[Hein]

We bought a ProMaster van for R&D work. It's a low mileage 2017 purchased from Northland Auto Sales in KC, MO.

 

[Hein]

I grew up in Kansas and lived in KC for a time. We have friends and family in KC. My nephew is coming to work for us this summer. He is moving from Boulder, CO. He'll go pick up the van and drive it to Oregon. Then the fun begins.

Stay tuned!
All the best,
Hein

 

[phil]

Right size and color.

 

[Santiago]

Congratulations Hein.
You are only person I know with all three van chassis: Mercedes, Ford and now Dodge !

Enjoy your new toy.

Santiago


PS: Waiting for the roof fan adapter to arrive, will be ordering Thinsulate soon.

 

[phil]

Good God man, Dodge doesn't make this van!

 

[Santiago]

Phil, give me some credit.

My CA license plate reads "A DUCATO", I think I know what is going on.
RAM is a Dodge trademark of sorts, you buy a Promaster at a Dodge dealer.
I know its origins and how it got to the US.

Santiago

 

[Hein]

I can't wait for it to get here. First up is to reduce the dead cat clearance in back and get some meats on there. Is there a wheel and tire thread somewhere?

 

[cluttonfred]

First up is to reduce the dead cat clearance in back and get some meats on there.

Umm...translation, please?

 

[Hein]

Umm...translation, please?

Sorry that my attempt at humor was vague. It's old guy automotive design speak.
Dead cat clearance is space between top of tire and fender. Meats are bigger tires.

From Wikipedia Glossary of automotive design terms.
"Wheel arch gap: The space between the tire and the wheel well. Currently there is a trend towards smaller wheel arch gaps. Sometimes referred to as Dead Cat Space due to the fact that, in winter, many domestic cats try to seek shelter in wheel wells of recently parked cars in an attempt to stay warm."

 

[cluttonfred]

Thanks, I suspected it was something like that but wasn't sure. Now for some more questions.... Bigger wheels and tires I can understand to get a little more ground clearance, though obviously you're limited in how far you can take that because of the front and back clearance on each wheel well. On the dead cat space, wouldn't reducing that except by bigger wheels and tires also reduce suspension travel? Cheers, Matthew

 

[kite_rider]

Welcome! Looking forward to your suspension and wheel modifications. I was really inspired by the rear axle modification that atomicrider did on this post:
http://www.promasterforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79641&page=4 (post#36 for finished product, post#27 for the process)

I was considering the very high priced front spring spacers, but am now leaning toward the new vancompass 1.5" front lift blocks or even the russian blocks being sold on E*bay https://www.ebay.com/itm/Front-stru...ent-Lift-Kit/112803052899?hash=item1a4395fd63

Hopefully we'll get more posts with procedures and helpful hints on these mods.

 

[Hein]

SSL certificate purchased, verified and installed.
​

https: redirect is in place

Lo and behold
Images are back!

All the best,
Hein
Impact3d.com and DIYvan.com IT manager (part time)

Below. test image of our new warehouse just to make sure we are all good now.

 

[Hein]

We have been slow to get even the most basic upgrades done to our Promaster. But is has been put to good use. I recently spotted what might turn out to be good deal on a 36V electric utility vehicle that we can put to good use around the property. LM200 36V that needs batteries and hopefully not a lot more to get running. Easy short range retrieval mission because it fits right in the Promaster 136HR.

All the best,
Hein

 

[Hein]

Still no time to work on our ProMaster 136HR because too busy making parts for other van builders. Here is a cool idea...

They are CNC'd offset adapters for an RV vent (Maxxair) on the left and a Dometic Midi Heki on the right. The Promaster is the only van wide enough for this setup. This leaves a bunch of room towards the front for solar panels. I am sure our customer will share some photos after the installation is complete. We have considered installing a Midi Heki skylight on our van. We are a Dometic dealer so can ship the adapter with the skylight.


All the best,
Hein
DIYvan.com

 

[Wankel7]

Still no time to work on our ProMaster 136HR because too busy making parts for other van builders. Here is a cool idea...

They are CNC'd offset adapters for an RV vent (Maxxair) on the left and a Dometic Midi Heki on the right. The Promaster is the only van wide enough for this setup. This leaves a bunch of room towards the front for solar panels. I am sure our customer will share some photos after the installation is complete. We have considered installing a Midi Heki skylight on our van. We are a Dometic dealer so can ship the adapter with the skylight.


All the best,
Hein
DIYvan.com

I'm curious why the cost for just the adapter bracket is so high (14x14)?

I don't know anything about the marketing / development cost / business cost/material costs...so I'm guess that is why?

I found the speaker adapter rings to be great values and made upgrading the door speakers easy. Maybe if the roof trim ring was around $25 - $35 I would have not stacked butyl pieces in the low spots

 

[Hein]

I'm curious why the cost for just the adapter bracket is so high (14x14)?

I don't know anything about the marketing / development cost / business cost/material costs...so I'm guess that is why?

I found the speaker adapter rings to be great values and made upgrading the door speakers easy. Maybe if the roof trim ring was around $25 - $35 I would have not stacked butyl pieces in the low spots

Thank you for your reply. The value of a product is definitely subjective. We sell a lot of adapters (and other products) to professional van up-fitters. Time is money for those folks and they can't afford to have vans come back with leaky roofs. Our design appears to hold up very well over thousands of miles of bumpy roads in all climates. Butyl tape works well for some number of years but beyond that it's survival is questionable. We have definitely saved the day for many folks who have developed leaks after some time due to substandard installation practices not using our adapters. For them the price is money well spent.

The vent adapters are CNC machined on our Multicam 5000 series router. The machine and related equipment cost $100,000. It takes about 15 minutes to surface mill the face that mates to the top of the van and profile the inside and outside perimeter. CNC machining rates vary somewhat but are generally in the $300/hour range. Our CNC operator, Sean, is a well paid employee with full benefits. And we are proud to say that all of our products are MADE IN THE USA. We are a growing company and are investing much of our profits into more R&D and product development. We hired a full time CAD intern last summer who had done CAD work for a High School Robotics team we sponsored. She is graduating this year and headed to a top engineering school. We hope to have another intern this summer and are looking for a full time CAD tech. We have active licenses for the full suite of PTC Creo which is perhaps the most powerful CAE/CAM tool available. I have been on Pro/E since the early days. I was an independent CAE implementation consultant for many years. Our clients included CAT, Deere, Boeing, Learjet, Cessna, Motorolla and other fortune 500 companies. Before that I designed production equipment for automotive assembly plants and was design engineer at CASE. I'm a pretty good teacher. (My dad is retired college professor in Chemistry and Computer science.)

In the past, the 14x14 hole left us with a big piece of scrap so we use those to make the speaker adapters. So in a sense we (and you) get that material for free. The material is high grade plastic sheet with the necessary UV and temperature resistance to survive long term on the roof of a van. The application, manufacturing process and design are patent pending.

We also make adapters for side windows that are flat and need to fit the outside curvature of the van walls. The Dometic S4 windows are an example of that application. Below is a photo of one that went on the side of a Sprinter van. We can do these for the ProMaster as well. This project is by one of our highly talented professional upfitters. Vanbase.us

All the best,
Hein
DIYvan

 

[MsNomer]

"Butyl tape works well for some number of years but beyond that it's survival is questionable."

Are you suggesting a limited lifespan for our Motion windows installed with the supplied butyl tape?

 

[baitbegger44##]

I carry that alum tape always.....just use majic marker write:

BOO BOO

Sent from my LG-H871 using Tapatalk

 

[Hein]

Take a look at 3M 4412N
And 3M VHB 4611


This is a good read: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f456/sealants-summary-116214.html
especially what lewster writes.

 

[baitbegger44##]

that 4412N has some good reviews on Amazon....even for emergency windshield repair....

WOW

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