Solar System Upgrades and Roof-Diet

We've been rocking a hybrid roof-top/portable solar system for several years now.  Having the flexibility to either use the panel fixed on the pop-top roof, or to unlock it and move it for better sun exposure has been excellent.

With our original 60w panel and an inexpensive PWM controller, we had a great budget solution, but it struggled to keep our house battery fully charged when the loads were high. (Usually hot days in the desert when the fridge works hard)

Campervan Curtains Update: Leather Tie-Backs

Back in 2016, just before our California Coast Roadtrip, I had finally got round to finishing the installation of curtains in the van.  For curtain tie-backs, I used some 1" Nylon webbing I'd found in a matching color.

Reupholstering the Rock-n-Roll Bed

After I built a steel-framed VW-style Rock-n-Roll bed last year (Part 1, Part 2), I had big plans to quickly purchase some made-to-order box-cushion covers from one of several online vendors who have leveraged CNC pattern cutting and inexpensive overseas labor.  I was hitting project fatigue on the whole seat/bed thing, so I just wanted to get it over with.

Quarter-Window Utility Rack

A quick update, now that I've finished the build on my utility rack that spans the rear quarter window between the C and D pillars on the driver's side.  Like many of my projects, this starts with inspiration provided by the wonderfully rich aftermarket available to the Volkswagen crowd, which I then shamelessly copy and duplicate DIY-fashion for the Astro van and its (non-existent) aftermarket.  In this case, I took inspiration from the Campervan Culture "Side Mount System".

On Board Air, Part 1

So we spend a lot of our time in the van out in the desert.  A lot of those trails have pretty badly washboarded roads, and I know that the best way to smooth those over is to air-down my tires.  Yet sometimes, I don't.  I just grit my teeth and listen to everything rattle.  Why?  Because I dread the hassle of airing back up.  It's not that it takes that long, but the whole process of fetching the portable compressor out of the back box, popping the hood to connect the battery clamps, airing up, and then reversing the process just to try to deal with a too-hot-to-touch compressor does make me think twice before grabbing the deflators.  And that's dumb.

Ergo, time to simplify that as much as possible.  Hard-mounting the compressor and an air tank under the van won't shorten the actual time to re-inflate by very much (though having a bit of reserve in the tank should help a bit).  The biggest motivator here is just to have everything "ready to use" as much as possible.  Connect the coiled hose to an outlet on either side, and start the air. When complete, disconnect and stow the hose, and off I go.

To that end, I did my usual "slow burn" on this project.  I spent a few months gathering datasheets and crawling around the van with a measuring tape.  A few months back, I picked up a hard-mount version of my Viair 400-series compressor from a friend at a swap-meet.  Next I scored a nice air tank off eBay for about half of normal price.  Today's project is to get ready to mount the tank.

After a lot of lying under the van, I chose this spot - this is the recess under the body behind (inboard) of the entry step.  It's long and skinny, and just about tailor-made for the Viair 2.5gallon tank.  Towards the top-end of the photo you can see two captured nuts in the body "frame rail".  Not sure if these serve a purpose on older or 2WD vans, but on mine they're un-used, so I took them over for my purposes.  I happened to have the right metric thread bolts in my collection of things I've removed from the van over time.  Towards the bottom of the photo (forward end of the frame rail) you can see that I added a pair of riv-nuts for a second bracket.

I used some 2" angle iron for the body-side, and 1.5" angle on the tank-feet, with 1" square tube connecting them.  You can see from how the mount sits on the tank that just about half of the tank will fit up inside that space.  If I could have found a 5" diameter tank, I think the entire thing would have fit into that recess.

Here's a low-angle shot of the brackets test-fit.

And here's a shot level with the bottom of the van body.  Can you see it?  Nope, it all tucks up into that space really nicely, so very little risk of damage there.

Can I also just say: What a delight working under a lifted van!  So easy to just slide under there for test-fittings and installation.  No jacks, no ramps, just a single jack-stand to help hold the tank while I do up the bolts.

Brackets finished welded and primed.  I'll finish the paint this week, and I hope to be able to get the tank and compressor mounted sometime after Thanksgiving (though I hope to head out to do some hiking on Black Friday).  It's looking like the compressor will get mounted in the rear near the spare-tire mount, there's an out-of-the-way spot up there.

Stay tuned for more!

Retro Post: Solar System Installation

Some questions on solar systems have been coming up on the GTRV owner's forum lately, and while I've been popping in with options and opinions, I haven't had a firm write-up I could point people to.  Time to remedy that by detailing some of the important bits of the Astrolander's solar installation.

A little more Rock-n-Roll

Well, just in time for the American Adventurist SoCal Mountain Rendezvous, the Rock-N-Roll bed is "done".  Or at least, "done enough to sleep on".

It took a bit of a push, especially given the near record-setting heat and humidity we suffered through for the Labor Day weekend, but we're at a point where we can sleep on the new bed system.  Between that and a few other odd jobs, we're good to go for camping next weekend!

More after the jump...

Rock-N-Roll, Baby!

Who's ready to Rock-n-Roll?

I'm nearing completion on my project to replace my cheap Craigslist conversion van bench/bed with a Westfalia-style Rock-n-Roll bed.

More after the jump...

Retro Post: Interior build v3.0

In my quest to get the blog caught up with my various forum Build Threads, it's time for another Retro Post.  This time, making a big leap forward with a new approach to the interior systems.

So I'd been talking about doing this for quite a while: Fixing the interior layout to better fit my needs. We love the van, but there's a bit of a "10lbs of crap in a 5lb bag" problem, and some of the decisions I made early on have caused problems down the line.

Most specifically, I really hated that I was never able to find a perfect arrangement for the fridge. I knew I wanted it somewhere behind the driver's seat or under the bed, but lack of overhead height meant the latter was a no-go, and getting any chest fridge to fit behind the seat either wasted a lot of space or forced me to relocate a BUNCH of stuff every time we stopped to camp. Not good. The whole point of this is for things to be easy.

 I spent a lot of time (like literally 2 years) moving things around, building different fridge mounting boxes, and trying to make things 5% more efficient. During this time I was also hanging out at the Samba and daydreaming about how much interior space the Westy VW guys have. There, I got exposed to "the new hot thing" for their kitchens - a Danfoss swing-compressor replacement for the finicky old Dometic Absorption fridges that Westfalia originally installed.  Mechanically, they're the same hardware as all the good "chest" fridges the Overland folks are using, but in upright "front loader" footprints.  The VW guys are loving them because they can slot right into place in the original westy cabinets, but actually hold more food, since the swing compressor takes up less space than the old heat-engine system. Better yet, they run efficiently on 12v batteries and don't carry all the problems of a propane-driven 3-way.

Lightbulb.

Retro Post: Fresh Water System

As I'm in the midst of rebuilding a few parts of the Astrolander interior, including the fresh-water system, I realized I never properly documented "Version 1".  Time for a Retro Post.

Retro Post: AWD to 4WD Conversion with NP233 Transfer Case

Another Retro Post.  This time I'm documenting converting the Astro from All Wheel Drive (AWD) to proper Four Wheel Drive (4WD) with a 2-speed NP233 Transfer Case sourced from a 2000 S-10 Blazer LS 2-door.  (Thanks again, General, for making parts-interchange work so well!)

This was almost installed as a "kit", as I purchased 95% of the bits from another Astro/Safari owner.  His original thread is here, and includes a lot of other good detail.  Check it out, if you're headed down this path.  The completeness of the work Dean did means there's very little new "art" here (which is why I initially didn't do much write-up), but once again, this could be useful for someone outside the Astro/Safari community.

Retro Post: Astro Van Lift-Kit Installation

I've been guilty, multiple times during the life of the Astrolander project, of letting my detailed blog posts get out of sync with the current state of affairs.  My build threads on ExpeditionPortal and the AstroSafariVans.org forums have been maintained somewhat more diligently, but I realize not everyone follows there.  To help remedy that, I'm undertaking some "Retro" posts to re-document some of the work that I've done but not covered here.

Here's the first installment:  Installing the Overland Vans 4" Lift Kit.

Astrolander Update: Pop Top Hinge Replacement

Some dedicated readers may remember that when I originally transplanted the GTRV top from the donor van, I noticed that one of the pop-top hinges was slightly bent and thus was binding. I've lived with this for 3+ (holy crap, just checked dates: actually FIVE) years, but the net effect was that the top never quite seated correctly on the van roof. I had trouble getting enough tension on one of the forward latches and sometimes after dropping the top I'd have to climb onto the back bumper and manually pull down on the top to get it fully closed. 

Early calls to GTRV for replacement hinges went unanswered. I eventually figured out (through a lot of catalog searching) that the hinges were Reimo-made, duplicates of early VW Westfalia hinges. Sourcing these directly from Germany was going to be VERY expensive, so I kept looking for alternatives. Eventually I found other hinges with a similar (but not exactly matching) geometry for another product. After some wheedling, the manufacturer of those bartered with me for a set:

As you can see, the gold Reimo hinges are longer, so I had to make some modifications to get things to bolt up. I don't have pictures of the process because it was a bit sketchy with the top raised and supported by 2x4s, etc.
As a bonus, the replacements are vastly superior construction. The Reimo design is thin material and single-shear, whereas the new ones are thicker material AND double-shear:

For some reason, I never took a photo of the top raised with the new hinges. It looks basically the same. :D
Knowing that the hinge-replacement was always on the horizon, and fearing I'd need access to the roof to change the hinges, I never got around to putting the headliner back in the van. I'm sometimes amazed that my wife didn't complain more about riding around in a van with the metal roof and all the ribbing exposed. With the hinges finally changed, I was able to start that job only five years later.
Step one was to put the headliner "mostly" up, and make a small access hole:

Reminds me of the early stages of this project, 5 years and 50+ lbs ago:

Anyhow, using the access hole, I marked the perimeter of the headliner against the hole in the roof:

Then started in on it with a razor knife:

And finally ended up with a big hole:

(Note, this is actually about 2/3 of the headliner - the Astro design has it in two pieces, the rearmost 1/3 is a separate piece and re-installed mostly without modification)

Given how thin the "side strips" are, and due to issues with needing to fit around the reinforcing ring at the forward edge, I decided to divide the headliner into two pieces. I needed to make a new forward section from scratch. The "middle" and rear headliners are now currently installed, but the cut edges still show.  I didn't like how the old GTRV headliner was installed as one giant piece with the fabric from the headliner wrapped directly onto the upper roof and was glued down. This made it so you couldn't drop the headliner without peeling the glue, so I'm making sure I "fix" that method before I recover everything here.

UPDATE:

I've finished crafting the new forward headliner sections.  Templates were made from some scrap hardboard.  Lots of little odd cut-outs were needed to deal with the mounting for the visors and forward dome lamp.

A high-density closed-cell foam was glued to the hardboard - I'm always wary of knocking a head on this area in an accident.

Test-fitting the headliner panels. As you can see, the upper-bunk carpet is now separate from the headliner, so I can drop the headliner when ever needed for maintenance (or to run wiring, etc.)  These panels are partially held in by the OEM plastic trim, but after they were covered in matching headliner fabric, I've also added a few screws and finish-washers to hold them in place.  I just realized I don't have a good photo of the finished panels!