Van Goghing, Van Gone (Doing a Thing Update)

Whats up you beautiful muhfuckas! Miss me?

I know its been quite a while since I updated you kids on the trip. Its been an insane couple of weeks. There were funerals, injuries, a completely rebuilt transmission, a 60+ hour work day, and any number of incredible people coming to my rescue. Its been stressful as fuck, but with a ton of help from a ton of people, we were able to pull it off!

I think this is where I left you

The door panels were mounted, the big wall was cut, and the small wall wasnt even measured yet.

Got my windshield fixed!

Ol' Hopper checkin out the new glass. She approves!

Solar!

See that square? Fuck that square!

Very similarly to our friend the diamond, this ugly ass parallelogram o shit was an abysmal pain in the ass. I'm guessing it was some kind of vent in the Hopper's previous life as an ice cream truck. Now, its one colossal leak. It took a ton of time and silicone sealant, but I'm pretty sure its finally waterproof.

Panels are mounted

Getting those bitches level was interesting because of the curvature of the roof, but I finally got them up and mounted.;

I don't know diddly squat about electric, so any input on this part is welcome.

The solar panels came with a roll of 12g wire, and the connectors to build your own solar cable. This is so that you can make your wires exactly the length you need them.

Pretty straight forward

Strip the thing, put the thing in the thing, tighten the thing

Mom's spaghetti

Luckily, no sweaters or rap battles were in the vicinity

Clean Plate Club!!

Turned 4 things into 2 things

This handy little fucker is a solar charge controller

Its job is to keep the batteries from over charging

Ran the wires in through the window for now.

I'd still like to get the connectors inside to avoid damage from wind and vibration, but for now this is doing alright.

had a loose connector, so the controller read from the batteries, but nothing from the panels

Time for the passenger seat to come out

4 of these babies and out she came

SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!

File cabinet is screwed to the B post, and the fridge is strapped on top of that.

Thinking about switching these in the next couple days

Camp rope lights to replace the dingy dome light

Really sets the mood when its dark

Finally got this peppy little spit fuck doing exactly what it should be

Question though: When the total voltage reads around 10.5-11v an alarm goes off that is fuckin deafening. Any thoughts on why this is, or how to lower this cutoff to around the 7v mark?

Cutting studs to attach to the ribs of the van

The wall of the van curves, way more than the plywood we are using will, so I'm building the ribs out to mount to

My favorite shit on earth

Back in place

SP back in hero mode

My awesome brother Colby, also in hero mode

2 coats of poly on everything got it all looking really nice

Dad, doing dadly things

Middle of the night, still justy dadding away

Bed is in the van!

Late night visitor

Top hinges installed

I was going to use felt sliders

But I decided to use a moving pad instead. This will dampen some of the vibration noise from the tools and food inside

REAL TALK

This is the one major thing that's still wrong with the van. The turn signal assembly from the passenger side went missing. I'm worried about getting a ticket from this. If anyone happens to find a 96 Dodge 2500 van in a junkyard on my route, please let me know. If you can pull it out and let me buy it from you, that would be even better.

Flippy Floppy Mattress Toppy

Any time the mattress was tilted, the two foam toppers slid around and made it lumpy.

Problem solved!

It doesnt look like much, but in terms on sentimentality, this is the most special piece in the hopper.

It belonged to my great grandmother, and I was allowed to take it on the condition I take extra special care of it.

I am still having a problem with the fridge. The compressor runs and gets hot, but the actual fridge does not get cool at all. My dad ran this fridge off 12v AC current in his semi for several months and it worked fine. Same set up in the Hopper and it doesn't. Thoughts?

Mad storage yo.

I tried to put up pics of my route, but Imgur fucking hates me.

I went from Greensboro, NC (home) to Rockingham, NC to visit my Grandma, then to Owensboro, KY (where I'm typing this from) to see my other Grandmother. From here I am headed to Memphis, OK City, Denver (going to the Method Man/ Redman/ Collie Budz 420 show on 4/19, if anybody has a ticket and wants some company), Yellowstone Nat Patk, Hamilton, MT, Edmonton, then my ferry leaves Prince Rupert first thing in the morning on the 26th. If anyone in Canada has a place I could grab a shower or park for the night, please let me know.

My sister got this on the way out.

I"M GOING ON A FUCKING ADVENTURE!!

Fat ass tax