YAACV - Yet Another Astro Camper Van Build - '04 AWD, CCV Pop Top

dmilamj

New member
Thanks to this site and AstroSafari.com I was bitten by the Astro van bug. I bought a 2004 AWD up in Colorado back in September of last year and had it moved over to Colorado Camper Vans for a top. CCV finished up the top in January and I went up to get my van!

I had them install the insulation, fantastic fan, 180w solar panel, and rails for a Yakima rack.

Top down:
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U2cTRveh.jpg



Top up:
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YtXtI9Uh.jpg


My plans are a sort of Westfalia interior with a fold down third row seat to full size bed (removing the 2nd row seat for camping), house battery, smart solenoid, solar controller, shore power, 120V system for wall mount AC, some interior cabinets.

I want to be able to drive the van in town and carry 7-8 people, so I will keep all original seat belt mounting. All cabinets are going to be pretty thin to allow original, or slightly modified original, seats to be installed.
 

dmilamj

New member
Folding 3rd Row Seat

So I was looking for a folding rear seat for the van. Most of the junkyard ones from custom vans are pretty small, only about 33" deep when folded down. They also seemed pretty cheezy.

I looked into a folding seat from qualitex, and it would have worked better, but still only 44" folded down. I need something 6 plus feet when folded down. Also, the Qualitex seats are on the order of $1100.

I came up with a plan that should create a folding seat, full width, that folds into a ~ 6' 4" bed/platform using:
  • 2 bench seats
    some jackknife sofa hinges
    assorted steel
    some hinges
    plywood 3/8" and 3/4"
    other hardware

So, I headed to the junkyard and picked up a good ol' 3rd row bench seat for $40. Brought it home and took it apart.

L46Vbybh.jpg



My plan is to use the seat base and original mounting feet, so that it will lock into the OEM seat mounts. Also, all seat belt mounting locations will be maintained.

Here's the seat base with the back unbolted and the spring supports cut out:
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Cut off both ends:
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Weld in some 1x1 tube steel extensions to attach the folding hinges to:
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Test fit the hinges:
oBCiULwh.jpg


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With the hinges welded in, weld in the back:
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OjvQ6Gih.jpg


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Test fit the back in the van:
4C7ZfLXh.jpg



Stay tuned for more seat build photos...
 

dmilamj

New member
3rd Row Seat - Part 2

To make the new seat base, I cut the front edge off of a stock seat base so that I could reuse the upholstery mounting points and the nice radius edge. The rear needed to be an inch narrower to fit inside the 47" hinge spacing, so I used 1x1 square tube to fab up a new back half. The front half is ~48" wide, stock seat width.

The base is about 22" deep, so somewhat deeper than the stock seat base.

WWnchKoh.jpg


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I added some supports for the 3/8" plywood seat base, I inset these so that the plywood would be flush with the top of the edge tubing.

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Here's the base clamped into place in the frame, I'm holding off on welding it in until the end.

Seated position
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Folded out, it's about 43.5" deep.
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Next post, I'll get started on the folding platform.
 

dmilamj

New member
3rd Row Seat - Folding platform part 1

So I started work on the folding plywood platform portion of the seat. The idea is to have two panels that are hinged off the front edge of the seat base and that fold up underneath the seat.

Here's test fitting the plywood and hinge location.
9uRmGzyh.jpg


Here are the 3/4" plywood panels, 16" deep each and about 47" wide. I've routed the edges except along the hinge side. The hinges are standard steel door butt hinges, $10 at the hardware store. I had to route a little channel for the hinge barrel as well as mortise the hinge plates.

Chisel for scale:
0VZl5ydh.jpg


Test fitting underneath the folding platform:
T9i7SOkh.jpg



Cut out the stock mounting point threaded plates:
Lj92cWrh.jpg



Weld in some angle for a flat mounting point for the hinges:
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Test fit base with folding platform extended:
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Test fit folded:
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More to come....
 

Herbie

Rendezvous Conspirator
Subscribing to see how it turns out! I'll have to wait until I get home to see the pics, your host is blocked by my work's ISP.
 

dmilamj

New member
So they block Imgur huh? Is anyone else having trouble seeing the photos?

Your build was one of my inspirations, so looking forward to sharing my build with everyone here.
 

Herbie

Rendezvous Conspirator
So they block Imgur huh? Is anyone else having trouble seeing the photos?

Your build was one of my inspirations, so looking forward to sharing my build with everyone here.

Hit and miss. Very weird, but sometimes I can see 'em and sometimes not. Once I figured out it's entirely on their end, I felt better. ;-) Thanks for the kind words, and keep up the good work!
 

dmilamj

New member
Power System Update

One goal of this build is to keep the full 8 passenger capacity for in-town use. With that in mind, I've wedged the house battery and all associated fuse block, solar controller, and ACR up against the driver side wall.



Here's a shot of my setup:
T4AHZSah.jpg


Just a little clearance, with the front seat at full rear:
8exWPFhh.jpg


Not much clearance between the solar controller and the arm rest:
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Seat:
CuxYPyGh.jpg



Setup detail:
ZXs3vosh.jpg
 

dmilamj

New member
Next up is to build a very low-profile enclosure for the power system, finish up the fold-into-a-bed third row seat, and then onto the shore-power system!
 

luthj

Engineer In Residence
Your electrical systems seem well thought out. What type of battery are you using? If it is a sealed flooded battery you may have possible isssues with liquid acid venting in that orientation. AGM/Gel won't have this issue obviously.
 

dmilamj

New member
Your electrical systems seem well thought out. What type of battery are you using? If it is a sealed flooded battery you may have possible isssues with liquid acid venting in that orientation. AGM/Gel won't have this issue obviously.

It's an AGM battery, a Universal Battery UB121000 from Amazon. We'll see how well it holds up.
 

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