Overland Van Build, GMC Savana
- Thread starter dar395
- Start date
Len's finding was that his door was the area of the greatest loss of energy, I quickly agreed as I started to measure the temps around the unit with the door seeming to read lower I'm thinking more loss of cold air. Len attached foam board and a plywood door panel over his I chose to drill 1/4 holes and fill the cavities in the door with spray foam, this I used the light ex-spendable for window and door install so not to distort the light weight paneling on the inside of the door, after the reinstall I show a net savings of 41% less cold air loss by the way of temps taken again.
Again this area is a little away from Len's I chose to keep my drip pan below the freezer where as he removed his, I did as he did though place insulation board to keep the freezer colder and operate more effective in freezing when on 12v power. This is important as the quicker you are able cycle your ice packs the less energy you will use.
Wrapping the refrigerator in more insulation testing energy loss with temp transfer I feel that I have the unit running at 138 kw a sizeable decrease in power draw, with the separation of the freezer from the lower body of the refrigerator I can cut the time needed to freeze my ice units/packs by greater than 50% (about 53.7% Less):victory:
Then were back to rebuilding the cabinet for the install into the van. Trying to come up with a system to vent the heat from the exchange coils I'm using the hole saw, three holes at the bottom of the mount and then more openings at the top creating a natural up draft for the heat, the thin ring of foam board around the sides (in the post above) are to help keep the heat from the cold storage area's of the refrigerator outside box.
After the install a little trimming putting a lock for traveling it fits right back into the space we started with porta-potty ready as well. We have mounted another frame mount deep cycle battery and a 1000/2000 watt invertor connected through our 8900 electric panel so we are able to charge while driving or hooked to shore power.
We are able to keep it at proper temps for 3 1/2 days by freezing our ice packs which are nothing more than "Can't believe it's not butter containers" before starting out on the road by means of shore power, than after 24hours using the 12v convertor re-frezzing the ice packs over the next 24 hours than again using the ice packs on the third day or a total of approx. 74-80 hours.
We feel it's a great improvement.
Campbulance
Observer
Cool Build, I have seen you working on it over the last year or two. I am about to get into more progress on mine. After I went camping in Yosemite my progress came to a stand still. How are you liking the bed arrangement now? I was going to put mine right a foot or two back of the driver seat but have been considering pushing it further back. I am in the same boat as you. I plan as best as I could although I feel like I will be redoing it at some point. Can't wait to see more.
Campbulance, My bed area has been changed again from any of the posted photo's, I hope to find time this coming weekend to upload the new lay out. It is now near perfect for us. I tried the space left in the front and rear of the bed but than there was not large space to move around, moving the bed all the way back to the doors gives move around space all in one large area you don't feel closed in. After spending three days inside do to weather space is king. Check back at the beginning of the week and check it out.
Hi Dar395, I just came across your build threads after doing some internet searches on installing an ikea karlaby frame into my van. You have some great info on here. I was all excited until when I saw your initial post until I read through to the end and saw you didn't find it so great! Could you tell me how your bed set up works now? It looks like you've made an extension for the bed that comes out on rails like drawer slides, but I can't quite make out from the photos how the extension piece is supported. And do you just pull the mattress up and down from couch to bed as required? I really liked the idea of the ikea frame so the ned could stay 'made up' with sheets etc all the time - no messing around with different bits of foam the way most van layouts work. THanks for the van wisdom 
Sorry but I can't find just the bed photo, I can say that the Ikea mattress that we're using is great and we're installing the same system in our Ford which I should have photo's up this week as we have it off and working on the new Van.
It's like the Sunset on the old and onto the new:exclaim:
Mcarpenito89
Adventurer
Where did you get that rear bumper spare holder ?
bringbackpluto
Observer
How come you sold the old van, by the way? Great build thread