New camper conversion in Tucson!

[DesertTed]

Hello all! I've been lurking until now. Hubby and I just bought a new 3500 last week. We are going to convert it into an RV. We can live with the smaller cargo area, there really was no consideration of the other manufacturers'vans. We've had three Nissan's and hope the trouble-free experiences we have had continue. The unexpected bonus with the NV3500 is how wonderfully comfortable the driver and passenger seats are. So, tomorrow, we start our project by applying Noico sound deadening matting to reduce the racket! Driving at high speeds and on Tucson's terrible streets (our potholes have potholes) makes the back of the empty van almost too noisy to hold a conversation in front. So, we have 108 square feet of the Noico matting to apply. We plan on posting our photos of our progress.

 

One thing we have decided, though: we are not terribly well-off but we aren't going to spare reasonable expense to do this project well. Full-time living part of the year is our plan.

 

Hubby and I spend months each year tent camping. During the late 90s, I had a Nissan Quest with which we did a fair amount of stealth camping. Stealth camping will be a lot more enjoyable with a full sized cargo van this time around.

 

So here we go on this adventure!

[DesertTed]

Our next post from the introduction thread:

 

 

I'm not really up on the mechanics of forums, so, having forgotten to answer your question, the answer is: we will not have any fresh water, grey water or black water tanks. Porta-potty prepped with newspaper and kitty litter will do, with bio-degradeble bags to bury if we are away from civilization and trash receptacles. Generally we use the outhouses or toilets if they are available. At night Hubby uses a Gatorade bottle. As a chick, I can't aim that well, so I do use the porta-potty.

 

We will have a sink basin that will drain into a 5 gallon trash can. Grey water tanks/jugs will stink, so to prevent that, I can clean the bucket thoroughly as needed. And we can just dump it outside on a bush when we're done using it.

 

We've always done very simple camping. Keeping things simple is important. The more complicated things are, the more stuff to break.

[DesertTed]

From another member's post, Radin2son:

 

 

 

Posted Today, 06:19 PM

Welcome. You will have the 3rd camperized NV in Tucson. The other is Daydreamer (?) but she hasn't posted in awhile. Did you buy your NV at Jim Click? Or did you go north? Jim Click has been good for service, mainly oil changes. Very few warranty issues and no recalls for years. Ask for Jeff if you call to set up service.

 

Start your own build thread under Conversions"

Edited August 22, 2016 by DesertTed

[DesertTed]

From the introduction forum:

 

Today, 10:03 PM

We bought the van up at Nissan Autonation Chandler. We were originally going to get the 2500 8 cylinder one advertised on their site, but it ended up that one was ”in transit" (it's listed that way now, but not when we started considering it at first). The commercial salesperson, Terry Rogers understood that we were coming up from Tucson, so when he called to tell me that, I believed that it was a bait and switch situation, especially since we would have the hassle to be coming up with two vehicles to trade in. I was very wrong, as Terry was calling to let me know that, since we had negotiated a price on the non-existent 2500, he would give us a 3500 SL for the negotiated price. So we have the upgraded van with bells and whistles we would have liked to have (like the towing package), but didn't want to spend the money on. The transaction was painless, I guess because it is a commercial vehicle which is handled differently.

 

We would have preferred to go with the local dealer, but the salesperson (who will remain unnamed) dropped the ball big time. I'm hoping Jim Click service will do better than the sales department!

 

My hubby and I are retired, so we will be working diligently and steadily on the conversion. We hope to make steady progress and look forward to our maiden voyage next Summer. In the couple of years we've been doing most of our camping on Mt.Lemmon and Lake Patagonia, in the summer and winter,respectively. We look forward to going further afield, especially some we will no longer have to fill our Honda Element to the gills, carrying our kayaking gear, too. He was a great car, just not big enough for our "glamping".

 

I will take your suggestion to start our own conversion thread. As I said, I'm not very experienced with online forums, so I'll attempt not to do it wrong. Since I've already commenced discussing our conversion, I'm hoping it will not be a violation here to copy and paste my four posts there. But I'm sure if I mess it up someone will correct me!

[DesertTed]

Last copy and pasted post from another thread:

 

Today, 07:58 AM

We'll be using the extruded poly styrene for the floor and then denim insulation for the walls and roof. It's got a better insulation value than either the polyiso or the styrene. It's also quite easy to use and no fiberglass to deal with. On the roof we will be putting reflectix right next to the sheet metal and then the denim insulation. Gravity should keep the reflectix the ideal distance from the ceiling. But first, on the walls, floor and ceiling, we're putting on Noico adhesive matting to reduce noise. Theoretically, the Noico is supposed to help insulate.

[DesertTed]

Last question of the day-

I'm on my tablet and have tried to figure out how to post fotos, to no avail. How do I do that? Copy and paste doesn't work for that. You can see what a newbie I am, so please be tolerant...

[DesertTed]

In case anyone is curious, we don't need to carry kayaks on racks as we have "skin on frame" kayaks. Each 16.5 foot long kayak fits in one (big) backpack.

[radin2son]

Post #3. Not sure how you did this, but please edit out my profile info. It should only be available to signed in members. It this case it is available for all to see.

 

Regarding photos, make sure you are on the full site, not mobile. Click on reply options or edit and you will come up with the way to attach files/photos. New Apple products make this very easy. For whatever reason, vertical photos don't attach well so try to take photos with your camera held horizontally.

 

There is a lot of good info under conversions. Read everything to get some idea of what works and doesn't. You can also search van life and campervans to get even more info. Lots of VWs out there.

Edited August 22, 2016 by radin2son

[DesertTed]

Radin2son, I'm sorry I put in that info. I just copied and pasted, but it's been deleted. Good old backspace key¡

 

I've been looking at other sites, doing much research on our conversion. You should see my Amazon shopping cart! My"save for later" list is very, very long. There's just not a lot of info directly relevant to the NVs.

 

As for the photo posting, it was interesting that when I went into the post to edit out your info, I saw an option to upload images.

 

Thank you for your help!

Edited August 22, 2016 by DesertTed

[Great White]

Welcome to the forum and the NV. It is a great platform for conversion. I built mine to be light weight and removable in case I need it to haul. I use 5 gal. jugs for fresh water and grey water. I have a porta potti. I didn't want to deal with tanks. I have an RV we live in full time and the tanks on it are enough hassle for me. I have pics posted in Conversions. Good luck with your build and enjoy the van.

[radin2son]

Thanks. I see you have a Arizona or Desert white NV.

 

The Sportsmobile forum has a lot of good information. I may have been the only NV SMB out of 30 built that participated. No longer... Mostly Fords and Speinters.

 

Be sure to watch the "magic" video. There is another video by a full timer. Both high top NV home builds.

[DesertTed]

Yes, the "Magic" video inspired plenty envy. Our conversion will be functional, but not terribly attractive since neither Hubby or I are carpenters and don't have the skill set to make it as beautiful. But we're taking our time, which gives us plenty of time to make sure that we will not regret some of our design plans. So far I change my mind on specific plans every three minutes, which is driving Hub mad.

 

We're done putting down the Noico. The noise level is less than half than it was before the Noico, if I can quantify it. We covered the floor behind the seats completely. The wheel wells are Noico'd twice (that's a nice confabulated word). We only bought three packages at $63.90 a piece (36square feet each box),necessitating pretty thin coverage for the sides and roof. Maybe a total of 50% of the total surface of the cargo area is covered, but we're quite satisfied. The three boxes weighed 84 lbs!

 

We're now working on the floor, currently cutting the narrow strips of R-Tech (3/4 inch thick) between the ribs on the floor. We'll be spraying Great Stuff in the rest of the nooks and crannies between the strips and the horizontally trim the excess with a hacksaw blade. On top of that, we are laying 1 inch of the pink Owens Corning R-5 insulating board. The pine joists will be set into channels cut out of the foam board. The vapor barrier is next and the 5/8 inch plywood will finish it off until we get the messy stuff done on the rest of the cargo area. We plan to put waterproof vinyl flooring down after that. I chose waterproof because we kayak and often can't get our gear completely dry before leaving wherever we've been paddling. Our kayaks are skin on frame and go into bags that will be stowed under our bed.

 

When we get finish the above work, I'll post photos of each step.

Edited August 26, 2016 by DesertTed

[wollip]

That hacksaw blade will murder your hands. Get a cheap Oscillating Multi-Tool Kit ( Harbor Freight kind of cheap ) and trim that foam insulation like shearing a sheep.

[DesertTed]

I'll tell that to Hub. It was all I could do to convince him to get an angle grinder! He thinks doing things by hand is better. Even though his arthritic hands tell him differently. I just shake my head sometimes...

[DesertTed]

Oops, I forgot to say thank you. My mother beyond the grave reminded me! It's funny how it can be so many years and just yesterday.

[DesertTed]

Black screw-in plates on floorby the rear wheel wells : what did you do?

 

We've gotten to the point where we are ready to put the plywood sheet and vinyl flooring over the two layers of foam and joists. (The bottom layer is R-Tech cut into strips between the ribs and then covered with Great Stuff in the cracked and crevices).

 

My question for all of you who've put on a floor, did you cover the plates? Did you cut out around them? Are we likely to ever need access? What are they for? Hub unscrewed one, looked inside and then shrugged his shoulders,"I don't know". Once we put the plywood on, it will be a hell of a mess to access them.

 

Thank you, you've all been wonderful with your knowledge and help!

 

I needed to edit this so I could put a photo, is the only way I know how to upload pix. Once again, the van isn't on its side, I just don't know how to rotate them on the tablet:

Edited August 31, 2016 by DesertTed

[wollip]

Since I covered mine nearly 4 yrs ago, I'm anxious to hear why I will someday regret it.

[wollip]

By the way, these are darn good screws for wood to metal - and readily available at Home Depot. Available in various lengths.

[DesertTed]

Thanks! I was hoping to hear that. I'll not hold you to that if I ever need to access them, though. I texted myself the picture of the screws so when I go to the Home Despot next time, I'll pick them up. It'll save me the indecision when I stand in front of the plethora of choices.

[wollip]

Those Teks wood to metal screws were highly recommended on another build site and I did use a few of them. But I mainly glued my plywood down using Loctite Pl Premium Polyurethane Construction Adhesive and a huge number of heavy landscaping stones to apply pressure while it dried for two or three days.

I also have the thru bolts from the couch/bed install and a few other similarly bolted items that help hold it all in place. Four years with no problems and no squeaks.

A combination of screws and glue could probably eliminate the need for weights but I didn't want to have to fill all of the screw holes.

[DesertTed]

OK, that is good to know. Doing both sound good. But next question is about attaching things to the floor.

 

We're going to put the vented deep cycle battery box in the area behind the driver seat area. Obviously, we need to securely fasten it to the floor. I found this from a blog of a gentleman Wayne Wirs. An interesting fellow, he had this to say about drilling into the NV's floor:

 

"To attach the wood to the deck, I used these Teks 1 7/16″ self-tapping wood to metal screws. What is nice about the NV (and maybe other vans, I dunno) is that the body lies on top of the (about) 3″ frame and all the other stuff under the van bed lies below the frame (including the don’t-drill-a-metal-screw-into-the gas tank). This gives you about three inches of a safety zone so that you can drill into the floor without too much worry (I did a quick eyeball check each time anyway)."

 

Do any of you know about this? It would be nice to not be fearful about attaching the box to the floor. I don't want to drill into a dangerous place, but we do need more purchase than the preexisting small drill holes behind the console which are very limited weight limit.(5 kilo).

 

In the body builder's guide, page 197, the caution is to be careful that I'm not drilling into a critical area. But it doesn't prohibit the drilling. It just says to verify before drilling.

 

So, can I, very carefully, drill into the floor in order to anchor my battery box?

[wollip]

I think that's the very same guy I got the idea from on the screws.

A quick look underneath will show you that most areas have an air gap between the van floor and any critical component.

But before I drilled anything thru the floor, I would look twice, measure, and look again underneath. You really only get one chance.

Not wanting to make it sound any worse than it is - just be careful and you'll be fine.

[Bamps]

Hello, been looking through this tread. Great looking van. There was no real question as to what van I would get either when I was buying. I've owned Nissans since 1999. All have been Avalanche White until the last Frontier and this NV. They are "glacier white". I am also in Arizona but more on the NW side of the state.

[KMG]

Bamps,

You really went wild with your new vehicle color.  Switching from Avalanche to Arctic white was a bold move.  I'm a white vehicle guy too.

 

DesertTed,

Try using a drill bit depth guide to limit bit travel beyond the hole depth?  It's what I did just to feel safer about drilling.  They are available as a single size bit or as slide on collars.  also if all the holes are the same depth, a simple piece of small rigid tubing cut to the hole depth length slid over the bit will perform the same function.

Good luck!

 

 

Edited September 5, 2016 by KMG

[DesertTed]

Okay, so here I go with posts on our slow progress. I'll be doing one post at a time because of my difficulty in uploading photos. I still haven't figured out how to post photos except to upload when I go back into edit the post. It's going to be a really basic description of what we've done with the photos. We've been winging lot of the things we've done, some just because it's seems like it's a good idea at the time.

 

1) we took off the wall panels and set them aside for later. Hub took off the factory floor. There's carpet pad under the rubber mat. We then put Noico(Amazon-36 sq ft/box $67) We had three boxes, so we covered the floor once, the wheel wells twice. With the leftover bits and pieces,we stuck them all the rest of the inside as we didn't want to spend more money than we had to. I had read that even covering 1/4 to 1/3 of the area will work. Verdict? Fantastic! We can speak in normal tones while on the freeway. No more loud subwoofer reverberation. Still, there were assorted squeaks while driving on Tucson's awful roads.

 

2)Next, over the Noico, we put down strips of R-Tech inside the ribs of the floor. It's attached with one can of adhesive, 3M Super 77. Then between the foam, Hub had a blast with Great Stuff for windows and doors, using about six cans.

 

Pix below:

Edited September 6, 2016 by DesertTed