Kepler's Status Page

The base of the shower pan has been screwed into the floor and a 2” hole drilled through the van. To get the slope, there are strips of wood of different thicknesses such that the top sheet of plywood will sit at an angle. I was hoping to bend the plywood so that the lowest point is at the drain but it was pretty difficult to bend and this method is a lot easier. It’s quite heavy, which is a downside to building your own shower pan. Fixing the leak in the water tank access hatch was unsuccessful. It’s slightly better with some plumbers grease but I’ll have to resort to taping up the hatch as access to it will be infrequent.

In the garage, I’ve laid down this sheet vinyl flooring with this neat diamond pattern. It’ll provide good grip for any items I store in the garage and help keep the area clean. I plan on wrapping it around the sides of the battery encasing as well, but I did not buy enough. Now that I have this on the floor, I can put the water tank back and build the water system on top. I just added some vinyl adhesive tape to the edges of the sheet to secure it down. I think glue is a bit overkill as this stuff stays down pretty well without any adhesive and it’ll be easier to replace in the future.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on building the shower walls. I used the scribe to trace the edges but turns out since the wall is curved, it’s hard to square it and let’s just say the results were… tragic.

Two of the walls are now done. The wall against the chassis is 1/2” plywood and had to be bent to avoid the wires on top and to match the contour of the van. I glued the piece to the wall and added a couple of nut and bolts where I could to ensure a tight connection. Then I attached some tek screws where I thought necessary. I think the bolts really helped keep the wall attached. The other wall is 3/4” plywood. If you look on the top left of the wall behind the passenger seat, you may notice some patching done. I ended up cutting too much and glued some pieces of plywood onto it. To my surprise, it actually holds up really well and thankfully the hole was at a non-essential location.

I’ve finally acquired all (and returned several) of the plumbing supplies and planned out the water system. Most of the connections are done with 1/2” pipes and NPT threads. There are some places where I had to use 3/4” and the water filter also comes with 3/4” garden hose threading, which is different. I tried to avoid adding adapters to everything as that would increase the points of leakage but it’s been hard finding the right connectors.

For the fill port, I kept it simple and used some 1 1/2” PVC pipes to create an opening for dumping water into the tank. I also added a 1/2” nylon vent tube for allowing air to enter the tank when draining. There is also a 1/2” braided nylon tube inside the tank that connects to the top and out to the water pump. A full diagram is on the way.

Unfortunately, after running the first leak test, I learned the hatch on the top is leaking. The gasket inside is broken and it’s been super hard to find a replacement gasket this large so I ended up just gluing it back together. I’ll have to run another test when the glue is fully cured.

I was going to put off adding shore power until later but I found a really simple solution for it. There are conveniently located openings on the bottom of the van near the back with a rubber cover that pops into it. The location is perfect as it leads straight to the battery system. So, I just drilled a hole and mounted a 30A shore power inlet into the rubber and popped it back in. I didn’t want to drill any holes onto the side of Kep so this method worked really well.

Coming up: plumbing! Now that the electrical system is ready to go, I’ll be starting the build of the wetroom and planning the white and grey water system. The frame of the shower pan is complete but it still needs to be sloped and waterproofed. It will sit right behind the drivers seat and have 4 walls surrounding it with one of them being the door. The plan is to use 2x4 to frame the wall on the left and allow for some space for plumbing. The remaining walls will just be plywood sheets. I’ll then cover the walls on the inside with PVC panels to make the shower waterproof. I wasn’t able to find a shower pan with the dimensions I wanted and the drain hole in the right location so I opted to build my own. The shower pan is 27in x 24in and the resulting footprint of the wetroom will be about 32in x 26in.

The battery housing is complete and installed. There are two really simple sliding doors to access the battery system, which still need handles and a locking mechanism. I added an outlet in the back and connected the light switches to control the garage lights. I should’ve thought more about the placement of these. I think it would have been better to have the outlet and switch in the back higher up.

For wiring the outlet, I used fork connectors, as the terminal screws don’t come out completely. These connectors are less preferred over ring connectors in vehicles as they run the risk of falling out. Apparently if you bend the ends of the fork, it provides a more secure connection.

Kep now has a hole in his underside. I’ve finally committed to a location for the shower drain with careful planning to avoid the gas tank and the ribs. I took some rough measurements from the driver side door and the side of the van and aligned it to where the shower was inside the van. It turned out to be quite accurate as this location for the drain is ideal. Another clever method I came across is sticking a strong magnet to the bottom and scattering metal shavings inside the van floor to see where they go. This didn’t work for me as I have some pretty thick flooring installed already.

The deck is complete and mounted to the roof rack. It’s stained with an oil based stain in brown but it came out more orange looking probably due to the reddish undertones of cedar. I promise it’s not as bad in person. I also wired a mini Starlink to my 12V DC system. It’ll be mounted in the center.

For the LED lights in the garage, there will be two switches on each end to control the light. This two way switch took me forever to figure out. There are basically three red wires running between the two switches, so for the third I separated out the red from the duplex wire and wrapped loom tubing around the whole bundle. I’m also using wago connectors when connecting three wires together.

The furring around the recessed cabinet have been installed. I’m using a bit of marine sealant to glue the strip to the metal and then covering the screws with a bit of blue loctite. I added a couple of self drilling (tek) screws in the areas without rivnuts so these strips are permanently in, for the foreseeable future at least. Finally, the cabinet is supported by the two vertical strips.

The housing for the batteries is almost done. This is long overdue but my electrical system will finally have some protection from falling wood and metal. I’m in the process of sealing the wood with polyurethane, which should help prevent it from molding. The garage will end up looking rather primitive as I’m not going to bother painting or staining the wood.

Today was an exciting day for Kep. I finally got the fan wired. It works just as expected, which means Kep can now stay cool through the summer. For connecting two wires of different (or same) gauges, I use butt connectors. They’re hard to hold together while crimping but it seems to make a very secure connection.

I also tested the outdoor light and wired a switch for it. It’s just a simple SPST switch and seems to work well. The light is actually super blinding and I’m not a big fan but it does the job. I used female spade connectors to connect to the terminals on the switch. These are pretty easy to install but a little wobbly. They should hold through vibrations though.

Some poor planning has led to the conclusion that I may need a larger breaker between the batteries and the DC fuse block. It’s currently 40A but I’ve been adding more and more circuits. For now, I’ll start making some of the connections. For the terminals on the fuse block (right), I used #8 ring connectors and the usual 5/16 inch lugs for the wires running to the battery. I don’t know why I thought 6AWG wire would be easier to bend, but it’s not so, now it has to snake around the sides. The AC panel does also light up. It seems unnecessary but it was easy to connect to the fuse block.

Excuse the mess. I have finally finished the pre-wiring and the AC/DC distribution panel, which I have also built a cabinet to place it in. I thought having easy access to this would be nice but it has actually made the wiring a lot harder due to the placement. I ended up drilling more holes through the sheet metal to better hide the wires, because it turns out I have a lot of things that need power in here. Keeping all electrical components in the garage might’ve been the way to go. Fun fact: there is over 150ft of wire in Kep (if you count the duplex/triplex as one). I think it’s also a good idea to keep as much of the wiring away from the ceiling as possible as it would be harder to remove ceiling planks to access the wires if ever needed.

The distribution panel is removable and slides into the bottom half of the cabinet. The cabinet will be recessed into this wall on the right. I know what you’re thinking. Those are some real funky sized holes. But they work. The fit is also pretty tight and this box was probably poorly designed so we’ll see about replacing it later.

I’ve also made a couple of last minute changes. One being that I added this outdoor light and mounted it to the roof rack above the sliding door. I figured this will come in handy if I’m ever outside in the dark. The other is I’ve decided to go with a 4 gallon electric water heater. I had originally planned to keep a 20lb propane tank in here for heating but decided against it. I think I have enough power to at least use the water heater sparingly and that just means one less thing to build. Also, no need for sketchy gas lines.

There was a slight delay this morning in getting started with Kep as I was locked out of my home. But on the bright side I learned how to pick a sliding door lock. Well, sort of. So being extremely stubborn, I had to find a way in. Unfortunately, all the doors were locked so I started with picking the lock to the front door with a paperclip. Of course, to no avail. But obviously I should’ve tried the sliding glass door first as it had the simplest lock out of all the doors! So, I did some browsing on YouTube and saw someone use a screwdriver to lift up the door while pulling it open at the same time. I conveniently had a screwdriver in my car so I tried this, aggressively jiggling the door while trying to lift it. After a couple of attempts, thinking I had failed, I was surprised to find that the door had become unlocked. I was curious about why this actually worked, so I then spent a few more minutes puzzled.

So here’s what the lock looks like, on the right. It flips up and hooks onto the latch through the center opening, on the left. I thought that I could just push it down and that’s why it was necessary to lift up the door. But actually, an upwards force is required for it to fold back in. Can you visualize that? So now I’m utterly confused.

Anyways, I began working on the furring strips today. I cut up some 1/2 inch plywood to create the strips. I used this neat method to determine where to drill holes. Here’s how it goes. First, put up some tape around known markers and use this tape as a guide to determine where the rivnut was. After marking the rivnut with a pen/pencil, transfer the tape to the plywood and drill a hole where the marking is. This worked for the most part.

Then I had to countersink the holes so that the screws can sit flat in the plywood.

This is what Kep looks like now with only a couple of strips. I also mounted one more overhead cabinet.

After finishing framing the galley, there were a couple more imperfections in the van’s chassis that I had to account for. This one cool tool, a scribe, that I tried for the first time was quite useful for this. It allowed me to trace the exact size and location of the notch I needed to cut so I could get the frame flush against the chassis.

This is the final layout. I added a quarter inch thermal insulation (just a foam strip) on the areas that will have contact with the chassis. This creates a barrier from the outside temperature and should help regulate the temperature of the aluminum. I still have to mount everything so the overhead cabinets are just sitting on top of the counter. I also got my third injury today. Metal is dangerous.

I finally got the long overhead cabinets mounted, which will span the entire drivers side wall up to the shower. It also hides the factory cables nicely. I left the end a bit longer as I don’t know exactly where the shower will start. Getting every section squared and level took the longest and still it is definitely not perfect. The mounting points do not match up with any existing holes so I had to mark, drill, and prep my own holes. Afterwards, I tried deburring the holes to smooth them out but not sure if that really made a difference. Then I sprayed the bare metal with Rust-Oleum to prevent rust/corrosion.

And finally, I installed 1/4-20 rivnuts, which is actually a very hard process with a manual rivet tool. All but one of the holes matched up but I will revisit that one later.

Today I bought a block of wood from a random stranger. It’s stained acacia butcher block that was used as a computer desk. There are some blemishes and dents but most of it should be either cut out or fixed with a good sanding. I plan to restain and refinish it after so hopefully this wasn’t a complete waste. The aluminum framing is almost done, just some final touches to the kitchen countertop. Apparently the order in which to attach everything really matters, but unfortunately I’ll have to redo everything again later to add loctite to each of the screws.

Here’s a sneak peak of the overall layout. The overhead cabinets are complete and so is part of the kitchen galley. This took quite a bit of time to get everything squared and making sure I cut each aluminum piece to the right size without having too many leftover small pieces. So far Kep’s looking good.

The extruded aluminum is quite easy to work with, especially with the proper tools to cut the pieces and fasten the screws. I mostly used corner brackets with screws and slide in T-nuts. I’ve found it easier to connect the pieces together first and then slide them in to the slot.

These end fasteners are the bane of my existence. They require a drill press to drill a hole through one piece and the screw goes into the center of the other piece. You then use the hole that you drilled to tighten the screw, like so. It’s nice when you don’t want the brackets showing but can be difficult to get lined up or remove. It also requires a permanent hole so best to use in a location that will be covered up.

Lately I’ve been trying to figure out the framing, how to work with extruded aluminum, and taking measurements for the overall layout. Adding the furring strips should allow me to also build the wall space cabinets and decide where to install the AC/DC panels. Then I can finish wiring all the energy consuming components. Hopefully I’ll be done just in time to power on the fan for the summer. Also, the alternator charging does work, I just had the settings wrong.

Kep has power! All the parts (mostly) have been tested and the batteries are able to charge via the sun. It took two hours to charge 10% with full afternoon sun. It doesn’t seem like the alternator will charge the batteries when idle so I’ll need to take Kep for a ride some other day.

Kep is fully wired. Fire extinguisher has been acquired. A potential fire may occur tomorrow. This will eventually be property of Kep. Everything has been torqued to the recommended torque setting and I used a combination of 3/8 inch and 5/16 inch lugs. The 3/8 was mostly for the bus bars. I tried to use ferrules on all screw terminals but some did not fit (like in the solar charge controller) so I had to omit them for those connections.

You may notice the end result looks very different from the plan and that is because I did not anticipate how difficult it is to bend wires. I had to make some adjustments but it all worked out. I also found a (hopefully) good spot to ground the whole system. Honestly, this was the hardest part.

I decided to try out this foam filler to cover up the gaps between the subfloors and the walls. It puffs up and you trim it afterwards and it looks like it helps.

Here’s an idea for the planned out wiring. I also decided to cut a [black] hole (bottom right) for feeding the wires to the designated locations. This way everything will be hidden on the garage side.

So Kep’s got a dual alternator, which comes with a second consumer connection point (CCP). These wires have been connected to the van’s 175A CCP and the negative terminal of the battery that is under the driver’s seat. The most time consuming part was figuring out how to put back the plastic trims…

Newly wired batteries! Originally all the positives and negatives were wired to their own terminal on the bus bar but I think this saves space and weight. To wire them in parallel, you can connect all of the positive terminals and all of the negative terminals to each other. I cut the existing 2/0 AWG cables to the same length and wired them in this pattern. This is apparently a method to balance the current draw through all of the batteries.

Waiting on some parts and doing some more pondering… Meanwhile, I’ve honed my straight line wood cutting skills with this deck that will go on top of Kep. I was able to make it larger than I expected, hence the half cut pieces on the side. I used cedar wood but it also seems to be a softer wood so maybe it won’t last very long, but that’s honstly okay.

So there are these annoying foam trims that have wires coming from them and hide the side airbag. Some people remove these completely and some people just cover it with cloth. So again, here’s me doing something in between. I ended up cutting the block so I have room to build the shower without the useless foam taking up space.

I also ended up removing the wires from the batteries (because I wanted to wire them differently) and planned out some of the electrical.

The solar panels were originally wired in parallel but from what I’ve read, series is more common as it performs better in low light conditions and provides higher voltage for charging. Makes sense but there are other tradeoffs I had to make. I chose to wire them in hybrid where two panels are connected in series and two of them are in parallel. This gives me a better balance between higher voltage and lower current for a less expensive MPPT controller. It was super cloudy when I did this but the reading when I finished was 3.5A and 46V. Low on the amperage but the voltage is expected. I’ll blame the clouds.

Here is what Kepler looked like when he arrived before the transformation. A lot of work was already done so the first step was to figure out what to keep and what to change. Ultimately, the subfloor, insulation, and sound proofing is complete and as you can see some electrical components already exist. The electrical work will be rewired mostly for my own knowledge and because I wasn’t satisfied with the decisions made.