[EddieZ]

Windshield sun shade

I already have a shade that I made from leftover double-bubble-layer Reflectix. It works well, but is a huge item to store, rolled up. I decided to be a guinea pig for the forum, and see how well the X-Shade, Extra Grande Jumbo sunshade fits in the MR Transit. It fits well, with the wire hoops perfectly sized, vertically. The hoops overlap, so, there's extra material between them. The hoops almost fit between the windshield and rear-view mirror. But, it's just as well to let the hoops go on the other side of the mirror -- with the mirror making a bit of an inward bulge.

The material is very light weight. The shade seems to be made OK, but, don't count on abusing it. I expect to use the shade only occasionally, so, hopefully it will hold up.

When re-packaged, it just barely sorta fits in the upper Transit door pocket; it overflows a bit at the top, but, should be OK.

 

[EddieZ]

Dog boast and gas mileage

Yesterday, my dog, Piper, and I won first place in our first disc dog Toss & Fetch competition -- novice division, of course. This win bumped us up to "pro" division, for future competitions -- and, I can see that our main need for improvement is in my throwing! 270 miles round trip, to area beyond Atlanta. Got 19.5 mpg, though the computer had it figured at 20.4.

 

[EddieZ]

A few thoughts on pre-bulbed inserts

I'm working on cabinets. Not finding the Ford-provided anchors to be sufficient in number, I decided it was time to look further into pre-bulbed inserts, to turn some of the 3/8" fastener holes into anchor points. BUT, there's no way I'd spend $55 for 100 of them, and maybe $30 more for an installation tool, because I don't need many, and, frankly I did not expect to be too impressed with them.

So, I was looking at the installation tool on McMaster-Carr. I reasoned that it can't be doing all that much, and, if there's anything fancy about it at all, there might be a bearing to reduce the force needed to turn the puller-bolt. I decided that a length of bent 3/16 strap metal would form the base of a tool, and remove need for one of the wrenches. As for bearings, I decided to pick up 2 of the ultra-low-friction oil-embedded thrust bearings (washers) #7421K1 from McMaster, for under $2.

Also figured McMaster must sell pre-bulbed inserts, if they sell a tool. On to item #97217A393 , a 10-pack of pre-bulbed inserts for $6.50, which appear to have the same specs as the Penn Engineering inserts often referenced on this site. Yes, I remember having been put off in the past, by McMaster's description of them as being for use with plastics. Figured that's probably an error or incomplete statement, and ordered 2 bags.

My first order with McMaster-Carr -- it's a leap of faith, because you don't know how bad you'll be gouged with shipping until after submitting the order. Shipping turned out to be very fair: a 6x6x8 inch box via UPS, with a few other things in it, for about $7.

The inserts come from Taiwan. The only marking on them is a stylized X on the flange. I can't be sure, but, I suspect they are comparable to the Penn product. I'd be curious to know if Orton tried these, for comparison... though, at $6.50 for 10, there would be no dollar advantage to a bulk user. The inserts are exactly what I expected, from pictures and good general familiarity with hardware.

I drilled a 3/8 inch hole in the roof square of Ford sheet metal that was removed for the MaxxFan, then used my makeshift tool to install one of the inserts. It was no sweat. I did notice the bearing washers moving a little, but, it seems I might have been as well off without them.

I can't say that I'm all that impressed with the look of the pre-bulbed inserts, for holding power, particularly in sheet metal. But, if you use a bunch of them, their combined hold should be beneficial. I'd guess that 3 or 4 of them might approach the hold provided by one of the Ford-provided wall anchors.

And, you can only tighten the mounting bolt so much, before the insert wants to turn in the sheet metal. I think you want to use blue thread locker on them, and snug them up. EDIT -- I'll have to rescind that blue thread locker idea; when trying to remove a fixture, that could only make the insert more likely to spin, and might make fixture removal impossible.

 

[Budsky]

I haven't ordered any inserts yet- but will be soon. One of the thoughts I had was coating the inserted part with JB Weld to help insure it stays locked in place without turning.
As for McMaster- I love that place- fast service- always get what I ordered overnight since I'm only one state over and they are reasonable on shipping, unlike some places that seem to make a lot of their profit on the shipping.

 

[orton]

My last order on 10-2-15 from www.rivitsinstock.com for 100 pre-bulbed 1/4-20NC inserts was $50.42 including freight.

Many of the punched holes in the Transit body are the correct size for these rivits. A Tap with a hammer puts them in the hole.

 

[Airedrifter]

Yesterday, my dog, Piper, and I won first place in our first disc dog Toss & Fetch competition -- novice division, of course. This win bumped us up to "pro" division, for future competitions -- and, I can see that our main need for improvement is in my throwing! 270 miles round trip, to area beyond Atlanta. Got 19.5 mpg, though the computer had it figured at 20.4.

Brittany! I've had three over the years. My favorite. We have a Springer this time. She's great but she's not a Brittany.

 

[EddieZ]

I haven't ordered any inserts yet- but will be soon. One of the thoughts I had was coating the inserted part with JB Weld to help insure it stays locked in place without turning.
As for McMaster- I love that place- fast service- always get what I ordered overnight since I'm only one state over and they are reasonable on shipping, unlike some places that seem to make a lot of their profit on the shipping.

Interesting idea. You'd have to use a piece of wire or something, with just the right shape, to get JB Weld through the hole, and on the back side.

 

[EddieZ]

Brittany! I've had three over the years. My favorite. We have a Springer this time. She's great but she's not a Brittany.

Non-dog people sure get the Brittany and Springer mixed up... my experience, and that of a Springer lady. You've probably heard it both ways.

 

[TNorth]

Congratulation! Now I suspect you didn’t really raise your passenger seat to fit your kayak in the van, but instead to give Piper a better view.

 

[Wallygator]

I must have missed it in your thread but can you please do a detailed write up of how you insulated your van?

 

[PeterR]

I must have missed it in your thread but can you please do a detailed write up of how you insulated your van?

Entering "insulation" in the Search This Thread option above may yield some clues.

 

[EddieZ]

I must have missed it in your thread but can you please do a detailed write up of how you insulated your van?

I have not gone into detail on my insulation, because so many others have, and, because I do not consider my insulation job to be necessarily worthy of emulation. I did not get too obsessive over it.

I used the Thinsulate mat, glued directly to the sheet metal. Then, in the "window" cavities, I put a layer of Reflectix, but did not fully tape it as to create a vapor barrier. The whole vapor barrier thing is the main bone of contention for van insulation. I went with the idea that a moisture barrier may not be complete, and that moisture should have a way out. In the lower cavities, I added a second layer of Thinsulate, and no Reflectix. In the ceiling, it's just one layer of Thinsulate. The floor has no insulation, to allow air flow in case water gets down there -- from wet kayak, dog, rain in the doorway, etc.

 

[jonsobi]

Worthy of emulation.

 

[EddieZ]

One bad insert = no fun

I put in the 4 pre-bulbed inserts I wanted, today. The 4th one didn't want to open properly, even if I tried to kind of wedge it in the hole to try and prevent fruitless spinning. 'course, it was opened enough that I couldn't just pull it out. I could get about 3/16 of the shaft showing, and, fortunately, have a metal cutting disc for my Dremel... cut the head off... but, the inner part just fell in between insulation and sheet metal, I think. Hope it doesn't rattle or rust.

 

[jethaden]

You are using a home made installation tool which encourages rotation. The simple relatively cheap install tool from McMaster has the 1/4 machine screw to hold the plusnut in place and then another much larger screw/nut arrangement managed with 2 wrenches, so that there is no rotational torque on the plusnut during installation. With the proper tool you just need to learn the required torque difference between too loose (where plusnut can spin later during use) and too tight (which can bugger the plusnut threads requiring a re-tap). I know you are doing very few plusnuts so paying $30 or so for the install tool is not really cost effective, but a proper installation tool does not have the issues you describe.

 

[EddieZ]

You are using a home made installation tool which encourages rotation...

Hey, thanks for that note. I think I understand how the real tool works, now. I guess I could make something like that if I had a lot of plus-nuts to do. Of course, if I had a lot of them to do, the $30 tool would be fine.

Just today, I had to spend $19 on a hole saw that I will use only one time -- to install a Blue Sea 3 5/8 inch cut off switch. That purchase was a little bit painful. Yes, I could make a rough hole with a jigsaw, but looking at it would make me unhappy.

 

[JP4]

You are using a home made installation tool which encourages rotation. The simple relatively cheap install tool from McMaster has the 1/4 machine screw to hold the plusnut in place and then another much larger screw/nut arrangement managed with 2 wrenches, so that there is no rotational torque on the plusnut during installation. With the proper tool you just need to learn the required torque difference between too loose (where plusnut can spin later during use) and too tight (which can bugger the plusnut threads requiring a re-tap). I know you are doing very few plusnuts so paying $30 or so for the install tool is not really cost effective, but a proper installation tool does not have the issues you describe.

I bought the $30 tool and have had no issues with spinning plusnuts. Not cheap but simple and it works.
JP

 

[robertl]

More tools make me happy

 

[EddieZ]

Cabinets - slow progress

I got my battery box built. Am including a photo of its wood framework. I don't have the tools or skills to do real joinery, so, I developed a technique of building with 1 x 2 (3/4 x 1-1/2) pine, most of which is doubled (which makes overlapping butt joints), for frame of 1-1/2 x 1-1/2. It's all glued and nailed with brads, so, it's very strong. The box is installed, but, I'll wait to show finished pics, when all of the fixtures and wiring are complete.

It will hold 2 batteries, in case I decide to get another. There's a shelf above the batteries, where fuse blocks and CTEK D250S Dual are mounted, with room for the CTEK Smartpass, again, for dual battery use. It also contains the breaker box for my incoming 120v.

When travel-camping, my little microwave will be strapped to the lid of the battery cabinet. The cabinet is sized so that, when the microwave is not there, the seat will fully recline when in its regular position for me. Or, the seat can be moved fully rearward for another driver, though it would not, then, fully recline.

I'm building-in-place... an 8-1/2 foot base cabinet (photo). The frame is 19 inches deep and 36 inches tall. In the spirit of minimalism, my water will be contained in two 5-gallon plastic jerries, with a 3-gal "grey" container, which will be easy to walk to a campground laundry sink (mostly tooth-brushing water). The water supply will have a pressure switched pump, with some kind of quick connect that I easily move between jerries. And, there's my emergency stool, the Luggable Loo. If I decide I want more storage, I will later add a cabinet near the rear, to fill space up to the ceiling. But, I think I'll prefer to have the window mostly unblocked.

Building in place is kind of fun. But, it's frustrated by the interior slope of the wall liners -- particularly near the front, and by the floor becoming untrue near the wall, in the rear quadrant, due to the wheel well liners adding thickness. The wall edge of the counter-top will have a long curve, again, due to the wall curvature.

When it comes time to make cabinet doors, I will invest in a Kreg pocket-hole jig setup -- which will be advanced joinery, for me!

Oh, and I switched out the fiberglass-backed linoleum, for the gray vinyl coin mat that I had wanted to begin with. I had not realized that Home Depot stocked the coin mat, and it's too heavy and expensive to have shipped -- practically speaking. I was not prepared for how heat-reactive the coin mat is. I installed it on a 60-65 degree day, working on a cool garage floor, to do the pattern transfer and cutting. Beautiful! I was so proud of my fine, close fit. Next day, I parked, and the van got up to 80 degrees, and the floor had some wrinkles, from the vinyl expanding. So, I did some trimming. And, hey, the stuff cuts a lot easier when warm. I did not want to loosen the fit too much, since it would start to look poorly fitted -- on cold days. But, I worry about what it's going to look like in the summer months, when interior temps can be over 100 degrees. I'm hoping that the material eventually gets "tired" of expanding and contracting, and becomes more stable.

Really, good quality linoleum would be fine for many people. At $55 on sale, it was 1/5 the price of the coin mat. But, I had found myself abusing the lino, and scarring it several times... dropped a piece of angle steel on it, for a corner gash. Slid a kayak in, and sand or shredded plastic on the boat gashed the lino.

 

[EddieZ]

So, I got myself a new Hound Dog Taylor blues album. Ripped to digital, and had been listening to it for several days, when driving. Good stuff -- unrefined, up-tempo boogie. Eventually, I began to notice an odd sound in my stereo -- the tell-tale sound of a blown speaker. I'm generally OK with base level automobile stereo systems, but, I was pretty ticked off that my cheapo Ford system had blown a speaker. Later that night, I was doing some reading on Hound Dog Taylor. Learned that the venerable blues label of Alligator Records had originally been created specifically for release of Taylor's first album. ALSO learned that Taylor typically played with an amp that had a busted speaker... that's right, the stereo was faithfully reproducing the sound of that blown speaker. Hoo-rah!