Made a trip to test out the completed van over last weekend. Went to Tahoe on Friday night, skiied at Northstar on Saturday in a storm of fresh powder (which was amazing), and left to head back right as I-80 closed. And then got the news that resorts were closing starting Sunday, so I guess the timing was both good and bad, depending on how you look at it.
The 4-wheel-drive worked great in the snow, but the trip brought some ideas for a few tweaks to improve the livability of the van.
First was to ditch the idea of the Lagun tabletop being able to go on top of the sink. It makes the sink completely unuseable, just a hassle. I replaced it with a bamboo cutting board, mounting two plastic guides to the bottom of the cutting board, along with some velcro to hold it in place. Now half the sink is accessible, and half can be used as counter space. There’s a drying rack under the cutting board for storing dishes also.
Next, I cut down the table top used for the Lagun mount. It was a little too big in such a small space, and barely fit, making moving around the van a little cumbersome. So I cut roughly 2 inches off each side, and refinished it in polyurethane. Now it’s much more useable.
Lastly, I used 3M VHB tape to stick down a strip a 1/8″ aluminum bar stock next to the legs of the bed, to stop the linear bearings from sliding the bed out when driving around. Every time I drove the van the bed would move around, and I’d have to move it back. This should stop that from happening, and still allow the bed to fold up easily.
That’s it for now. I want to mount a hangboard above the sliding door frame, but I’ve yet to figure out a good way to do that.
Andrew Liu 