Joeldc
New member
This forum has been helpful for me. There are so many great ideas out there! Anyway, I thought it was time to share my project. I picked the Previa for my build because I wanted a small maneuverable vehicle that would work well for daily driving and activities as well as camping expeditions. AWD was a requirement since I live in the snow. I considered Astros and Safaris, but preferred the huge windows in the Previa and surprisingly a bit more leg room for the driver...
My first project was the bed. However, I also wanted to carry at least four passengers so I decided on a bench seat that slides out into a bed. I used steel angle for the tracks and some McMaster-Carr track rollers. It's great to have a living space too with lots of room to change in and out of gear.
With a small space and complex curves, I decided to test my hand at sewing. Below are some side bags for clothes and gear. You can also see the window cover with carbon spars for support.
Since I have a hard time hitting the road without doing some work, I put in a counter/desk for my laptop. It's made out of 80/20 extruded aluminum and the end piece can be moved for laptop use.
Of course running a laptop required an extra battery. It's a bit cramped, but I found a smaller starter battery and put that on top of a larger accessory battery. The battery isolator is buried in the back, but everything is close so I didn't have to use much wire...
Next was a water tank. This van is pretty small so water jugs were getting in the way. Also, since I wanted head room the bench seat doesn't have much room under it. Fortunately, it was enough for a 14 gallon tank and some plumbing. The little pump puts out 3gpm so we can even shower off after a ride. Only cold water though...
My first project was the bed. However, I also wanted to carry at least four passengers so I decided on a bench seat that slides out into a bed. I used steel angle for the tracks and some McMaster-Carr track rollers. It's great to have a living space too with lots of room to change in and out of gear.
With a small space and complex curves, I decided to test my hand at sewing. Below are some side bags for clothes and gear. You can also see the window cover with carbon spars for support.
Since I have a hard time hitting the road without doing some work, I put in a counter/desk for my laptop. It's made out of 80/20 extruded aluminum and the end piece can be moved for laptop use.
Of course running a laptop required an extra battery. It's a bit cramped, but I found a smaller starter battery and put that on top of a larger accessory battery. The battery isolator is buried in the back, but everything is close so I didn't have to use much wire...
Next was a water tank. This van is pretty small so water jugs were getting in the way. Also, since I wanted head room the bench seat doesn't have much room under it. Fortunately, it was enough for a 14 gallon tank and some plumbing. The little pump puts out 3gpm so we can even shower off after a ride. Only cold water though...
