Accrete's AWD Chevy Van project

[accrete]

Greetings all
Mark was kind enough to transfer the context of this post from another thread and i will spend some time getting this new thread up to speed on the build.

Originally Posted by stanw909

...I like Accrete's van but mostly for the AWD and clever interior which he needs to show everyone here.Hint,Hint

Well Stan, thanks for the vanKudos! I will say that i only found this site a couple weeks ago but can already see it is going to be a long fun relationship.

Our rig was a project of love...


There were a few times that we would have gladly paid a pro to do the work for us! Like about three hours into putting on the hood wrap that specifically stated three people should apply it! Or the evening that Cari came to me commenting she better make an appointment with her hairstylist as the 3m 77 spray adhesive we were using to apply the hull liner had mucked up parts of her long locks beyond repair ,(
Ah, marriage to your best friend and MacGirlver has its pluses.

I will start this thread with a summary and then follow this original with some more detailed posts of some specifics. Below are some links to pictures with a caption on the link for any who wish to play along.

So here we go. The main build site for any who want the full meal deal
is at _this Sportsmobile Forum link_.

Here is the exterior when we purchased it in fall 2010.
And the first image in this poist is what it looks like today with a 24" fiberglass top, Fiama Awning, MaxxFan, 3" suspension lift, custom wheels, Rhino Lined rockers/bumpers, LED headlights...
A closeup of the 3m Di Loc vinyl hood wrap.

Here is a shot of the interior upfit before placing bedding and such inside:


What the bed platform looks like before installing, and one image inside with gel topper.
Here is a close up of the hull liner fabric that my wife lovingly installed. I helped, but honestly, it is an amazing job because of her!

Now, i know this is sort of on the edge of what some might consider doable...but honestly, this was wife approved (& dreamed up mostly by her too)...The bathroom closet.
Closed (it is ~20" deep on the floor x ~30" wide).
Open packed.
Open for use.
The above shot shows a simple DIY composting/separating toilet that my wife dreamed up and actually really likes. And yes she is a girly girl, but she was also raised on a 300 acre cattle ranch so thinking outside the porcelain-commode comes easy for her
In this image you will see the shower pan and electric shower she also dreamed up.

I think that about wraps it up. Thanks for allowing me to share. Our rig is a combination of lots of research and gleaning from other Van owners like yourselves. I plan on spending the next few years reading and digging into your builds/rigs here, and at the other two sites i visit...put it all in a blender and see what Cari & i can come up with for Van2.0 for my 60th b-day or so a few years from now.

Cheers,
Thom

[stanw909]

I was actually thinking you'd start a new thread but our intrepit administrator can sort that out.Glad you joined.

[accrete]

Thanks again Stan. And it looks like Mark did us both a favor and started things up here

I'll answer any questions that may come along and welcome any comments.
I will do a bit of sprucing up and summarizing each area of the rig's build over the next few days just to get some info in this thread.

Thom

[accrete]

Originally Posted by stanw909

Thom you probably noticed Markopolo's post about a teardrop trailer and later the Scamp. How about showing off your trailer a little? Maybe in it's own thread.

Compliance...

OK...so what Cari & I decided after three seasons in the Van is that we wanted a solution to the portable outside living areas we typically set up such as Kitchen/Dinning Screen Room and all the things that went inside. We had burnt out on packing up soggy screen rooms since it rains year round in our area of the country. So we decided to spruce up the van's interior with the idea of making it basically a "Master Suite" that we would spend our evenings/sleep time in with a functional bath for evening use also. THEN, after much research we ordered a small 15 foot, 2300lb (loaded) fiberglass travel trailer from a new start up in North Carolina called "Parkliner". The plan was that we would use the trailer for a "Great Room" during the day/evening to lounge, cook, dine, and shower.
Here we are at Paradise Point Washington State Park last Memorial Day (yes it rained all week!) :


Here is the exterior of our 15 foot Parkliner Fiberglass TT parked next to our full time-live-in 38ft Mobile Suite :


There were several requests my wife and i had. One was that i wanted to make sure every window in our rig would be usable in rain...which we see nearly every adventure year round. So in the above image you can see the typical Jalousie Windows that hinge outward and allow air flow even in driving rain. The thing we added was a duplicate of the front shower/bath marine porthole in the curb side galley you see just past the entry door. This also has the added benefit of being glazed for privacy so there is no need for curtains in the galley area. The stock window is an identical window to what you see on the entry door except turned on its side...and it is not rain _friendly_.

Heading on into the trailer we can see a couple different images showing various set ups in the rear. There are a few options back there. One is a big U-Shaped seating arrangement...( & Check out all those cupboards!!)


One other arrangement is setting up what they call a _magic table_. The option we typically have these trips is the half table set up for 2 adults. Below it is out all the way set up for 4 adults.


Here is an overall shot looking forward from the rear seating area. Up front on street side you can see how the bench continues. You can lower the side dinette and make this area into either a single bed, or an optional bunk bed. To the right of shower you can see a hanging closet area:


One unique thing this tt allows is you could opt to keep the rear area set up full time as a queen size sleeping area. Then use the street side dinette to eat and such. We typically use this side dinette as an extension of the galley which is directly across on the curb side:


Looking across to the curb side galley. There is a non-powered cooler, there are cupboards below to store the kitchen ware and single burner 12000btu butane stove we use inside & outside the rig. (Not seen in this older photo...One of the simple cosmetic mods i did was replace the stock cooler door woodgrain panel with a nice white to match the white fiberglass interior.)


Looking forward you can see into the shower/potty room. We chose the model set up for a porta-potty...which slides into the lower street side white cabinet you see on the bottom left shower wall. There is a marine-sump-pump that drains water from shower to gray tank located under the rear table area. (fresh tank is located under the curb side rear bench seat.)


So that's the basics of our little "Great Room". We have found this combination for our style of boondocking/dry camping to be ideal for us. We typically get 16 to 17 mpg when towing fully loaded.

We can set up camp (often times in dispersed camp grounds) and still have the van to go out and play with. Also leaving the trailer at the camp gives the camp-taken message. We've never had issue with vandalism even in our original way of doing things and feel safe in the areas we camp. . . that leaves us a base camp for a bit of adventuring on local forestry roads/trails such as this panorama of us 18 miles in on Forestry Road 28 near Mt. Rainier Washington.

That should give you a good idea of what we are doing in our 34 foot articulated motor home
Happy Trails,
Thom

[markopolo]

Fiberglass travel trailers really seem to hold their value. There are a couple for sale in my region (Trillium / Boler) that are over 30 years old and probably sell now for more than they cost originally.

I looked around online for used Parliners earlier today but they are pretty rare. I like your Parkliner / really like the interior colors. It sure has lots of cupboards / lots of storage.

[booster]

I do like a lot of the features in the Parkliner, especially the multitude of storage areas and floor level air condtioner. Their website lists it at 8' 4" high, which is too high to go through our 8' door in the garage where it will live. It would fit in the shop, but we would have to move it, or the Roadtrek, outside when I need to work on the cars. I contacted Parkliner to ask them if it is really that tall, as all the other brands are under 8' without roof air, and they didn't answer the question directly, but said their facility also has an 8' door. They get them in and out by running them on rims with no tires

We have been thinking of adding a small trailer to use as a family room for about 3 years, and had thought it would be a Safari Condo Alto. We went to a dealer in London, ON, and looked at them, and they are truly awesome. Unfortunately, Safari Condo had told us that they would be able to eliminate the stuff we didn't want, like the propane system and such, but they neglected to tell us that if you have them eliminate anything, they still charge you for it. For a pretty plain Alto, we would have had $40K in it by the time we got it home, and still would have had to upgrade a crappy charging system, and solar controller, and remove the things we didn't want. Bummer. Aliner is also an option, but they are not of the same quality level.

We will be going up to see the folks at Scamp, who are only about 150 miles away from us, to see what they can do. Their deluxe 16' looks like a very nice unit.

http://www.scamptrailers.com/showroo...-trailers.html

Lots of storage, nicely done. It is under 8' tall without roof air, over 8' with roof air. I think we would get one without air and do a floor level mount of a Coolcat, which can be flush with the outside face, like in our Roadtrek. A little fiberglass work isn't a big deal for us to do the install here. They claim to make every trailer to order, but are unclear about how "special" they will go, and what it will cost, on their site. I have heard nothing but good about Scamp around here, so we are hopeful.

Our goal is to have a "family room" trailer to leave on site, like Accrete does. It would basically be non-campable, but would have TV, solar, 2 GC2 batteries, frig, microwave, air conditioning. No propane, but would have cold water storage to gain water capacity by being able to pump it to the Roadtrek. We would also have an umbilical cord to run both rigs off the Roadtrek genny. Hopefully also an attached screenroom. We would use the Roadtrek for sleeping, bathroom, showers, etc.

I think a Scamp would be in the range of $20K when all was said and done, or 1/2 the Alto cost. The Aliner probably would be a bit less than that, but also less desirable.

We will see how it all works out.

[accrete]

Greetings Booster,
Your thoughts on what might work for your "Family Room" behind your RT are well thought out.

On height...I have several netQuaintences that ulitize a similar _metal wheel_ mode to get their trailers (various egg brands) in/out of garages.

On rooflines and profiles. IMO, i think the Parkliner is one of the most handsome rigs on the road. Chandler (designer of the PL) designed an Anti-Trolley roof. There is an area that is ~8" lower and ~46" wide in the middle of the roof. This is the area that escape hatches, roof vents, & solar panels go. It makes for one of the cleanest side profiles around. Just ckeck out the difference:

Parkliner...curb side (PL's install side AC units...they are not roof mounted like most of the other eggs)...

Parkliner...street side


Scamp...


Casita...


Also, as you may have imagined...PL will only charge you for what you want installed in the rig. They come as basically a bare shell with basic interior finish (~~galley area, benches, cupboards, table(s), shower room, gray and fresh tanks, basic lighting and AGM battery. You add the rest from the options list.

Thom

Egg...

[booster]

When we read about the floor mount air conditioner when you first put up the info, we thought we had hit it all, as the roof mounts were all too high to go in the garage. Unfortunately, the basic height is too tall. We could use the no tire approach to store it in the winter in the garage, and put my car in that spot in the summer, with the trailer in the shop where the car usually is. We will have to check if the car will fit when we get the hotrod out, and hopefully sold, in the spring. The car is right about 18' long, so it would be very tight in that spot.

[accrete]

Sounds like you have some fun toys booster

Our PL is 15ft bumper to hitch as an FYI. Also, is there a reason the PL _needs_ to be inside? We have ours in the weather year round (same with our full time DRV Mobile Suite). I know of at least one Mid-West based PL owner that has a custom cover for their unit.

[booster]

Originally Posted by accrete

Sounds like you have some fun toys booster

Our PL is 15ft bumper to hitch as an FYI. Also, is there a reason the PL _needs_ to be inside? We have ours in the weather year round (same with our full time DRV Mobile Suite). I know of at least one Mid-West based PL owner that has a custom cover for their unit.

We live in Minnesota, and can tell you that you surely can tell the difference in vehicles, RVs, boats, etc that sit out when compared to those that are inside. For the number of hours/year that a trailer or RV is in actual use, you save a lot of wear and tear. Just isn't worth leaving them out, for us, if there is any way to get them inside. We have seen 10 year old Scamps of both storage places, in and out, and one looked new, and one looked very old.

[stanw909]

With the money you save over the Alto you could build a garage for the new Parkliner.

[booster]

Originally Posted by stanw909

With the money you save over the Alto you could build a garage for the new Parkliner.

No doubt about that Unfortunately, we are maxed out on what we can build on our lot, per the rules. Total outbuildings can only total the foundation size of the house, in our case 1285 sq feet, and the shop is 1260 sq feet. Weird part is that they don't limit attached garages at all for our lot size (2.5 acres), so we could add on the attached garage, or put a breezeway to the shop so it is attached, and then build another one!

Laughing aside, the Alto would be far and away our first choice, if they were $10K cheaper, which they could be if they didn't charge for everything and not give you many options. We were very disappointed in their attitude, after implying that they would be flexible and work with us. The communications were also terrible, as finally getting all the information took a year to complete. They are very well done, though. The fiberglass eggs are a few hundred pounds heavier, and much taller, but the van blocks all the wind anyway, so they both would probably tow about the same.

[accrete]

I'm going to repost a post i made over at a thread discussing how the rigs do climbing mountains just so i can have the data for future reference

Here is the post:

Greetings, I saw mention of "gassers" related to hill climbing and thought i'd share my experience with our 2010 Chevy 1500 AWD van conversion. My comment is made in reference to this post:

Originally Posted by booster

...Perhaps Marco will be able to jump in and let us know how his Chevy diesel does temperature wise, on long hills...Most of the diesels we hear about are Sprinters, so we really don't know if all diesels do better than the gassers for heating up, or not. Usually, the gassers have higher horsepower, so they can probably climb faster, which also generates waste heat faster, so that could also contribute. I am sure running them up the hill a bit slower, or down a gear from max they could pull, would also help them run cooler.

I just double checked with my wife who does most of the driving and verified the temp guage remains fairly steady at 210 no matter what we are asking the van to do. I've driven a few mountain passes also. In particular i recall driving over the coast range and doing the NASCAR pass around a class A struggling at ~50mph. We were towing our 15 ft travel trailer and i was easily able to accelerate to 65+ while passing uphill.

Here were the stats for that trip:
Van (weight at scales ~6900lbs of available 7000 GVWR)
Trailer (weight at scales ~2300lbs of available 5000 to GCVWR)
Specs off the chevy website for our rig:
5.3L v8 flex fuel/gas
Horsepower @ RPM 310 @ 5200
Torque @ RPM 334 @ 4500

Average mpg for that trip of ~600 miles was 16mpg in our two room 34ft articulated motorhome

Thom

[accrete]

Greetings,
Here is a shot of a typical camp setup showing our Chevy AWD Van Conversion and our 15 ft Parkliner fiberglass travel trailer.



In the above image we are at Nehalem Bay State Park on the Oregon Coast about 45 minutes south of where we live. On this trip (a Tues>Thurs in mid May) we had the campground much to ourselves. Which is part of the reason we so enjoy our mid-week "weekends"

Below is a shot of the van on one of the many logging roads open to the public.



The above was taken on "Cook Creek Road" which has several nice (free) dispersed camp sites on the river. This road is off HWY 53 and should be easily found on an up-to-date gps.


Happy Trails,
Thom

[stanw909]

Lovely spots.

[accrete]

Soooo... I've been elsewhere for a bit but wanted to share an updated image and info on our van conversion.

Here is an image taken a couple months back:



The biggest change (and I have detailed info at the van's main build thread) is the addition of Aluminess bumpers on front and back. The rear bumper was the biggie in that we wanted to find an easier solution for our camp chuck box we were setting up on a table...we now have a quick ~2min solution (shown below)



We also no longer have the Parkliner TT... it was slowing us down and we found ourselves leaving it down in some forestry camp as we ventured up the trail to spend a night in the woods.

: ) Thom

[accrete]

I just did a detailed right up _at this post on my build thread_ on how my wife and I addressed the issue of mold between pad/mattress and platform. Thought some would enjoy the read and grab some tips on how to deal with the issue.

Happy trails,
Thom