whats the Biggest mistakes made converting a van.

[ellabbs]

hiya guys n gals

Getting a mk7 mwb soon and starting the conversion, just throwing this question out there..

whats the biggest most made mistakes when fitting out a van .?

to be forwarned is to ............................ so they say ..

[dumper]

Making it to heavy use lightweight materials/ make a plan before you start and make sure any drilling in the body is not going to hit the wiring if fitting a night heater or under floor water tank make sure it misses the chassis and box sections.

[bortaf]

3 rules, insulation, ventilation, insulation
other than weight treat ANY rust properly before covering it up with the build, it will be a frikken nightmare to do any welding later on

[ellabbs]

3 rules, insulation, ventilation, insulation
other than weight treat ANY rust properly before covering it up with the build, it will be a frikken nightmare to do any welding later on

that was one of my concerns , builing it on a 58 plate transit. engines recon, and its got a body kit on , thinking of stripping the PTO off it and anything else associated with its previous life, and looking for rust underneath and shultzing, the underside,. was thinking how do you weld it when its been built, can you get insurance for fire by welding..?

whats your reccomendation on insulation and vapour barrier..? was looking at eurothane insulation board.

[dumper]

On my 7 vans so far I’ve never used a vapour barrier just waxoiled it and used recycled plastic bottle insulation never had a problem
on my mk6 I had to take a wall board off to get to the side repeater I’d change them to LED and sealed them in thinking never have to look at them again one needed changing and the insulation was as good as the day I put it in and that was over 8 years I’ve never had to use the night heater to sleep.

[johnporter11]

Wiring. You'll spend a fair bit of time planning your electrics. When you've worked out the size/gauge of each of your cables, move them up an extra size before ordering and fitting them. Add two extra cable runs down your loom, and add access points (even small inspection doors) at various points, with each cable labelled up at the inspection points. Make doubly sure your crimping is top class and fuse every cable appropriately with top class components (no unbranded Chinese stuff, and no unbranded breakers. Proper fuses).

[dumper]

Most of my wiring is the two core red and black all going back to the fuse box positive feed from battery and all the earth’s back to a common heavy duty earth block ,the batteries are feed by a Sterling b2b unit which takes its power directly from the main van battery apart from this connection the van and camper electric systems are separate.
Any wires that maybe vulnerable to sharp edges is run through plastic conduit also fitted is a heavy duty master switch .

[Qwin]

Yeh, I would agree with weight as a major factor, keep it light, fuel consumption/handling/weight left for you to use, are all factors.

Keep it simple and consider access for repairs down the road, the amount of wiring, water pipe runs etc should be kept to a minimum and draw a schematic, so you can remember what you have built and how it all connects.

Don't cram as much as you can into the space, it will feel claustrophobic, you need space to move round in.
Plenty of windows for natural light, helps with the feeling of space as well.

Don't fit induction hobs, they draw a lot of power and your battery/s will drain, needing a lot of solar panels to keep up.
Personally - Don't fit lithium Iron batteries, long term I don't trust them, even a small one can turn your van into an incinerator and there are way to many things that can trigger run away thermal overload.

If you are planning on having any form of LPG and want to keep to the regulations:
You need a gas drop vent (50mm dia) at every appliance connection and at every pipe joint inside the van, so run pipes outside (Under the van) and pop up where needed. This can save a few vents. Your gas locker needs vent/s depending on its size, the rule is, that the area of the holes in the vent/s should be at least 1% of the locker floor area. There should be a drop vent at the lowest point in your van, usually at the step in, this could also double up as the vent for a cooker for instance, to reduce the total number.
Most vans have floor vents at the rear corners, make use of these if possible, I mounted an external BBQ point over one, so no need to drill the floor below its Gas coupling. With careful planning, you can build a set up that has a minimum number of vents but is still to the regs.
Put your distribution manifold and cut off taps inside your gas locker for instance.
Don't mount electrical outlets or connections right next to a Gas coupling Leak+Spark= ouch!

People are put off adding lots of vents as it lets cold air in, you can get round some of this. For instance, a common location for a Truma AC/Gas water heater, is at the bottom of a clothes wardrobe, it needs a vent near its gas coupling. Insulate the space below your wardrobe to keep the cold from getting into your living space. You could also run hot air ducting through this space to stop the water in the pipes/heater freezing in winter. Its surprising how much heat the ducting radiates without the need for an air outlet, so run it alongside your internal water tank as well if you can.

Have plenty of high level ventilation.
You need this to prevent condensation and build up of Carbon Monoxide if you have gas hobs.
This also applies to a garage/storage area if you have one, storing wet ramps, hose pipes, mountain bikes etc can cause black mould, plenty of air circulation and even a hot air outlet in your storage area can prevent this.

It very much depends on your own usage for the van, take a look at the many build on youtube and see what suits your requirements.

[dumper]

Yes I definitely agree no lithium batteries on the bbc Lincs news last week the lithium batteries on a camper went up burning Down haft the house