If you have an LP gas tank that is not easily accessible, adding a solenoid can be a great convince. Even if your tank is easy to get to, a solenoid can be a good safety precaution. Since my tank is mounted underneath DeVandra, every time I needed to use my propane gas, I needed to get out of the van, crouch down, and open the valve by rotating the knob several times. Especially when its cold outside this is not ideal because it means opening the door. I jazzed up my solenoid with a wireless toggle and a bright red LED to indicate when the gas is flowing, but as long as you can run wires to your propane tank all you need is a simple on-off switch and a power supply. Here is my system in action:
It's important to note that electrical wires should never be in contact with LP Gas lines. This is because if there is a problem, electrical wires can get hot enough to melt through the LP Gas line. This means even if you already have a pass through for the gas line, you need to drill another hole for the electrical wires to the solenoid.
This setup does consume power while it is on (while the gas is flowing). It comes to about 1 amp, which isn't nothing, but shouldn't be a big deal for most situations âThe solenoid gets mounted before the regulator, as such:
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I have had a few people ask about the bed so here's what I have at the moment. I may rebuild the frame, but it works for now, and if nothing else it will provide a good template for whatever I decide to do in the future. There are a number of reasons this is a complicated design. You have the usual factor of dealing with the van walls being not square nor flat. Along with that, you are not supposed to have anything spanning the entire width of the van and attached to both walls at the same time. This is because of torsion and flex in the van as you drive. In order to meet a few of my build goals I had to design for the bed to utilize the space from the flares as well as allow for use of the bench seat.
Below is the design I came up with. There are a few more East-West supports than pictured. Keep in mind that they are attached, but only on one side (alternating sides with each East-West support). They are on top of the North-South supports. The space the flares created is illustrated as the sections on the outside of the North-South supports.
In its current state, my bed frame is just 2x4s with particle board on top. It functions, seems sturdy enough, and doesn't make much noise when I am driving. The only problem is the support legs. They are potentially in the way of storage options I may want to implement in the near future. A solution to this maybe to have part or all of the frame fabricated in metal, which should get rid of the need of at least some of, if not all of the support legs.
The hinged section is there to give headroom when I have passengers sitting in the seat which is located underneath the northern most edge of the bed frame. I do not yet have a plan to hold up that hinged section. I have not finished the ceiling and cabinets yet and so I don't know where I would attach anything. But I am thinking that rather then attaching a support for it on one of the cabinets, walls or ceiling, I will probably figure out a 45 degree prop to hold it up that will rest where the hinged part rests when the hinged part is down. Here is all I have as far as media on the bed at the moment:
I decided those metal L brackets are worthless because they bend. To support this section of the bed I ended up having a 2x4 that each side of the hinged part can rest on, supported by the leg supports.
What about the mattress?
Another goal for my build was to have a queen size bed that was just as comfortable as my bed at home. In fact I used the mattress that I have been using at home for the past 2. It is an 8 inch memory foam. I like a firm mattress and its not as firm as it could be, but it is supportive to the extent that you don't just sink in to your own indent. It has a layer of firmer foam that I had used in our house as the bottom, but I think its actually meant to be the top layer. My only concern is that I feel like the mattress was starting to wear in a little, creating a dip in the center, but since I flipped it over to have the firmer layer on top this doesn't seem to be an issue yet; time will tell. If your bed frame has slat supports, you will want boards over the slats, otherwise this mattress will sink in the gaps. I have not cut out the hinged of the mattress just yet, but I will make an update when I do so. Here is my mattress. Compromising between comfort, weight/thickness/size and price ($230) I do recommend it:
I mounted a 5.9 gallon propane take to the underside of Devandra. Its this tank, meant for a Volkswagon Eurovan. This project took about 3 days from start to finish. Welding the brackets would have been much faster, but I made it work without having to hire someone to weld them. Instead I took part in the painstaking process of drilling thick-gauge hardened steel. I went through 2 bits, one of which was $17. I learned that to drill metal, you need the right bits (expensive!), to go very slowly and take breaks (about 15 seconds of drilling, then let the bit cool off until you can hold it in your hand) and use a cutting oil!
The Brackets need to be 3" tall. The tank is 8" in diameter but the mounting lips are mounted an inch higher then center. The brackets I got where 6" L brackets. In the photo I cut one end of one of the brackets a little shorter then 3" (to make up for the gauge of the bracket itself). Obviously I am going to need to cut more off both brackets in order for a a second set to fit on the right side. |