Sprinter Cargo Securement

[Turtle]

I second the Fantastic Fan. Don't skimp - get the one with the rain sensor. If it starts raining, the lid closes right up, and when it stops raining it opens back up again (all while you are sleep, in other words). It blows in or out, and has three speeds. To be able to get fresh air in the van, especially after you air-tight insulated it, is like heaven on Earth. ON many warm days, even, crack a window an inch or two and it'll cool thing s down tremendously.

Don't mount the fan too far towards the front, though. The further back from the front windows the better, for the most airflow. However, not too far back, either. Think ahead - do you plan on putting an AC on the roof, a satellite dish, anything? Plan accordingly.

I put mine directly above the bunk, tho. The back edge of the side door and the back edge of the fan are just about the same. That seems to give me enough airflow in the Sprinter, and when I want it to blow in from the outside it will blow directly on top of me when I'm in the bunk, which is what I wanted.

Gonna install the heater yourself, eh? Kewl. The manual certainly is thorough about how to install it. An excellent manual. The installation at Espar of Michigan will run you about $400-$450. The Airtronic 4 that I got was, I think, $1500 plus installation, totaled $1900 and change. The Airtronic 2 is $1500 including installation, or there abouts, so it's about $1100 before installation. If you can find a better deal, there ya go.

Three hours, though, I dunno. Took them 4 hours for mine, and they do that for a living. Plan accordingly. lol

Incidentally, Espar of Michigan also installs the Fan-Tastic Fans.

I have no idea what the deal is with the coil at the back of the tank. Reminds me of a stil. But then again, I'm from Kentucky.

On the bunk, mine is 30x60 inches, and I'm 5'9" and if I were any taller I don't think I could get any sleep in that bunk. It's just right, but another inch would make the difference.

I thought long and hard about doing one from the ceiling, but I'm 260 pounds. I think the roof/ceiling limit is about 400 pounds. If I put an AC up there, along with the Fan-Tastic Fan and Qualcomm and a satellite dish, it was looking pretty dicey if I were to add another 260 plus the weight of the bed hardware. Also, I don't much like the idea of having to crawl up that high if I have 4-foot skids on board.

One thing to seriously keep in mind... if you plan on staying out for weeks at a time (and you should if you plan on making any money) then being able to sleep while loaded should be a major consideration. There will be many times when being able to pull over and take a nap for a half hour or five will mean the difference between staying alert and having an accident. There will be plenty of times when you'll be sitting there all day doing nothing, then you'll get a load picking up at 9 at night with a 7AM delivery. Being able to take a nap along the way means the difference between taking the run and turning it down.

Also, I cannot tell you how many times I've picked up a load on Friday for a Monday delivery, sometimes 1800 miles away, sometimes 400 miles away. You have to be able to sleep while loaded.

Pickup on Friday for a Tuesday delivery after Memorial Day Monday, in that Ford van, short wheelbase, where two skids bumped up to the back of the driver's seat. No room to take a pee in there, much less sleep for 3 nights. I wanted the Sprinter for a permanent bunk, almost as much as I waned it because I can get dressed in there without being doubled over.

I know one guy who has a sidewall bed, and when he's loaded he can sleep comfortably on top of a sleeping bag on top of one of those 1-inch thick foam ground mats that go under a sleeping bag when you're camping under the stars or in a tent. He also weighs 150 pounds. To me, sleeping on the bare floor is like sleeping on concrete, and sleeping on a sleeping bag on a foam mat is like sleeping on a bath towel on concrete. I tried it. Woke up every 2 hours, sore all over. Your mileage may vary.

There's always motels. But those are for weenies and chicks, not men. I'm a man. I need my pillow-top memory foam extra-firm yet downy soft mattress. Argh, argh, argh!

 

[RLENT]

Thanks Moot,

Yeah, there are what amounts to cable troughs on the top of the sidewalls ..... where the wiring harness for the cargo area lights run. I've left a small channel open in the trough all the way back on the righthand side of the vehicle, where I installed the cable for my backup cam, and about halfway back on the driver's side, for further wiring installs. The nice thing about the foam and polyisocyanate panels is that they are very easily cut and dug out.

Yes, a Fantastic Fan is on my list - I noticed them in one of the older threads I read.

Re Diesel Doctor's ceiling bed - was that the one that you could raise and lower ? Seems like it was either him ...... or teacel maybe ....... I think I saved a bookmark for it.

Bookmarked the link for Adohen - he's fairly close - right up in Avon.

 

[RLENT]

Ken,

Rain sensor - check. Understand on the fresh air - once upon a time I travelled around doing roadside sales and slept in the truck while on the road ...... remember some summer nights that were pretty unbearable - kinda like being in an oven.

There maybe an rooftop A/C unit in the future - figured I'd mount that directly behind the cab. Probably put the Fantastic Fan about 2/3rds of the way back.

Yeah, I figured I'd install the Espar .... save a few bucks. (It's always funny how those sort of deals work out ..... you do it to save the money but it takes 2x or 3x the time a pro would do it in .... so are you really all that far ahead ? ..... I'll figure a day for the install )

I've wondered about whether the Airtronic 2 would do an adequate job or not, considering the insulation. I don't have to have it 80° in there ..... but on the otherhand to spend a grand or more and not be able to get it toasty when ya want to would probably be a pisser. I think I may go to an upohlstery/boat cover shop and see about having a canvas shroud made up that I could snap into the cargo area to section it off from the cab and living quarters - so if I was only carrying two pallets the area forward of them would be closed off.

A still eh ? ..... rolling distillery ..... good way to keep them revenuers guessin' !

There's no way a 60" bunk would do it for me ....... I can sleep curled up but I gotta stretch out some too. I think 72" would be the minimum I'd go.

My idea on the bunk is to not mount it directly to the ceiling itself but high up on the walls, due the ceiling load limit. Ideally it would pivot up so that the mattress would be against the ceiling in the raised position and when lowered there would still be enough clearance to get a pallet under it if need be. If I have the edge of the bunk directly behind the cab area I could probably use my center console as a step to get into and out of it. (famous last words)

Got it on the need to be able to use the bunk while loaded ...... I've had my attention fixed on coming up with a way of doing just that. I could probably nap in the drivers seat - but I know it would be painful at best.

The 1" foam mat probably ain't gonna get it for me either - I'm thinking at least 4" of that memory foam stuff. Sleeping on the floor is probably not an option - at least when it's cold ...... the floor is uninsulated and will probably be the coldest part of the van.

 

[Turtle]

With good insulation, the Airtronic 2 will probably keep that thing warm. But, the Airtronic 4 doesn't cost that much more, and it puts out twice the heat using essentially the same amount of amps and fuel, so regardless, it won't have to work as hard as the Airtronic 2.

Whether you do it yourself or have someone else do it, the following holds true for almost everything:

You can have any two of the following, but never all three...

Good
Fast
Cheap

You can have it Good and Fast, but it won't be Cheap.
You can have it Good and Cheap, but it won't be Fast.
You can have it Fast and Cheap, but it won't be Good.

 

[RLENT]

Ken,

I'm very familiar with that paradigm.

Looks like we'll probably go with Door No. 2.

 

[RLENT]

Been awhile since I posted so time for an update. I've more or less finished with the insulation (at least for the time being), although there are some areas that remain uninsulated:

1. All along the bottoms of the sidewalls. The sidewalls extend down past the floor and there is a large void or cavity there - would be impossible to fill it entirely with GreatStuff economically - just too much space. There are plugged 3" access holes all along the bottom inside of the walls (below the floor) that I could possibly stuff newspaper in to hold the foam up and keep it from falling down until it cured. Unfortunately my hand will barely fit thru these and I'm out of time at this point anyways.

An additional observation I made is that there are drain slots formed into the bottom of the sidewalls along it's entire length - this means that the entire cargo area is vented to the bottom of the vehicle - and for that reason alone I would never idle the vehicle and try and sleep in it without a good loud CO detector.

2. The backdoors - there is a large void in the tops of the backdoors and there are some places in the bottom cavities that could use a little more insulation. I really need to open the doors (or take them off to get to the areas and see what I'm doing .... and the weather hasn't been conducive to that. Project for another day.

3. The metal strip along the sidewalls where the cargo lights are. Again these two areas are huge voids which are probably not economical to fill with GreatStuff foam. Eventually I'll cover them with foil bubblewrap.

4. Various other exposed metal surfaces in the vehicle.

Overall, I think what has been done so far has made a significant difference - in cold weather with the vehicle running and the heater on the vehicle will heat up to the point that you have to turn the heater down otherwise it will be too warm.

There are a couple of things I learned from doing the insulation:

1. Any exposed metal will act as a heatsink and pull significant amounts of heat out of or into the vehicle - and always in the direction you don't want it to go - so always try and cover exposed metal.

2. A little more time and effort spent cutting blocks of insulation to fit better and more flush is worth it compared to trying to trim it off after the fact.

3. GreatStuff foam requires either plenty of area to expand into or exposed surface area to fully cure. I have observed a cavity where the GreatStuff collapsed on itself before curing - and formed a fairly thin sheet of cured resin without alot of air bubbles in it. Could have been from just too much GreatStuff applied all at once. I also had the occasion to rip out some GreatStuff where it had fallen down in the cavity at the bottom of the sidewalls in large gobs - it was still uncured in the center - after probably two or three weeks.

3. The foil bubblewrap as used by Turtle should definitely be a of your strategy in insulating a vehicle. While it doesn't necessarily provide a huge R-value I suspect it makes a huge difference and it possibly the only practical way to cover some surfaces.

I have replaced the plastic panels inside the van and gotten the sidewall E-Track installed. Today I'll be starting to lay the plywood floor. Once I have that done I'll post some pics.

 

[RLENT]

Moot,

Quick question - on your forward load stop that you have the E-Track attached to the back of - is the 2 x 6 secured to the E-Track socket at all - or do you just slip it into place when you are using it ?

Seems like you could have only one side permanently attached (to a socket) due to the way the sockets attach to the E-Track (they have to slide a little.) Suppose one could drill a hole in the other side and use a bolt and a wingnut to secure both sides .......

 

[Turtle]

Mine isn't secured in the bracket at all. I just insert the brackets into the e-track, then drop the load bar in when I need it. It is actually easier, IMHO, to not have the wood attached to the bracket, because of that little lever on there.

 

[Moot]

Same here! I drop the 2x6 into the E-track holders. The E-track on the backside of the 2x6 is used for looping a strap around for securing small loose freight like pails and such.

 

[RLENT]

Thanks guys - that's pretty much what I thought.

 

[Lawrence]

We don't promote this site often here - but we do have a growing Sprinter Community here:

http://www.mysprintervan.com/

Lawrence,
Expediters Online.com

Music soothes the savage beast - unless it's polka.


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ACHTUNG!!! Das machine is nicht fur gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfuseen und corkenpoppen mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fur gewerken by das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseeren keepen hands in das pockets. Relaxen und vatch das blinkenlights




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[RLENT]

Lawrence,

Thanks for the pointer to the site - looks interesting.

On another note I was looking out the kitchen window at the Sprinter yesterday morning as it was idling to warm up. It had been running for probably at least 30 minutes so I know it was warm inside. You could see the areas I had insulated on the roof - they were still frosty ..... while the frost on the areas I hadn't (the support ribs for the roof) had all melted ..... good to know the insulation is doing something.

 

[Turtle]

Nothing quite like the satisfaction of a job well done.

 

[Moot]

Turtle, is this your cubicle from a former life?

 

[RLENT]

Here are a couple of photos of the "finished" product (is it ever really done ?) I'd been meaning to do this for some time but had some computer problems that prevented me from editing the photos so I could upload them. These were taken after I had ran a couple of loads so unfortunately the floor has begun to get scuffed up a bit.

I have some vertical E-Track that I plan to install in a couple of locations to allow me to place load bars higher and lower than the horizontal E-Track in the photos.

I also have found that the two bins on the floor at the rear doors are going to need to be reworked and have the ends set at an angle (45 degrees) so that pallets/skids/bins don't catch on them when loading. I also need to put in a piece of angle at the very back of of the floor, flush with the top of the plywood to prevent stuff from catching on it as it is loaded.

 

[Moot]

Looking good Randy! Wow, that floor is amazing. Why can't shippers use felt bottom pallets? Are you planning to finish off the ceiling? Does that camera system see into the future or just where you've been. Nice job!

 

[RLENT]

Heya Moot,

Thanks much.

Yeah ....... I been wunderin' when these guys were going wise up and go to felt ....... someone oughta pass a law .....

On the ceiling, yup it's in the long term plans to finish it off. I've priced a factory headliner which is what I would like to use - but it's pretty pricey at around $500. I've got some other stuff that's higher on the list than the ceiling that I want to get done first though. Look for that thread to first real soon.

Interestingly I happened to run a load on Monday that picked up at a plastic distributor. They had the same plastic sheeting that is used on the walls of the Sprinter - only they had it in every color under the rainbow it seemed. One of the sales guys came out to the warehouse as I was collecting the BOL and I asked if they sold to anyone or just wholesale and explained what I needed and why. The guy said "Sure, we can sell ya a couple of sheets." So I have a source at least ..... dunno the cost tho'. And it's about 20 minutes from the house.

The B/U cam mostly sees into the future - because the monitor is a CRT I have it on a switch that I turn on and off - so it's generally off except when backing up. If ya leave a CRT on all the time it toasts the phosphors on the tube and ya lose the contrast ....... which makes it pretty much unusable. Not quite as slick as having hooked to the reverse circuit but I wanted to be able to turn it on and off when I wanted.