. I used 2X2's and 1X4" treated lumber for this project since it would be out in the weather and I didn't have to worry about the off-gassing of the chemicals to the interior. I constructed the rack to hold up to 4 / 100W solar panels, as I wasn't sure exactly how well I had planned my energy usage with only two 100W panels...
I had to reconfigure the board spacing a bit to fit the solar panels. As you can see our original measurements were off...
I found some heavy duty, and very reasonable, roof rack towers online at NRS.com, and they worked out perfectly. They are easy to install, easy to adjust, and I don't know if you could actually break one of these things, they are super sturdy, and made out of cast aluminum...
I drilled a hole though the roof near where the solar controller would be mounted inside, installed the solar panels to the rack, ran the cabling for a parallel solar installation, and used a cable cover I found on Amazon to route the cables through the van roof...
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| Outside cable cover. |
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| Hole viewed from inside. |
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| Solar panels mounted. |
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| They're working! |
These are Renogy solar panels, I bought the whole system as a kit but upgraded to a different controller that had LED readouts instead of the flashing LED lights. I like the fact that I can browse though the menu and see whats really happening. How many amp hours added by the sun, how man y amps are going out, etc... I have had this system, including the batteries, working for a while now and I couldn't be happier. I believe, although this has not been tested, that I could go for several day s before running out of electricity if I used it reasonably. I'll cover more about the devices and electrical needs I have later on...
Okay, back to the interior...
Need to get the panelling installed...
Continue to Converting Anastasia / Part III
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