My first project vehicle

[nely]

It sounds like your original cluster had an amp gauge in the cluster and your putting in a volt meter. When you try to start the van, its pulling power thru the volt gauge(which it isnt designed to handle) cause it to flicker. But when you connect them together you have the power and continuity needed.

This is what i would do.

Connect the wires together and leave them together. Wire a positive wire from the wires you connected to the positive side of volt gauge then make your own ground wire to chassis ground from volt gauge. Then all should work as you planned.

 

[That One Guy]

Thank you so much. I just assumed it was a volt meter and got one of those because I've never seen an amp gauge. But it says AC and DC on it. I will try that tomorrow.

 

[That One Guy]

Going to be buying my tach, speedo and idiot lights today, as well as a bunch of weather stripping and Boom Mat of the spray on variety. Possibly some insulation. I would like to know what type of insulation you'd all suggest for tempratures ranging from 20ish degrees farenheit to 100+(Live in the desert). Also, I wanted to start preparing the area for the second battery. This battery would be what you all call the "house battery". I want it only to power the outlet I want to put in the wall (also need to know what the best way is to go about wiring that) and the stereo/amps and if you suggest it, the 10 lights on the roof rack and 2 on the bumper. So I need to know what to buy so the battery will get charged and do all the things I listed... I'm really electrically challenged.

 

[sdski]

I've been looking into this insulation: http://www.insulation4less.com/Insulation4lessProduct-1-Prodex-Total-48-Inch.aspx#fragment2

Heat can be transferred in 3 ways: Convection, Radiation and Conduction. The sun will heat the outside of your van via radiation, the hot air (or cold air) will heat it via convection and the inside of the van will heat/cool the inside air via conduction (to the air inside, which heats/cools by convection) and by radiating heat to objects inside as wel. Having a metallic layer, such as the aluminum layer on this prodex, helps to reflect the radiant heat from the outside in the summer and keep the inside cool (the hot steel sides of your van radiate heat into your van) and the plastic insulation it sandwiches keeps the inside of the hot or cold body of the van from heating the inside air via conduction. In the winter, that inside aluminum foil layer will work for you by reflecting any heat you generate inside the van (heater, body heat, etc.) back into the van, and the plastic "bubble wrap" layer will keep the heat from transferring to the cold body of the van and to the outside.

I am planning on using my van anywhere from 90+ in the summer to probably -20 or so in the winter. I haven't found a heater yet that I'd be comfortable leaving on while I sleep, so I'm going to insulate well and get a nicer sleeping bag.

Hope this is helpful. To think that I use to sit in my Heat Transfer classes and wonder when they would ever be useful...

 

[That One Guy]

Thank you very much! I really like the sound of this stuff and it's only 105 bucks to insulate everything but the floor.

 

[sdski]

Are you not planning on insulating the floor?

 

[That One Guy]

No, I figure it's just gonna break down and make the floor squishy.

 

[sdski]

Yes that is my concern with that type of insulation, I was thinking of laying some down and then putting a plywood floor in, but I think that doing that correctly would raise the floor at least 2" or so and I don't want to lose the headroom. I plan on insulating the floor somehow, i think it will be pretty important.

 

[r_w]

http://www.insulation4less.com/Insulation4lessProduct-4-Prodex-Under-Floor---Carpet.aspx#fragment5

Here is there underlayment. Not near as good. I would do foam or rubber mat flooring. It is about as good as you can do in a 1/2 inch of space. The anti-fatique mats actually have decent R values.

 

[That One Guy]

And that's the other thing I didn't want to do, raise the floor. I'm spraying Boom Mat on the ENTIRE inside of the van, so I figured that'd be enough. It's more than just the carpet that's there right now anyway so it's still an improvement.

 

[ramrunnr]

I understand not wanting to lose headroom, I'm still in the planning stages of my setup. 1/2 inch, in my opinion is a negligible loss, but I am thinking of using spray on bedliner under the van like undercoating. I'm not sure if the bedliner will work as insulation, but has got me wondering if there is another product that might be applied the same way and help to insulate the body, maybe spray on before using the bedliner, or instead of the bedliner. If it is under the van' floor then there is no loss in headroom. That could be the win-win.

 

[That One Guy]

I read about a guy on a Cummins forum who used Boom Mat to do the entire inside of his truck and the bottom of the cab (Like an undercoating). He said it worked great. It's 10 bucks a can and their website says it only covers 20 sq ft. But the guy bought 5 cans, and it was enough to do the inside of every door, the roof, the floor, the firewall, the back of the cab and the underside of the cab of an 07 quad cab Ram.... I'm gonna say that's a lot more than 100 sq ft. So I will be ordering 5 cans even though their site says that's only enough for 40% of the job. They've got some nice speaker baffles I'm ordering too....

 

[ramrunnr]

I'll check out the Boom Mat. I found a guy working on a ford van on another forum and he has a lot of (what I think is) valuable information. Most of the information can be used on any van, and he has a wiring diagram for a multi battery setup (one starting and two house batts).

Converting a 1999 Ford E-250 into a camper van - Page 1 - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

 

[That One Guy]

Thank you very much. I'm modifying his diagram for my needs right now.

 

[ramrunnr]

Sure thing.