So you got the van, now what?
First step is to discuss what we are doing to the van, and what your prefered layout is going to be.
Then we remove any unnecessary walls and add support beams to the unit where anything heavy will be added later. Example roof opening/mounting spots
Then we proceed to insulate the build. For this part we have selected to use Rockwool insulation, as it is fire resistant, mold resistant, and a good sound barrier. Click on the picture if you would like to learn about this product.
We make sure everything gets insulated.
At this point we also install the partition you chose, there is many options out there, feel free to ask us about them.
Once the insulation is done, we run all our electrical wires as we install the walls.
Marking what will go where, will help make this process quicker and will determine the size of wires.
If the power source is a generator, we will then mark and cut out the location that will be mounted.
If the power source is batteries and inverters, this part is skipped and instead there is a lot more wiring.
Next we begin building the platform the tub will be sitting on.
Making sure we place the tub where the customer wants it, and we can customize the height.
Once all the walls are up, we fill all the cracks up with a marine grade sealant
Then we send the unit out to be sprayed with line-x, we personally like the two tone spray. Although it does make it a bit more expensive due to the nature of the product and having to switch the material. Black on the floor helps hide away spills. And white walls make everything look very clean. But there are other colors you can consider.
We smooth out everything we can and do a rough sanding on the aluminum.
White allows us to make sure everything gets coated and protected so any type of water leaks are nothing to worry about.
We also like to coat the entire roof with this material as it will also help with rain. But you can save some money and only coat a few inches on the top to protect the openings
Having this coating go from top to bottom ensures no possible leaks between the aluminum panels
The roof being completely coated also looks very nice.
The next thing we do is install the gray water tank.
We then install the generator box and run the electrical wires.
We add the clean water tank, Batteries and hot water tank.
Then we install the generator, in this case it was a used unit.
We attach the appropriate plumbing to the gray water tank. Not pictured, we later added a heat barrier between the water pipes and the vehicle exhaust
In this build it's an electric valve door thats controlled from inside the van.
We try to have our cable management as organized as possible.
In these pictures there is some loose cables that are to be used later on.
Here you can see the electric panel, the 12v fuse box, and a automatic switch box for shore power needs.
We then install the lighting and position the grooming table
Last to be installed is all the storage and additional accessories.
And finally we test everything over the course of several hours to make sure everything runs smoothly.