Mies - an ARV 2500 144 WB 2WD Van

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by Davydd

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Thank you Dave. Interesting material, corrugated plywood. Strong and light weight but joints require some good technique to retain strength.
Jetson Green - New Corrugated FSC Plywood by Corelam

ARV could look into this company for light weight material - Thermo-Lite It slowly gains ground in the DIY community.

[Twinbridges]

Very nicely done. What are your plans for Alvar?

[Davydd]

Traded Alvar back in to ARV. They will probably refurbish it, update it and sell it. I put just over 95,000 miles on it.

[MsNomer]

How are joints constructed with corrugated ply?

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by MsNomer

How are joints constructed with corrugated ply?

They build it with solid wood or plywood strips wherever it needs to be nailed, bolted or screw attached I’m assuming. It is all surfaced with laminate. Since we were the only one other than that old video, I never saw any work in progress in their cabinet shop to know for sure. It is solid. There are no sounds, rattles, creaks, croaks, etc. on the road.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by MsNomer

How are joints constructed with corrugated ply?

Good question, interesting to see different thoughts of building strong cabinetry in a moving vehicle, strong frames with filling side panels or just strong panels. It seems as DIY community embraced strong frames, there are 2 very promising vans being build with 1” aluminum 80/20 frames documented on the Sprinter Forum, good examples of strong frames.

https://sprinter-source.com/forums/i...threads/83817/
https://sprinter-https://sprinter-so...threads/98524/

I was looking for Corelam prices, couldn't find them but this domain is for sale https://www.hugedomains.com/domain_p...=corelam&e=com, could be they operate under a different name.

[Davydd]

The Bathroom and Toilet

The bathroom has a 31” x 31” shower pan but there is a toilet in the space. There is also 8 more inches of vanity so your shoulder area is 31” x 37” accounting for the sloping inward outer wall. Still a bit tight but few Class B’s have the full turn around shower space since most are less than 24” in one dimension with an inward sloping wall so have to intrude on aisle space or use expanding doors.

Since the bathroom is behind the rear axle and the black tank is forward of the rear axle, you have to use cassette, composting or marine upflow toilets and not the common tank hole over the black tank toilet. I chose the the marine upflow ceramic toilet. It flushes similar to your house toilet with a trap so no odors and a pump macerator to send the waste over the axle to a remote black tank. I like it. Fairly quick and quiet. If you do a number two you push a button to fill the tank but not as much as your home toilet. Then you push a button to flush with a tad bit more water. The toilet can be placed anywhere and as you can see it is not on an outside wall and being remote or disassociated from the black tank, the black tank can be optimally placed and sized. In my case 25 gallons in a short van.

The marine upflow toilet is a tad wider it appears and about an inch longer than the standard RV toilet. Inches in our design makes a lot of difference. As it is, I would have to or ARV would have to make some design decisions and modifications for someone more than my 5’-9” height I think. That should be a warning for anyone copying this design.

The upflow toilet is a Thetford Tecma Silence Plus. There is a macerator down the line from the black and grey tanks that is basically a pump at this point or a belt and suspenders. The 1.5“ diameter discharge hose is attached at the macerator end and has a quarter turn valve discharge into the sewer so the sustem is enclosed the entire way. No odors. This is their video explaining the toilet. It is expensive suitable for a large yacht as the video shows.

https://youtu.be/W9pvWgslYjU

[GeorgeRa]

As far as I know these new Tecma toilets’ macerating pumps are different than typical RV discharge macerators, they are centrifugal pumps without bending impellers like in RV macerators. Their benefits are: quieter, higher reliability, and no need for periodic maintenance of replacing impellers. I think this is good system for boats or B class. For draining the black tank gravity or a centrifugal pump could be used.

Another benefit is no buildup like in direct over the black tank toilets during multiple days stays.

Hein from the Sprinter forum installed Tecma Silence in 2013 on his Sprinter, they like it a lot. For gray and black tank, he uses 1.5" hose by gravity, no pump as far I remember. https://sprinter-source.com/forums/i...29#post-313248

[Davydd]

I would think with a 1-1/2” hose you would have to have a pump with a macerator is. The advantage is getting away from gravity and having an advantage when dumps have a curb like this.

The photo is upside down. Even more difficult to pump waste.

[GeorgeRa]

In the upside down situation pump is indeed necessary. With van upright having a curb will leave some liquid in the hose with a pump or without it.

[rowiebowie]

I have a Thetford maine-style macerator toilet in my '2012 Airstream Avenue. The only reason for it is Airstream made a layout change for my model that moved the toilet a couple of feet forward. They probably decided it was cheaper to do that than move the black tank. And yes, a steel pump/blade without the rubber impeller like my waste macerator (I just installed my third one there).

It has worked well and, while I worry about it as just another thing to go wrong, so far it is trouble-free. And I can only say that about the furnace and Novacool fridge. Everything else has given me problems at some point or another. Hope this doesn't jinx me.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by GeorgeRa

In the upside down situation pump is indeed necessary. With van upright having a curb will leave some liquid in the hose with a pump or without it.

It is a fairly long hose with an attached end at the van and a quarter turn valve closure at the discharge end. I can a “walk” the water in the hose pretty much to empty it and what is remaining is grey water. It isn’t a problem and no need to wash out with a hose at the dump station. You never touch waste water. We have screw on attachments at the end for the common 3” and uncommon 4” sewer pipe thread or a rubber cone shaped donut for any odd size or no thread inlet. All in all it is a fairly clean 5 minute about every two weeks.

I had 3” open at both ends gravity slinkies on my first two vans. I’d never go back to that nor carrying and trying to dump 40 lb. cassettes in a toilet or preparing bedding in a dirty compost toilet bowl.

BTW, I am traveling right now and posting directly from Apple’s Photo library on an iPad or iPhone. The interesting thing is when I post with my Macintosh Pro computer the files come out exactly upright as I see them but from an iPad or iPhone it is a crap shoot as to how they turn out. However, if I edit them, and rotate them right back to an upright correct view in Photos, they come out OK.

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by Davydd

. . . I had 3” open at both ends gravity slinkies on my first two vans. I’d never go back to that nor carrying and trying to dump 40 lb. cassettes in a toilet or preparing bedding in a dirty compost toilet bowl. . .

I agree with you. Your new toilet system is a top of the line installation that would make my DW very happy.

[Davydd]

Another view. Standing in the bathroom and looking forward to the turned around cab seats with the portable tables installed.

[Davydd]

If you had seen the many interior photos of Mies you will not see a TV anywhere. That was deliberate. In our small van a 24” TV and usually an attendant cabinet, swing arm, etc. would be too much. We seldom watch TV while on the road in contrast to where at home we have the TVs on most of the time. I figured we could watch the many video streaming channels over the Internet if we desired entertainment and news can come from radio.

What we got was a Winegard Rayzar Dome automatic antenna for over the air TV when and, where available, that also has cable TV capability. It is coupled with WiFiRanger that picks up external WiFi and boost the signal. Instead of connecting directly to the external WiFi all our devices, computer, smartphone and tablets connect to our internal WiFi network. The TV antenna is also connected to the internal network so it functions as a distributor of that over the air signal or cable wirelessly to our iPhones and iPads using an app, HDHomeRun. You don’t need an external WiFi source.

Since we have bunk beds, we can each watch what we desire to with our AirPods for no sound interference in a small van. It picks up outside the van if you want to sit outside in chairs. There is also a recording feature which I haven’t bothered to investigate yet. These iPhone screen captures I grabbed this afternoon show the menu selection and with a tap to select the channel and another tap to make the menu go away. We will use our iPads with a larger screen.

[Boxster1971]

Davydd - Thanks for the info and your experience with HDHomeRun. I have been wondering how to deal with TV in a smaller van. This looks like a perfect solution.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by Boxster1971

Davydd - Thanks for the info and your experience with HDHomeRun. I have been wondering how to deal with TV in a smaller van. This looks like a perfect solution.

I haven't figured it all out. Yesterday it was working from our condo garage way out in the Twin Cities suburbs but all the channels it said I had didn't show up. The day before I couldn't get a connection even though it said the channels were there. Maybe because I had the 14' high door all the way open and not 6' open as I had the day before. I need to do some more experimenting and trouble shooting or maybe the system is flakey and sensitive. It seems you can always get the MeTV channel playing old TV western shows. I haven't had the opportunity yet to test out the cable connection. I've boondocked the whole time so far without going to a cable hookup campground.

I'm just happy I don't need a TV to watch TV.

Here is what the line up says I should be receiving from the Status in WiFiRanger but only 7 showed up on the menu in my iPhone.

[Davydd]

Not to bore anyone but I have created an Instagram account, "mies_rv_less_is_more" to highlight our travels and describe components of our RV.

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Not to bore anyone but I have created an Instagram account, "mies_rv_less_is_more" to highlight our travels and describe components of our RV.

Great - I’m interested in learning more about your van. Right now I intend to start my own Advanced RV build after my summer NP tour. I’d like a build similar to Sue Valentines Bucky but on a 2500 Sprinter 144 like your van. For beds I prefer separate twins.

Bucky is now on sale at Advanced RV - I inquired on buying it, but without the composting toilet. They only other toilet they could do on Bucky rebuild was a cassette. I prefer the macerator toilet in your Mies build.

Cheers,
- - Mike

[Davydd]

The ARV Bucky plan can in no way be separate twin beds. It could be a pull out full bed but not a queen. A lot of ARV 144 designs so far have elevated queen beds in the back with "garage" space below for bicycles. My bunk beds are two separate single beds. The just aren't side by side but on top. Not very conjugal for a married couple but at my age it is getting acceptable. Independent privacy of having a light on, reading, TV watching through our iPads and getting up without disturbing your partner is proving to be the major night to night advantage.

The driving reason for the bunk beds is behind the B pillar in a 144 Sprinter a side to side queen bed occupies 60% of the available floor space. Separate single beds in the back would have to have to wasted aisle space. The bunk beds are just 25% thus I have a bigger bathroom and a quite ample kitchen and I don't have tall cabinets right up against the cab area with complete turn around seat capability with tables. Also, my concept is vertical for storage in the back instead of shove under space usually under a bed and the stacked tall cabinet provides a proper height microwave and refrigerator. We pretty much got everything we carried in our extended body Sprinter into the short body Sprinter. That was a goal.

The macerator toilet plumbing does need space to get to a black tank forward of the back axle. On account of that we lost a notch under the coat closet for miscellaneous things like shoes and bags.

My inspiration was the James Cook based Airstream Westfalia of circa 2005 and a CS Riesemobile Duo (German company) that put me onto the potential of building on a small platform. No way, though, can it travel with more than two people. For that reason I think of it as the Duet model.