Putt Step Van Build

[Putts]

Thanks, mate, it was delicious!

Moving along....

Probably the last thing that will substantially change the look of the cabin, I installed the flooring.

5mm thick rubber gym matt. Comes in roll much larger than I needed. Nice heavy stuff. I'm going to use the rest of it as flooring in the driver's compartment. The weight and density should cut down the noise a little.

The drawers were initially a bit sticky but have settled in nicely and now easily slide in and out. Course, that makes for some interesting sound effects as I drive back and forth to Home Depot. The door and drawer latches have become a must. So in they go!

They have a little spring in them for tension and rubber stoppers as feet to hold things nicely in place.

Now the drawers stay put quite well.

The above bed and kitchen cabinets are single sided so needed a different base.

Not sure what's next, but I do have quite a punch list written up. Maybe 20 items to go before I could survive in Putt.

I'll get there.

 

[marret]

Looking good, nice latch solution.

 

[TheVagabondMBA]

Very nice interior build! Looking good.

 

[Putts]

Even though they're not as visually dramatic as previous posts, progress continues.

First thing was to put my temporary gray water tank back in. It's one of those blue cubes. Fits nice, but it doesn't have a drain, which means I have to pull all the drawers on that side to take out the tank to empty it.

It's more useful than not having a tank of any kind, but that's about it. I'll be putting in another tank with drain fittings sometime soon, but until then this allows me to put my coffee filter in the sink to let it drain.

The only reason I mention it is because it lets me show you how I can remove the countertop and drawers and get at everything inside the main counter cabinet. In the photo above in the cabinet section to the left of the blue tank and behind the drawers is where the water filtration system and water pumps will be. When it comes time to install them, removing the drawers and countertop will make it relatively easy...relatively.

It does make a mess of the rest of the cabin though.

I'm sick of running all my electronics of an extension cord and plug strip, so I installed my 12V to USB power outlets. You can see the one lonely wire now going to the top of the third switch bank to the left.

One outlet bank is mounted in the end door of the electronics cabinet above the dinette. Here's the inside of the cabinet.

I can easily reach it when seated at the table.

Blue Sea Systems marine outlet bank...vewy nice!

The two bottom outlets have two USB connections each; the top outlet is a cigarette lighter plug for 12V. You can get adapters from ciggy lighter to MacBook power plug. The important thing here is to be able to power up all my electronics without having to turn on my 110VAC inverter...too inefficient.

The other USB outlet is above the bed in the bottom of the clothes cabinet.

It's a rather disorienting picture..you'll figure it out. The outlet has two USB connectors in it.

Last bit of building was the electronics cabinet door.

Made a little goof on the pocket routed out for the charge controller.

Oh well, no one will see it from the outside. The pocket needed to be routed out so that the charge controller controls and display are easily available with the door closed.

It's a pretty lame hole. Had to freehand it with a router. Oh well, it's functional.

And with the door closed.

Gotta paint the header board white at the top, and need to paint the gray on at the bottom.

The cool thing about getting that done is that it completes the final seal between the cabin and wall/ceiling venting systems. It's not hot enough to need it yet, but I'll test it soon.

 

[Putts]

That's it for construction, but I've also done a lot of packing. It's funny to think that two years from now there will probably be quite a few changes to the items and locations...but...you gotta start somewhere.

Food cabinets

Clothes cabinet above bed.

I've moved out of my bedroom at home. Almost all my clothes are in Putt or have been thrown out or put in the rag bin. Gave my dresser away to someone in need. My room's beginning to look empty.

Drawers

This is the top left drawer that I can reach easily from the dinette seat. Kinda my office drawer.

Kitchen utensils below.

Pots and pans at the bottom

Other side top drawer is my toiletries.

Then my junk drawer...have no idea what's really going to last here, but I kept on finding stuff I needed to ferret away and had no place to put it.

And cleaning supplies at the bottom.

That's about it for now.

Living in my driveway. Winning!?

 

[Raul]

Great Job and great lay-out for the available space.
I keep pushing back all my interior electric work.

 

[Putts]

I been doing electronics stuff all my life in one way or another, and even I think it's a somewhat miserable task. Very fidgety and slow. But once it's done, it's done. Gotta keep pushing.

 

[GreenH3ll]

Really good job! Sadly with all the ''new'' stupid law from where i live , i can forget building-one myself!!!

 

[Arctic Travelller]

About ready to hit the road? Where too first?

 

[hobovan]

Wow. Just got caught up...this thing is baller! Excited to see your adventures soon and hope you keep posting from the great wide somewhere. Fair winds!

 

[Putts]

Really good job! Sadly with all the ''new'' stupid law from where i live , i can forget building-one myself!!!

That's the nice thing about Montana: You can do pretty much whatever you want up here. Well, you can't ride a horse into a bar...anymore.

 

[Putts]

About ready to hit the road? Where too first?

It's amazing how often that's the first question people ask. I've begun to reply, "Wherever I want."

The truth is more complicated.

Phase one is getting out of the driveway in a livable vehicle and selling my house. I reckon I'll have $30k total in Putt at that point.

Phase two is using the money from the house sale to put all the really expensive stuff into Putt.

The first step there is an engine swap, I've got a VT365 in it right now, which is basically a Powerstroke 6. Lots of issues with that engine. They can be overcome and when done it's a good engine. But, it would cost about $15k. Well, for that kind of money I can just swap in a Cummins 5.9 12 valve with P7100 injector pump and have a killer, rock solid engine that can be serviced worldwide. I do plan to go to Central America and then South America eventually. The Cummins will be set up to happily run on biodiesel.

So I've begun to arrange the swap with a local custom shop. I'll also be adding an additional 60 gallon fuel tank, and am thinking hard on a swap to big single tires.

Once that's done---probably in Sept-Oct of this year, I'll head south for some fall and winter events. There's a guy named Jamie (Enigmatic Nomadics on YouTube) who holds a van build party in November near Lake Havasu. I'll go to that to help folks with solar installations and stuff. Then I'll spend Christmas to New Years at Slab City. Then go to the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous in Quartzite. Than maybe caravan for a bit with people I met.

Once spring of '19 rolls around I'll start making my way back to Montana for a second round at the custom shop. I'll be putting on a custom rear bumper to hold a motorcycle (TW200); spare tire; ramps and sand rails; and propane tanks. They'll also install a new front bumper and a PTO winch where the cable can be routed out either the front or rear bumper through roller guides. I'll also have them put up a large roof rack onto which I can install three 350 Watt solar panels.

Then it's back out into the desert on NLM land to install more batteries; bigger inverter charger; outdoor lighting; an awning; security cameras; HAM radio; diesel furnace and water heater....the list is almost endless. Once done---by the fall of '19 or spring '20, I'll be done with phase two of the build. Though I expect I'll be tinkering with the thing for the next decade. I currently am budgeting $100k for the completed build.

Once all that is done I'll just wander at will for a couple of years, getting my ******** dialed in so I'm 100% confident in my set-up. The goal is to be easily able to go unsupported for two months at a time. I'll rarely actually do that, but I want that capability at the ready at all times. I can easily imaging being out in the boonie in some mountain range camping for 4-5 days, moving 5 miles to the next cool spot, spend 5 days, move 10 miles, spend 5 days, move 5 miles, etc. I want to be able to do that without having to bug out for a run into town for resupply.

Personally, I have the three goals while on the road for the next 3 years: learn Spanish; practice my ukulele; and write a book (some mad hatter philosophy stuff, don't ask, you don't want to get me started).

Then my best friend and motorcycle buddy Paul will be retiring. He's going to just buy a vehicle---he regularly lurks the classifieds here and has the wherewithal to jump on just the right rig when it comes along---and then we'll take off together. Probably spend a year getting his poop in a group.

Little stabs into Baja and Mexico so he can get dialed in. Then down through Central America. Once we're both fully confident, we'll put the rigs on a boat to Ecuador. The explore South America for a few years. Then a boat to Australia maybe. Then a boat to India maybe. Then, one sunny afternoon when I'm 75 years old, I'll nod off at the wheel and send myself flying off a dirt road into some Himalayan ravine and be done with it. If that happens, you can all just applaud. I will have died a happy man.

 

[Putts]

Wow. Just got caught up...this thing is baller! Excited to see your adventures soon and hope you keep posting from the great wide somewhere. Fair winds!

Thanks, man. I'll post my travels somewhere or other. I'll let you know.

 

[Putts]

On to the next thing: the spice rack.

Checking for size.

Paint, thread the paracord, and mount.

The biggest trick was figuring out how to run a single strand through all the holes and never go through the same hole twice.

I did paracord on the back side, 1/2" from the wall, so stuff wouldn't rattle against the wall as much.

I just shoved stuff in there to fill it up, but some of the stuff will go back up into the cabinet after I go shopping today. Gonna resupply and then start really cooking in there. Now that I've got a gray water tank and it's not freezing I can fill my water tank and start washing dishes. Biggest question as I work through my meal planning is whether to set the fridge as a cooler or a freezer. Could go either way. Prolly need to get that seal-a-meal thingy Garry talked about...I did hook up 110VAC so I can plug it in now.

Onward!

 

[Petrolburner]

I'm only on post #9, but I love your management of airflow in the walls and ceilings to keep the van cool parked in the sun. Brilliant and simple.