The Philosophy

I decided to build a camper into a cargo van so that I can have all the features I want in a camper and none of the features I don't need. Since I will be traveling and camping by myself I only need sleeping accommodations for one. The same for dining space. I don't need fancy fixtures or a big screen TV and a satellite dish.

The guiding philosophy of my camper design will be that when a particular feature is not being used, it should not be taking up floor space. I would like the inside of my camper to be as spacious as possible. My bed will be something that folds up and tucks away out of sight. My easy chair will be a folding camp chair that can be stashed away when not in use. My sink will fold or slide out for use and disappear when not needed. The same applies to my cook stove, computer desk, dining room, and toilet.

Basically, the interior will consist of two elements: open space and storage compartments that contain all the furniture and accessories not currently in use.

The Van

My van is a 2002 Ford E350 Econoline extended van with a high top added so that I can stand upright inside the camper. I found the van through Craigslist at a small car dealer in Portland. After I bought the van I drove it home to Eugene (107 miles) and it performed beautifully in the high winds and pouring rain. On that trip my mileage was just a fraction under 16 MPG. The next day I took the Amtrak back to Portland to pick up my car which I had left at the dealer's lot.

The inside is bare except for a 1/2" particle board floor with indoor/outdoor carpeting, and some thin sheets of paneling on the walls, which I have already removed.

The only window in the cargo bay is in the sliding door. I plan to add windows, but only on the passenger side, leaving the driver side with no windows. That way I can park the van at a campsite with the windows facing the sun on a cool day, or with the windows facing away from the sun on a hot day. The existing window is a CR Laurence brand all-glass window, and I will install matching CRL brand for the remaining windows.

The floor - March 25, 2011

I want my floor to be bare linoleum or wood rather than carpeting. Carpets are too hard to keep clean and like to attract and hold dirt, moisture, and odors. Bare hardwood or linoleum floors only require sweeping, an occasional damp mop, and perhaps some wax now and them.

I also want my floor to be insulated against the cold and heat. Since the existing floor is not insulated I will add a layer of insulating foam over the existing particle board. The old indoor/outdoor carpeting will be removed since it is stained, and would provide a place for moisture to accumulate if left underneath the new flooring layer.

Before I install my floor I decided to modify the step in the side of the van where the sliding door opens.

The step goes full width of the door leaving a great gaping hole in the floor when the door is closed.

Yet I still want the step, it just doesn't have to be the full width of the slider.

So I built a shelf that fits into the back of the step well and brings it up to floor level. It's not a lot but it does recover a little bit of floor space that was not usable before.

It is bolted to the floor of the van through three handy 1/4" holes that were already there. But before I bolted it in I gave it a thick coat of oil-based sealer since the bare wood would be facing the outside when the door is open and I don't want the wood to get wet and rot away.

I also sealed the three bolt holes with silicon sealer so water won't splash up from beneath and get the wood wet, although once I crawled under the van and tightened down the nuts and lock washers there shouldn't be much chance for water to seep in.

Before installing the foam and plywood sub-floor I removed all the existing indoor/outdoor carpeting.

Installing Insulation and Sub-Floor

To measure and mark the cutouts for the various objects that jut into the cargo bay I lined up the first sheet of plywood with the wheel well, which is the item that sticks out the most. Then I measured the point that was the furthest distance from the edge of the plywood sheet. That distance was 9 5/8 inches. Then I went along the length of the plywood sheet and marked points at a distance of 9 5/8 inches from each point along the wall. The result was the exact contour of the side wall traced onto the plywood. Then I cut the plywood with a jigsaw and checked to see that it fit against the wall correctly.

Foam and Plywood cut to match
and ready to line up.

Next I laid the cut sheet of plywood on top of the sheet of foam insulation and cut the foam with a knife. Even though the foam goes down first, I cut the plywood first because the process of measuring and marking the cuts required me to crawl around on hands an knees on the sheet of plywood. If I had done this with the foam sheet it would have crushed and damaged the foam.

Once the foam and plywood sheet were cut to match each other I placed the foam sheet down first, placed the plywood on top, and attached both to the 1/2 particle board sub-floor with 1 1/4" wood screws.

The resulting insulated sub-floor is not quite strong and rigid enough to make a suitable foundation for linoleum tiles since the floor flexes when I walk on it, which would soon loosen the tiles and they would start to peel up. If I had realized this would be a problem I could have used thicker plywood. So in order to make a more rigid floor surface I decided on full thickness solid wood tongue and groove planking. Home Depot happened to have their 5/8" bamboo flooring planks on sale so that's what I settled on for the finished floor surface. Tomorrow I will install the flooring planks and take some pictures of the new floor.

March 27, 2011 The Floor and Notes on Construction in General

It rained all day today so I didn't get much done. I noticed that the instructions that came with the bamboo flooring said to nail it down to the sub floor. I imagine that works fine in a house that sits on an solid foundation, but building a mobile dwelling is more like building a house that is subjected to magnitude six earthquakes for hours on end, day after day. Nails just won't cut it. They are bound to work loose over time. I'm using screws on everything. Sheet metal screws, woods screws, machine screws, and I can even imagine using toggle bolts to fasten certain things to the walls.

For the flooring, instead of nails I'm using coarse-thread decking screws. The coarse threads are deeper than normal threads and take a better bite in the plywood sub floor. And just to be safe I'm also putting down a couple beads of Liquid Nails brand "Sub floor and Deck" glue under each plank.

March 29, 2011 Still Raining

The floor remains 2/3 done while I wait for the rain to let up so I can get back to work on it. The National Weather Service says it may be partly sunny on Thursday, so I hope I can get the floor completed then.

In the meantime I can work on the bathroom/toilet bulkheads since I can do that in the garage and out of the rain.

March 30, 2011 The Floor is Done

The weather stayed dry today, in spite of the forecast, and I got the floor of the van completed. Here's what it looks like:

Planning the Bathroom

In other news, I found a strange little coffee maker at the Goodwill store. The top comes off and it looked like the perfect size for the sink in my bathroom. The little tube coming out of the bottom is a perfect drain pipe. The arrangement I have in mind for my bathroom will include a urinal separate from the solid-waste toilet, and the gray water from the hand washing sink will flush and rinse the urinal.

March 31, 2011 Starting the Bathroom

Well, it's not really a bathroom. More like a storage compartment for the toilets. I say "toilets" plural because there are two of them. For solid waste I have a Reliance brand "Fold-To-Go" folding toilet that uses bags, and for liquid waste, including hand-washing water, I have my home-made urinal.

The funnel of the urinal is a plastic bottle cut to shape and screwed into its own cap which was epoxied into the top end of the P-trap. Note that a threaded union was added below the P-trap so that the position of the funnel could be adjusted after the cap on the tank is tightened down.

Bulkhead 1-L The bathroom storage compartment will be located between bulkheads 1L and 2L. In other words, the first two bulkheads on the left, or driver's side of the van. The bulkheads are cut from 1/2-inch plywood and contoured to fit the inner wall of the van. Plus Bulkhead 2-L In these pictures the bulkheads are temporarily held in place with clamps. Before actually being installed the compartments will be assembled and the assembled unit painted. Also there will be retaining walls at the back of all compartments which will hold the insulation material in place against the cold metal wall of the van. The Folding Toilet and Urinal

April 3, 2011 The Bathroom Module

Here is the completed bathroom/toilet module, but before attaching the backing boards and insulation. Other duties call this afternoon so I won't get a chance to add those until tomorrow, after which I will take another picture and then bolt it into place in the van. At that time I will also add the door, not shown in the pictures below.

The storage shelf under the sink is shown with a spray bottle and some boxes of Double-Doodie bags. After installing the module I will add some wire baskets and/or racks to that shelf to hold thing in place so they don't fall off the shelf while driving.

Notice how when the sink is folded down for use the drain pipe empties into the urinal funnel so that rinse water flushes the urinal P-trap.

Toilet module with sink folded down.

Toilet module with sink folded up.

April 4, 2011 The Bathroom Module Completed

Each section of the module has a sheet of one-inch thick rigid foam insulation as a backing. The use of rigid foam instead of the roll fiberglass I originally planned to use means that I don't need a separate sheet of veneer or plywood to form the back of the module.

Back view showing insulation panels.	Toilet module bolted to the wall.
With door closed, as seen from the back of the van.	As seen from the sliding door.

With the completion of the bathroom/toilet module the next project will either be the kitchen or the bedroom. I will probably tackle the bedroom next since I already have everything that needs a storage compartment: folding aluminum cot, blankets, sheets, and pillows. Since I haven't yet decided what my method of generating cooking heat will be I can't really finalize a kitchen design.

One thing I know I would like to have after working on the van so far is a master dome light kill switch. Two of the four dome lights have switches and the other two do not. I don't like to have the dome lights on in the daytime when I'm working on something with the doors open. I just need to locate which wire needs to get a switch inserted.

April 8, 2011 Planning the "Linen Closet" and the Kitchen

I picked up the plywood for the next module. I also picked up an assortment of plastic tubs the right sizes to hold towels, folded T-shirts, socks, under shorts, sheets, pillow cases, etc. I managed to find tubs that were good sizes for each of the various things that will go in the "linen closet". I'll post some pictures as soon as I have something to show.

I have provisionally decided that the kitchen will be access able from the outside via the sliding door. Since I am a warm-blooded creature I intend to avoid cold weather as much as possible I think that having a outdoor kitchen will not be a hardship. It also allows me to use an inexpensive biomass stove without the need to vent the stove to the outside. I'm imagining some sort of stove supporting shelf that slides out or folds down from the back half of the side door opening of the van. I haven't worked out any details yet.

As for the stove itself I'm going to use a Stove-Tek rocket stove, and will use a special gadget I designed for one of my old homemade rocket stoves that makes it possible to burn pellet stove pellets instead of sticks for camping in areas that lack natural fuel.

April 13, 2011 The First Storage Module

After many delays I finally got a chance to work on the van again today. I completed the first storage module which, as it stands, holds all my clothing, sheets, and towels and wash cloths, including dish towels. Like the previous module, each compartment is backed by 1-inch thick rigid foam insulation. Each shelf has a front edge that projects up about 1-1/4 inches above the shelf itself. Hopefully this lip will keep the totes from falling off the shelves. If that is not sufficient then I can add retaining bars or bungee cords to each shelf. The next storage module will hold my folding chair, folding cot, blankets, pillows, and foam pad. That will leave only a few books, my laptop, food, fresh water, and my cook stove to be stored. In other words, three more modules and the van should be capable of holding all my earthly possessions, all neatly tucked away for travel. Realistically, I probably will need a few more things than that: Tools, jackets, coats, boots, rain gear, eventually a couple house batteries, binoculars, a camera. But I imagine that the more I use the van the more I will discover just what I do and do not need. In addition to the storage module I also installed a dome light override switch so that I can turn off all the dome lights from a single switch on the door post between the passenger door and the sliding door. Now I can work on the van with the doors open without running down the battery.

April 16, 2011 Running Water in the Bathroom

My next step was going to be storage for my folding cot and bedding, but I got sidetracked installing running water in my bathroom module. The installation consists of an inexpensive plastic pressurized garden sprayer from Walmart and a bungee cord to hold it in place under the sink. The picture on the left shows the tank and bungee holding it, and the picture on the right shows the nozzle, without the extension wand, sitting in the drip-catcher tray (which is just a mini-bread pan set into a hole in the counter top). Just barely visible at the edge of the leftmost picture is a hand towel hanging from the towel bar I installed on the inside of the bathroom door a few days ago. Also visible is the wire basket I found at Goodwill for holding my spray bottle of soapy water for hand washing. Three squirts from the sprayer gives me enough soap and water to work up a nice lather before rinsing with the spray tank nozzle. The blue object hanging below the left side of the sink shelf is a hand brush and dust pan for sweeping out the van. It was raining hard today while I worked on the van and two things I discovered are that 1) I need an absorbent mat or rug by the door to keep from tracking in a lot of water, and 2) I need some kind of awning over the sliding door, because unless it is tightly closed a steady stream of rain water runs off the roof and onto the floor of the van. Another thing that would be nice, although this can come later, is a way to plug into shore power. The reason the rain was running in was that I couldn't close the door all the way due to the extension cord that was coming through the doorway. With a shore power plug and some AC outlets inside I could have closed the van up tight and avoided getting the floor wet.

April 21, 2011 Hookup for Shore Power

I took a couple days off to recover from eye surgery. The good news is that after 12 years of being legally blind in my left eye, my vision has been restored to normal! It's amazing! How long has the world been displayed in 3D? Being able to plug into shore power is a plus, but I intend to keep my electric needs to a minimum so I decided, for now at least, that 15 amp service will be plenty. Since 15 amp service uses the standard 3-prong plug used for ordinary household plugs, all I need is a 3-prong plug that is accessible from the outside, and that can be closed up for travel. It must, of course, be water proof. The picture on the left shows a plastic electric box that I drilled a one-inch hole in the back of so I could install a regular 3-prong plug through the hole. The picture on the right shows the ragged hole I cut in the side of the van where the plug will be installed. I picked up an outside waterproof outlet cover at Home Depot and with the cover installed over the hole it looks like the next pair of pictures.

The wiring on the inside is not hooked up yet. That will be tomorrow's project.

The view looking under the cover How it looks when plugged in

April 22, 2011 Inside Shore Power Wiring

While standing in Home Depot I took stock of what I needed for the inside wiring; wire, 15-amp circuit breaker, wall socket, cover plate, and a box to house all of those. That's when I spotted a device that already contained all of the necessary components and was already housed in a convenient package. A 15-amp power strip with built-in circuit breaker for $5. I cut off the original plug and wired it into the plug I installed yesterday, and in one quick swish and flick of my magic wand the whole inside wiring project was done. By the way, the yellow object plugged into the power strip is a line voltage tester from Walmart for under $5. NOTE: When wiring the plug to the power strip keep the polarity straight or bad things can happen. The black wire goes to the brass screw, the white wire goes to the silver screw and the the green wire goes to the green screw. Get a circuit tester like the yellow one shown in the photo and be sure that when you plug in the service connector that the circuit tester gives you the correct reading. Choose a plug with a grounded metal shell, and ground that to the chassis, or else run a separate ground line from the plug's internal ground connection to the chassis of the van. Also be sure that when connecting to shore power, whether at the campgrounds, or at home, or the home of a friend or relative you are visiting, the extension cord connecting the van to the source of shore power MUST be at least 14 AWG gauge wire and be UL rated for AT LEAST 15 amps. (Note that wire gauge numbers are smaller for thicker wire, so an AWG smaller than 14 is acceptable, and a UL AMP rating greater than 15 amps is also acceptable. NEVER plug the van into the shore power source using an ordinary indoor extension cord. This would create a serious fire hazard. Extension cords meant for outdoor use with such things as electric lawn mowers, etc. are usually suitable. Just check the AWG gauge and AMP ratings before buying. When I build the wall module for that section I'll just include a little storage compartment to hold the power strip when it's not in use. And if I want to plug in my computer clear across the other side of the van, a 10-foot extension cord will be more than enough.

April 25, 2011 How I Traced the Wall Contours

I was going to take some pictures of how I traced the wall contours onto the plywood to cut the bulkheads to match the walls, but it was too hard to make it show up clearly, so I did this series of illustrations instead.

Suppose you find yourself at Vasquez rocks in California, and decide to build a wall that meets the contours of one of the rock faces.

Start by securing the sheet of plywood with clamps or bricks or whatever you can use to hold the plywood vertical and just touching the wall you want to match. This is shown in the first illustration in the group below.

Next, take a straight stick or dowel and hold it against the sheet of plywood so that one end is touching the deepest part of the contour. Place a mark on the stick to show where it lines up with the edge of the plywood as shown in illustration two below.

Now move the stick to various different places up and down along the contour, marking the plywood at the spot were the mark on the stick falls. This will give you a series of dots on the plywood as shown in the third illustration.

Connect the dots and cut along the dotted line. Then try the cut contour against the wall. You will almost certainly find places where a little more needs to be trimmed away (shown by the arrows below) to make a more snug fit. Mark those spots and trim away a little of the plywood and try again. Repeat his process until you get the kind of fit you want.

If you want a more accurate fit you can mark more points in more places before you connect the dots and cut the line.

Just remember that it will never be a perfect fit. Close enough is good enough. And always remember that the difference between a bad carpenter and a good carpenter is that the good carpenter is better at hiding his mistakes.

April 25, 2011 Changes to the Original Bathroom Module

After using it for a while I've made some changes to my original bathroom module. When the sink is folded up to close the door, any little bit of water left in the sink drips back onto the counter top. To prevent that I extended the sides of the module (the bulkheads) by four inches so that I can leave the sink in the down position with the bathroom door closed. I still need to fold the sink up to use the urinal, but by leaving it down all the time any left over dribbles of water in the sink will drip into the urinal tank and not onto the counter behind the sink.

As long as I had the door off and the module apart I made a new door out of thicker plywood. This is because the thin plywood of the door wasn't sturdy enough to mount shelves to, and since, with the extra four inches of depth, there is space for shelves inside the door there's no point in letting that space go to waste.

Finally, I added an extra storage shelf above the module, since there was a good ten or twelve inches of usable room in the high top above the original van roof line.

Pictures will have to wait till tomorrow since the paint needs to get good and dry before I install the module back into the van.

April 28, 2011 Another Module Added, and Some Future Plans

I've added a closet module for hanging clothes such as coats and jackets. I was going to make it big enough to hang jeans as well, but it occurred to me that it's just as easy to fold a pair of jeans and put them in a tote on a shelf.

Also visible in the picture as the new bathroom door (shown partly opened) with storage racks on the inside and a towel bar on the outside, and the new shelf above the bathroom module. The unpainted surfaces will be hidden by the next modules that go in. Under the overhead shelf on the bathroom I put a battery operated touch light, LED, for illuminating the bathroom at night.

Below the hanging coats will be room for shoes, boots, and a small tote for whatever. There will also be overhead shelving above the closet module and the module forward of the closet.

The kitchen module and desk will be the next items added. Since I plan to do my cooking outside the kitchen module will face outside when the sliding door is open. Looking back at the March 25th entry, the kitchen module will occupy the space where the extra shelf was put in to extend the floor. The bottom shelf of the module will hold the stove, and the module door will fold down, toward the outside, to make a table to hold the stove while cooking. The rest of the module will hold cooking equipment and food storage.

The kitchen module will be 25 inches high, putting it just below the level of the window in the slider. It will be 24 inches deep leaving plenty of room for storage.

Aft of the kitchen module will be the desk. This will be a general purpose table for eating, computering, and whatever else needs a flat work surface. Since I'm going to add a window of some kind aft of the slider, the desk will also offer a view outside while I sit there.

While I was sitting in the van figuring out where things will go, I set up my folding cot to see how it would fit into the scheme of things. I figured I needed to leave enough open floor space to hold the cot. Then it occurred to me that the desk and the kitchen module would be the same height, but the desk would not be as deep as the kitchen module. If I had a small removable extension for the front of the desk I could turn the kitchen module + desk combination into a sleeping platform much more quickly and easily than setting up the cot every night.

Just behind the desk, as I'm sitting at it, will be another storage module. I could make a bench the right height for sitting at the desk and slide it into that storage module when I'm not using it. I tried it out for space using some boxes where the desk and storage module would go and it's plenty roomy for comfortably sitting at the desk, and when the bench is stowed away there would still be room under the bench for additional storage.

I've also been giving some thought to transporting a moped as a dinghy. I had been thinking about what I could attach to the van that would hold a moped. Then I realized that might be the wrong approach. Instead, I should be thinking about how to attach the moped itself to the van. This opens up a whole new range of possibilities that I need to ponder in more detail.