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Installing a Nations Secondary Alternator into a Promaster Camper Van

In this video we’ll show you an overview of the process for installing a Nations high output secondary alternator and Wakespeed WS500 regulator in a Ram Promaster (Similar process for Mercedes Sprinter and Ford Transit). This van was built out a few years prior but the owner wanted to be able to recharge his batteries quicker than standard combination of vehicle alternator charging with a DC-DC charger and solar. Because his van used Battleborn batteries, which are approved by Wakespeed the upgrade was fairly simply from an electrical point of view. Battleborn is one of the very few internal BMS (“legacy”) batteries that are officially supported by the Wakespeed regulator. Learn more about the Wakespeed and why some battery brands are approved i our deep dive with the creator of the Wakespeed. You’ll see how the secondary alternator addition becomes the most powerful of 4x charging sources in this van (solar, shore power, vehicle alternator, secondary alternator) making it a worthwhile upgrade for those that like to be off grid while staying comfortable! This is especially true for vanlifers who are looking to install a 12v, 24v or 48v air conditioner in the camper van. You might also be interested in our complete secondary alternator power system bundle with Victron batteries and components. Please note that we’re working on an example wiring diagram for a system that uses Victron equipment along side Battleborn internal BMS (legacy) batteries with the Nations alternator and Wakespeed WS500 Pro. Be sure to join our email list (available at the bottom of each of our pages) to be notified when this is ready.

Installing the Mabru 12-Volt Rooftop Air Conditioner in Your Camper Van

Introduction Well, it’s summer in Florida, so what better time to dive into the world of air conditioning for your van? In this blog post, we’re going to take an in-depth look at installing the Mabru 12000 BTU rooftop, 12-volt DC air conditioner. We chose this unit for its quiet operation, energy efficiency, and overall value. I have one in my personal van, and it keeps me cool even in the Sunshine State’s scorching heat. We’ll also discuss how to modify the unit to fit a standard 14-inch by 14-inch hole, just as I did in my own van. You can find this unit for sale in our store, and as always, you’ll discover a wealth of information on our website at vanlifeoutfitters.com, including a handy spreadsheet comparing various 12-volt rooftop AC units on the market. *** WARNING:  If you plan to install the Mabru RV12000 with a Vanlife Outfitters Flush Mount Faceplate please review the entire instructions before proceeding as you will be cutting the styrofoam differently and you won’t want to repeat parts of the process twice.  Click here to jump to that section of the post. *** Before we dive into the installation process, let’s first discuss the tools and materials you’ll need Jigsaw (or your preferred tool for cutting the roof opening) Metric socket set/wrench ½” drill bit and a step bit Caulking gun and sealant (we recommend Loctite Marine PL or similar) Small zip ties Plastic bag or plastic sheeting File Rustoleum paint (or similar) to protect bare metal “Solar entry gland” for passing the wiring harness into the van roof (and grommet) Roof adapter, butyl tape, or PVC shims (if needed to fill in roof corrugations) Lap sealant (such as Dicor, if needed) Let’s start by unpacking the contents of the Mabru AC unit’s box and understanding what you’ll use and what you might not need Paper roof-cutting template Manual (though we’ll provide you with a more detailed guide) Bag with 15mm nuts and LED lights (for fastening the unit with brackets and optional interior lighting) 6x mounting bracket pieces (for unit installation) Bag with the remote control and wires for optional LED lights Bag with rubber spacers (not used in standard installation), large black screws (for flanges on installation brackets), wire ties and mounts (for wiring harness routing) Plastic “L-bracket” things (not used in standard installation) The Mabru AC unit itself Note that the video shows some hoses at around 29 seconds. These are no longer included. They were for routing the condensation from the base plate to somewhere else – perhaps to use that water for another purpose. You can see the “ports” on the baseplate where the condensation drains onto the roof where those hoses, or something equivalent could be connected. Turns out no customers used them so they omitted them from the box. The video below shows all the items in the box in the same order as the list below… Finding the serial number Before we dive into the installation, it’s wise to locate and make a note of the unit’s serial number for future support or repair needs.  Starting in the summer of 2024, the serial number for the units is located inside the RV cover. Prior to that it had been in a different spots including behind the interior vent panel inside the return air compartment (example photo). On newer versions, you can also find the serial number inside the remote battery cover as shown in the photo. Step 1: Finding a suitable location & cut opening Begin by finding a suitable location for the AC unit on your roof. We’re often asked if it’s better to have the AC in the front of the van or the rear of the van and this really comes down to personal preference. For me, I prefer to have a Maxxfan over my bed area in the rear of the van because I actually use it more often and I also don’t like having cool air from an AC blowing directly on me. Others want their bed area to be the coolest part of the interior space so they may prefer to have it located in the rear. The other consideration is to look for a “bay” between the support ribs of the van roof that is wide enough for the unit to drop into but not too wide such that the support brackets that must span between the ribs would be too short. Once you’ve identified the placement you must transfer that to the exterior. There are many ways to do this but many installers will use a small drill bit to make a pilot hole from the interior that marks one of the 14 x 14 opening corners. By doing this from the inside and then using the paper template on the outside, lined up with the corresponding corner on the template, you can have confidence where you cut your roof opening. Preparing the roof opening You can install the unit into a standard 14” x 14” roof opening or the Mabru’s native size of 14.62″ long x 20.125″ wide. The unit comes with a paper template that includes both roof opening sizes and bolt-hole location. The easiest method uses the native opening size (no modifications), but we’ll guide you through modifying it for a standard 14” x 14” hole. Cut the template and use it to mark your roof opening, ensuring precise measurements. To use the paper template, cut out the opening with a razor blade or scissors. In this case, for the 14” opening, we’ll be cutting along the dotted line. Some installers prefer to transfer the template to plywood for a more rigid template. Prep pro tips: tape plastic underneath to catch metal shavings and use a large piece of plywood with a blanket underneath to distribute weight on the roof which will prevent indentation. It’s also very helpful to tape the area of the sheet metal that will be cut out to help stabilize it and prevent it from falling through and shearing during the cut. You might even stop periodically during the cut to re-tape areas. Cut the main roof opening AND drill the 4x mounting bolt locations with a ½” drill bit. If you’re using a jigsaw with a metal blade, you can expand the pilot hole you might have made earlier when locating the installation area, or you can drill a new pilot hole in one corner, inside the cut-out line that is wide enough for your saw blade and then drill another hole opposite the first. Most installers are using either a jigsaw or metal cut-off disc on an angle grinder.  File the edges, clean the area, and apply rust-prevention paint to all bare metal. Installation using a “standard” 14″ x 14″ roof opening The photo shows the unit turned upside down with the baseplate facing up. The area with the blue painter’s tape indicates how the unit would drop in over a standard, 14” x 14” roof opening. You can see that the area for the cold air outlets (larger, upper rectangular hole) and return air (lower, smaller, 2x, rectangular openings) fits comfortably within this space. However, the interior panel/vents are wider than 14″ (about 18″ wide) which you can see in the image below. So, if you want to install the unit into a standard opening size, you’ll have to do some basic modifications. Since most of our customers want to use the 14″ x 14″ (standard size) roof opening, this is the process we will detail in the rest of the post. Step 2: Installing the Gasket and Sealing Place the gasket around your roof opening (and bolt holes), ensuring it forms a rectangle. You’ll want to place the rubber gasket around your openings. It ships flattened. Start by stretching the two sides apart from each other to begin reshaping it into a rectangle (video of this process below). One side has an adhesive below a protection tape and the other side does not. We place the side with the adhesive down onto the sheet metal of the van so that it will stay positioned while we seal it. The gasket should form a rectangle around the perimeter of your roof openings – both the bolt locations and the 14” opening (see photo below). It can be difficult to get the gasket reshaped and positioned correctly but it is possible with enough care and time.  For van models with a prominent roof curve (IE Ford Transit), You may need to cut the gasket so that it fits snugly around the outer bolt holes.  See photo below. Later in the installation process, the AC unit will be placed on top of this gasket and eventually bolted down such that the gasket will compress to create a waterproof seal. So, it’s important that all the bolt holes are inside the perimeter of the gasket. We recommend using a marine sealant such as Loctite PL Marine or 3M 5200 around the inner and outer perimeters of the gasket. Fill in any roof corrugations if needed and apply marine sealant around the inner and outer perimeters of the gasket. If your roof has corrugations where the gasket is positioned, you’ll want to fill these in before placing the gasket. There are a number of methods to accomplish this. DIYVans in Oregon sells very nice adapters, you can fill in the valleys with layers of butyl tape or buy/cut PVC adapters like we sell for a Promaster van. If you use butyl tape or PVC adapters be sure to follow up with a generous layer of Dicor lap sealant. Video of shaping the gasket into a rectangle Step 3: Mounting the unit onto the roof Lift the AC unit onto the roof with help (2-3 people). Typically it’s best to leave the unit in the box while lifting. We use a forklift which works great but not everyone has that luxury. Scaffolding also works well. Two people on ladders is tricky but it gets the job done. Once it’s on the roof, you can carefully unbox it and turn it upside down on the roof such that the exterior shroud/cover is on the van roof and the interior panel/vents are facing up. Since we’re installing this into the “smaller”, 14″ roof opening, you’ll need to remove the interior panel/vents and styrofoam air director to be able to place the unit through the opening. Start by removing the 4x, 10mm nuts that attach the interior panel/vents to the unit then you can lift it off. As you do, find where the wiring harness is attached to the baseplate of the AC along with a temperature sensor and carefully cut this wire tie to release the wires. Once the wires are released the interior panel/vent should lift off completely. Next, remove the styrofoam air director that is below. This will need to be modified later, so you can set it aside for later in the installation. With everything ready, you can now place the AC unit over the gasket/opening and bolt it down using the metal mounting brackets. We recommend that you recruit a few extra people to help you with this step. It works best with two people on the roof positioning the AC unit into the right place with another person inside the van holding the interior panel/vents that need to be passed through the opening and managed safely while the rest of the unit is positioned, otherwise, it will sort of dangle and can be damaged. The inside person can also guide the folks on the roof on positioning since the most difficult part of the process is getting the bolt holes lined up correctly so the unit can drop into place. If necessary, you can expand the ½” bolt holes with a step bit to make the 4x bolts line up for dropping into place. Be cautious not to over-tighten, and consider attaching the brackets to the roof supports. Step 4: routing the wiring harness There is an approximately 11-foot piece of wiring harness that comes off the unit itself that is terminated with a grey, Anderson connector (photo below) and there is another section of the wiring harness that is also approximately 11 feet included in the kit that has a pairing Anderson connection to extend the wire from the unit to your 12 volt DC bus bar. The wiring harness is two 6 AWG wires, one red for the positive DC supply and the other black for the negative. The positive wire includes an inline, 80 amp fuse to protect the circuit. Since the Mabru uses around 55 amps on max, it’s too high a draw to wire to a typical DC fuse panel/load center. So, many installers will connect the wires to the “right side” of a Lynx Distributor that is designed to attach to another Lynx Distributor to expand the connections available. You don’t need to use a fused terminal on the distributor because of the fuse provided on the wiring harness. Begin the wiring harness routing by deciding on the location for your solar entry gland that will provide a waterproof path for the wiring harness through the roof to wherever your electrical system is located. We recommend locating the entry gland behind the unit as closely as possible while avoiding any structural supports or other obstacles inside the van. After you drill the hole for the wires, that the entry gland will “cover” we recommend using a rubber grommet to protect the wires from the sheet metal, and don’t forget to file and paint this exposed metal as well. Also be sure to fasten the gland to the roof and seal it with a lap sealant like Dicor. You’ll also want to make sure the wires are protected by wire loom and any length of wire secured to the roof. Self-adhesive cable tie mounts work well for this purpose. Next, you’ll have to choose how you want to get the wiring harness through the hole you created. The tricky part of this routing is that the Anderson connection at the end of the section of the wiring harness (photo below) prevents you from being able to route the black and red wires through the “glands” on the solar entry since they cannot be separated. There are a few ways to manage this.\ Option one is to remove the wires from the Anderson connection temporarily to get them through the entry gland and then put them back. You can do this by opening up the connector with small screw driver. Option two  is to cut off the Anderson connector about 6” from the end with the connector of the wiring harness section that comes off the Mabru unit, separate the wires to get through the entry gland, and then splice it back on using 6 AWG butt connectors and heat shrink. Option three is to remove the exterior shroud/cover from the Mabru unit to locate where the DC supply wires connect to the unit itself on the left side (driver side) and disconnect these wires. This allows you to separate a section of the red and black wires to route through the entry gland and then you can reconnect the wires to the terminals on the AC. Below is a photo of these connections. With the AC unit mounted on the roof and the wires routed to the interior, we can move on to the interior installation! Woot! Step 5: Interior Installation Assemble the supplied mounting brackets and secure the AC unit to the vehicle. The brackets come in 6x pieces that will be assembled into 2x separate bracket assemblies – one for the passenger side and the other for the driver side. The bracket pieces are painted black but they often get a little dinged up in transport. However, they are stainless steel and, in most cases will be hidden away in your ceiling, so there is no need to be concerned about any small dings. You’ll take one “middle” section and pair it with two “extensions” (photo below). The “middles” do not have “flanges” on the end and the “extensions” do. Place a middle flat on a surface with the C-channel facing down and the bolt holes facing up then grab an extension and turn it so that this channel is facing up and the flange is on the flat surface. Then slide the extension into one end of the middle. Do the same on the other side of the middle. Now you have a bracket that can expand from both the front and rear to the length needed to span between the structural supports that form the front and rear of the “bay” you installed the AC into on the van roof.  The maximum span is about 30” from front to back when the extensions are fully extended. Below is a video of this process. Worth at least a few thousand words. Assembling the Mabru installation brackets Once you’ve assembled both brackets, using all 6x pieces, you can install them onto the passenger and driver side, over the mounting bolts from the AC unit that are now hanging down into your van. The holes in the brackets should line up with the bolts and you want the flanges on the end of each extension to press firmly against the van supports. If there isn’t a factory support structure where your bracket flanges land, you will have to install your own support with adequately sized metal or wood that is attached to the vehicle roof with something like a heavy-duty construction adhesive. The brackets are held in place with the supplied, 15mm nuts. You’ll want to tighten each of the 4x nuts in a rotating fashion – moving from one nut to the next in circulation so that you can create even pressure around the gasket. You want to make sure that the gasket (on the roof between the AC unit and the roof of the vehicle) shows some compression. Don’t exceed more than 15 newton meters of torque. Once torqued down you can choose to use the provided, black screws to attach the “flange” part of the brackets to the roof supports if you’d like. We don’t typically do this since the system is so tightly installed. Reshaping the styrofoam air director to fit your desired ceiling height and fit the 14”x14” hole Pause for a minute to take a look at the interior of the AC at this stage. On the baseplate, there is a thin layer of foam. In the front part, there are two rectangular openings. This is where the cooled air comes out. To the rear of that is one larger rectangular opening. That is where air is pulled into the unit from the interior of the van to be cooled. See the image below.   The function of the styrofoam air director is to, you guessed it, direct the cooled air to the vents. You can see that the shape of the foam is the same as the vents on the interior panel.  If you were installing into the Mabru’s native (larger) roof opening size, the styrofoam air director does not need to be modified since the opening would be large enough for it to press against the baseplate with no modifications.  But, if you look at the 14” opening install, the air director is wider than the roof opening and where it passes the area where the Mabru base plate is visible you can see that the metal roof of the van is “lower “. Since it’s no longer one flat plane, we have to essentially reshape the air director so there is a notch on the driver and passenger sides. We’ve tried a number of tools for this and a serrated knife or a hack saw blade, removed from the saw, seems to work the best. You can hold up the air director inside the van in the area where it is installed – lined up with the bolt locations with the air vents facing forward and mark where the notches need to be cut. Below are some images of this process. Click on any image to open it larger. Once you have the notch cut, you can consider another modification: Depending on how deep your interior ceiling will be – which is normally a combination of the van’s metal supports, furring strips, and ceiling material if you want the interior panel/vents to be as high as possible so that it doesn’t come down into the living space as much, you can shorten the foam air director to the height that you need. This is optional. One additional tip on all this surgery: if your modifications are a little sloppy you can use foam tape like the below photo on the cut portions so that, when the air director is installed into place and the interior panel/vents are installed, it will be pressed up against the baseplate/van metal and the foam will compress to fill any small gaps. This is important because you want as good of a seal between the air director and the baseplate on the AC so that cooled air doesn’t leak into the ceiling cavity or anywhere else it’s not cooling your rig. Putting it all back together With the foam director reshaped, you can now reassemble it with the interior panel/vents. You want to re-attach the wiring harness and temp sensor to where it was wire-tied before. The temp sensor needs to be in that location, directly adjacent to the air return to sense the temperature of the air inside the van. This is how the thermostat on the unit works. Now you can re-install the interior panel/vents by sliding it over the 4x  bolt locations and re-attaching the 10mm nuts to secure it into place. Note that there are two sets of bolts for the interior panel/vents, you can raise or lower the lower bolt to set the correct height of the interior unit if you’ve cut down the styrofoam air director. Return air: ensure proper venting for return air to avoid cycling issuesWhen the unit is running you can use the various vents to direct the cooled air. One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want to create a situation where the cooled air is going “directly” into the return air vent(s) such as pointing the cool air vents directly at the return area. If you do that, the thermostat will interpret this cool air coming from the AC unit as the “interior air temperature” causing the AC unit to cycle the compressor on and off too rapidly. Instead, you want the return air to be more representative of the actual ambient air temp inside the living space. Some customers prefer to make their own return air grille.  The return air trim ring that comes with the Mabru is unnecessarily large and unattractive.  We’ve also recently added our own, Vanlife Outfitters faceplate available in white or black. Directly below are some photos of what some of our customers have done. If you have our faceplate, you can jump to that section of the guide. Note, the return air grille should be at least as big as the return air opening on the baseplate of the unit itself, if not a little larger.  Finish wiringAt this point you’re ready to finish routing the wiring harness to your 12-volt DC supply – often the right side of a Lynx Distributor or other bus bar connection. Powering on, testing, and tips Now you can turn it on for the first time and ensure that it’s working! In our testing, with a laser thermometer, we normally see between 25-30 degrees F delta between the temperature of the air coming into the unit and the cooled air coming out after a few minutes of operation on “max” mode. When it’s really hot inside, this might look like 90 degrees inside the van and 65 or 70 degrees of cooled air coming out of the unit. Over time, as the interior temperature goes down from the cooling effect of operating the AC, the cooled air will get increasingly cooler. On very hot days, we recommend pre-cooling your van as you drive by running your vehicle air conditioner as powerfully as you can AND running the Mabru unit on high. The initial cooldown of the living space takes much more cooling/energy than maintaining the temperature. In many camper vans or RVs the house battery bank, that is powering the Mabru unit will be charging from the vehicle alternator while driving and some of that energy can power the AC unit without discharging the battery as much. Then, when you arrive at your destination a pre-cooled van can generally be kept cool by the Mabru even in low or eco mode. Obviously, the size of the van, how it’s insulated, the exterior color of the van, using insulated window coverings, and locating the van in the shade all help a lot as well. The remote control is pretty confusing so we have a handy “guide” that maps the buttons to the various functions. Congratulations, you’ve successfully installed the Mabru 12000 BTU rooftop air conditioner in your van! Now you can enjoy cool, comfortable journeys during even the hottest days.  If you found this guide helpful, please consider supporting our store for other great road-tested products designed to support DIY van builders like you. Stay cool out there, and happy van adventures! Bonus Instructions for customers who purchased a Flush Mount Faceplate for Mabru RV12000 Air Conditioner If you purchased the Vanlife Outfitters flush mount interior faceplate, there are a few easy steps to relocate the electronic Control Panel from the factory trim piece to your new Face Plate. Step 1. Using a wire side cutter, carefully snip the zip ties holding the wiring harness and the temperature sensor from the inside of the return air cavity. This will allow you to move the factory trim piece off to the side for convenience for the next steps. Step 2. Remove the four screws on the black control panel housing on the back side. No need to pry up here as I did the first time… there are four more screws on the front side. Step 3.  Remove the Control Panel face sticker to reveal four screws behind it. You can add a little heat from a hair dryer or heat gun to soften the glue a little. Carefully remove the sticker using a putty knife or similar wide blade. The sticker is pretty durable, but you don’t want to nick it as you will re-apply it once the control panel is installed in the new flush mount face plate. Step 4.  Remove the four phillips head screws and the white trim piece. Pull the control panel forward and rotate 90 degrees, then pull it back through the factory trim piece. Step 5.  After the A/C unit is mounted on the roof as described in the other sections, cut off the 4 bolts so they are above your planned ceiling height. The front two bolts should be left long enough to secure the styrofoam deflector. Step 6.  Cut the styrofoam deflector so that it fits flat against the black bottom of the A/C unit (trim away the excess that hits the metal roof of the van. The table saw with a tall fence works great. Step 7.  To ensure the air will not short circuit, you can install 1” thick foam tape between the roof of the van and the A/C unit and cover it with aluminum tape. Step 8.  Hold the foam piece in place and mark the location of the ceiling framing. Then add the thickness of your ceiling material and cut the styrofoam to the correct height. Then install the foam, securing it with the two front bolts. You can also use thin foam tape to close any gaps to prevent the air from short circuiting. Step 9.  If you use very thin ceiling boards, such as ¼” cedar, consider installing 2×2 framing on the sides of the Styrofoam such that the screw holes in the Face Plate align with the framing. Otherwise, you can screw directly into the ceiling material to secure the Face Plate. Step 10.  Re-install the control panel removed in steps 3 & 4 in the same way, insert it through the hole in the flush mount facep Plate then rotate so the screw holes line up. Install the white trim piece and four Phillips screws, then the face sticker can be re-applied. Step 11.  Replace the four screws on the black control panel housing on the backside. Step 12.  Use two new zip ties to re-attach the wiring harness and temperature probe from step 1 above. Step 13.  Secure the flush mount faceplate to the ceiling using screws of your choice. Thin foam stripping can also be applied on the bottom of the styrofoam deflector to provide an air-tight fit with the faceplate.  (You may need to glue wood or metal strips on the backside of the panel to help the screws grip into the control panel). As always, if you have any issues or questions with installation please give us a call or email us.

Video: Installing a Webasto Heater with Tips

Over the last many years we’ve installed a bunch of Webasto heaters and over the last two years, we’ve sold hundreds of them to our customers. Along the way, we’ve learned a lot about them that we share in this extensive installation and tips video! We hope it helps you with your install and, of course, we appreciate your support of our store including Webasto heaters. Updated Video for SmarTemp 3.0 Controller Wiring Shortly after we produced this video, Webasto upgraded from the 2.0 version of the SmarTemp digital controller to the 3.0 version (check it out in our store). So, the video below details how the wiring for the SmarTemp 3.0 works which is different than what we show in the main video starting at around 32 minutes.

Installing a Grey Water Tank on a Promaster Van

Promaster vans have very limited space under the van for tanks. So, we designed a custom-molded grey water tank for Promasters that fits up into the underbelly of the van perfectly and practically disappears without compromising ground clearance. While you’re here, you might be interested in our other video about plumbing your drains and grey water system. We prefer to use flexible, marine-grade hose for routing drain lines. Purchase Promaster Grey Tank

Installing Lonseal Marine Vinyl Flooring In Camper Van

Adhesive Note This blog post details how to install Lonseal flooring using the company’s recommended 650 epoxy adhesive. That adhesive is the highest performance option but it’s also significantly harder to work with and much easier to screw up largely due to its epoxy nature including the relatively short (30 minute) working/pot time. While we can’t recommend NOT using the officially recommended product, we can warn you that it is not an easy project and any mistakes you make tend to be highly visible. In other words, it is not forgiving. Meanwhile, I’ve been installing Lonseal into my camper vans long before we were started selling the products (going back to 2017). In those vans I used Roberts 2310 vinyl adhesive which is substantially easier to use, can be purchased locally, and is less expensive. My current van (as of May 2022) has held up very well for about three years now in all conditions from extremely hot (120 degrees or more) roasting in the Florida sun to extreme cold (-20 degrees) in Colorado along with the radical swings in humidity between these two very different locales. I’m sure there are some applications where the extra high performance of the epoxy adhesive are needed – perhaps something harsh like the deck of a boat – but, in my camper van, I have not personally seen a need for something more substantial than the standard adhesives. Your mileage may vary! This short blog post is a high-level overview of Lonseal installation. I recommend that you also read through Lonseal’s own documentation including their Interior Flooring Installation Guide and Vehicle Installation Guide. Why Use Lonseal Flooring In Your Camper Van Lonseal is a heavy duty sheet vinyl designed for marine environments. As such, it’s incredibly durable and tough which is perfect for a camper van environment. It comes in a wide variety of patterns/finishes including wood look and “coin” style. One piece of general advice for flooring in your van is to avoid materials that will have cracks or seams which, over time, will trap dirt or allow water/liquids to seep in. These “plank” floors also tend to develop uneven gaps with all the constant movement and expansion/contraction in a van. In addition, vinyl is environmentally friendly. Its primary raw material is obtained from the nearly inexhaustible supply of sodium chloride (salt). Its manufacture has a smaller impact than other plastics, produces virtually no dioxins, and relies on fewer oil by-products than rubber. Vinyl is naturally fire retardant, highly recyclable, and products can be easily manufactured to meet strict indoor air quality (IAQ) requirements. Lonseal Antique & Ivory Wood Look flooring in my Miles Van Camper. Sizing Lonseal is sold in sheets that are six feet wide and you determine the length by specifying how many linear feet you need. In most cases 10-15 feet is plenty for a cargo van. However, some cargo vans (like the Promaster) are slightly wider than six feet. Often there is cabinetry or other “stuff” in the van that covers the subfloor so the fact that the flooring doesn’t quite go “wall to wall” isn’t a problem – you simply put the flooring where it’s seen. If your layout requires you to join two pieces of Lonseal resulting in a “seam”, there are two ways to “weld” the seam together – one uses heat and is considered more difficult and the other is a chemical process. Importantly, Lonsealer is not compatible with Lonseal’s recommended 650 epoxy adhesive because Lonsealer requires seam tape (double face tape) to be used in the seam area to keep adhesive out of the seam. The Lonsealer has a chemical reaction with the adhesive (both the #650 and #813) and requires that the seam be free of adhesive residue. Lonseal recommends using a simple butt seam or heat welding instead. Lonseal makes a product for the chemical sealing. It sells for $38 and one tube should be plenty for a small space. I have never had to do this myself but this (strange but informative) video details how to cut the flooring using an “overlap cut” and use the Lonsealer product. Preparation According to Lonseal, your subfloor must be at least 5/8 in. (15.9 mm) thick. They recommend “exterior grade plywood”. Also, the temperature where you store and install the flooring should be “maintained between 65 – 85 °F (18.3 – 29.4°C) for 48 hours before, during, and 48 hours after installation” and “relative humidity level extremes should also be avoided because of their influence on proper drying and curing of substrate preparation materials and adhesives. General recommended humidity control level is between 35 – 55%.” Finally, the substrate/subfloor should be totally clean and as smooth as possible prior to the flooring installation. Make A Template & Cut To Size I typically make a template using “kraft paper” or the heavier duty Ram Board. Once you’re happy with the shape of your template you can trace that outline onto the flooring with a pencil. Be sure to triple-check your orientation! The Lonseal cuts easily with a razor blade and I find that sharp scissors work best for curves and contours. Lonseal flooring cut to size, ready to install. Choosing Adhesives & Laying The Flooring OK, here comes the tricky part… Lonseal recommends their 650 Epoxy Adhesive for horizontal applications in vehicles (floors) and their 400 Contact Adhesive for vertical surfaces. Many people will use coin flooring on walls/vertical surfaces in places like their “garage” area under a platform bed which is an example of a vertical installation. If you really don’t want to use Lonseal adhesives, they have a list of alternatives (PDF). However, they do caution against using off-the-shelf products such as Roberts 7350 “universal” adhesive because they are typically intended for environments where the temps are between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. During hot weather the temps inside your van can be well above that which could result in slipping or shrinking of the vinyl. Installing With Lonseal 650 Epoxy Adhesive Lonseal’s 650 Epoxy Adhesive is a two-part epoxy and they recommend you mix the entirety of both parts (part A and part B at once in order to ensure the correct proportions. The directions specify that you should use a mechanical mixer at low slow speed (less than 375 RPM) until you achieve a smooth homogeneous mix and to avoid getting any air trapped in the mix which will shorten the working time. That said, I was able to mix it by hand. I highly recommend that you have someone helping you with the installation. Once you start mixing the epoxy, you only have about 30 minutes of time to use the adhesive (the “pot life” at 73°F is approximately 30 minutes) so do not mix more adhesive than can be used in a 30 minute period and be prepared to move fast and have everything ready to go once you start mixing the epoxy. Immediately after the epoxy adhesive is mixed, one person can pour it onto the subfloor and begin troweling with a 1/16″ x 1/32″ x 1/32″ u-notched trowel while the other person manages the flooring which can started rolled up and then placed into the “wet” epoxy. After the flooring is laid, you should use a roller to smooth it out and push it into the adhesive. Lonseal’s installation instructions tell you to use “a minimum 100 pound, three-section roller” which is impractical in a small van. Instead you can use a “three-section laminate roller” making sure you put enough weight behind it to ensure strong, positive contact. After 2-3 hours you should roll the floor again. You can use ethyl alcohol applied to a clean, dry cloth to wipe up any adhesive residue from the surface of the flooring while still wet. Do not apply ethyl alcohol directly to the material. It’s often a good idea to place some heavy objects on the floor during the curing process. They recommend that you avoid any traffic on the floor for 24 hours. The complete cure time is listed as 72 hours. Installing With Lonseal 400 Contact Adhesive If you’re using Lonseal on a vertical surface, they recommend you use their 400 Contact Adhesive. First you should make sure that whatever you’re attaching the flooring to is totally clean and free of oil/dirt/grease/etc. Then uniformly coat both surfaces (flooring and whatever you’re attaching it to) with the adhesive with a paint brush or non-shedding, 3/8 in. nap roller and wait until the adhesive to become “tacky” to the touch and then then attach the flooring to the surface. Importantly, this stuff is SUPER sticky. Once you attach the flooring to the surface you will not be able to adjust it’s position so be very careful when applying to make sure your positioning is accurate. Here’s a great time lapse video of someone installing Lonseal Loncoin flooring for a Sprinter van. They did this with the floor outside the van but the process is the same. They use some kind of tank instead of a roller!

Installing a Webasto Gasoline Heater in a Camper Van

Installing A Propane Tank Underneath a Promaster Van with Remote Fill Kit

Note: this post references the propane system in my second build. There is a list to all the parts and materials at the bottom of this post. You can read more about my latest build, Miles Van Camper v3 or check out all the parts I used here. Important disclaimer: propane is explosive and therefore very dangerous! This blog post describes how I went about installing a propane system in my van only. For your safety, you should do your own research when installing a propane system and be sure to have the results inspected for safety by a qualified professional before using it. You can read codes for propane systems in RVs here. There are many ways to add a propane tank to your van build. The simplest approach is to use the the disposable, 1-gallon cylinders which are inexpensive and can be purchased in many places. Others use a small tank that can be refilled such as this 5-gallon capacity tank. These are most often installed in a box inside the van. These storage boxes must be fully sealed and have a vent on the bottom that flows through the floor of the van so that if there are leaks, the propane gas – which sinks because it’s heavier than air – can escape. In my first few builds, I chose to use an RV-style “Horizontal” tank that is ASME-certified and permanently mounted underneath the van. I purchased this replacement tank for Volkwagen Eurovan Winnebago campers that were built between 1995 and 2001 from GoWesty. It’s a 5.9 gallon capacity tank manufactured by Manchester Tank but really only holds about 4.6 gallons. Propane tanks are normally only filled to 80% of their capacity. These horizontal tanks use a special “fill valve” and a “bleeder valve” that is designed to let liquid propane come out when the tank gets to 80% full and signal to the person filling the tank that they should stop filling. There are many of these types of tanks available for RVs but I chose this particular replacement tank because the round tank area is only 8″ in diameter compared to all the other tanks I could find that are 10″ or larger in diameter. This size is important because, even at the smaller size, the tank barely fits where I placed it which is just in front of the rear axle underneath the van. There is an nice opening there that isn’t close to any of the exhaust lines and didn’t interfere with my grey water tank and plumbing which is also located underneath the van on the passenger side. Advantages Since the tank is designed to be mounted underneath the vehicle, any high-pressure leaks are outside the van. All three of the Volkswagen camper vans I owned had these external, horizontal tanks and they always worked great and have been proven safe from years of use in these VW campers and tons of standard RVs. By being outside, it didn’t take up any interior space in my floor plan. This tank includes a fairly accurate gauge that you can “see” (if you crawl up to it under the van) but also connects up to my SeeLevel II tank monitoring system. The other tanks I considered did not have any gauge and the available gauges didn’t have any interface to a centralized tank monitoring system. Despite its location tucked under the van, with the remote fill kit that I added, this tank can be easily filled at any propane filling station without needing to be removed or moved. Start By Wrestling It Into Place The first step was to wrestle this thing into place. Not only is it a tight fit in that cavity under the van but the emergency brake cables are also in the way. I used a jack, blocks of wood and plenty of colorful language getting up there. Then, I marked the the locations for the bolts. There are mounting brackets on both sides of the tank itself. I bolted it into place with heavy-duty galvanized bolts (through the van floor), locking washers and nuts. Below you can see the tank mounted in this location from the front and the rear. Next, I moved onto installing the Nashfuel Remote Fill Kit. This kit replicates the “fill valve” and “bleeder valve” built into the tank itself to a remote location. Often these types of tanks are located on the side of a vehicle van (such as on Volkswagen campers) or inside a compartment on the side of a RV which means that the propane filling station can access the tank, and these valves directly. In my case the remote fill was necessary since nobody is going to crawl under my van to fill the propane tank! The kit comes with all the fittings you need as well as 6 foot long lengths of high-quality hose for the fill and bleeder valve extensions. Essentially you’re using these two hoses (and the various fittings) to extend the valves on the tank to where you want to mount the remote fill. The first step of the installation was to attach the provided fittings to the remote mounting bracket. This kit comes unassembled. In the illustration below you’ll see that on the “back” side of the mounting bracket you need two fittings/adapters to screw into the threads on the bracket itself. This gets you two 1/2″ male flare connections on that “back” side for the hoses. On the “front” side of the bracket you attach the remote fill valve and remote bleeder valve into the threads of the bracket. I used Permatex 80631 Thread Sealant with PTFE to seal all the threads. Honestly, getting all these fittings onto the bracket tightly was the most difficult part of the remote fill kit installation process. Next I had to remove the bleeder valve from the propane tank itself and replace that with an adapter that also has a 1/2″ male flare fitting for the hose that will connect this to the remote bleeder valve. Then I took the plastic cap off the tank’s fill valve and attached up a few fittings from the kit that allow the tank’s fill valve to be connected to the remote fill valve using the second supplied hose. At this point it was time to mount the remote fill bracket. I installed it directly below the fresh water fill and shore power electrical connection on the passenger side of the van at the very bottom of the van wall using rivnuts and two bolts through the provided mounting holes. The paint quality on the metal bracket was poor so I just spray painted it with Black Rust-Oleum. With all the fittings in place, I needed to cut the provided hoses to the correct length and add the flare connectors to hook up the remote valves to the tank itself. This particular kit came with 6′ lengths of hose for both the fill valve and bleeder valve but you can order longer lengths of hose if necessary. The process for installing the flare connections to the hose is pretty well detailed in the kit’s documentation. It was a new experience for me since I have never used that type of connector system. Basically you place part of the fitting into the hose itself and then there is another piece that sort of threads onto this to compress the hose to the fitting. It took me a while to wrap my head around the process but, after completing the first one, the remaining 3x went very fast. Next I connected these hoses from from the tank’s fill and bleeder valve to the same valves on the remote bracket. This was refreshingly simple! To wrap things up I installed this pressure regulator on the outlet of the tank itself. Like most propane appliances, my two devices (Propex heater and cooktop) require pressure-regulated gas. The regulator screws into the tank outlet and I used a 90 degree elbow 3/8″ male NPT to 3/8″ male flare fitting on the regulator’s outlet. From there I used a variety of Marshall 3/8″ flare supply hoses to connect the propane up to the actual appliances. There is only a few feet of this supply line outside the van before it goes up into the van (through a protected PVC sleeve). That exposed section, below the van is protected with a heat shield that protects it from the heat of the exhaust pipes of the van and also protects the hose from rocks and debris. Filling Up The Tank The last step was to fill up the tank! It’s pretty easy to find propane filling stations with Google. I’m always a little bit nervous when I first fill up a brand-new tank/propane system but everything went well. The bleeder valve indicated the tank was full at exactly 4.6 gallons as expected and I drove over to a remote section of the parking lot to check for leaks with a spray bottle of water and dish soap and, of course, my nose. Overall the installation was sound but I did find a very small leak at one of the fittings on the “rear” side of the remote fill bracket that was resolved with a bit of wrenching. Parts & Materials Manchester Tank 5.9 Gallon Capacity This is a replacement tank used on VW Eurovan Campers from 1995-2001. It has a smaller diameter than the other RV style Manchester tanks (8″ versus 10″) which is essential for where I located it underneath the van – just in front of the rear axle. It was quite difficult to wrestle it into that spot and I had to sort of bend the emergency brake cables out of the way but it did fit and is nice and tucked away without affecting the van ground clearance at all. By putting the tank in this location you need a remote fill kit like the one listed below. Since you can’t fill propane tanks up completely, it really only holds 4.6 gallons. Nashfuel Remote Propane Fill Kit with Mounting Bracket Because my propane tank is installed deep underneath the van I needed this “remote fill kit” to be able to fill the tank from the side of the van. The panel is mounted at the bottom of the van body on the drivers side (that side has the water fill and shore power inlets as well). I found it difficult to install this and test for leaks but it does work well and the kit comes with all the parts you need. Manchester Tank G12846 LP Gas Tank Remote 90° OHM Sender This thing is installed onto the tank (above) and sends the tank level to my SeeLevel tank monitoring system. Super handy! Mr. Heater Two Stage Regulator Does the job… I like that this one comes with a plastic cover. Dual Carbon Monoxide and LP Gas Detector/Alarm Great to have this two-in-one unit. It’s installed just front of the galley above the “step/heater cover”. Propane gas “sinks” so you want to install any LP gas detector low to the ground.