Bob's Chevy Express Build (with lots of free Craigslist)

[BobPeanut]

We do a lot of free Craigslisting in addition to road trips and camping and wanted a larger vehicle to make everything easier.

There are a lot of blogs where people are highlighting their low-cost builds, but there's also the possibility of reusing rather than buying new supplies. I get a lot of joy out of the free stuff I get on Craigslist, so I'm going to share some of the cool things I find for my build. Not everything in my build will be reused or free. However, some of the things that I decide to buy are specific or just don't come up in my searches. It's surprising what people are trying to get rid of though! Hopefully this will inspire some more people to conserve, reuse, and save money.

Here's my "new van" pic.

I got my van a couple of months ago and have mostly been cleaning up the inside or waiting for the snow to melt. A couple of weeks ago, someone posted a bunch of 2" foam flooring underlay they were taking out during a basement remodel. It was used as a kids' playroom and covered about 400 sqft. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it's polyethylene. It is closed-cell, semi-rigid, and drips when lit on fire. I'd love any input here. Here's what it looks like:

The guy was also getting rid of hardboard off the walls, so I took a bunch of that, too.

It looked like nice weather for Saturday, so I planned to cut some of this up to add to the floor and walls. My van came with a cargo mat (let me know if you're interested! I want it out of my garage), so I had a great floor template. The foam cut easily with a jigsaw and paring knife. I was able to get everything done in one day! My husband was very happy with the look, and my dog jumped in and got dirty paw prints all over.

Nothing is secured yet; the foam is just wedged in. the top-rear driver's side is the only piece that doesn't really stay in on its own. I'm probably going to use spray adhesive to attach all of these though.

. .

 

[motovan_mn]

Love the spirit, will be following this thread for sure.

I hate hate HATE sending things to landfill. I will hold on to things and post stuff for FREE no matter how small or odd. I figure it just might be useful to someone. Though after a few months I do admit some things go into the trash.

 

[Raul]

You can always volunteer at the local asylum transporting patients.

I like it. I al\ways try to give a second life to material. Working on the GM vans looks a lot easire than the ford with lots of crannies and shapes.

 

[BobPeanut]

Woo! Glad to hear there are some others out there like me We were looking at E-350s for a while till this forum made me decide to go with AWD over 4WD. I didn't realize GMs had easier interiors! Either way, working on a cargo van is SO much easier than my Honda Odyssey. I was always ripping out panels and spent a lot of time with my router getting wood pieces to fit just right. All good experience, though.

The other day I added in some hardboard over the foam. I thought the foam template would make it fit right in, but it took a lot of little trims to get the hardboard to fit.
I left a bit of extra over the front, back, and side step so that I can figure out what I want to do for the edges there.

After trying to decide how to fit/balance my batteries, dog crate (including dog), fridge, and bed, the only real solution looks like batteries behind the passenger seat. This pushes the dog crate back a few inches, causing the edge to land a bit too close to the first seam:

I recut the hardboard with a full 4ft length for the first piece. Even though I checked repeatedly as I was cutting, the edge is off by a little bit on the driver's side. The first item on my phone's To Do list is "!!! Stop worrying about perfection" so I am going to let this go and see if it works out okay.

For the batteries, I cut out the hardboard and foam to see if they could sit low enough for the passenger seat to recline all the way. It worked perfectly! The strip of wood levels the box with the insulation under the black floor mat, but that might be modified.

Also in the photo above you can see the new door check on the right door (my spring was broken). tomsautoparts on eBay has these for $24 and the Dorman one is like $64. The Dorman creaked badly when I put it in, but Tom's is pretty smooth and quiet. I ordered another one for the left, but the bolt pattern is different. Left door still works but could be quieter.

Back to the batteries; I could use some advice on securing them. Last year I got 4 Trojan T105-REs off free craigslist. The guy who gave them to me was so excited about his new lithium batteries for his RV that he didn't even want to deal with selling these. This made me very happy. Anyway, they are almost 70 lbs. each. The box came with a couple of small screws, plastic, and a couple straps to secure them to the floor. Is this actually practical for 140 lbs. of batteries? There's a latch point on the back of the passenger seat that I was thinking I could use for some extra stability, but I feel like the box should still be secured a bit better. Let me know what you think of the floor mounts or any other ideas for these.

There was a little chip on the windshield that I didn't want to get any bigger, so I got a Rain-X repair kit to fix it. Turns out I had a lot of little nicks, so I filled those in since I was already using the stuff. They could look better, but I mostly just don't want the windshield to crack any more.


My plan for today: There are like 8 boxes of extra laminate flooring in the garage from when the previous owners redid the basement floor. I'm going to see how/if that would work for the van. Probably some other stuff, too.

 

[Foxen]

The Trojan T-105 batteries are great deep cycle batteries. I am assuming you have two batteries in the plastic battery box since you said they were 70lbs each for a total of 140lbs. I do agree with you that a couple screws in the floor is probably not enough to hold 140lbs safely in the event of an accident. When I had 2 large AGM batteries in our van, I bolted each battery box through the floor with nuts and bolts.

The next question I have and often many have different opinions on, is the venting of your flooded lead acid batteries. These will emit hydrogen and need to be vented outside of the van. Even the U.S.A. made AGM batteries I used that many folks never vent do require venting to the outside. I have worked with lead acid batteries for 35 years in my career but still contacted the manufacturer and while they said it is possible to not vent the AGM batteries, they still suggested they always be vented. This was do to hydrogen being emitted in the event of a battery failure. However, with flooded lead acid batteries, it is most everyone's opinion that these need to be vented. A battery box either purchased with a venting snorkel attached or building a battery box that is sealed from the living area and vented to the outside. It needs to be vented at a height higher than the battery since hydrogen is lighter than air. Just my thoughts for safety and there may be other opinions to consider. On our Four Wheel Camper we owned, the manufacturer installed two AGM batteries in a battery compartment which had a vent to the outside of the camper.

 

[BobPeanut]

I am assuming you have two batteries in the plastic battery box since you said they were 70lbs each for a total of 140lbs. I do agree with you that a couple screws in the floor is probably not enough to hold 140lbs safely in the event of an accident. When I had 2 large AGM batteries in our van, I bolted each battery box through the floor with nuts and bolts.

Yes, I’m using two of the Trojan batteries…the other two are still in my Odyssey! Did you bolt through your battery box or use a threaded rod and wingnuts or something? I don’t want to put any holes through the PP in case of acid leaks.

The next question I have and often many have different opinions on, is the venting of your flooded lead acid batteries.

I’ll probably just vent up through the column where the passenger seatbelt is. I have a few computer fans for air movement, so maybe I’ll put one of those somewhere to help push any H out. My dog overheats when it’s like 60°, so we’ll be putting in a few vents so he doesn’t complain. Not exactly sure where those will be, but we will have a good amount of airflow through the van.

 

[Foxen]

For our battery boxes, I used the existing battery box mounting holes but drilled through our plywood floor and into the vans floor and installed 1/4" bolts with lock washers and nuts. I understand about the acid and drilling through the van floor. Sounds like our Labrador, she thought anything over 60° was hot.

On a side note, I am going to sell off some of our van build items that we ended up either not using or used for a short time and went a different route. Things like Positive and Negative Battery BUS bars, Renogy 20amp MPPT Solar Charge Controller with external display and battery temp monitor probe, Full new large bag of Havelock Wool, Blue Sea Three position disconnect switch ( 1, 2, both or off), Qty 2 new 5lb full Manchester Propane tanks (local pickup)

 

[Bikersmurf]

I’m planning on using a fifth wheel box like this for my in cab battery. Never seen them until recently…