Oh no I knew, but I'm a bit dim and a visual learner so sometimes I need to try something I know probably isn't going to work, before I realise it isn't going to work.

It's cool, I'm probably just going to raise the bed a little bit, that will make a lot of my problems go away

 

Yeah sounds like a simple enough solution 👍.
I must admit to being envious of your workshop, dry, lit and access to kit

 

Yeah the workshop is ace, my boss is a bit of a petrol head and loves that we're in there faffing about. It's also quite nice doing something like the bed, admiring your hard work then climbing in and sleeping in it straight away.

Fitted some 18mm shims under the bed frame last night, decent clearance for bikes now, still probably not enough to use the rockmounts profile but can't win them all.

Might try and do the floor next week

 

Sounds good 👍

 

Some shevanigans:

Old floor up, surprising lack of ming underneath. Cleaned up and treated and filled screw holes

Cut and glued in some fillets in bigger gaps to take some bounce out of the ounce. Photo is probably pre glue so don't judge me just yet...

Did a carpentry thing with a router using old floor as a guide. Surprisingly straight forward and incredibly aestically pleasing.

Made a mock up of bike tray and pre drilled some holes ready for fixing after floor is layed

Yes I decided to glue the floor down. Will I regret it? Knowing me, probably. But in it to win it now. Will let it all cure tonight then have a crack at the bike drawer tomorrow.
After doing nothing to the van for the last few months due to work/family commitments it was nice to finally achieve something. And yes I did enlist the help of my friend who happens to be a Polish wood wizard.

Need to decide on a floor now. Are altro type flooring hard to lay? Seems like one of those black magic tasks. Anyone know of any decent suppliers? Thanks in advance

 

I know this was an older post, but I have only just found it! Geoff.

 

2 posts in 2 days, what a treat. Last day in workshop today so wanted to get the bike tray thing done. Cover notice: I am not a carpenter, so don't @ me if you spot anything sketchy!

Started by remaking the tray, as I had an offcut from the floor. I had (what I thought were)all the dims, was recommended to glue and pin the upstand bits and clamp it for a while. Spoiler alert this didn't really hold well enough and I banged a load of screws in it as well extra girth

Runners fitted to the alu profile using tech screws, seem to hold fine as there's about 20 screws a side. Found this bit quite stressful, I'm not used to precision.

Decided to use another bit of profile for the fork mounts, means I could have the tray lower as I won't have a nut fixing the other side to worry about. Glued and tech screwed.

Test fit wasn't brilliant, I was a few mm off somewhere. So in a cowboy move I slotted some shims between runner and try, works fine for now. I'm very aware this isn't the finished article, but it will do for not until I get another week in the workshop.

And there she is. Slides in and out like a new one. My only grind is the gaps between the channels that the forkmounts are fitted to are a little tight so there's some bar touching going on, but I'm not that stressed about it.
Got enough room down the middle to fit a 3rd bike when I eventually get an ebike. It will be tight with 3 but it will work.

I need a beer and a shower.

 

Your a long way in front of me but I am considering having the whole middle of the garage floor on a slider, I had a 400kg version in my pickup that could fully extend and it would be super useful for our bikes and other stuff

 

Yeah that sounds ace! Seen some people do it and it works great. For some reason I didn't think it would work for me, I plan on having a hatch in the bulkhead (which I haven't made yet) so I can fit my longboard through it, thought having a full width tray may induce faff in that department. They do look great though, can fit as many bikes as you like on it then!

 

Looking good Gav - so much more space to play with in a Crafter for things like sliding bike drawers etc.
If you need Altro, I can highly recommend Harrisons Trim Supplies -they sell it on a roll so would be ideal for the floor of a Crafter. They also do slightly cheaper alternatives to the usual heavy duty stuff (I forget it's name) which is slightly lighter but more than plenty hard wearing enough for van use. It's what I used in my van.

 

Weirdly, i'm finding it a bit of a paradox, probably because i've bought the wrong van. From the outside, it looks enormous, and when it's empty the inside looks enormous. But when you start putting stuff in it, it fills up quick.
As i've mentioned before it being RWD i've lost that bit of floor height, before fitting the bike tray I was convinced i'd have a bit of wiggle room and be able to drop the bed a bit to give me some sit up room but no, I think there's about 22mm between bars and the bottom of bed frame. I am used to the bed being that high so it's no biggie, if i haven't got anything to stand on I have to do what i've affectionately called 'the salmon', basically belly flop myself onto the bed, gotta keep my hips high to avoid them smashing against the frame. The lady friend doesn't stand a chance of getting up there though.
I was also convinced i'd be able to sleep down the van rather than across. You probably can, but it would eat up too much of the living area/kitchin bits in my opinion. So now i'm looking into getting some dumbo ears fitted, which probably isn't cheap.

Basically, i should have bought a long wheel base. There, i've said it.

Thanks for the heads up on harrison, don't know why i didn't think to check there, they do everything.

 

I'd love a sprinter / crafter but just couldn't justify one as a daily even a MWB.
I think I should get commission from Harrison's the amount of times I've recommended them.
I'm gonna see if they want to sponsor my next build! 😁

 

That looks really good, much more sophisticated than my setup. I suspect mine, made up of bits scavenged from builders waste, came in slightly cheaper, if it isn't quite as pretty.

Rhys

 

That looks really good, much more sophisticated than my setup. I suspect mine, made up of bits scavenged from builders waste, came in slightly cheaper, if it isn't quite as pretty.

Rhys

Only new bits are the runners, everything else is scavenged/rescued from the skip. Alright the 12mm ply is offcut from sheet I bought for the floor so maybe that doesn't count. I've since found a rogue sheet of the hexaboard stuff that we'd removed from a base of a flightcase so version 2 will be made out of that. Might even make it the correct size this time, stranger things have happened.

Side note: I'm now low key obsessed with the mule van stuff. I mean, it is obscenely expensive, but have you seen the roof rack they do with a built in light bar? Mule Roof Rack Aluminium LWB Single Light Bar MAN TGE VW Crafter 2018 now you have.

 

Looks a great set up, could only wish for that sort of space 🙌

The salmon made me laugh, in my case it'd be more of 'the seal' re-enacting as one breaches the water onto an iceberg!

 

Spent some money today, kids. Side flares from evo, thermal blackouts for front from cjl (expensive but i'm done with window suckers), rear window blinds and surrounds arrive tomorrow, some L track and some lower height bike forkmounts also coming so bikes will sit lower so i can drop the bed a bit and a fold out mattress for the front seats for the little dude. How exciting! Does mean the 2 rockymounts forkmounts i currently have will be for sale if anyone is after some, not entirely sure where the keys are though.

 

Where have you bought the window blinds from? Are they vanshades?

 

Van shades don't do any that fit, unfortunately. I got them from van concept in the end. Crazy money but come as a kit, we're going away in the van on monday so dont really have time to fettle. I'll be fitting them tomorrow evening/friday so i'l let you know what the craic is.

front shades arrived today for cjl, again mental money but they seem good quality, they've got boards in them so kinda rigid with joins so they fold up. Side windows fit via magnets, windscreen via 2 turnbuckles and I guess visors. Very excited to not have to use window suckers ever again.

 

Damn that looks smart. Kinda wants to for the money but money well spent! 👌

 

Tonight's happenings. Front blinds are ace, magnets bringing a whole new level of joy.

One blind fitted, a little fettling requited tomorrow. I like them though. Lots of grey

 

Sliding door side fitted today. I like them. Slight problem in that they don't actually work with my windows, as in the latch for the sliding window fouls the blind. With the window open I can 'manipulate' (read: bend) it over the clasp, then close the window again once it's cleared. Time will tell how much this will do my head in.

Let me make the mistakes, so you don't have to.

 

The blinds look great - both cab and side windows. Shame about the latch fouling. Not really the kinda thing you want to be hacking about either I guess.
Would you be able to offset the blinds further in to the van at all, if it only needs a few extra mm to clear? Maybe duplicate the ply surround to create a spacer perhaps?

 

The blinds look great - both cab and side windows. Shame about the latch fouling. Not really the kinda thing you want to be hacking about either I guess.
Would you be able to offset the blinds further in to the van at all, if it only needs a few extra mm to clear? Maybe duplicate the ply surround to create a spacer perhaps?

Yes it's not ideal, I'll look at some standoff options when I'm back in the workshop at some point.

So first trip away in the van this week, went out and spent an unreasonable amount of money in go outdoors as per usual, made myself a little temporary kitchen thing

A bit pikey but it does some kind of job. Should call it the ratchet strap van.
Torrential rain yesterday which was fun, and we've got far too much stuff. Today will mostly involve trying to dry everything.

Nice view though

 

Looks like somewhere in the Lakes. Hope it's drier than n not as windy as when I was up there on Friday!

 

We've stayed in gods country, but gone north. I shall be spending the week looking at all the hills I want to climb, and all the trails I want to ride, but not able to due to little ones! Things you do for your kids eh?

 

Think am going to order some of those I was going to go ikea but for the faffing with magnets etc its not worth it, wont have openers anyway as we have dual maxxfans

 

They do 3 different options, full DIY with blind assembly with a template for wood surround, the kit I got with it all cut and fitted but not covered the then same with carpeted surround. Fitting them was a little bit of a faff, it comes with a offset tool which I didn't totally understand but I've made it work for now. They're not cheap but an elegant solution to a problem I wasn't that keen on resolving myself.

 

OK, final night here in wet and wild north Wales.
My learnings so far:
Should have bought a lwb
Swivel plate for front bench. Lack of seating is probably something I need to address.
Going to look at driveaway awning options, when its the 3 of us and it's biblical rain, the van is alarmingly small. Having an extra space would be helpful.
Storage is the crux of everything. Could definitely be helped by bringing less stuff.

 

Best option for seating is to use another front bench and base and a swivel base for the existing one, its what many conversion places do but they swap the passenger for a single, you could have had mine but its gone to the tip, it also gives a good space underneath for heaters etc should you need it and a free standing or floor mounted table then gives a decent flat surface for all seats

 

Does it rain in Wales ?

 

As a champion of Wales I'm not scared of a bit of weather, but sideways rain in August is not the one!

 

We're in brecon this week and it rained overnight but toasty all day 😎

 

Some views from the week. Nice to be out in the van, not without it's challenges but we got through it. Learned plenty.
Flares arrive next week, game on.