DesertTed

Yeah, we did. We ended up using two marine rectangular ports. I've photos posted on the entire process, start to finish on my thread. Also, I posted info on putting in the overhead fan/vent. It's all been done very simply with a drill, angle grinder and jig saw, so it isn't beautiful, but quite functional. You may see us right around Tucson, two solar panels on the roof and now, our "deployable solar wing", a fun project. We now have 445 watts, especially for our fridge. Just doing the finishing touches now, will be in the road by summer. You have great travels this summer,too! Ted

We placed the fan, not all the way in the back, because of those seams. We placed it in front of the second to the last rib. If you look at the photos, you can see that Hub cut pretty much flush to the ribs. He used a drill for the corners and then the angle grinder for the rest of the cuts. We put it there so we would have plenty of room for the solar panels (since then, we've added another panel to bring us up to a total of 545 watts) We have it over the bed. If you plan to do that, make sure you get a Maxxair vent cover to keep out most of the rain. When we leave the van with a possiblity of rain, we put a tray under the vent to catch any water, just in case. Though we've had the vent open in a pretty good rain with no leaks. We have a Fantastic Vent cover, but the Maxxair one does the same.

See my post in the conversion threads. It was for a Fantastic Vent fan, but the opening is still 14"x14". I have photos there too.

See my post in the conversion threads. It was for a Fantastic Vent fan, but the opening is still 14"x14". I have photos there too.

Well folks, it's time to say goodbye. I'm an old woman and my sleep is too precious to lose because I'm so upset to be publicly,wrongly, accused of lying. I started this thread because, online, I didn't see much on converting an NV, especially in minute, sometimes intricate and at times, embarrassing detail. We've done this work with only drill, jig saw, an angle grinder (for the sheet metal) and hand tools. I'm proud of what my husband and I have accomplished in our neophytic, bumbling, and roundabout fashion. While I wouldn't say that the time and energy that I have expended in documenting our work has been a labor of love, I hoped that I could give helpful information for some inexperienced person thinking about doing a conversion like ours. Instead, my thread has been hijacked and trolled. I know that I will no longer take pleasure in composing here, knowing what is contained within. I am not accepting of the new normal of ignoring a nasty person and then blithely continuing on my way. So, I bid the rest of of you adieu. I thank all the rest of you for your help and support. Take care. Ted

I will say one more thing: You can call me a liar. That means my husband is a liar too, as he is a math teacher who does all the numbers. You are so kind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy-efficient_driving

First of all, I wouldn't drain my tank of 28 gallons. Second, I grew up in the automotive industry. I've had 18 brand new cars, including diesels and high performance ones. I've been checking my mileage since the 1970's fuel crisis. I have tracked every tankful of gas since we bought this vehicle. I think I know what I'm doing. I'm not going to get into a p*****g contest. End of subject.

Our newest addition is up and pretty much finished. The kitchen sink cabinet! Not that we have everything else yet. We had to wait until the bed base was in before we could position it in place. I'm not posting the bed photos until we have that completely finished. We used a stock Lowes 20" kitchen cabinet, with a solid wood back. Mindful of how flimsy these thing can be, we reinforced it with assistance from our favorite quasi-governmental agency, the Department of Redundancy Department. Hub glued and screwed in 22 L-brackets, ten around the inside of the base and twelve scattered all around the upper inside of the cabinet. And used nine assorted bolts and screws attaching the cabinet to the floor and base of the bed. I'll put some of that industrial Velcro on for when the door is closed while we're driving in order to maintain the structural integrity of the cabinet door and protection from vibration while driving. For the tiny counter top enclosing the sink, we used a solid wood counter top from IKEA. Since the cabinet is only 20" wide, the 16"x 18" sink we got from Amazon pretty much filled it up. But I have a very large cutting board from way back that will cover the sink so I can use it as a work surface. Because the sink was butted up against the bed and the driver's seat, I could foresee water and other liquid matter splashing in either direction. To limit that we used more of that counter top material we had as little walls, like a library carrel. I'm going to make good use of that vertical space by mounting a soap dispenser, a little spice rack and odds and ends on them and the back wall. There will be no faucet or grey water tank. The sink will drain into a 5 gallon water jug (or something)and we can dump it on the bushes whenever needed. As far as running water, we prefer not to have it, just another thing to go wrong. We've done so much camping without running water, we don't feel it is needed to keep us happy. The next thing to finish is the carpentry around the bed. Since it's just a double bed, there will be room on each side of the bed to make small little cabinets with opening "wings". That will take photos to explain. Simultaneously, we're running all the wires coming in from the roof. We finally decided to have three antennas: cell phone booster, a WiFi antenna and a TV antenna. When those are through the roof, then the ceiling will be finished. Hopefully, we'll finally get the cabinets and wall paneling up next. At that point, we'll have lots of little details to sew up. including installing that little electrical panel and ground bus.

Only from our wonderful pothole conglomerate they call roads here in Tucson! Just kidding, but the first thing that came to mind how awful the bumps and vibration are on the roads where we drive regularly. in the rare instances where we are driving on a smooth road, it is scary how smooth and quiet the vehicle is. Ted

Usually, we try to have about 300 miles minimum used in each tank. We go to the same gas station. Then we set the pump handle to go in at the same angle each time and let the pump run until it clicks off. The we divide the miles driven by the amount of gas dispensed. We do a running calculation of our mileage, so even if there are minor variations, the mileage trend is quite accurate in the long run. Ted

Get a cheap auto-ranging digital multimeter from Amazon. I paid about $30 for mine. Just make a circuit and and it'll show a little negative sign if the positive lead (red) is on the wrong wire. Easy peasy way to make sure. It's good thing to have anyway.

Trdriver, I'm sorry, I didn't see your question. I'm kinda self centered, I guess, I stay mostly on the conversion thread. But yes, the mileage seems to have improved. We have 12K now. I mentioned in my thread today that we drove almost 500km today 16.56 mpg. That's with the two panels on top with 1300 pounds added to vehicle weight (with two people included). The vehicle seems less buffeted by the wind now, with more weight on board. I invite you to my thread, "new camper conversion in Tucson" to see our bumbling along amateur conversion project. Ted

So, now we know that the two layers, the plywood and the solar panels didn't affect the mileage negatively. Today we drove 299.1 miles at 16.5651307045 mpg (more or less). Hub says that as far as he knows, that the solar panel installation is level, parallel to the roof. I'm pretty surprised, I too, thought that mileage would have been much worse. But Hub did drive at the sweet spot of 62-63 mph. We've found that speed is the optimum. We stay to the right and we're not rude. Maybe those who get worse mileage on the highway aren't going so slowly? Ted

Envy!

And if someone beeps at me or shoots me a bird, I just have a real big smile and wave like he/she is my best long lost friend. Then they think I'm truly loony tunes. And can't wait to get away.

I compete with myself all the time on getting better mileage. In town, we get about 12mpg-its not possible to get any better because of where and when we drive. But in any case, I drive like there's a raw egg between my foot and the gas pedal. I watch the rpm's and gently accelerate into the higher gears and stay just above where the transmission will downshift. I'm able to run at about 1200 rpm until I'm at about forty. I don't draft. I don't coast in neutral. And I look way ahead. When stuck at a light,I usually leave several car lengths in front of me and then let the idling engine gain momentum before the vehicles in front of me even start to accelerate. I drive several miles under the flow of traffic so it flows around me like water Unlike our last vehicle, a Honda Fit, people don't ride my ass, they just drive around me, because I'm a big girl now. And I have a handicapped plate. Usually when you are behind a car with handicapped plates which is driving slowly, dontcha sometimes think to yourself, "Maybe that guy is mentally handicapped, that's why he/she is driving that way!" And ya just shake your head and go around. I'm really obnoxious. I am hardly ever in a hurry. That helps.

Hey breeze, I mentioned in my post that we didn't want to drill into the roof for the solar panels-24 screws! And the way the roof racks had to be situated, because of the fan and housing, we couldn't connect the panels directly to them. Also, the panels cannot be fastened flush to any surface because there will be increased heat concentration and heat decreases the solar efficiency. So we were left with the plywood solution. Not the most graceful, but it does have the added benefit of giving 25 sq feet of shade to the roof, especially since we'll be in sunny warm weather a lot of the time. I looked into installing a fairing. From what this non-technical reader was able to ascertain, is that a fairing will help with noise, but the jury is out on how much it would help the gas mileage, which is abysmal even under the best conditions. We assume that that we'll take a hit in the gas mileage, but how much, don't know yet. In the city, given that we are hardly ever able to go over 40 mph, the mpg is the same. Tucson is not a normal city in that I believe that the lights are synchronised so you hit every single red light. It's just about impossible to hypermile here, though I am pretty good at it. I get about 2 mpg more than Hub does, just having a much more conservative driving style. If you're in a hurry, You.Do.Not.Want.To.Drive.Behind.Me! As far as highway mileage, I went up to Phoenix and back (all highway) with just the plywood and the roof racks-both new items. We check our gas mileage with every tank. With the round trip, about a 200 miles drive we got about 15 mpg, which is our norm for highway mileage. But, we had a lovely tailwind on the way up, with only weaker front quartering wind on the way down into Tucson. The only difference that I could tell with the plywood on top is an increase, but not a huge change, of wind noise. It wasn't noticeable unless I actually tried to listen for it. We'll be making another drive to Phoenix and Scottsdale this week, this time with the whole shebang on top, and we'll see how it goes. If the gas situation is much worse than we're willing to tolerate, then we will likely install a fairing. But, we don't plan to drive too fast, and will be taking the scenic route while traveling on our walkabout. So, at this point, it's not super high on our concerns chart. Getting the vehicle functional and the house sold are our main objectives for now. I'll keep y'all posted with the mpg status from our drive. Unfortunately, wind usually plays a significant variable factor on mileage, so we can almost never have a controlled environment for computations. But in the long run, it all averages out. The average mileage with our vehicle, even before modifications, always sucks. Sucky or suckier gasoline consumption, that's our choice. But there was no better choice than the Nissan NV eight cylinder for our camping conversion. Not Fiat, not Ford, certainly not $Mercedes$, and none of the non-hightop vans were even on our very short list. Ted

In case you're wondering why we put a gap between the solar panels? Well, considering that we'll be traveling on the "Blue Highways" (William Least Heat-Moon's wonderful book), we'll need to get up on the roof with a lopper and bow saw in order to cut down plant matter that may impede our progress. The gap is just barely wide enough for Hub's foot, to allow him to stand in the front of the vehicle to clear the low hanging green stuff. It's very unfortunate that my very wide feet won't fit in the gap. It's terrible that I'll not have the the foilage cutting duties. Maybe I'll sip tea while I supervise.

Solar progress! We didn't want to drill a bunch of holes in the roof to mount the solar panels. And the roof rack placement with our vent fan and housing made it impossible to mount the panels directly on to the roof racks securely. So Hub laid down 3/4" plywood with 3 coats of paint with primer on to the roof racks. Hub also is a member of the Department of Redundancy Department, so he fastened the wood to the roof racks with 24 bolts. He mounted the panels with the Renogy solar panel mount Z Brackets. Six per panel for a total of 24 screws and rubber washer type thingies that came with the brackets. Oh, the panels are 140 watt Cynergy monocrystaline that are $112 a piece from SolarBlvd in California (I think that's the name). I mention the seller because I had a question about connecting the cables. The woman who answered the phone transferred me to technical support and the gentleman to whom I spoke answered promptly. He was very helpful and I was able to text him pictures of my question and he got right back to me after conferring with a colleague there. Stateside, understandable, unaccented English. I don't want to be bigot, but that can be very helpful with a technical question. I finished the electrical! The problem I had was not because of something I had done wrong, it was a crappy part I got from AutoZone. Can I also recommend that you use BlueSeas electrical hardware? But I'm not going to post a photo of my electric system panel. Wollip's is so much prettier. Since I have the same CTEK system, I'll be generous to myself and say it looks like his (kinda sorta). Connecting the rooftop solar cable,getting some conduit on my spaghetti of wires and diagramming the system is the last thing I have to do to call it complete. I counted it up and (separate from the stock Nissan outlets), I now have four LED lights with remote switches, the Fantastic Vent ceiling fan, eight 12 volt outlets, ten USB outlets, two voltmeters and two ammeters (one on the solar input and one going out of the CTEK system to the battery bank). Like I said in another post, I hate wires stretched all over the place, so I have outlets (or multiple outlets) anywhere we could possibly need them. And I'm a gadget queen, so I need outlets! The inverter has two USB outlets, in addition to the AC outlets. Another compliment to Shawn at Big Sky Mobile RV Tech Services here in Tucson who installed the 4 gauge cable and other goodies from the engine compartment (with a circuit breaker there, too), under the vehicle, and up through the floor. Since my electric system is right over the gas tank area, he was able to go around the tank nicely. Since I am physically unable to scoot on my back under the vehicle to look at Shawn's work, Hub did and said it looked "very professionally done and well-executed". Shawn quoted me a price when he came to the house (did I mention that he only does house calls?) . When he had finished, I asked him to do one thing more. He needed one part and came back the next morning (on Saturday) and finished up. I asked him how much more did it cost for the second visit, amazingly, he said that there was no extra charge for the coming back. Of course I gave him extra money. YMMV. Last, but not least, I attached my 100 watt portable solar suitcase to the CTEK solar input in the front yard this morning. It was fairly hazy, but it was still putting out about 5 amps. Gadzooks! This is slowly coming together! I'm almost bursting with anticipation of our adventure! Or was that the brisket that I had for dinner tonight?

Yay!!! Of course I didn't get most everything done that I had planned until after sunset, but I couldn't resist connecting the battery. So, of what was expected to function: 6 USB outlets work, a 12 volt outlet works,two voltmeters and the ammeter work, the overhead light and the fantastic vent fan works! The only 2 items that didn't work were the rear LED lights. I think I messed up the ground on those. I wasn't quite sure as there was an extra male butt connector (I don't know the correct term) on each switch. Tomorrow I'll fix those, get the second fuse box connected and we'll see how this grand experiment works out for the rest of the project. When I started this, I had no idea where to start. Between my sailboat 12 volt Bible, extensive research on the web and generous help from folk on CheapRVliving.com, I was able to do this. I am very pleased. Yes, I am bragging, but this is just to show how a total neophyte can accomplish a task that I would have thought beyond me. Thanks for listening (kinda sorta). Ted

Gangsta! I like that better than the "armored car" look. Things are moving along. H3 racks on top (duh, where else would they be?). I bought two, but I should have bought three as we want to put things on top (most vital, propane) that need to be secured to a cross member. We've mounted plywood to the two racks in front of the fan housing and will be putting two 140 watt solar panels up. Twenty-five square feet of shade-good to help with the sun here in Arizona. The boys are saying my electrical project looks like spaghetti. I don't know why, besides the two stock 12 volt, USB and 120 volt AC outlets, that I needed to add seven 12v outlets,ten USB and two 120 volt AC outlets. To be fair, two of the USB and the two AC outlets are on the inverter. And I can't forget the five light fixtures with toggle switches. It kinda got away from me, ya think? Seemed like a good idea to start out with. With all that power use, I need to keep an eye on amps flowing, so I'm installing two ammeters, one for the solar input and the other for the CTEK output to the batteries. Now, I wonder how much of it will work when I fire up the whole project (hopefully "fire" won't be the operative word). Testing with the multimeter can only do so much, only real life will tell. I am a 12 volt maven now! I have ascertained, most importantly, between the Smartpass, the 280 watts solar on top, and the 100 watts solar suitcase,that we will have more than adequate juice to use our Keurig coffee maker. Provided that we have sun. I have my antenna (removable) plans for the cell phone booster, the TV, and the wifi. They should top out at about seventeen feet. We'll only be able to use only two at a time. I know that we're going way overboard on all the"improvements", but Blanca will be our only home for at least two or three years. Once we've moved in, I prefer not to have to make a mess to install things, nor we have a place to do things. So, hopefully, doing more now will forestall future projects. Things are moving slower than we want, as we're simultaneously readying the house for sale. It's like swimming in molasses. But good news-we've boomeranged #3 son out for his fifth round! Next time there won't be a homestead to boomerang back into. #4 son will boomerang out for the fourth time when the house is sold. Mum's a chump, eh? I can't really complain much, they're good kids, so it's been nice to have them around. Photos and more details to come.

I second that question. Hub and I,too, will be carrying the same ratio proportionately. We will be carrying a boatload of water for extended boondocking on public lands where water is scarce. We also will weigh in at least 8700, possibly well over, at the beginning of an extended trip, says Hub. He also checked on the pillar behind the driver's door and the GVWR for our 3500 is 9900 pounds. We plan on carrying the water in the cabin while on the Interstate, but on the roof while poking down country, forest roads. We'll have upper cabinets, but they'll be carrying clothing and light sutuff. But they, themselves weigh a bit. Also, the solar, which is mounted on 3/4" plywood. Thanks, Ted

More progress. We hadn't been planning to get a ladder, but ended up getting one. With the traveling we'll be doing, there is a good likelihood of the need to climb up on top of Blanca to trim greenery as she's about 9'8" tall with the Fantastic Vent fan housing and cover. Shlepping a separate ladder and having to get it out each time needed would be a pain. The one we got from Amazon went on very easily. It hooked up over the top of the door and then Hub only had to drill two holes to attach the bottom of the ladder. It came with rubber gaskets. It makes it easy to climb up on the roof. Not real comfortable on bare feet, though. Hub rates the ease of putting on the ladder at a 10 out of 10.

The CTEK people got back to me. They said that the systems are now at the max 23Voc instead of the old 22 Voc limit. I ended up getting two 140 watt panels with the Voc at 21.6. No need for an MPPT. And no problem using my Renogy 100watt portable solar panels in addition to the rooftop solar. With the rooftop and portable panels together we'll have 380 watts total of solar, which should be okay with our 300AH battery bank. We may occasionally have to charge with the engine, but we don't plan on staying stationary for more than a week or so in that case. It looks like we'll be able to use my 800 watt Keurig coffee maker. Yeah!!!

Well, nothing happened. Which is a good thing. The dealer couldn't find anything . I don't remember the terminology, but they checked it out thoroughly and found nothing. So we took the vehicle home and nothing has happened, nor has it recurred. It's on the radar, just in case anything we to come up, but all is well and hopefully nothing more. What a relief.