Category: Blog

Mounting a hangboard above the sliding door.

Andrew

Ever since seeing how Alex Honnold has a hangboard mounted above the door in his van, I wanted to do the same. Good way to get some training in wherever I might end up.

Problem is, there isn’t as much space above the door frame in my van, and the sliding door track gets in the way.

So I started with a Metolius Compact II training board, and cut the bottom rungs off. This was required for clearance, and I’m not really advanced enough to make use of them anyway. I also bored out two of the original mounting holes on the board to accomodate using studs/nuts to mount the board instead of wood screws.

Then I used an 1/4″ aluminum plate to make a mounting adapter, so I could move the bolts above the sliding door mechanism. Countersunk some bolts to make the studs for the hangboard, and some 3M VHB to prevent metal-on-metal rubbing when mounted to the van.IMG_20200321_124711

Installed some plusnuts above the door frame to bolt the adapter plate to, then bolted the hangboard to the plate.

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Done!

Week 1 of COVID-19 working from home: small tweaks to the van.

Andrew

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Adapting a Lagun table mount to 80/20.

Andrew

Lagun’s table mount comes with a fixture that’s intended to be mounted on some sort of wooden furniture, usually.

It’s wide, with 4 mounting bolts:

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Since I’m going to be mounting to an 80/20 extrusion that is the leg of the bed, I needed to modify this.

Pretty simple, drill 2 holes, countersink for the heads, cut off the sides.

Now I have a table mount on the side of the bed that I can use as desk space for working, extra table space for cooking, etc.

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The top of the leg is tapped for a 5/16×18 thread, so to take the stress of the table off of the pivot, I screw in a knob bolt through the 3-way corner connector to the top of the leg to stiffen everything up when the table is on.

The countertop is another one of those hardwood workbench tops from HomeDepot, and fits either on the Lagun mount, on top of the sink, or stores behind the driver’s seat:

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Now I can use this space at the end of the bed as a desk, or as counter-top space for cooking. Pretty simple, but very useful.

 

The van is done.

Andrew

After a long hiatus, due to life, work, and just focusing on the build, the van is done.

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There was a lot of work done in the last few months, but to sum up the van build:

  • 2019 Nissan NV 2500 SV V8 High Roof
  • Quigley 4×4 conversion
  • Front push bar, with Rigid Amber fog lights
  • Recovery points from a 200-series Land Cruiser
  • 265/70R17 Hankook DynaPro AT2 tires
  • Prime Designs rear door ladder
  • HaloView rear view camera system
  • Rhino Rack roof rack
  • ARB 2M awning
  • 2 100W solar panel
  • 2 100 AH AGM batteries under the bed, next to the driver’s side wheel well
  • Thinsulate insulation for walls and ceiling
  • Cedar tongue and groove ceiling finished with Tung oil
  • 1/2″ XPS foam board under 1/2 marine-grade plywood for flooring
  • 1/4″ Hardwood underlayment plywood with heather grey tweed upholstering for wall panels
  • 80/20 15-series extrusions used for all framing, with all paneling for the cabinets and shelves made from 1/4″ King Starboard marine HDPE sheeting (except for the plywood accents for the under-bed bike mount and passenger wheel-well compartment)
  • Murphy Bed, using 80/20’s linear bearing combined with a pivot, and a winch to raise/lower the bed (it’s heavy with two bikes mounted to it)
    • Mad Rock Mad Pad Triple crash pad, with a 2″ memory foam mattress topper, as the mattress
    • Grizzly Canvas 15 degree two-person sleeping bag (because it’s comfy and warm, and weight is not an issue)
  • 2 Bikes stored under the bed, with the capability to carry another bike above the passenger wheel well compartment, and two bikes on the rear door (I like bikes.)
  • Indel B TB41A fridge in between the two front seats
  • New Age Products garage sink assembly and garage cabinets on the passenger side, used to minimize build time and because they’re higher quality and stronger than anything I can make.
    • All electrical and plumbing are located in the sink assembly, as described in a previous post.
  • Propex HS2000 heater under the sink.
  • 2.5 gallon propane tank mounted high on the rear door, where the window would normally go.
  • Single burner butane stove, with a countertop that can be used with a Lagun mount or on top of the sink. A small camp kitchen, basically.
  • Cheap blackout curtains from HomeDepot for privacy.

 

I think that about sums up the big parts of the build. It’s going to take a long time to write through my thought process for most of the parts of this build, why I did what I did and chose the parts I chose, which is why I didn’t do it during the build process :).

The short version is that I wanted the ability to have a lot of floor space. It makes the otherwise small interior of the van feel a lot more open when you can walk around freely if you want to. It also allows me to carry cargo if I need to. I also wanted a low bed, as opposed to the ever-popular high bed, as having a low bed just makes using it easier, from sitting on it, to stretching out, it just feels more like a normal bed in a home.

The rest of the reasons will come in due time.