Wolf, his dad, and brother are sailing to the Dry Tortugas and around the Florida Keys this week, so it’s just me and Serenity until Saturday. Before he left, Wolf and I were able to finish installing the solar array.
Wolf cut more holes in the roof and now the wiring is all hooked up! It looks like some tentacled monster. It isn’t connected to batteries or anything yet, but that will be the next step. We used the ports Wolf’s uncle gave us and they worked beautifully.
My mission this week is to finish as much of the insulation as I can. The roof, walls, and doors are now covered in Prodex, so I’ve started on the floor. I finished about half of it today, and covered it up with Fedex’s old floor so I can still get around the van without popping all those little bubbles. My sister and her husband were kind enough to come hang out and help yesterday, and they cut all Prodex floor sections. I cleaned the whole floor with mineral spirits and got a lot of nasty asphalt residue up before I started to glue anything down. Of course, we’d already swept, powerwashed, and even mopped the van, but still left was what looked like a billion little scratches. Nope. Just greasy mystery goo.
The section on the left was after cleaning with mineral spirits. I wanted all that sealant to actually stick.
I barely had enough Prodex to wrap the wheel wells and do one more project we’d talked about. I’m hoping the wrapped wheel wells will mean a quieter ride. Before any of the insulation was installed, you almost had a shout if you wanted to talk in the van while it was moving.
So the project–online we’d seen reflective, insulating window covers for the cab, made to perfectly fit a Sprinter. Since they were also over $100, we decided we could probably make them ourselves. I spent a good portion of the day doing that. I had to get a little creative since I was at the end of roll, but it all worked out.
In the first picture, I’m partially done with the windshield, and in the second the windshield and door windows are both finished. The temperature difference this made with the van sitting in the sun was amazing! With just the body and roof wrapped, we’d noticed a big difference in noise reduction and temperature consistency, but having the windows covered does a lot. If you’ve ever used an emergency space blanket, you know what an difference they can make. We’ve basically wrapped our whole living area in a space blanket, but better since it also has an air jacket. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough Prodex to make a cover for the sun roof, so we will probably be picking up some Reflectix since that’s something you don’t have to order.
The toughest part of fitting the cab window covers was getting them to seal light around the edges. To help this, I brought them all in tonight and made a kind of seal with reflective tape, which has the added benefit of keeping them from getting too beat up. I’m hoping this also helps them stay in the windows, but I’ll probably end up using some thin weather stripping or velcro squares to get them to stick.
Of course, these are for more than just insulation. They also add privacy. Since we’ll be stealth “camping” (it’s not camping…we live here…) much of the time, it’s important that the van looks dark at night. I don’t know yet whether it’s light proof from outside the van. We are planning on having a blackout curtain as well, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue whenever we need to be really stealthy.
Here they are with the taped edges. We may end up lining the inside with something (fabric, a map, artwork?) but for now they should serve their purpose.
After I’m finished with the floor, I’ll begin working on installing the Ultratouch layer in all the deeper places in the frame. I’m hoping that will go a little faster than the Prodex. It should, because it’s pre-cut into strips.
~River
Krispy Kritters in Serenity 