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Sunday, June 23, 2013

VAN!

Van!

This van is Awesome. It’s dual fuel, so it runs on Gasoline and LPG as well. Gasoline is about $1.40/liter where we are, and LPG is as cheap as 66.5c/liter. It’s not a efficient per liter, but at the cost it is roughly 40% more cost efficient then running on gasoline. With the two tanks, I have about a 550 mile (900km) range before getting fuel, allowing me to skip the more costly road house fuel stations.
The previous owner installed Rhino Rack roof racks and an ARB roof top tent and awning. The tent is in like new condition though the cover is a bit weather beaten.

The Van

Frontal View.


Rear View

The awning comes out a fair way and is also in like new condition.


Plenty of sleeping room in the tent, and the folding padded mattress is in good shape and comfortable as well. The Tent/Awning combo sells for just about $2,000 when new. Score.





Clean and in great shape on the inside as well.



Only two seats in the front. Not going to cut it when on the road. This will have to change.



WHAM! A bench seat out of the back of a Mitsubishi magna station wagon. Perfect. Scored it off www.gumtree.com for $65 complete with the hardware.



Power plugs. One for the outside of the van which will be plugged into local power when at camp sites, and one for the inside which will be wired to the corresponding outside one.



100AH deep cycle batteries. Gotta wire them up to an inverter and charger for the shore power, and hopefully solar panels to follow.



A 49 liter Waeco two way (12/24volt) fridge, found on Gumtree (internet classifieds) for $450, complete with thermal cover. They sell for $1100 new. Works great.



A beer to compliment the time spent in the garage.



BREAK! Kristi’s scooter got a bit of a makeover with the addition of a “Scooter Skirt”. To keep her dry.



Covers her legs in the morning when it’s cold, and keeps her dry when it’s pouring rain. Bitchin.



Here are some of the supplies to start the hacking and screwing and drilling and cutting and all sorts of other general tomfoolery. It’s nice to have a garage to work in. Charlie is a FIFO (fly in fly out) worker at a mine and was away for 8 days. I borrowed his tools and got to work.



After a quick trip to Bunnings (Home Depot equivalent where I spent multiple hours staring at hardware and sheets and planks of wood visualizing everything), I came up with this.



Then I starting drinking one of these.



And ended up with this.



That fit in the van like this.



And was bracketed down permanently into the van like this. The seat folds completely flat to the rear also.



And in turn folds flat like this as well.



It also lifts up to allow access to the batteries and charger, inverter, wiring, and other generic things that will be stored/mounted/placed here.



Next up was a kitchen area for the rear. In go the equivalent of a couple of 2x4’s, some timber and sheet metal screws of various lengths, some chopping and sawing and drilling and screwing and bam, you get this.



Under which cleanly fits the fridge.



BREAK! Popcorn and cider time. Please note the 500ml size of the cider. Rekorderlig cider is awesome.



Meanwhile this is night two, and not the same day, so I’m no boozer by any means. The tent won’t allow the van to fit in the garage, but it will back in part way.



Measure twice and cut one. Can’t get into the fridge without pulling it out from underneath the kitchen counter, and that’s just not going to cut it.


Back to work with the jigsaw.



And there we have it.



Screw a support beam into the back of the counter for the next step.



An accordion style folding bed platform.



Kristi stepped up and joined in on the fun.



Section two went in as planned.



Then section three as well. Now it’s one 4ft by 8ft section of 3/4” plywood in four sections.



Notice the hinges? The third section folds up and over section two.



Section three and two fold up to section one and the entire bed platform folds up to form the backdrop to the kitchen and allow access to the storage area between the bench seat and the kitchen.



A view from the rear.



And a view of the sliding bolts installed to keep the fridge door in place.



Obviously there is more to come with this van, but we're nearly there. I bought two 5liter jugs of oil (the van has a 3.9l oil capacity), two oil filters, four new spark plugs, new engine coolant, windshield wiper fluid, and new wiper blades for the front and rear. We've got a second set of generic roof rack bars to install on top of the van behind the tent to which will be mounted a basket (also rhino rack brand) to hold miscellaneous gear, and a bracket to install in front of the tent to hold the spare tire which was removed from the rear (having been removed from under the vehicle to fit the LPG tank during it's conversion). Then maybe a solar panel, a water tank, a stove and a cupboard and we're pretty well set for the great Australian road trip set to start sometime in the near future. It'll take place in two stages though and should be pretty kick ass!

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