Thanks @Pierre O

Look forward to learning more !!

 

Originally we had ordered a high roof, 136" van. After 8 months, we still did not have a serial number and the prospects for getting our van soon were gloomy. Then our dealer had a cancellation on a 159" order, and offered it to us. It was equiped moderately, but with the following options:

• Silver metallic paint
• 220 amp alternator
• Driver and passenger swivel seats
• slider window
• rear windows
• cruise control
• leather steering wheel
• class IV hitch

We measured our driveway, checked our plans and agreed to the swap. The dealer did not play games, stuck to the sticker price and no ADM (illegal in Québec anyway).

With the certainty of getting a van, we started ordering some of the long lead equipment (many things were long lead in 2022!) and continued waiting for the van to make it from Mexico to Québec.

 

Originally we had ordered a high roof, 136" van. After 8 months, we still did not have a serial number and the prospects for getting our van soon were gloomy. Then our dealer had a cancellation on a 159" order, and offered it to us.

I just finished reading your build thread so far (thank you for posting it!) and as someone who is in the yet-to-buy-a-PM stage, I'm finding myself back and forth between the 159 and 136. There are a lot of strong opinions on this topic but I'm curious about your thoughts specifically considering you originally were opting for the 136 but ended up building out a 159. What initially drew you to the 136? Knowing what you know now, would you have stuck with the 136, or do you prefer the 159 now? Just wanted to pick your brain on the subject and hear any pros/cons based on your experience. Thanks!

 

One of the first things we did was firming up our plan. My wife had made this initial sketch which was pretty much to scale for a 136":

(It's in French but you'll get the gist of it).

What we knew we wanted was:

• A permanent bed
• A quick-setup dinette using the swivels
• A fridge
• A basic water system for washing hands, etc
• A toilet
• A electrical system that could run a toaster and a kettle
• A heater
• "Garage" space for skis, snowshoes, backpacks,and other gear
• Enough counter space to cook meals inside (we tend to eat quite late and don't like to cook dinner in the dark outside
• Enough storage space for clothes, cookware, food, etc.
• Ability to be autonomous for unserviced sites
• A "backup" shower for boondocking
• Ample open floor space (for a van)
• Ability to remove the bed to move furniture, etc.

Importantly for us, this needed to be a 4-season van, where winter is a Québec winter. We knew also that this would be used for "part-time" vanlife, meaning days to weeks and eventually a few months. The ability to "pack and go" quickly was important.

Rapidly I put the plan to scale in visio and and we converged towards the definitive layout:

 

How do you like the open space in your van? I’m deciding between two different build ideas - one that has a nice large open space, fairly similar to what you have except for a dinette space next to the bed. The other concept has a couch perpendicular to the sliding door and is going to be right up against the driver and passenger seat (with at least a wall between) and then kind of a hallway going down the van until you reach the bed.

The first idea is much simpler, but the second idea has more going on as far as places to sit and do work/art/eat dinner/lounge. But I’m wondering if it could also feel claustrophobic. Do I just go outside if I want to feel space?

 

The next thing I did was start planning our electrical system. We wanted to be able to do 3-day weekends without worrying about battery capacity; often we can spend several days in a national park, and either walk or do just a short drive to a trailhead.

I estimated our base DC consumption (fridge, fan, lights, heater) to be approximately 720 Wh per 24 hour period. The specific loads vary by season; for instance in the winter the fan and fridge draw less, but the heater compensates. In the end it seems to even out.

We also knew that we wanted AC for running a toaster, boiling water for dishes and coffee, and occasionally for showers. We estimated that this required about 400 Wh per 24-hour period. Since showers would only be occasional, I did not factor them into the model.

So all in all, this meant that for a 3-day weekend we would use about 3600 Wh. My original plan was to use 2 225 Ah 6V AGM batteries, based partly on this forum, but rapidly I realized that this would not be enough for our planned usage. Initially I was not enthused with solar and LiFePO4, but rapidly I figured that unless I wanted to add much more bulk and weight for batteries, I needed to revisit this.

The main issue with LiFePO4 is the inability to charge below freezing. For many people it may not be important, but for us it was critical. At the time self-heated batteries were begining to be more widely available, and I figured 200 Ah of self-heated LiFePO4 would fit our budget. One of the claimed benefits of LiFePO4 is you can deplete closer to 0% than AGM; this may or may not be true in actual life but it weighted in on our decision. Of course there is also a significant weight benefit to LiFePO4.

Then I started looking at solar. I figured 2 175 watt panels would fit well on the back of the roof (the 200 watt panels of the time were a bit too long to fit sideways in the rack I planned to build) and not be too expensive; I used PVWatts PVWatts Calculator (nrel.gov) to estimate what we could harvest per month in our area. PVWatts is an amazing tool! So I came up with this model:

Again in French but the rows are months, the last row the worst case without solar, and the columns the leftover capacity at the end of each 24-hour period. Green is good, red is bad!

The takeaway was that for the main camping season (early May to late October here),this combination of battery and solar would be amply sufficient. For November and December is would only sustain us for 2 days; this turns out to be not a huge deal for us as the national parks are normally closed and skiing season not started so we rarely go out during that time. Starting in January as the days get longer the capacity would rapidly pick up.

This does not account for any charging from the alternator; I figured it would be a "bonus" or a backup plan for times where the sun does not cooperate.

So we settled on 2 100 Ah batteries and 2 175 watt solar panels as the core of our electrical system.

 

Please post some pics! Thanks

 

After 13 months of waiting, in October 2022 our van finally showed up at our dealer:

Since we had waited so long, our goal was to be able to use the van throughout the build. That did condition the sequence but also some of the design choices. I was also able to use the waiting to prepare and pre-build some of the subassemblies.

The first step was the flooring. We had already bought a vanrug mat, on the premise that it might serve as a temporary flooring. Using it as a template, I was able to pre-cut 1/2" polyiso and 5/8" exterior T&G plywood, and the flooring went up very quickly:

I bolted the plywood + polyiso + vanrug sandwich using the d-ring holes and I filled the cracks with surface finishing underlayment.

We chose a good quality textile backed sheet vinyl, on the recommendation of our flooring store. She was confident it would fare well in our temperature extremes. I glued it down with Mapei ECO 350 adhesive, and our flooring was done!

Next was the fan. Plenty of people have covered this; we installed it in front. We chose the manual version (6200K), because we did not care for a remote and because I felt it would be easier to feel if it was iced over with the manual crank. I used butyl tape and DAP dynaflex 230 caulking. The wood frame is just held in place with the flange screws.

 

I can’t tell but are those covers on the openings along the floor of the van? First I’m seeing them covered up if they are. I assumed most builders/DIYers left them open for breathing to prevent some moisture build up, or if god forbid it leaks it has a place to run down.

 

Next was our bed. I looked at different options. 80-20 with a plywood mattress base seemed attractive but then I saw people using the ikea beams and I liked ththe idea, especially since we wanted to be able to quickly remove the bed for moving furniture.

I was worried that the slats could be "springy" so I went to our local ikea and tried one of the demos and liked it so I came back with beams, slats and a "meistervik" mattress. We like very firm mattresses and we found this one to be quite comfortable.

I started by bolting 2 pieces of 4 x 3/16" aluminium flat bar to the center rib, using the existing hex holes, and attached the ikea brackets (that they kindly sent me free of charge):

The beams clip into the brackets and are quite secure - i just used some all-round and bolts over the beams to prevent them from bouncing off thhe brackets.

The plastic nubs that ikea sent me did not work well holding the slats in place to I just made some blocks with scrap plywood and bolted them in using the holes at each end of the beams (later I added velcro under the slats as they seemed to "bounce" when we hit speed bumps). Finally I attached sideboards with L brackets and wingnuts so I could easily remove them. The sideboard help prevent the slats and mattress from sliding but also they give a more finished "furniture" look.

Finally we added the mattress. It as a bit too long so I opened the zippered cover and cut 2 inches off with an electric carving knife. Once the cover is zippered back it doesn't even show!

The result is cheap, solid, and to us amazingly comfortable.

 

IKEA for the win, again! It's hard to beat that system for simplicity, weight, and ventilation. Did they send you the old cylindrical nubs, or the new hooked nubs? We have no problem with the old ones. Probably because our mattresses (two twins, N/S) are squished together so tight they don't bounce.

 

They were like ribbed cylinders. The issue was that I could not get the right "pitch" with the combination of holes in the beams to get the slats somewhat taut. I could have drilled new holes but the things did not unspire me confidence fo begin with; they looked like big, stubby drywall anchors. I'm quite sure they would have worked fine with the proper spacing.
The slat bouncing seemed to be mostly due to the way we tuck our sheet, blanket and comforter under the end of the mattress; it lifts the light mattress a bit off a few of the slats and allowed the rattle. Anyway a bit of industrial velcro solved that and still allows the slats to be easily removed.
Definitely to me it is a great solution and you can't beat that price!

 

The next step was to install the solar panels.

For various reasons I did not want to bolt the panels directly on the roof. First, given our weather there is a small possibility that one panel may get damaged with hail, falling branches, etc.; and second, I am afraid of heights and the most I can do without climbing on the roof the best.

So I decided to shamelessly copy the Uneka "400W roof rack". I ordered their roof rack brackets, 8020 adapter brackets and panel mounting brackets, and sourced the 8020 and hardware locally. The assembly went quite well, other than I needed to dremel some material off a few of the roof rack brackets because the paint application on the roof "nubs" was quite generous.

Overall it went together like Meccano:

To assemble this, I built a simple scaffold from 2x4 and scrap plywood. It also allowed 2 people to handle the panels and slide them into the rack, mimimizing the risk of damage.

This was also quite handy to install the fan, and later the windows.

To pass the wires through the roof, I used this cable seal: DS-HD6 Horizontal Cable Seal Power Boat (scanstrut.com). It took the 8 AWG solar cables quite well and I like the flush mount. It seems quite well done, mostly from anodized aluminium, and we have not had any leaks. I located it in front of the panels, on passenger side, because this is closest to where the electrical will reside and also because I can inspect it from just a stepladder.

We're quite happy with the end result. It seems not to impact MPG too much, we don't hear wind noise, and I can quite easily clear the snow from the back using a stepladder.

 

Hi,
Seems like a good placement for low drag.

A Roof Rake works well for clearing snow without the need for a ladder.

I learned the hard way that it takes very little snow on a PV panel to cut its output to near nothing.

Gary

 

nice work and write up! We are in the same stage of life but live in tropical S Florida. Our goal, like yours, was all-weather so we can head for the mountains and great white north whenever we need to get out of flatland. We went with blown foam insulation for walls and ceilings, extra 1" of floor insulation (we are not tall so worth it), auto hot pads for all tankage, smart LIFOPO4 BMSs that wont charge below 32F/0C and battery box has auto-heat pad as well. Air Conditioning was not an option (even for the build process) down here in 90-plus humidness so we opted for 24Volt system to drive 3,000 watt inverter (or shore power) and drive a roof mounted RV aircon. With two 280AH 24v batteries we can drive AC for a few days off grid. Worked out well so far though our only cold camping has been Connecticut in the 20s and Nova Scotia which was all over the place weatherwise. The diesel engine tank feeds the diesel heater and works like a champ. Biggest concern is the fuel line freezing so I need a solution there eventually.

 

The diesel engine tank feeds the diesel heater and works like a champ. Biggest concern is the fuel line freezing so I need a solution there eventually.

Diesel itself doesn't freeze, it gels, same result. But any water in the diesel will freeze. Diesel engine fuel filters normally have a water separator. You can buy the same thing for diesel parking heaters. In the winter, the diesel sold at northern stations (US and Canada) is winterized (treated) to prevent gelling. You can also buy diesel winterizing additives just about anywhere (auto parts, truck stops, etc). Just make sure to run your engine and diesel heater to replace the fuel in the fuel lines (etc) before it gets cold enough to gel (about 10 degF).

 

The next step was to assemble the electrical system.

As mentioned in post #, we had already bought 2 100 Ah self-heated batteries and 2 175W solar panels, based on our consumption estimates.

The next step was to select the inverter, as it would be the biggest load on the system. The 3 main AC loads would be:

• Kettle (1000 W)
• Toaster (850 W)
• Sous-vide (1000 W) for shower hot water

One of the key decisions was what inverter to use. I like Samlex inverters because they are decent quality and there is a shop just accross from my office that sells them. The clerk showed me the 2 kw unit because they had it in stock but I preferred to get the 1500 watt one. Why?

Looking at the table from the Samlex manual:

You can see that the 1500 watt unit needs a 200 A fuse and AWG 2 wires. Jumping to the 2 kw unit would mean a 300 A fuse and AWG 2/0 wires, which means that AMI/MIDI fuses would not work and I would need a more expensive fuse block, and also that 2 100 Ah batteries would be very borderline. Meaning the cost increment for going to a 2 kw inverter would be hundreds of dollara. So I stuck with the 1500 watt unit. So faw I've been able to run our loads, but also tools such as a shop-vac, router, etc. so I do not regret going with the smaller unit.

For the main fuse block I chose the SafetyHub 150 (SafetyHub 150 Fuse Block - Blue Sea Systems). This has been recomended multiple times here and is really a great choice for a small system.

I used 3 of the 4 MIDI fuses, for:

• Inverter (200 A);
• Charger (70 A);
• Subpanel (70A)

So I have 1 MIDI circuit left for future use.

I also added a 6-circuit subpanel (ST Blade Fuse Block - 6 Circuits with Negative Bus and Cover - Blue Sea Systems) for the driver side, meaning we would have 6 low-amperage circuits on each side of the van, making for shorter runs. I used them for:

Main (passenger) side	Subpanel (driver) side
12V socket (15A)	Counter and dining area lights (5A)
Maxxair fan (10A)	12V socket (15A)
Ceiling and garage lights (5A)	LP detector (5A)
Bed reading lamps (5A)	Fridge (15A)
NOCO charger plug-in (20A)	Heater (20A)
Future	Future

So again 2 ATO/ATC circuits (1 on each side) for future use.

For charging, I chose the Renogy DCC50S DC-DC/MPPT charger.

First I assembled the complete system on a piece of scrap OSB:

This allowed me to stage the system, test all the components and make the cables at the right length. I actually did this prior to receiving the van.

Then I pre-wired all the circuits, including the charger cable from the passenger B pillar and a cable to feed the subpanel:

I built a box to hold the batteries. This will become a battery box/junk drawer/bench to put shoes on/step to get on the bed:

And finally I transfered the components and cables to a piece of 18 mm baltic birch plywood, bolted it in place and wired in the different cables. This will remain exposed under the bed, for easy maintenance and ventilation.

I do not have a nice circuit diagram, but you will get the gist of it. From left to right on the board:

• Blue Sea battery cutoff switch
• SafetyHub 150 fuse block
• Solar panel dual pole breaker in a DIN rail enclosure
• Renogy DCC50S DC-DC/MPPT charger
• Samlex NTX-1500 inverter

Of course there is a 250 A MRBF fuse on the battery side.

You can see that the placement tries to minimize the length of the cables from the batteries to the fuse panel, and also from the fuse panel to the inverter.

The fuse panel on the driver side is behind the galley, so it can feed the fridge, heater, counter lights and DC outlet with short cables:

For monitoring the battery and charger we use the optional Renogy panels. Not super fancy but they give a good overview of start of charge, current and voltage, and you can't beat the price! We're not much into fancy home automation anyway so this works well for us.

Overall this is a quite functional and simple system, and we've been very satisfied with it so far.

 

Simple & compact = elegant solution.

 

The next element is the galley cabinet. Actually I took advantage of the PM's fairly "square" construction and built the cabinet prior to receiving the van.

As usual I started with overall dimensions and planning in Visio:

(And yes, even if we use the metric system, I still do carpentry in imperial units. Old habits die hard).

Often when I do this type of design I will use product drawings and will roughly scale them. I am terrible with CAD but I love visio as a sketching tool.

Once I had all the elements figured out, I used OptiCutter (www.opticutter.com) to plan the plywood cuts. The upper cabinet pieces were just roughly dimensioned, with some allowance for final dimensions. Opticutter will optimize the cuts as follows:

In our case I needed 4 sheets of 15 mm baltic birch plywood the the cabinets, battery box and wheel well boxes. I don't have a panel saw so I did the large cuts with a skil saw and the smaller pieces on a table saw. I prepared and labeled all the pieces since I prefer to do this outside and it is much more comfortable in the summer!

Then I assembled the boxes using pocket screws and glue:

As you can see I built the galley in 2 pieces: the fridge box and the 2 door unit. They will be assembled together in the van. The idea being that if ever the fridge fails and I need to change to a different model I can adapt or redo just this part.

Next I fitted the doors, hardware and drawer faces:

At this stage we moved the cabinets to our dining room for painting and finishing:

We used a Benjamin Moore "Stix" primer and ADVANCE pearl cabinet paint, applied with a roller and brush. We are quite happy with the finish so far.

The counter is from a 39x74 island countertop that we got from Home Depot. It is Hevea (rubberwood), treated with a mixture of mineral oil and beeswax. We wanted to use a finish that would be food safe and not look like plastic.

Finally we moved the cabinet to the van. I did some minor routing to clear the B pillar.

As you can see our water supply (potable and gray) is contained in the cabinet, with a simple Whale Babyfoot pump. The Bison heater also resides in the base of the cabinet. The bottom shelves are just retained with cleats so everything is easily accessible:

This was the overall result with the doors and drawers in place:

As well as for the battery box:

As you can see from the walls (and the clutter) we were actively using the van while doing this. The approach was to try and add the most functional elements first, and leave the "prettying up" for later. It worked well for us.

By the way we used these ball catches for the doors and drawers:

I really like the adjustable tension. It takes a bit of getting used to "pulling" and "pushing" the drawers and doors in place but they have good retention and are adjustable.

 

Nice job. Thanks for posting the photos. Really helps.

 

Link to those ball catches?

 

They're generic "42 mm" and "70 mm" ball catches from amazon, like these:

Morobor 50mm Nickel Plated Copper Double Ball Tension Roller Catch Latch,10pcsSolid Brass Hardware Fitting with Screws for Cabinet, Closet & Furniture Door., Catches - Amazon Canada

Morobor 50mm Nickel Plated Copper Double Ball Tension Roller Catch Latch,10pcsSolid Brass Hardware Fitting with Screws for Cabinet, Closet & Furniture Door. in Catches.

www.amazon.ca

I used the small ones for the drawers (one per side) and the large ones for the doors. I probably could have used 50 mm ones for the drawers, I wanted to make sure they fitted between the cabinet side and the drawer box.

 

Looks Great @Pierre O 👍 !!

 

Thanks @RV8R - we're quite happy with the results and it's been a very satisfying project. It's been fun to make mechanics, electricity and woodworking serve our main hobbies rather than just compete for time 😊.

 

Our next step was to start insulating. By that time we had already camped a few times, in low temperatures around the freezing point, and we knew that even at these temperatures a 1500W space heater could not keep up with no insulation. (Our gasoline heater was not installed yet so we reserved sites with electricity and used a space heater).

For insulation we used Thinsulate. I know insulation is (another!) controversial subject in van conversions; I don't mean this to be a recommendation to use thinsulate or a suggestion that it's better. We saw that some people had used it successfully in similar use cases as ours and it fitted well with our "usa as we build" model.

We used around 60 linear feet overall, and 3 cans of 3M 90 adhesive. Of course I had already insulated behind the galley and electrical panel; I continued with the walls:

And ceiling:

Since we knew that we would be driving around without the finished ceiling, I added baler twine to ensure the ceiling pieces would stay in place.

I also insulated the top of the cabin, the slider and rear door panels, and stuffed most of the pillars, including the cavities at the top. I finished the top of the doors with ABS panels held in place with push retainers (I got the retainers from Grainger; they have a good selection, including metric sizes):

I later completed the insulation as I paneled the walls; at least for now it was enough to continue our camping season into winter.

You can see also the temporary window covers I made with reflectix. They are just held in place with magnets on the metal frame. These worked OK for us until I made permanent window covers later.

 

Hi,
Our "temporary" Reflectix window covers made in 2014 are still in use

Nice that you are getting use out of van during the conversion - A good way to go I think.

Gary

 

Nice job Pierre! I may copy your cabinet locks as the heavy duty magnets I used are "okay" but if we hit gravel or bumpy roads I dont think they will hold and Alaska is in the plans....

 

The next step was to finish the ceiling. Not much new to contribute as I mostly borrowed @MsNomer 's approach, with a couple minor tweaks.

First I attached the furring strips. I used pine 1x3s that I ripped to 1/2 inch. On our van the rib above the C pillar was actually slightly lower so I ripped this strip to 3/8". I have no idea if all Promasters share this trait but this rib is visually different.

I kerfed the strips to they would be flexible and attached them with flat head socket screws and rivnuts:

For the front and back I copied @MsNomer , except I used L brackets for the back support. They will be covered with trim later.

For the ceiling and walls we chose 3", 5/16 thick pine T&G. We liked the look and it was cheap, about 1$ CAD a square foot. Plus compared to plywood there is very little waste.

For the ceiling we chose to apply a clear satin finish. We did not want tons of wood but felt the ceiling and countertops would give the feel we were after. We finished the boards outside the van, in our dining room.

We started from the center:

Quick note: the rear doors and the metal above are not symetrical so don't rely on them to align your ceiling...

Once we got to the right rows we installed the requisite "vanlife" puck lights:

Actually we really like them. We have the ones over the bed controlled by a separate switch and dimmer from the front ones. I like to read on the bed, lying on my side with the book on the bed, and this gives perfect lighting with no shadows.

We used 3000K lighting throughout as we find it more cosy than colder lighting. In such a small open space I find having a single temperature helps give a more "finished" feeling.

I used these dimmers:

They work OK and have a good range of adjustability. I wired a switch in series with each dimmer because I hate having to turn a knob on or off. This works well for us. I used these switches: https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/e-switch/RR3112ABLKBLKNFF0/1589375. They're not rated for DC but I could not find any that we liked and 1 amp should not kill them. I mounted the switches and dimmers on blank residential plates that I drilled:

It's cheap and we like the look. They are attached to the wall with low voltage wiring brackets; the plywood is just temporary.

For lighting I used leftover 16 AWG speaker wire. I know some people are dead set against it but I had it and it's already way better than the 22 AWG crap that the puck lights come with.

This is the completed ceiling:

You can notice where the upper cabinets will go. I attached a 1x4 with rivnuts and put t-nuts in it. Another 1x4 is attached to it and will eventually become part of the upper cabinet.

You can see that I left a gap at the front. I wanted to be able to remove the headliner for service if necessary. I may add a trim piece eventually; for now I put foam weatherstripping to insulate and prevent condensation.

The bungee cord across is just a clothes line. Since then I put a series of eye hooks at the front and at the C pillar to attach bungee clothes lines and we constantly use them.

 

I wasn’t planning to stuff insulation in there, more so lay some pieces of it to prevent drafts. But I had a feeling it might be worth leaving open for water that may enter the van and so air can get in there to help dry out.

 

Sure. Depends on your wall construction though; in our case there is insulation on top and we would not want cold drafts anyway. Whatever works for you!

 

Our next step was to build the upper cabinets. Whereas the base cabinets are quite easy because everything is square, the uppers take a bit more measurement.

We chose to leave 24" betwen the countertop and the bottom of the upper cabinet. To get the right shape and angles, I made iterative templates, from cardboard first and then masonite, until I was satisfied with the fit:

Then I built the basic box using these templates. The box is bolted to the body rib as well as the roof ribs.

Then I added cabinet backs and doors:

I used friction arms from Richelieu (Duo Flap Stay - Richelieu Hardware) and ball latches. I know many people like the gas struts, but these friction arms are cheap and have adjustable friction. I used regular euro hinges.

As you can see the bottom of the door and sides is lower than the shelf; I wanted to hide the LED strip, and it also allows the ball latches to be under the cabinet and not in the way.

We really like having these cabinets. I made them the minimum depth that would accomodate plates and our toaster; overall with the door the depth is about 13 inches at the bottom. Note that I would definitely not want them to be any deeper, especially given that our base cabinets are only 21" deep, so really the upper cabinets are 4" closer to the edge of the countertop than in a regular kitchen.

 

The next step of our build was the clothes bins. In yet another inspiration from this forum, we decided to use Ikea Trofast bins for storing our clothes.

Remember that our mode of using the van (at least for now) is part-time, ranging from weekend trips to a few weeks. So packing clothes is part of our travel routine. The beauty of the bins is you can easily take them from the van to the house to pack clothes, and also they can pack a surprising amount of clothes.

I started by buying the bins, ordering the rails from Ikea amd "reverse engineering" the dimensions. Using this I built 2 racks.

The top rack is at our feet over the bed:

I designed it to be an extension of our galley cabinet, both style and dimension-wise. Actually I designed both before I built the galley cabinet, so the fit was intentional. As you can see, what holds the bin in place is a simple bungee cord, fixed at one end and hooked at the other. These are also useful as extra clothes lines.

The bottom rack is a simpler affair, installed over the wheel well. Since the bed is designed to be removable, the rack is bolted to the wall only.

Overall that gives us 6 bins: 1 each for "normal" clothes, 1 each for sports clothes, and 2 for towels, toilet paper and stuff. So far that's been plenty (winter jackets, snow pants, hats and mittens live in fabric tote bags under the bed).

By the way the bin at top left in the last picture is our portable shower, inspired by @MsNomer . The pump, curtain and sous-vide live in the tote box/shower pan.

These bins are much lighter than enclosed cabinets, significantly cheaper (the bins were 7$ CAD each, I got the rails for free from Ikea, and the wood was mostly cutoffs). They were also very easy to make, using mostly the same templates as the galley cabinet.

 

Our next step was to build the step and table.

The step serves 3 purposes: it allows us to rest our feet when the swivels are, well, swivelled; it holds the table leg; and it serves as storage for the jack and tools.

I built the step from 1x5 pine and leftover 5/8 plywood from our floor. I made it so it would be flush with the cabin floor and the bottom of the seat bases.

Once the basic structure was done, I prototyped a table out of cardboard to find the best position for the leg:

You will notice that the leg is not between the seats but more to the back. Given the space we found that a round table, with the seats at approximately 45 degrees, worked best for us.

Then I installed the covers with piano hinges, painted the base and trimmed it with leftover vinyl flooring:

The table is made from a cutoff of our countertop. A colleague of mine graciously offered to run it through his planer, glue it and cut it. It is finished with the same wax/oil mix that we used on the countertop and we really love it:

I designed the tabletop to fit on the side of the galley cabinet. I made brackets to hold it in place and used a door bolt to secure it in place:

The leg is stored behind the b pillar, with brackets that I 3D printed. You can barely see it the top behind the curtain:

This is the completed step and dinette:

This works well for us, it takes just a few seconds to setup and store. We tried several shapes for the table (rectangular, trapezoidal, oval and round) and the round table worked best for us. It is small, but enough for plates and cutlery and we can both sit without the other being in the way. Also, the table top is at the same height as the counter so we often use it when cooking.

 

We tried several shapes for the table (rectangular, trapezoidal, oval and round) and the round table worked best for us.

If you find that you might like a more adjustable table you could offset the mount on the table a few inches. If 3" then it could be spun/adjusted 6" north/south. East/west adjustments (or anything in between) could be used if only one person is using the table and wanted it closer. It could also make it easier to enter/exit the seat(s). Might have to oil the tube/mount.

 

Our next step was to install the bunk windows.

Truth be told, we had the windows in our basement for 6 months. I just did not feel like sawing big holes in the side of the van in the middle of winter, so I waited until the first nice week-end, at the end of April, to do it.

Based on recommendations from a colleague, we used Motion windows. We are quite impressed with the quality of these windows, and they are very easy to install. It's just always stressful to get started, to me at least. The one thing they could do is provide a template, but it's really quite simple to make one.

The first step is literally to mark and cut (I used a jigsaw) the hole. I used a scaffold to be at a comfortable height for cutting, and it went very smoothly:

Of course at this point there is no going back! I made sure to pick up all the metal shavings from inside and outside (I taped a shower curtain inside to catch the shavings, given the interior was partly finished at this point). I also touched up the edges with Tremclad metal paint to prevent future rust.

The Motion windows are sealed with some double-sided tape and clamped with a hefty ring. I made sure to test them with a garden hose and sprayer.

To install the 2 windows took only about 4 hours from setup to cleanup, including removing the interior bracing and measuring a few times to be sure! We really like how they open up the interior:

And we like also how they give the requisite "vanlife" look from the exterior. The tint is a quite close match to the dark tint of the factory slider and back windows:

Yup - now there's no doubt it's a campervan...

I can't recommend the Motion windows enough - we drove and parked in some quite heavy rain without a drop of water getting in, and we had no issue in the winter either. These windows really do feel like they will last the life of the van without problems; the mechanisms feel on par with quality home sliding windows. And with the Maxxfan in front they provide very good ventilation. I centered them over our 54" mattress and they are easy to reach and open/close without needing to climb on the bed, which is nice.

 

Well done! Thanks for sharing.

 

The next step was the wall paneling.

As I mentioned before we wanted the look of a country kitchen or a boat cabin, with a casual, "organic" feel. We wanted to highlight the curves of the van, not hide them. We also wanted to maximize the interior space.

I started by adding furring:

The middle rib is oddly formed, so it took me a bit of time to figure out how to attach the furring. Finally this method won out:

Of course some pieces of T&G have no screws if they fall over the ribs. It does not matter because they are captive both on the top and bottom. Shiplap would have been more complex.

The goal was to have the back of the T&G just flush with the horizintal ribs. It's not obvious from these angles but the furring that goes between the 2 ribs follows the curvature of the body. I replicated the curve at the D pillar. I made a template and bandsawed each piece from a 2x2:

From there it was just a matter of sawing and screwing the T&G. As you can see we went with the same clear finish as the ceiling for the 45 degree section. We could have gone either way but I liked this better, and I had a few leftover boards with clear finish anyway! The wall sections were primed with Stix primer and given 2 coats of Benjamin Moore advance, in a satin finish. The color is a light gray. As you can see I went with visible screws all over (form follows function); this is designed so pieces can be easily removed to access/repair behind if needed. At some point I may spray paint the screw heads with a matching color if I get bored and am looking for something to do!

I made the window casings from door jambs, ripped to width, and narrow molding. Not fancy but it took only a couple hours to make them. They are screwed through the jamb and into the furring so they can be removed for maintenance if needed.

I paneled the walls under the bed the same way:

And finished the wheel wells with boxes made from baltic birch:

This is the paneling once complete. At this point the pillars and rear sheet metal over the doors remain to be trimmed, but it is getting close to completion. It is a completely different feeling with the paneled walls, much brighter!

 

You have certainly done a beautiful job of your van build! Very nice planning and execution! I hope you get many years of rewarding travels with it!