I got an early start and mostly single handedly installed the shore power for the van. The shore power outlet will allow me to connect to an external electrical outlet to charge my van batteries. I’ll use this sometimes when I’m staying in a campsite with electrical power, or when I’m in someone’s driveway. This project required me to cut my first hole in the van, a 2 7/8″ hole for the outlet, plus four small holes for the screws that attach the shore power outlet. Here is a short video of the process;
It only took me about an hour to complete this task, and I think it turned out great. If I had to critique the video, I would use a smaller hole in the van for the outlet, and I had to use a larger drill size for the four screws that attached the outlet. Artie helped me with tightening the four screws, as you needed someone both inside and outside the van to complete this step of the process.
Here is what it looks like;
The weatherman said it was going to be cloudy today, and I was looking forward to the cloud cover, but it turned out to be a sunny day (at least in the morning when we were working). It was also another hot day with temperatures climbing into the upper 80’s by the time we finished the big project for the day, which was installing the AC in the roof of the van.
My friend Pat helped again today, and Artie also assisted. We started about 9:00 with hoisting a 4’x8′ sheet of plywood onto the roof rack to use as a platform to work from. The plywood lift was awkward, because of the size of the sheet. But, we made a few adjustments to our process and quickly had that on the roof rack. Then we hoisted the box that held the AC up onto the roof of the van. The box weighed about 75 pounds, but is was smaller. Between the three of us we were able to muscle it up to the roof of the van.
I knew exactly where I wanted the AC unit to be installed, so I quickly outlined the 14″x14″ hole I needed to cut in the roof of the van. I drilled a hole in the four corners of the outline and used a jigsaw to cut along the lines. The jigsaw made short work of the cutting. Then we filed down the rough spots and painted the exposed metal with primer.
Everything was going well, but then the process video that I had selected let us astray. It’s hard to explain, but suffice it to say that we had to install the AC unit in the hole twice and ended up with sealant all over the place. While I was securing the AC unit to the roof of the van, Artie was using isopropyl alcohol to clean up sealant from all over the place. But, we got the AC unit installed and I’m hoping that it doesn’t leak. Leak test to follow.
In this picture you can see the Velit AC unit peaking out above the roof rack faring;
Here is what the unit looks like on the inside of the van. Once the ceiling goes in, I’ll remove the white protective foam covering and also install the shroud that goes around the unit.
Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be more of the same, but while the sheet of plywood is on the roof of the van, I’m going to finish the work on the roof by cutting another hole and installing the MaxxAir fan.