Mies - an ARV 2500 144 WB 2WD Van

[Punkinhead]

Originally Posted by Davydd

ARV has posted a new video on 144 Class Bs they have been building. Our Mies is one of them and they have more information about the lightweight panels they use to build our walls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid...ature=youtu.be

They were short on details of the wall material. What is the core made of? It looks like corrugated cardboard. Torsion box construction gives tremendous strength to weight ratio, but I'd want to know that the core is quality material.

[GallenH]

Originally Posted by avanti

I don't really know that much about Froli, so I may not know what I am talking about.

Nor did I. But I did order one of the "expansion" kits for the Froli in each of the 2 heights. I spent some time before I figured that it wouldn't work because of height constraints (old PW with your feet under cabinets). They were very good at suggesting this trial, shipping the 2 kits to me (after I purchased them, of course), and taking them back including paying for the return shipping.

glenn

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by Punkinhead

They were short on details of the wall material. What is the core made of? It looks like corrugated cardboard. Torsion box construction gives tremendous strength to weight ratio, but I'd want to know that the core is quality material.

If you are that concerned you should be talking directly to ARV. I’ve had no problems with my cabinetry and remember they did this to stay at 2500 chassis at my request. They don’t do this normally. They have an old video on lightweight panels you can view. I subbed a lightweight table for a solid core table in Alvar after the fact and it made a world difference.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by Boxster1971

David - you certainly have a lot of experience driving Miles in cold climates. Thanks for sharing your experience - it is very helpful.

I know you have a diesel fired Espar hydronic heater system that also heats your van using 120VAC power when available. But I’m wondering how you keep the van warm and prevent tanks from freezing when driving. Is the hydronic system tied to the engine coolant system so you get full heat when driving?

I don’t use the Espar heating system while driving. The is just the two of us in the cab and the MB heat is on. Espar is not tied to the engine coolant system as it has it’s own glycol tank under the hood with the electric option or run it thru the diesel-fired Rixen burner.

Tanks are all under the van. ARV can put on electric heating pads on the tanks. Waste glycol heat at 165 degrees is grooved into the fresh water tank.

[rent]

Very intriguing layout. Well done!

May I inquire if ARV had to use a pump to drain shower water to the gray tank, or is that taken care of by gravity? If a pump is used, is it automatic (i.e., turns on when water is present), and if it's loud?

Many thanks!

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by rent

Very intriguing layout. Well done!

May I inquire if ARV had to use a pump to drain shower water to the gray tank, or is that taken care of by gravity? If a pump is used, is it automatic (i.e., turns on when water is present), and if it's loud?

Many thanks!

Gravity. No pump. The marine upflow toilet macerates and pumps because there is no drop down to a black tank below the toilet.

[Davydd]

Observations on our recent 7 week, 7,000 mile trip completed yesterday.

I have gone with my first van, a 2005 Pleasure-way Sprinter with one 100ah lead-acid battery and Onan generator which I seldom used to my third van, an Advanced RV with 800ah of li-ion batteries, 460w of solar and second alternator setup. Now with my fourth van I have refined it with 552ah of li-ion batteries, no solar and second alternator.

We have a smaller 12v compressor refrigerator but I have not compared its energy use with the previous one. I am just assuming it is better. It is inconsequential to me as we probably have more energy use than average for everything else. For instance we have 8 charging outlets off the house battery system and can easily have 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, an iWatch and a Fitbit charging or 2 MacBook laptops in use on AC in a campground at one time. That would be the maximum of course. Coffee and cooking with an induction cooktop, microwave, air-fryer, Keurig and Instant Pot are normal for the course throughout the day. Other than cooking, coffee and MacBook use we have disciplined ourselves to leave the inverter off while boondocking. Other than having our MacBooks and cooking plugged in AC is not used as much on demand. With 800ah of battery it didn’t matter. We just wanted electrical transparency whether if we were on shore power or boondocking. A touch screen can turn the inverter on and off.

One other energy use is keeping li-ion batteries above 41 degrees with energy from the batteries themselves with a 12v electric heating pad. The first two weeks of our recent trip we were under freezing temperatures 24/7. Unavoidable living in Minnesota in January. That’s another subject.

We can get 3 days easily in boondocking without driving vs up to a week with our previous van. In refining, we don’t boondock 3 days without driving. Solar is no use to us and probably cannot get much more than 100w on our roof in our short Sprinter that has an air conditioner, MaxxFan, dome antenna and two skylights occupying space. A portable unit would only take up valuable storage space.

Our second alternator, a Delco-Remy 330w can output 220ah at idle or 275ah driving. We can contribute 100w of equivalent optimum daily solar at 30ah in under 10 minutes of idling or 6 minutes of driving. In reality we would never have optimum solar in the shaded north woods in the summer or the short days and low sun angle in the desert in the winter. We haven’t idled yet other than testing or demonstrating the autogen feature. We can replenish our totally depleted 552ah battery bank (442ah usable with 20% in reserve) in 1.5 hours of driving or 2 hours of idling which coincides with Mercedes Benz recommendations between driving again.

That’s my refinement with no solar, no propane and no onboard ICE generator. Just power from the engine under the hood. That’s what Class Bs are for, driving and driving frequently like no other RV other than maybe a truck camper. We just got home from a 7 week trip covering 7,000 miles and 15 states from near the Canadian border to traversing the Rio Grande River in Texas.

[rent]

Thanks for sharing your real use scenario with us. This is indeed the ideal, most practical electrical set up for a B.

[Davydd]

This is way cool. Has anyone encountered this in your messages? We usually switch drivers every two hours and a couple of times we didn't shut down the engine in making the switch so after X number of hours or miles we get this.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Davydd

This is way cool. Has anyone encountered this in your messages? We usually switch drivers every two hours and a couple of times we didn't shut down the engine in making the switch so after X number of hours or miles we get this.

No messages in our old Chevy for anything, but I think I saw a setting on in new Garmin GPS for the a take rest reminder.


We usually stop for gas at 300-330 miles and often those are the only stops if we are just on our way somewhere or home.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Davydd

This is way cool. Has anyone encountered this in your messages?

Yeah, Volvos do that too. It is cool.

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by Davydd

This is way cool. Has anyone encountered this in your messages? We usually switch drivers every two hours and a couple of times we didn't shut down the engine in making the switch so after X number of hours or miles we get this.

Yes - a neat feature.

On Sprinters it is "JW8 Attention Assist" a $48 option, also including in the C01 Driver Convenience Package.

[Davydd]

I'm starting to make changes or additions in Mies. In Alvar I put in a teak slat floor that I custom made. ARV has since somewhat adapted that idea in all their vans and Mies got a teak slat flooring only it made the floor 1-3/4" higher off an already raised floor from the van floor and I didn't like it. As I mentioned, inches here and there I could use. So, I put in PVC vinyl interlocking floor tiles that are only 5/8" thick and water still drains under. I got them in a package of 12 tiles of 1 foot squares from Amazon. You can trim the PVC tiles with scissors or mat knife for an exact fit. Teak slat floors are safer than smooth shower floors but the PVC tiles are more safer for non-slip. The floor measures 31" x 30" with the toilet intrusion. You can sit on the toilet lid and shower if you want. Standing there is an extra 8" of elbow room with the vanity you don't see in these photos.

[MsNomer]

That is really attractive. I assume the water drains between the tiles?

[Davydd]

The tiles are an open mesh in a snowflake design. and lifted up on spacers so water flows through and completely under the surface.

https://www.amazon.com/smabee-Interl...d_rp_14_t&th=1

[MsNomer]

Sweet! Those look so good I wish I had a use for them.

[avanti]

Those tiles are an interesting material. What is under them? I.e., did you apply them directly to a fiberglass shower pan (I think I see a drain in the corner)? If so, (a) is the pan flat or slanted toward the drain? (b) do the tiles impede the lateral motion of the water toward the drain? and (c) are they removable for cleaning?

I am a big fan of dual (or quad) drains on opposite corners in order to maximize drainage when the van isn't perfectly level (which is always). Your idea might complement that technique nicely.

[Davydd]

There is a drain in the upper right corner of the bathroom under the tile in these photos and it drains to it providing you are level of course. There is no slope in a movable van on varying ground. The tiles are raised so drainage is not impeded. We remove them as one big interlocking sheet for cleaning. I don't see corner drains as necessary when you have a raised PVC or teak slat floor. Driving up and down the dale will drain the floor eventually. If you have a clean fetish you can remove the tiles and use a squeegee to get the final drops off the floor. My wife will do so if we are camped in place for a few days. The whole idea is you don't have to do that frequently as the PVC tile surface dries relatively instantly to use as a wet bath.

I'm thinking now about installing them in our home shower stall more as a non-slip safety factor.

[avanti]

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Davydd

The tiles are raised so drainage is not impeded.

How are they raised?

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by avanti

Thank you.


How are they raised?

This photo is the clearest I could find of how they are raised. There are tabs uniformly raising the field tile. It shows the round pins that interlock the tiles on the edge. Once interlocked you would have to pull hard to unlock the tiles from each.