Putt Step Van Build
- Thread starter Putts
- Start date
Putts
I'll get there.
Thanks, I'm getting there.
Allrightythen...before working on the upper cabinets I've got to get the stuff up top intalled.
Fantastic Vents. Putt's roof is al-u-minium, as the Britt's might say. Thinner than the side walls. I start by placing the Sharpie markers and drilling some holes.
Go up top and clean, mark, and tape off the impending hole.
I drill the corner holes so that the hole diameter is twice the metal thickness. Some structural engineer told me thst was the way to do it to prevent metal fatigue cracks best.
Then I cleaned the flange of the fantastic vent with denatured alcohol and line it with "Bed It" butyl tape, which comes highly regarded.
Lots of good information on how to use the stuff on his site. Of note is that the proper way to install, according to the site, is to use bolts so that they can be tightened from below. That way the bolts don't spin when installed and twist up the Bed It. Butyl tape shouldn't be stretched when installing. Well, I have to use screws when I install the rear solar panels eventually as I can't tighten a nut from below in those cases, so I thought I'd give it a go with screws now to see how it performs. It was a bit of trouble.
When I installed the first vent I simply screwed through the holes in the vent and through the Bed It tape below. This resulted in the Bed It wraping itself around the screw as it went into the aluminum below, and making a wad of it around the screw. probably not ideal. Also, it was hard to line up with the screw starting holes I drilled because I couldn't see them when placing the vent. So on the second vent I made sure to poke holes through the Bed It to be less likely to wind up on the screws during installation and to be able to line it up with the pilot holes.
Used a punch to remove bed it from around the holes.
The second vent went in much better than the first.
I used an impact driver to get the screws most of the way in, but switched to a regular screw driver to snug it up. The directions say to tighten some, wait for a while for the goo to settle, then retighten, and repeats 'til firmly set. The aluminum skin on the roof is thin, so over tightening could easily strip the holes.
Also cut little strips so I could wrap the screw heads.
Final results look pretty good.
Got out my Dicor 502LSW self leveling goop.
Allrightythen...before working on the upper cabinets I've got to get the stuff up top intalled.
Fantastic Vents. Putt's roof is al-u-minium, as the Britt's might say. Thinner than the side walls. I start by placing the Sharpie markers and drilling some holes.
Go up top and clean, mark, and tape off the impending hole.
I drill the corner holes so that the hole diameter is twice the metal thickness. Some structural engineer told me thst was the way to do it to prevent metal fatigue cracks best.
Then I cleaned the flange of the fantastic vent with denatured alcohol and line it with "Bed It" butyl tape, which comes highly regarded.
Lots of good information on how to use the stuff on his site. Of note is that the proper way to install, according to the site, is to use bolts so that they can be tightened from below. That way the bolts don't spin when installed and twist up the Bed It. Butyl tape shouldn't be stretched when installing. Well, I have to use screws when I install the rear solar panels eventually as I can't tighten a nut from below in those cases, so I thought I'd give it a go with screws now to see how it performs. It was a bit of trouble.
When I installed the first vent I simply screwed through the holes in the vent and through the Bed It tape below. This resulted in the Bed It wraping itself around the screw as it went into the aluminum below, and making a wad of it around the screw. probably not ideal. Also, it was hard to line up with the screw starting holes I drilled because I couldn't see them when placing the vent. So on the second vent I made sure to poke holes through the Bed It to be less likely to wind up on the screws during installation and to be able to line it up with the pilot holes.
Used a punch to remove bed it from around the holes.
The second vent went in much better than the first.
I used an impact driver to get the screws most of the way in, but switched to a regular screw driver to snug it up. The directions say to tighten some, wait for a while for the goo to settle, then retighten, and repeats 'til firmly set. The aluminum skin on the roof is thin, so over tightening could easily strip the holes.
Also cut little strips so I could wrap the screw heads.
Final results look pretty good.
Got out my Dicor 502LSW self leveling goop.
Putts
I'll get there.
Then the solar panels. I suppose it's worth mentioning at this point that I'm building Putt in two phases. The first will be the basic vehicle with a minimal set of features. The second phase will happen once on the road. For the first phase I'll have two 100W solar panels and two inexpensive 6V flooded golf cart batteries. In the second phase I'll be installing a large roof rack and will have three large 300Watt panels. So I've decided to simply adhere the initial solar panels on with 3M VHB tape so I don't poke any unneeded holes through the roof.
Solar panel brackets installed and prepped the surface for the VHB tape. A nice hearty sanding to remove the oxidation layer.
Clean with alcohol, let dry, and apply tape.
Trim with a cutter.
Sanded the paint down to bare metal and cleaned with alcohol, then just stuck 'em on with some added pressure from me for a few minutes each. The instructions for the tape say you should put some significant pressure on the join when first made to have the adhesive flow into all the micro grooves in the surface.
Then had to make a cable entry box for the roof.
Took a piece of PVC long enough to get through the roof and past the false ceiling to the electrical wall. Glued a spare fitting I had to it, and then chopped it short.
Drilled a hole in the entry box for the PVC.
Test fit the PVC to it and felt that the inlet holes were a little too close to the roof...standing water might have too much opportunity to get in.
So I cut a piece of pressure treated wood I had laying around as a spacer and Sikaflexed it all together.
Glommed a bead of Sikaflex inside so that the wires wouldn't be rubbing against the sharp edge of the PVC.
Cut the hole for the PVC in the roof and covered the entire wood part with Sikaflex, spooged a bunch on the bottom, and then adhered/sealed the whole thing to the roof.
Here it is underneath.
Here you can see it at the top of the front right cabin wall.
This wall will be one long cabinet about 9" deep and all the solar/electricity stuff will be mounted on this wall. At the bottom will be the battery box that the forward dinette seat will be mounted to. The vehicle batteries are under the stairs just in front of the wall, which will make it easy-peasy to hook up the switching and connections for alternator charging on the road, and to top of the vehicle batteries from solar while sitting in the desert. At the top there will be a larger cabinet against the right wall dedicated to computers, radios, and other electronics.
The top now looks like this.
Solar panel brackets installed and prepped the surface for the VHB tape. A nice hearty sanding to remove the oxidation layer.
Clean with alcohol, let dry, and apply tape.
Trim with a cutter.
Sanded the paint down to bare metal and cleaned with alcohol, then just stuck 'em on with some added pressure from me for a few minutes each. The instructions for the tape say you should put some significant pressure on the join when first made to have the adhesive flow into all the micro grooves in the surface.
Then had to make a cable entry box for the roof.
Took a piece of PVC long enough to get through the roof and past the false ceiling to the electrical wall. Glued a spare fitting I had to it, and then chopped it short.
Drilled a hole in the entry box for the PVC.
Test fit the PVC to it and felt that the inlet holes were a little too close to the roof...standing water might have too much opportunity to get in.
So I cut a piece of pressure treated wood I had laying around as a spacer and Sikaflexed it all together.
Glommed a bead of Sikaflex inside so that the wires wouldn't be rubbing against the sharp edge of the PVC.
Cut the hole for the PVC in the roof and covered the entire wood part with Sikaflex, spooged a bunch on the bottom, and then adhered/sealed the whole thing to the roof.
Here it is underneath.
Here you can see it at the top of the front right cabin wall.
This wall will be one long cabinet about 9" deep and all the solar/electricity stuff will be mounted on this wall. At the bottom will be the battery box that the forward dinette seat will be mounted to. The vehicle batteries are under the stairs just in front of the wall, which will make it easy-peasy to hook up the switching and connections for alternator charging on the road, and to top of the vehicle batteries from solar while sitting in the desert. At the top there will be a larger cabinet against the right wall dedicated to computers, radios, and other electronics.
The top now looks like this.
Putts
I'll get there.
Next was the solar system electronics, battery box, and electronics cabinet above
First had to figure out exactly how high the electronics cabinet had to be in order to get in and out of the front dinette seat without bumping your head.
Drew a couple of lines on the floor. Took two weeks to figure out exactly where they would go.
Measure 23 times, cut once.
Aaaaand....basic battery box done.
Beefed up the box, and built the battery spacer.
Room for two more in the future.
You may remember from a previous post that I have two air handling systems in Putt. My rearward Fantastic Fan vents the cabin living space, blowing air out the top and sucking air in through my side window just as you would expect. But my forward Fantastic Fan Pulls outside air in through the rear garage and circulates it through the wall and false ceiling space to be exhausted.
At any rate, I also need a way to vent the battery chamber and provide cooling air for the electronics. What I'll be building into the electronics compartment are ways for air to vent up into the ceiling so that the forward Fantastic Fan can can exhaust it. The incoming air will be drawn from the cabin air, which will have the best temperature control.
So, my battery box will have a small inlet vent hole drilled in it (haven't done that in the pic), and needs to have an exhaust vent up to the ceiling. I could just have the back of the battery box vent up through the wall past all the electronics, but I really don't want to expose the gear to the acidic vapors from the battery, so the battery box has to have a separate flue.
Here you can see a tall thin box I built for the battery flue. (The angled piece is just a scrap to hold it in place while I take a pic.) The hole for air intake will be on the front of the box. Air goes up the flue to above the false ceiling. From there it vents into the false ceiling space and gets sucked out of the forward Fantastic Fan. The fan is just out of frame above the top left of the picture.
Couple more pix.
Here's the primed inside of the flue.
I owe a beer to whoever it was on some forum that told me about Kreg tools.
Painted the wall behind the battery flue.
Sikaflexed the edges of the flue and installed it.
One of these days I'll get good at installing pieces of plywood with Sikaflex on the edges and not make a mess. But it's not today.
First had to figure out exactly how high the electronics cabinet had to be in order to get in and out of the front dinette seat without bumping your head.
Drew a couple of lines on the floor. Took two weeks to figure out exactly where they would go.
Measure 23 times, cut once.
Aaaaand....basic battery box done.
Beefed up the box, and built the battery spacer.
Room for two more in the future.
You may remember from a previous post that I have two air handling systems in Putt. My rearward Fantastic Fan vents the cabin living space, blowing air out the top and sucking air in through my side window just as you would expect. But my forward Fantastic Fan Pulls outside air in through the rear garage and circulates it through the wall and false ceiling space to be exhausted.
At any rate, I also need a way to vent the battery chamber and provide cooling air for the electronics. What I'll be building into the electronics compartment are ways for air to vent up into the ceiling so that the forward Fantastic Fan can can exhaust it. The incoming air will be drawn from the cabin air, which will have the best temperature control.
So, my battery box will have a small inlet vent hole drilled in it (haven't done that in the pic), and needs to have an exhaust vent up to the ceiling. I could just have the back of the battery box vent up through the wall past all the electronics, but I really don't want to expose the gear to the acidic vapors from the battery, so the battery box has to have a separate flue.
Here you can see a tall thin box I built for the battery flue. (The angled piece is just a scrap to hold it in place while I take a pic.) The hole for air intake will be on the front of the box. Air goes up the flue to above the false ceiling. From there it vents into the false ceiling space and gets sucked out of the forward Fantastic Fan. The fan is just out of frame above the top left of the picture.
Couple more pix.
Here's the primed inside of the flue.
I owe a beer to whoever it was on some forum that told me about Kreg tools.
Painted the wall behind the battery flue.
Sikaflexed the edges of the flue and installed it.
One of these days I'll get good at installing pieces of plywood with Sikaflex on the edges and not make a mess. But it's not today.
Putts
I'll get there.
Okie dokie, time to spend a bunch of money.
Battery temp sensor, PV down wire, bus bars, and fuses.
Couple of six volt juice boxes.
Aaaaand....the magic box.
Did some painting.
Drum roll, please.
First thing to know: There will be a door on this cabinet eventually. I put the Morningstar CC on a spacer and will put a cutout in the door so that the CC and display are visible and accessible without opening the door. The front dinette seat will be mounted on top of the battery box in front of it, so I'll have to remove the seat to access the cabinet. The seat will be on a quick release system so I won't have to unbolt things, but it'll still be a bit of trouble to get into the cabinet. There's some goofy ideas with the seat....but I'll save that surprise for later too.
The nice thing about putting the CC on a stand off is that I can also run wires up the wall behind it.
The main 12VDC bus bars at the bottom of the wall are nice and close to the batteries; I'll need about 18" cables to reach them, and a one footer to tie the batts in series. I put 1Awg cables in my shopping cart at Genuine Dealz... the recommended source for batt cables, so I hear.
After I put the system on the wall, I started imagining working on stuff in there. Geebus, don't want to be swinging a wrench and weld it between the posts of the bus bars. Of course, any time I be swinging a wrench in there I'll be taking the negative terminal off the battery, but stuff happens. I might could accidentally drop a screw driver in there or something. So I built a little wall between the two buss bars to prevent accidental shorts.
I suppose I could still short it out if I dropped a chain in there....but hey, if I'm that stupid I'd deserve the archy-sparky.
To my eyes the only thing that might be suspect so far is that the MRBF fuses are mounted to the bus bars instead of the batteries. Unfortunately, mounting them to the batts increases the height of the batts by 2" and I ain't got room for that. A little risky I suppose. On the other hand, I know the risks and am scared.....er, respectful of the consequences of a screw up. As long as I don't decide to start working on the electrics after three whiskys and a puff I think I'll be okay.
Other notes:
I made sure to leave room for a shunt near the negative bus bar that will eventually go in.
The battery monitor will eventually be mounted in the vertical side wall above and to the left of the CC to make it accessible.
Same with the inverter remote on/off button.
House/starter battery switching and batt solenoid will be mounted at the base of that vertical wall next to the positive bus bar. Batt bank switch will be accessible on the outside of the wall.
Battery temp sensor, PV down wire, bus bars, and fuses.
Couple of six volt juice boxes.
Aaaaand....the magic box.
Did some painting.
Drum roll, please.
First thing to know: There will be a door on this cabinet eventually. I put the Morningstar CC on a spacer and will put a cutout in the door so that the CC and display are visible and accessible without opening the door. The front dinette seat will be mounted on top of the battery box in front of it, so I'll have to remove the seat to access the cabinet. The seat will be on a quick release system so I won't have to unbolt things, but it'll still be a bit of trouble to get into the cabinet. There's some goofy ideas with the seat....but I'll save that surprise for later too.
The nice thing about putting the CC on a stand off is that I can also run wires up the wall behind it.
The main 12VDC bus bars at the bottom of the wall are nice and close to the batteries; I'll need about 18" cables to reach them, and a one footer to tie the batts in series. I put 1Awg cables in my shopping cart at Genuine Dealz... the recommended source for batt cables, so I hear.
After I put the system on the wall, I started imagining working on stuff in there. Geebus, don't want to be swinging a wrench and weld it between the posts of the bus bars. Of course, any time I be swinging a wrench in there I'll be taking the negative terminal off the battery, but stuff happens. I might could accidentally drop a screw driver in there or something. So I built a little wall between the two buss bars to prevent accidental shorts.
I suppose I could still short it out if I dropped a chain in there....but hey, if I'm that stupid I'd deserve the archy-sparky.
To my eyes the only thing that might be suspect so far is that the MRBF fuses are mounted to the bus bars instead of the batteries. Unfortunately, mounting them to the batts increases the height of the batts by 2" and I ain't got room for that. A little risky I suppose. On the other hand, I know the risks and am scared.....er, respectful of the consequences of a screw up. As long as I don't decide to start working on the electrics after three whiskys and a puff I think I'll be okay.
Other notes:
I made sure to leave room for a shunt near the negative bus bar that will eventually go in.
The battery monitor will eventually be mounted in the vertical side wall above and to the left of the CC to make it accessible.
Same with the inverter remote on/off button.
House/starter battery switching and batt solenoid will be mounted at the base of that vertical wall next to the positive bus bar. Batt bank switch will be accessible on the outside of the wall.
Putts
I'll get there.
Well then...back to the mundane.
I started the roof insulation, you can't see it up behind the plywood I'm using to wedge it into place.
I have to have the ceiling done to put up the top electronics cabinet where all the 12V switching will be.
I used Sikaflex to glue them up.
Once the insulation was up, I could install two aluminum C-channel beams onto the roof stiffeners. These beams will be used to attach the ceiling to, but will also be anchor points for the upper kitchen and electronics cabinets.
Cut beam to length.
Pre-drill the screw holes; sand and prep the surface for adhesives; and stick some 3M VHB tape in places.
Had to cut out some big holes for some air flow...you remember I got that weird air flow system in the walls. Prepped the existing beams for adhesives and marked and drilled some holes for the screws.
Then I put a bead of Sikaflex on the existing beam where ever the 3M tape wasn't; put it in position (had to do this right the first time because God forbid you should touch that 3M tape to the wrong place), and screwed it in.
Woot! Seems to have worked well; I don't think it's going anywhere.
Rinse and repeat. Beam number two.
Then built this thing. It's a cable tray and header between the two walls.
The neoprene pads protect the cables as they fall into the two cabinets on either side.
The ceiling itself will screw up into it.
Riveting, isn't it?
I started the roof insulation, you can't see it up behind the plywood I'm using to wedge it into place.
I have to have the ceiling done to put up the top electronics cabinet where all the 12V switching will be.
I used Sikaflex to glue them up.
Once the insulation was up, I could install two aluminum C-channel beams onto the roof stiffeners. These beams will be used to attach the ceiling to, but will also be anchor points for the upper kitchen and electronics cabinets.
Cut beam to length.
Pre-drill the screw holes; sand and prep the surface for adhesives; and stick some 3M VHB tape in places.
Had to cut out some big holes for some air flow...you remember I got that weird air flow system in the walls. Prepped the existing beams for adhesives and marked and drilled some holes for the screws.
Then I put a bead of Sikaflex on the existing beam where ever the 3M tape wasn't; put it in position (had to do this right the first time because God forbid you should touch that 3M tape to the wrong place), and screwed it in.
Woot! Seems to have worked well; I don't think it's going anywhere.
Rinse and repeat. Beam number two.
Then built this thing. It's a cable tray and header between the two walls.
The neoprene pads protect the cables as they fall into the two cabinets on either side.
The ceiling itself will screw up into it.
Riveting, isn't it?
Putts
I'll get there.
I've got a build window until about the end of October when I have to quite using adhesives here in the Montana cold. So I'm going full out for the next 8 weeks or so on the interior structure. Once winter sets in, I can build drawers and doors inside my house where it's warm, fitting bits out in Putt as necessary. At that point, Putt's cabin will be insulated so working out in Putt will be easily bearable.
The basic build order from here is: electronics cabinet; kitchen cabinet; front ceiling; rear wall (between bed and garage...er, drom); bed cabinet; and bed. Phew!
Off we go!
Electronics cabinet.
Bunch of this..
Then this...
A lot of that, actually.
Test fit.
Close enough.
Put the ceiling bit on and prime it.
Kind of complicated at that forward end.
Viola!
Gets a little in the way of the window sightline coming in from the front.
About what I figured though, and plenty of room for electronics.
On to the kitchen cabinets!
The basic build order from here is: electronics cabinet; kitchen cabinet; front ceiling; rear wall (between bed and garage...er, drom); bed cabinet; and bed. Phew!
Off we go!
Electronics cabinet.
Bunch of this..
Then this...
A lot of that, actually.
Test fit.
Close enough.
Put the ceiling bit on and prime it.
Kind of complicated at that forward end.
Viola!
Gets a little in the way of the window sightline coming in from the front.
About what I figured though, and plenty of room for electronics.
On to the kitchen cabinets!
Putts
I'll get there.
Working on the kitchen cabinet.
Kind of amazed at how many holes I have to drill to do one of these thing with dowels.
Jut did a little mental math: The kitchen cabinet has 144 holes for dowel pins.
More kitchen cabinet...basic box done.
Probably worth showing the tools needed for doweling something together.
This is the little tool to center the drill and hold it vertical in the wood.
Once you've got the holes drilled in one of the piece you put these two little center punch dealies in the holes.
Then you place it carefully up against the piece of wood where it will go. You can see the punches in the bottom of the piece of wood.
Then you clamp it hard. There's a problem with this bit: As you press in on the parts the little point will move ever so slightly due to the grain of the wood and screw up your alignment. A real carpenter will have all manner of clamps and fixtures to get this right...I'm not a real carpenter, so things do get out of whack. A belt sander and wood filler is my friend.
Clamping!
Once you've pressed it into place you get two marks on the piece of wood where the dowels go.
Then you drill it out at the punch marks with a drill set to the right length.
If you looks at the corners you can see how out of whack things can get.
Oh well, I can only do the best I can do.
Alakazam, it's up!
Phew.
Well, the kids will be showing up soon, gotta stop posting for the moment. Lots more posting before we hit today and come to the slow grind of real time.
Have a happy holiday!
Kind of amazed at how many holes I have to drill to do one of these thing with dowels.
Jut did a little mental math: The kitchen cabinet has 144 holes for dowel pins.
More kitchen cabinet...basic box done.
Probably worth showing the tools needed for doweling something together.
This is the little tool to center the drill and hold it vertical in the wood.
Once you've got the holes drilled in one of the piece you put these two little center punch dealies in the holes.
Then you place it carefully up against the piece of wood where it will go. You can see the punches in the bottom of the piece of wood.
Then you clamp it hard. There's a problem with this bit: As you press in on the parts the little point will move ever so slightly due to the grain of the wood and screw up your alignment. A real carpenter will have all manner of clamps and fixtures to get this right...I'm not a real carpenter, so things do get out of whack. A belt sander and wood filler is my friend.
Clamping!
Once you've pressed it into place you get two marks on the piece of wood where the dowels go.
Then you drill it out at the punch marks with a drill set to the right length.
If you looks at the corners you can see how out of whack things can get.
Oh well, I can only do the best I can do.
Alakazam, it's up!
Phew.
Well, the kids will be showing up soon, gotta stop posting for the moment. Lots more posting before we hit today and come to the slow grind of real time.
Have a happy holiday!
Last edited:
Abitibi
Explorer
Wow, is it just me or feels like this whole built happened overnight? 
Looking good, great platform to get started and really like how you took the time to plan everything, been there! Enjoyed seing how you went with a compost toilet, at times I wish I had gone that route...
Surprised you haven't used much plywood since it's very strong and lighter than hardwood but so far so good, keep it coming!
Sent from my SGP511 using Tapatalk
Looking good, great platform to get started and really like how you took the time to plan everything, been there! Enjoyed seing how you went with a compost toilet, at times I wish I had gone that route...
Surprised you haven't used much plywood since it's very strong and lighter than hardwood but so far so good, keep it coming!
Sent from my SGP511 using Tapatalk
Putts
I'll get there.
Actually it happened this morning. Wouldn't that be nice.
Seriously though, I think it would be kinda rude to come over here and just start asking questions without contributing.
Well, the battery box, composting toilet, and partition next to the toilet are all plywood. I used oak for the shelves and cabinets because I didn't want to waste wood by cutting in all the openings and the oak lets me build drawer rails and stuff. But believe me, there's plenty of 3/4" ply coming. As I sit here I reckon there's at least 7 sheets in there now, and there'll be about three sheets of 3/8" ply in the ceiling by the time I'm done with that.
Not too worried about weight. Putt weighs 10,500# empty and has 19,500# gross vehicle weight. By my reckoning it'll be about 16,000 wet when done.
And thanks for posting up. Pleasure to meet you...virtually.
Putts
I'll get there.
For phase one (getting out of the driveway) I'll use a simple green bottle propane stove. Long term, when the big solar is in, I'll use an induction cook top. For heat it'll be moving to temperate climes, long term I'll install a propane furnace...I do want to be four-season capable.
Thanks, you too.
wanderer-rrorc
Explorer
SWEET MOTHER OF GOD!!!!
THATS AWSOME PUTT!!!!
Cant wait to see what it looks like when complete and your out and about!!
THATS AWSOME PUTT!!!!
Cant wait to see what it looks like when complete and your out and about!!
