I’m starting to keep pace with the car dealership edging in on the end of my first 90 days with the company. Last month I sold 4 vans and 3 cars. Through the first 8 days of April I’ve sold 4 cars and 1 van.
On the 9th day of April, today, I got back to work on my own van, “Proud Mary”.
[Side note before I forget, my ’94 Jeep failed the e-check on Wednesday. Apparently if I spend a few hundred dollars at a shop trying to attempt to fix the problem (high NO2 emisions) the county will give me a waiver. That story is to be continued.]
So today I put up the framework that will house a small 0.7 ft3 microwave. Someday soon that will give me the power to fire up gas station burritos on demand with the company of my 4.3 ft3 refridgerator/freezer combo below.
The first thing an old roommate mentioned when I showed him my progress today was, “that refridgerator is huge!”. While it may look huge compared to your typical DIY van conversion build, this thing is 5 to 7 times smaller than your typical American household unit. I will be living and cooking in this van, so I went with the 4.3 ft3 fridge/freezer because it was the biggest size I felt comfortable with.
One of the main considerations on fridge size was the depth. This unit is just 19 inches deep which allows me some room of the back wall for ventillation (the counters will be ~20 inches deep). Larger size refridgerators required a few more inches of depth, which is more than I had to give. Likely before this build is done I’ll add an exterior fridge vent out of the side of the van. From everything I’ve read, displacing the hot air from the back of the fridge is critical for minimizing engery consumption.
The cabinet above the fridge was spaced to create counter space ontop of the fridge. Initially the thought was to raise the fridge to fit a garbage bin below, but I’ve decided against that as of this morning, because I’m fairly certain I can move the propane tank beneath the van and put the trash bin where the propane tank would’ve been inside the van, thereby creating more much needed counter space.
In other news, it’s back to work. The car business is taking most of my time, and I need to make the most of it, the exterior mountable propane tank, for example, is going to cost $400 before even figuring out how to install it. Wish me luck.