Fuel for Thought

The Van

I bought the van new in 2007. It is a 2007 Dodge Sprinter 2500, with 170-inch wheelbase. The roof is considered high (not to be confused with mega-high), and the length is long (not to be confused with extended-long). 440,000 miles on the odometer. It’s been a love/hate relationship, but the last 100,000 miles has been more towards love. The first 100,000 was worse than the last, and the middle 200,000 was torture. Torture is defined as $12,000 dollars in repairs for one year, and two months down time waiting on repairs and parts each of the two bad years.

Performance. I average right around 21 mpg, and I get that by driving 55-57 mph. I’ll bump it up to 60 mph, if need be, but rarely. I lose about one mpg due to the various things I have installed on the roof. I used to have a generator and air conditioner on the roof, and those robbed me of two+ mpg.

Cockpit. The gps is the only extra thing that I have in front of me. I took one of the Garmin Nuvi bean bag style dash mounts and removed the bean bag. I permanently attached the mount hardware to the dash in the same way the mount hardware was attached to the bean bag. It makes a clean, neat installation. One thing I really like about the arrangement is that the top of the gps is no higher than the top of my registration sticker. The office set up is to my right in place of the passenger seat, and all is within easy reach of the driver’s seat. I have a printer/scanner, storage pouch for paperwork, atlas, and drinks for the day, and a RAM computer mount that holds the Qualcomm console, phone, and lapdock (a docking station for the phone that resembles a laptop computer). I’ll do a more thorough write-up on the RAM mount and a couple other areas of the van when I get around to doing more work on them.

Living space. The inside of the van is minimally insulated with sheets of reflectix, and the window coverings are a combination of quilt batting and reflective mylar. My next vehicle will definitely get a better insulation job, but it occurs to me that I have survived five Laredo summers without auxiliary air conditioning and only minimal insulation. Good ventilation has been crucial to my summer survival. I installed two roof vents from Fan-Tastic Vent. The front vent is powered by a 12 volt fan, and the rear vent is passive with only a screen and cover. Because of my many issues with pollen, I layered various types of filter medium on top of the screen in the rear vent. It ends up acting like a HEPA filter—electrostatic prefilter, charcoal, and fine particle filter. I close all the windows and doors, turn on the front vent to push air out, and open the rear vent to let air in. When the van gets warm, I’ll usually sit or lay under the rear vent. Winter heat is provided by an Espar D-4 diesel heater, and food is kept safe in an Engel 34 quart refrigerator/freezer. Most of my electric appliances operate on 12 volts, so I have less need for an inverter. Auxiliary power to run everything comes from solar panels and 200 lbs worth of AGM batteries.   It takes close management of power consumption, but I manage to have the power I need night and day, summer and winter. For personal storage I modified a wooden Ikea shelf so that it secures to the driver side wall and is shallow enough in depth that if freight can clear the wheel wells, freight will clear the shelves. And lastly a folding cot is built into the shelf, so I have a bed that is narrow enough to allow for a three pallet load, and the cot folds up out of the way if I need more space to move around.

Bread and butter. And none of this would matter if I couldn’t haul freight. I put down a half inch layer of plywood coated with Minwax Polycrylic and two pieces of e-track on top of the factory installed floor. If I did it over, I would have removed the factory floor, because it is a lot of dead weight. As it is my floor is sturdy, and the sacrificial plywood has lasted five years, which I originally thought would only last a year at a time. From the way I arranged all these components I can carry three 48 inch pallets that are 70 inches tall and weigh a total of 2300 lbs. And while fully loaded I can still sleep laying down or stand and do jumping jacks without having to rearrange anything.

I’ve tried to give a clear overview of how things work and are arranged in the van. Later I’ll return and talk more about the different pieces and parts as they fit into everyday life.

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