Jim

We have some company today, so there was limited time for the van build. But, I still got a few hours in. I focused on the electrical cabinet and started out by connecting the two batteries together electronically. This meant connecting the positive terminal from one battery to the negative terminal of the second battery […]

I had a good run of days building the van, but I got ahead of my planning and purchasing. So, I took a couple of days off of the build to create detailed plans for the upper bunk and the galley. I also ordered the materials that I needed for these two components. Then it

A short day today. I spent just over an hour completing the install of the deadbolt lock in the driver’s door. I had done the mechanical work yesterday, and today I did the electrical work and re-installed the door panel. This mostly involved splicing into the existing Ford wiring harnesses to connect the deadbolt lock

It was a cool and cloudy day and I was looking forward to making some good progress on the van. However, things don’t always go as planned. Last night Elizabeth and I took the van to Lowes to pick up a bunch of bags of mulch, so Elizabeth could spread some mulch today. However, we

It was a cooler and dry day, which made it very comfortable to be working on the van. High temps in the low 80’s were a nice relief. Today, I continued to work on the electrical cabinet and finished all the items that I could do with the materials I had. I started out by

The weather was a little cooler today and it was dry. So, a good day to work on the van! I continued my work on the electrical cabinet. I started by doing some cable management, which basically means using brackets and cable ties to route the wires in a more organized manner, and to prevent

Another cooler day and I was able to spend the day working on installing components into the electrical cabinet. In the morning, I finished wiring up the solar isolator (I had begun work on that the night before). The solar isolator allows me to disconnect the power coming from the solar panels, which may be

The weather was a lot cooler today and it would have been a great day to put in a lot of time on the van build. But alas, I had a dentist appointment and some other meetings to attend to. I did manage three hours, though. I started by bolting the lower bunk to the

I took a few days off to go hiking and camping with my brothers in Red River Gorge Kentucky. So, back at it today. It is going to be a hot day, so I worked a couple of hours in the morning, and then one more in the evening. I’m staying away from working on

I took yesterday off from the van build, because I woke up with a very sore wrist. I think I pulled some muscles when I was pulling insulation off of wires. I took a bunch of ibuprofen and it felt better today. Still, I decided to take it easy and not try to strip insulation