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[Dale]

Hi people! I just found this forum today and joined and want to say Hello to everyone. I've done ALOT of camping, mostly bicycle/tent/ stuff, but have owned a couple of tent trailers and eeeerrrmmmm.... a 26' class C motorhome lots of years ago. A few months back I bought a Dodge Conversion Van, 2002 with 5.9 V8 and 31,000 miles. I want to take some time and rig this out properly, so I'm sure I'll have lots of questions.
The van is a Sunset Conversion (no longer in operation), out of Sarasota and it lacks some things like curtains and seems a little shy on insulation in the walls. The biggest problem so far has been the floor bolts that secured the middle captain chairs -- they are a big job to remove. I took it to an RV place and they wanted about $650 to remove them, saying I had to drop the gas tank, etc.. I declined, buying a rubber floor mat to cover the bolts as much as possible. The carpet isn't *too* bad, but I want to replace it with something that will be easier to keep clean, doesn't smell during the 100% humidity this time of year and figure out some kind of air conditioning unit that I can afford and not have hanging out the back window. I just got back from a 4,000 mile trip and got about 15mpg, which is probably the best I'm going to ever get with that 5.9 Dodge engine. On the bright side, I didn't have a bit of mechanical trouble
I don't have much carpentry experience and even fewer tools, but I'm looking to do a lot of this work myself. Probably, I'll need some help with the electrical stuff, though. But, I welcome any suggestions and if possible maybe someone is in my area and we can get together and kick a few ideas around.
Happy travelin'

[Tai-chi wanderer]

Hi and welcome aboard.

[kryten]

Hi people! I just found this forum today and joined and want to say Hello to everyone. I've done ALOT of camping, mostly bicycle/tent/ stuff, but have owned a couple of tent trailers and eeeerrrmmmm.... a 26' class C motorhome lots of years ago. A few months back I bought a Dodge Conversion Van, 2002 with 5.9 V8 and 31,000 miles. I want to take some time and rig this out properly, so I'm sure I'll have lots of questions.
The van is a Sunset Conversion (no longer in operation), out of Sarasota and it lacks some things like curtains and seems a little shy on insulation in the walls. The biggest problem so far has been the floor bolts that secured the middle captain chairs -- they are a big job to remove. I took it to an RV place and they wanted about $650 to remove them, saying I had to drop the gas tank, etc.. I declined, buying a rubber floor mat to cover the bolts as much as possible. The carpet isn't *too* bad, but I want to replace it with something that will be easier to keep clean, doesn't smell during the 100% humidity this time of year and figure out some kind of air conditioning unit that I can afford and not have hanging out the back window. I just got back from a 4,000 mile trip and got about 15mpg, which is probably the best I'm going to ever get with that 5.9 Dodge engine. On the bright side, I didn't have a bit of mechanical trouble
I don't have much carpentry experience and even fewer tools, but I'm looking to do a lot of this work myself. Probably, I'll need some help with the electrical stuff, though. But, I welcome any suggestions and if possible maybe someone is in my area and we can get together and kick a few ideas around.
Happy travelin'

There are lots of articles available regarding conversions, http://sbmcc.co.uk/ and http://www.campervanlife.com/ and wildcamping.co.uk are 3 uk ones. There also lots of videos on you tube done by people in the US who full time in vans.

Regarding your floor bolts then if you can grind them off then it may solve your problem. A local mechanic might be able to do this for you. Again there are videos and articles of people who have done this on bus conversions.

You might be able to run a small a/c in a van but you might need solar panels but this means you would have to come up with a night time plan when the sun isn't shining.

Some photos might be useful when asking for help.

[Dale]

Thanks for the replys. I will post some photos soon, and the grinding idea is a probably the way to go to remove the bolts. Soon, I'm going to pull the carpet out of the van and replace with another kind of flooring. Then will be a good time to grind off the bolts.