The Gnarhauler: Another white cargo van.

[i bike]

This is a very cool build and looks way sharp with non white paint job. I am impressed and jealous.


From having just read your entire build I can say for sure you know way more about mechanical stuff than me but just want to check and you can run it by others who know more: but I think the lug nuts are intended to go in and lock the wheel in place. You can see from your first photo there is a male and female taper on the lug nut and wheel to tie it all together? You solution with the washers might put your lugs at risk if the wheel were to slip or move. Maybe you can put the washers behind the wheel, between wheel and hub to get the lug/wheel to mate properly?

Good feedback. You are 100% correct that the lug should seat in the hole in the wheel. This is on the spare tire carrier, not the axle, so I’m more concerned with the wheel sitting against the carrier plate than the lugs seating properly in the wheel.

I think the issue comes from Aluminess using wheel studs that are designed to be installed in a hub flange that’s thicker than the aluminum plate they use for the carrier, hence the shoulder of the stud protruding past the face of the mounting plate.

I’m planning aftermarket wheels sometime in the future which will mitigate this issue. Just for kicks, I’ll try the washers behind the wheel and see if it makes any difference. Thanks for the input and kind words.


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[eporter]

Nice job on that led channel on the awning. Is it RGB+Warm white or RGB + Cool white? They can vary, but overall the white color of an rgb+w is way better than the old RGB “white” that isn‘t.

I say treat yourself to a nice RGB controller in the van. Even easier wiring than two dimmers. Some controllers are just a touch pad, others have separate RF remote, Bluetooth or even Wi-Fi enabled if you want to tie in all your light/sound/onboard systems. You might not need all the party combos, but its nice to dial in a dim candlelight yellow/fireside red glow for late nights or just a random color to match the sunset. Stock color LEDs never quite look right to me, so it’s nice to be able to tweak the colors.

Remote is nice for dialing things in while outside/looking at it. I had an art car captain at burning man hand me the iPad light controller to his huge 6x6 desert cruiser/DJ rig. It was real fun playing with that along to some great music. You don’t have to be that guy, unless you’re at a party in the desert...

 

[i bike]

Nice job on that led channel on the awning. Is it RGB+Warm white or RGB + Cool white? They can vary, but overall the white color of an rgb+w is way better than the old RGB “white” that isn‘t.

I say treat yourself to a nice RGB controller in the van. Even easier wiring than two dimmers. Some controllers are just a touch pad, others have separate RF remote, Bluetooth or even Wi-Fi enabled if you want to tie in all your light/sound/onboard systems. You might not need all the party combos, but its nice to dial in a dim candlelight yellow/fireside red glow for late nights or just a random color to match the sunset. Stock color LEDs never quite look right to me, so it’s nice to be able to tweak the colors.

Remote is nice for dialing things in while outside/looking at it. I had an art car captain at burning man hand me the iPad light controller to his huge 6x6 desert cruiser/DJ rig. It was real fun playing with that along to some great music. You don’t have to be that guy, unless you’re at a party in the desert...

Thanks. It’s warm white, I’m not a fan of anything more than 4K or so for color temp. I bought a three channel dimmer from super bright LED with the strip and and hardware but the performance was meh. I have some nice low side LED dimmers I got from Amazon that work awesome, I can’t ever see myself using more than two colors. White for cooking/camp setup, red for late night beer retrieval


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[CarlosBorder]

Great build and documentation. I have a question on your aluminum roof rack build. Love the look and functionality. Can you tell me how you put this together? I'm okay at assembly but design and finish work are my achilles heel. Thanks

 

[turbodiesel]

I’m planning aftermarket wheels sometime in the future which will mitigate this issue. Just for kicks, I’ll try the washers behind the wheel and see if it makes any difference. Thanks for the input and kind words.

I had the same issue and put an additional aluminum plate between the tire and the mount. Don't see why grade 8 washers wouldn't work.

 

[i bike]

Great build and documentation. I have a question on your aluminum roof rack build. Love the look and functionality. Can you tell me how you put this together? I'm okay at assembly but design and finish work are my achilles heel. Thanks

My rack came from U-Joint off-road, all I had to do was bolt it together and mount it to the van. https://www.ujointoffroad.com/product/ujoint-roof-rack-rb/

FYI, they only off the regular body rack for shipping because of size restrictions. It’s 10’ long and has four pairs of feet. I emailed Chris direct and got my rack with five pairs of feet and sourced 144” sections of the 8020 locally for the sides to get a full length rack on my extended van.


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[i bike]

I had the same issue and put an additional aluminum plate between the tire and the mount. Don't see why grade 8 washers wouldn't work.

The extra plate is a good idea. I called Aluminess the discuss the issue and they offered to send me another plate with no studs so I could thru bolt the wheel on. Maybe I’ll take them up on that and just try stacking the plates. Thanks!


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[i bike]

Got my two floor boxes back from my fab guy. Came out pretty killer. He wasn’t crazy about suspending the weight off just the top of the box so we came up with a 2x2 steel angle cradle system. Threaded rod will pass through the floor of the van and pick up the mounting holes in the steel frame.

The lid system will “float” and sandwich the lid, van floor, box and mounting ring. My fab guys idea also, pretty ingenious.

He built the lip of the flange to account for corrugated van floor, 1/2” polyiso, 3/4” ply and rubber coin flooring. There’s some wiggle room in there to make sure the lid doesn’t bottom out on the flange before it contacts the floor.

 

[i bike]

Played with some new l-track layouts.

Ripped out the sub-par wrinkled coin flooring and patched the plywood floor where the tracks used to live.

Add some short pieces of perpendicular track and marked out the openings for the boxes.

Cut some holes and add a half inch of polyiso insulation while I was in there.

Boxes hung!

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[i bike]

New flooring, tracks, boxes and lids all wrapped up.

Back on interior panels, got all the roof panels upholstered and installed. 1/8” birch wrapped in 1/8” closed cell foam topped with some Sunbrella fabric.

The little black dots are l-track discs that hold up the ceiling panels.

Started wrapping all sheet metal that will be exposed in charcoal tweed. Wall panels will receive the same material.

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[helidave]

Did you decide which of the floor boxes will be the toilet? Probably want to make that decision early before things get messy.

 

[i bike]

Did you decide which of the floor boxes will be the toilet? Probably want to make that decision early before things get messy.

Great question, helidork. A trash bag liner should mitigate the issue. Or, I’ll just go in some unsuspecting broverlanders RTT then fold it up like a big stinky hotpocket.


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[helidave]

Great question, helidork. A trash bag liner should mitigate the issue. Or, I’ll just go in some unsuspecting broverlanders RTT then fold it up like a big stinky hotpocket.

Well I'm not unsuspecting now that you've exposed your plans. I guess exposing yourself goes hand in hand with van ownership though.

 

[another_mike]

How did you attach the tweed to the sheet metal?

Started wrapping all sheet metal that will be exposed in charcoal tweed. Wall panels will receive the same material.

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[i bike]

How did you attach the tweed to the sheet metal?

3M spray 90 adhesive, just out of convenience. I’m using Dep Landau contact adhesive through an HVLP gun for the paneling.


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