mullerb's musings

Two years later...I finally got a solar panel permanently installed on the roof of the Sprinter. Our house battery system is pretty small with a 92AH battery and only a few LED lights, phone chargers and a Dometic CFX 40W fridge. Until it died a few months ago, I had a bluetooth CTEK Battery Sensor for tracking battery health. Rarely did the battery go below 70% charge when we were on the road and using the fridge. When on a road trip, driving between trailheads was usually enough to keep it charged. For times when we would park it for several days, I picked a up a small 50W solar panel to prop on the dash and plug into the CTEK charge controller. It did the job of keeping the battery topped off on sunny days. But it's a bit of a hassle to set it up and take it down. A permanent solution would be much better. A lot of the work was already done through getting that 50W portable system set up. I already added a SAE plug ( Amazon link ) with a fuse to the charge controller an

I've always looked at power outlets as magic. How do those electrons do their thing? It took a bit of research and consulting to get my head around the details of loads, wire gauges, amp hours, AGM vs flooded batteries, and on and on. I have to give lots of kudos to a neighbor who recently added wiring to his van. He steered me in the right direction and gave me a tour of his system. As with the rest of our build, simple is the theme. Our power needs are low: we want to charge phones, laptop, run a few LED lights and a low-power fridge. Where to start...well, figuring out how much juice you need for those items comes first so that you can figure out how big a battery is called for. Once you know that, you can: figure out how big a house battery you need and how much room you need for it; how to connect the house battery to the alternator in order to charge it; whether you want or need solar to keep it charged; how many circuits you need to wire and what size fuses they need;

You gotta have fresh air to be happy and healthy. Our beast has some nice big side windows behind the driver's side and on the sliding door. But they don't open. So we opted for some windows that open. And a fan for cooking inside on rainy days and cooling things off on hot nights. I'm always happy to play with new tools and try new things but I just couldn't get myself psyched up to cut into such expensive sheet metal. Happy to have the pros do it. We had Tourig, a really top notch conversion shop in Golden, Colorado, install a Maxxair 6200 fan in the rear and two 10"x30" bunk windows for the rear quarter panels. Waiting for us to pick her up, post-op, at Tourig. The bunk windows. Should be nice for waking up to views. The fan is awesome: it's got a really cool design that allows it to be open in the rain and while driving. Didn't need to get fancy with a remote and electronic opening; just plain manual controls and no finicky rain sensor.

Van insulation seems to be a hot topic of debate among converters. Lots of opinions, most of which are not grounded in any scientific data other than to avoid fiberglass (yucky for lungs and skin if you get exposed to its dust). I did find some really helpful postings, with Sprinter Van USA being one of the best; they list and compare a heap of options .  After a bit of research, I visited a couple of local conversion shops to see what the pros do. Both local shops I visited use a bit of sound dampener on large metal panels, a thin layer with reflective properties, topped off by automotive grade Thinsulate. I opted to do the same and used: Noico 80mil butyl sound dampener, 36 sqft This stuff is primarily used by the folks that install kick butt stereo systems in their cars and trucks. When applied to a large metal surface, it prevents it from acting like a drum and instead dampens audio waves as they transfer their energy to the metal surface. If 30-50% of a large, unifo

Oiy. It’s one thing to peruse the Sprinter forums before you own one of these beasts, quite a different thing when you have one sitting in your driveway. Several months of trolling #vanlife is inspiring and puts all sorts of fun ideas in your head. With the actual blank slate sitting out front, all bare and ready to accept my blood and sweat, my giddiness was dulled with a twinge of anxiety. Not only is a metal box a whole different medium than what I’m used to, but Spinters also lack any straight lines to work with. It’s a far cry from remodeling a kitchen or bathroom. And things are expensive! Sticker shock has been a common reaction as I started putting together the hit list of items needed to do this thing up properly. One of the real issues with #vanlife trolling is that you start to set some pretty darn high expectations for a finished conversion. Since the blank slate itself is such a big investment, you really don’t want to skimp on what you put in it. Add a tight deadline

Have I ever alluded to my need to always have a project going? I'm a lot like my recently deceased dad in that way: I go existential if I don't have something to obsess over. Sometimes that obsession isn't a project; it might be doing some research related to a new gizmo or the 'need' to update one of my bikes or ski gear... Well, the latest obsession has to do with vans. Rachel and I have been purveyors of VW Westfalias ever since we bought our first one back in 1987, a classic air-cooled, green 1978 Microbus. We took it on an awesome 3+ month road trip to climb and explore the Western states. So much fun! And probably the experience that sealed the deal for our monogamous life :-)  Of course, we had the essential ' How to Keep Your Volkswagon Alive (for the complete idiot) ' and we made good use of it. Somewhere in there, we had a short stint with another Type 2, '77 Microbus, just a regular one but with a huge, leaky sunroof - I just couldn