Cargo Van Conversion

Watch all my videos on YouTube! Got a good start with the ceiling insulation of the van and continued work on the oil painting that will brighten up the van. The insulation consists of three layers of 1/2 inch Poly-Iso with an R-value of close to 10. I would prefer a fourth layer that also…

It was time to add some insulation to the ceiling of the van, now that with the Murphy bed installation, access to the ceiling is closing up. I already made the decision to use primarily Poly-Iso and Denim insulation and started to fill the ceiling cross-members with Denim. The cross-members allow for approximately 1-1/2 inch…

Mondriaan Oil Painting This is an update from what I’ve been doing the last few days. I’m working on the final install of the Murphy bed in the Ford Transit van and like always, I’m doing several small projects at the same time. Part of the Murphy bed, I choose a Mondriaan to add some…

Watch all my videos on YouTube! In an effort to finish the driver’s side of the interior, I prepared a molding for the bottom of the Murphy bed and started to replace the fill dish and hoses at the fresh water tank. The wardrobe side wall also got a Formica finish. In addition, I started…

Watch all my videos on YouTube! In the coming weeks, I’ll be finishing the Murphy bed. Today I move the bed back into the van; it’s time to take some final measurements and add the legs. I use a similar pivot mechanism on both legs and some magnets to keep the legs in place when…

A very short update about the flexible solar panels from Link Solar. Many of these flexible panels on the market today, are of a low quality, but with the arrival of ETFE laminates and high quality Backcontact solar cells, I took a gamble on these improved panels. Now, about six months after the original installation,…

Improved Free Over-The-Air TV May Benefit RVers This new OTA television standard promises many improvements over the current free Antenna-TV and two features are significant for the average Boondocker or RVer. TV reception in an RV is at best acceptable, but more often non-existent. Particularly, when your home-on-wheels is parked far out-of-town or at that…

Click here for Part One of this video This is a short review of two brand-new flexible solar panels. The Day4 Tech panel looks very similar to the current flexible panels, but uses two fine wire meshes to connect the individual solar cells together, one mesh on each side. They replace the bulky silver contacts,…

Why A 100W Solar Panel May Only Give You 50W There is much to do about solar panels on RV’s. They are affordable, virtually maintenance free and easy to install. But do they deliver, what they promise? Actually, most of these panels produce the indicated watts, with a big caveat: in summer under ideal weather…

Watch all my videos on YouTube! The final episode of the complete installation of ETFE Flexible solar panels, wiring, roof entry, solar charge controller and deep cycle batteries. I end with a bit of testing of the output of these solar panels. So far the installation is complete up to and including the solar charge…