Up next in 10
Van Builder HQ Podcast #3 - How To Choose A Camper Van Window
752 views
May 3, 2025
The Van Builder HQ team discuss how to choose a camper van window and the different types of windows for van conversions available. Enjoy! Visit https://www.vanbuilderhq.com to learn more. Interested in buying a van? Check out https://www.odysseycustomvans.com Support Van Builder HQ on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/vanbuilderhq
View Video Transcript
0:01
[Music]
0:07
three two one hey everybody welcome to van builder
0:12
hq podcast number three today we're going to talk about conversion van windows
0:19
that's not the one i wanted to say campervan windows campervan windows
0:25
we're going to keep going i got nick here with me nick how you doing doing good doing good good nick walk us
0:31
through your window shopping window camper van journey tell
0:36
us the story yeah it's good timing because right now i'm actually cutting the holes into the van for our number
0:43
one van here at odyssey custom vans and yeah cutting holes in your van is uh
0:49
it's a pretty sensitive subject because it's a big commitment other than buying the van when you get ready to start
0:54
cutting holes in your van you want to make sure you're getting the right window you want to figure out what's the process of even not just getting the
1:00
right window how do i do it how do i make a template how much do windows cost so the first thing that i did i just got
1:07
to go from my experience with searching for what window i wanted to put in a van
1:13
and so let me just go up here visuals help a whole lot so let me share my screen
1:24
so vain windows i randomly picked this up so don't think i'm just clicking on this can you see that on your screen
1:31
james actually let me go to let's go here let's go to ford transit
1:38
ran windows
1:44
i want to get a picture of a van so we can see here that's a great one
1:51
so if you guys can uh see this ford transit over here so this is a medium roof if you guys are checking out my
1:57
channel or the fan builder hq in general the van that i'm working on is a high roof so it's a little bit different than
2:03
this the mid roof and high roof actually use the same windows because of the sliding door over here going to basics
2:10
typically when you buy a cargo van the cargo van is not going to
2:16
have any windows now if you buy a passenger van passenger cargo van it probably will
2:21
have windows in it there's so there's two different things we can go down that rabbit hole here in a minute
2:27
but when you buy a cargo vent it's typically not going to have any windows in it and when you buy it you're going to have to put windows in it
2:33
so that you can enjoy the time that you're in the van you can see outside you can actually get ventilation that
2:39
sort of thing there we go okay we're back
2:45
okay what was it talking about so when you buy a cargo van it's typically not going to have any windows
2:51
in it and you're going to want to put windows in it so that you can enjoy the time you're inside the van it doesn't
2:57
feel claustrophobic you can see the views and most importantly you're able to ventilate the van
3:03
so most van windows that you buy need to have some type of way of opening up the first thing you're
3:09
going to do is decide if you're going to have full windows so they look more like a
3:14
factory window or if you're going to have smaller windows like these bunk windows that they're called
3:20
these half sliders or awning style windows and the awning style windows
3:26
look like this right here so that's the first step
3:32
so once you've decided what window you need now you want to find out you know what company to get the windows from
3:39
and there's a couple different companies let's see if i can oh before we go there yeah why did you
3:45
choose that particular window you mentioned the different reasons why you have a window why did
3:51
you choose that one versus a full yeah so let's uh so back to the windows
3:59
so if you see this one on my screen this is a half slider they call it like a half bunk slider
4:05
and somebody would choose this window because uh maybe they want a bigger opening
4:12
but it's also it has a screen on it so bugs don't get in but there's two styles of these so
4:17
there's this one that slides left to right and then there's the one that i chose
4:24
right here and this one is it's called an awning style
4:29
so it doesn't slide lifter it tilts out the reason i chose this one
4:35
is because if it's raining outside you can actually keep this open and still maintain
4:41
ventilation make sense
4:47
okay and now we're going to go into companies and pricing
4:53
yeah so there's about four companies that most people will know for so i know about so if you go on youtube the main
5:00
two window companies are am auto and cr lawrence
5:06
there's two other ones rec pro makes windows i don't think they actually make the windows i think they
5:12
maybe it's a rebrand i'm not sure about that but rec pro and then also there's a company out west
5:18
it's a van windows direct so they're a real popular company because not only do they have uh
5:26
don't not only do they sell am auto they also sell sierra lawrence so those are the four so your am auto
5:33
is going to be like this window over here where let's just type it in
5:46
so if we go to am auto if you you see how the window
5:51
kind of sinks into the van so when it opens it slides back into the van people
5:56
really like these windows because these are actually glued in with an adhesive as opposed to trim ring mounting
6:04
i have not had experience installing these but people like them because they feel a
6:10
little bit more secure about the install we'll talk about that at the end of this video about window installation but you
6:16
actually use adhesive like you would be gluing in the like your windshield so you you broke your windshield the
6:22
after you replace the windshield they put this stuff called window weld it's like a black adhesive and then it glues
6:27
your window in it's designed to never fully cure so it's flexible so that's the same thing
6:32
that they would use to install this so some people like that they feel more secure with about leaks and stuff
6:38
there's another example and then cr lawrence uses this they
6:44
designed this style window so this is an awning style so these two
6:49
bottom panes of glass they actually tilt out so let's type in
6:55
crl man window see if i can get a picture of it tilting there you go
7:02
so as you can see the see how this window it cranks out so there's a little knob on the inside and as you twist it
7:10
this opens up depending on what van you have i've heard that the amount that this
7:16
window opens is different i produce less on a transit that's more on different vans and that
7:22
has to do with the curvature of the van like a promaster is going to have nice straight side
7:27
uh transits tend to curve so if you have a curved surface and a flat class you can see
7:33
there's some weird things that happen and we're going to talk about that at the end of video as well
7:40
that has to do with insulin installation but as we're going here so crl where's the next thing we're
7:46
going to talk about oh yeah so those are the two differences between the crl those are the different types
7:54
that are available for the most part yeah one slides and one tilts one slides
7:59
and then one tilts out like an awning style and so i always favor the ones that tilt out like an awning style
8:05
because when you're outside when you're in the van and you're camping and it's warmer weather or it's actually
8:11
raining out you want to be able to have ventilation without getting rain in your van and if you choose all windows and all
8:18
the windows your van and their ama windows it's you're going to have that moisture or that the rain come into your
8:24
van because the amount of ventilation is like a rain guard yeah it's like a rain guard and you might not
8:31
think about this until you actually experience an exhaust fan in a van
8:36
but the vent fans that are in the roof they move a lot of air so it's almost like a vacuum cleaner you
8:43
think if it's raining outside and you have an open window that slides instead of does an awning style it's gonna it's
8:50
gonna pull some of that uh rain into the van so that's why i try to if i can get
8:56
the windows i get the awning style see our lawrence windows that's another thing i wanted to talk about is the
9:03
current state of shipping logistics and even ordering these windows yeah maybe you can talk about cost of
9:09
these different types of windows with and then yeah definitely talk about your story
9:15
yeah i'll pull this up here in a second i'll stop this so we can get a big wide screen
9:20
so the current state of ordering van windows right now is pretty uh challenging i actually ordered all
9:27
the windows for the two vans that i'm building currently in september of last year two weeks ago
9:33
i got half of my order and then there's still two windows that i'm missing and they were supposed to be here
9:39
january 27th today is january 31st as we're making this video
9:44
and those other two windows will not be here until february 15th you can imagine other van builders and companies that
9:51
are pretty behind on you know waiting on these windows to come in now there's a country in america i have not got a
9:57
definitive answer on that i talked to a representative last year and she said
10:02
that yes they are made in america and because of companies imagining manufacturing
10:08
plants having to put their manpower capacity to about 50 they're not allowed to
10:15
have more than 50 percent uh of their people in a building at one given time different kind of meat
10:21
processing plants and all that yeah so they say it's not a part issue and it's not a
10:27
it's just a manpower issue so that was from the first person i talked to at the company
10:33
when i went to pick up my first order and i asked them for an update on how things going that sort of thing
10:38
uh the lady i spoke to then said it was a supplier issue so they probably got two things
10:45
happening they got the ships and the ports that are behind for whatever parts and stuff that they're you know bringing in and then they have
10:51
the manpower issue of not being able to go to full capacity and i mean that's just something you
10:56
have to live with right now i have a little bit more leniency on these this first van because it's a spec it's not a
11:02
customer build specifically so my timeline can be flexible however the second van i've
11:08
already pre-planned i have all the windows ready for it so when it's ready to go get on the schedule and be built i don't
11:14
have to worry about i've got all the windows i need for it so we're good there and
11:20
for this video i was actually i knew we were going to talk about windows and i wanted to do a little
11:26
price comparison now you can there's anybody on here that knows about like computer graphics cards
11:34
you can buy a graphics card but it's three times the the retail price
11:39
i found out that fan windows are the same way i couldn't believe it actually looked it up the other day
11:44
and so let me share this screen again so this company
11:50
i really enjoy ordering from the name of them is panther rv products
11:57
they got excellent customer service this is where i got my isotherm cruise 130 fridge from it's really nice stainless
12:03
steel fridge so i looked on here and they actually have a few stock of these windows did
12:10
you say you're getting one of these windows no i've already got the windows that i need i just got the
12:16
what are they called the windows you got what's the name of them so i got cr lawrence i got the aw 1033
12:23
awning style windows yep i got six of those for inventory i've got two of the slider doors and
12:32
then two of the driver side window t-vent so i have my invoices right here
12:37
and i wanted to go through these numbers because it's very interesting so for numbers yeah for cr lawrence
12:43
let's go back to the big screen so this is what i would do personally if you're doing a personal van build
12:49
if there's any way that you can somehow get a customer number as if you're a business or
12:55
something like that something that where you can get more of like wholesale pricing type of thing obviously since
13:00
i'm a van builder i submitted got a customer number and now i have a customer number that i order from through these businesses
13:08
and so depending on how many windows i order i get a certain amount of discount off the windows
13:13
and there's another that's not really a secret but it takes a little bit of patience
13:19
if you decide to travel this is sierra lawrence specifically
13:24
if you try to if you can travel to a cr lawrence distributing center and you can
13:30
do a will call pickup so what that means is you order you put your windows in order in the queue you get your spot in
13:36
line as soon as the windows roll off the assembly line they come straight to the manufacturer
13:42
they'll send you an email and then you can go and then pick up your windows and pay for them as they will call pickup so
13:48
that's what i did that way you actually don't have to have them tied up as a cost until you
13:54
actually physically go to pick the window up and pay for it and they keep your place in line until you pay for it so you're not going to
14:00
get your window taken out from under you however when you do that they do not charge shipping
14:07
or freight charges so you can save quite a bit of money so the two things you can do is buy in
14:13
bulk if you can do your whole order at once that'll save you some money and then number two you can
14:20
drive to a location or distributor and then just physically pick it up in person as
14:25
we'll call order and that's gonna save you some money too and i'm gonna show you just on the shipping just on the
14:31
pricing how much you're gonna you're gonna save so if we go back here to sharing my
14:37
screen and i can't promise this is what the price is gonna be it's just more for us
14:44
doing the video but this is the sierra lawrence driver side forward window
14:50
so fw293l so my cost was
14:56
fifty seven 630.57 so if you needed a window now
15:03
they have one left or actually their maximum purchase of one they only have two in stock
15:10
so i paid six thirty 30 57 no shipping no freight charges i did pay tax
15:16
um and if you bought it off of here i don't know if they do free shipping
15:22
but that's a 160 difference if you bought the let's see here
15:29
so here's the awning window so my cost was uh 223
15:35
and so their cost is 310 so that's 86 bucks so you're already over you're getting to
15:41
be almost over uh you know 200 something dollars just on those two
15:48
and this is just availability cost so the retail is obviously cheaper than 790
15:53
but this is the premium you have to pay right now to get this window and that's not including shipping
15:59
and i don't know is this the one you got you mentioned
16:05
this is the one that is on the way to me this is the one that's been back ordered since september
16:10
now i could have bought it from i can buy it right now from this company the problem is it's the cost and i don't
16:16
know if we talked about this in the last video but if you're not smart about your budget on
16:23
the van oh yeah we joked around everything is 400 this is 400 and that's 400.
16:30
so it's more like time for your how much you want or willing to save
16:37
versus the time you need the van done by all this stuff adds up so if you wait and have these on back order you're
16:43
almost saving 100 to 86 to 160 per window that you need so that's the
16:49
how much that i saved getting back to the point if you want it now it's going to be expensive if you can wait
16:56
wait so if you're planning a van build try to plan this out especially with what we're going through it right now
17:01
through logistics and stuff like that but if you have the money you can go right now and go to this website
17:09
and you're able to so how did how do you buy building a van
17:14
how does it affect your schedule because you i know with yours you had uh windows
17:20
are at the beginning correct yeah you want to do windows as the first
17:26
thing because and if you watch some of my window installation videos i talk about how you
17:31
want to prep you want to keep all the little metal shavings away from the inside of your van you don't want it to
17:37
get down nooks and crannies to where you can't take an air compressor and blow it out or vacuum it out because in a van
17:43
if it's not well ventilated um you're humans you know you when you breathe out there's a lot of moisture
17:49
and humidity in there and that humidity has to go somewhere even if you buy hydrophobic materials
17:54
that don't attract water all the above you seal all the wood that moisture is still in the van if you
18:00
don't exhaust it out especially in the winter time where it can actually condense on the freezing sides of your
18:07
van that's why insulation and insulating the van properly is so important having
18:12
those thermal bridges in there all that stuff and we'll talk about that later if you're doing a if you're doing a build
18:19
is this one this is probably the first thing you're going to order so you want to do it early in your build right before you build stars i'd say the first
18:26
thing you're going to do if you know what van you're going to get get the windows so the windows for these vans let's see here that was six seven eight
18:35
what was your cost current bill 14 28.
18:41
let's just say without shipping freight let's say three thousand dollars is how much it'll cost for the windows for your
18:46
van so if you're if you know that's the van you're gonna get go ahead and put those windows on order if you and if you do a
18:53
will call order i may be mistaken but from what i talk to them uh
18:59
if you do wheelchair order and you decide not to get the windows it's okay they just give them to somebody else so
19:04
you can have your place in line wait for the windows to come in as you're doing your van build or shopping
19:10
around because just depending on because they really don't know their shipping schedule
19:16
i've called for five updates and the date has been it's drifted every single time that's just it's just the way things are but
19:22
you know windows and like i said i don't have a specific timeline for the spec build that i'm
19:29
doing but i mean if this was customer build and timeline
19:34
i mean you're not able to work on the van because
19:40
you got you know cutting holes puts that little fine metal everywhere and you definitely don't want to be doing
19:45
electrical that's a good segue let's go let's go to that next okay great
19:52
we found the windows we've looked at the different ones you've told us how much they cost
19:58
how long it takes to receive them what is the now that we have the windows you have a templating and installation
20:05
process how did you start your process how did you come up
20:10
with a kind of a template for each windows tools you used perfect problems you had to solve maybe
20:16
walk us through that story time so i'm actually working on a step-by-step tutorial video
20:23
right now that'll be out pretty soon it's extremely detailed so it's almost live footage of me doing
20:29
the whole entire installation process on one window and the first thing i talked about is templating and late so i'll
20:35
have a video showing you how to make a template for your window do we point to it
20:40
right here now yeah we can probably do that later but the template's the most important
20:45
because i've seen a lot of bad information it's bad in that i know it could be better a lot of people use
20:52
the method of taking the trim ring that compresses the window in the van and they basically hold it up and they trace
20:59
the inside of it which is not wrong because the window goes inside that ring
21:04
but sometimes they're off by almost a quarter of an inch and so there's a lot of movement and the more that you're off
21:10
the less ceiling surface area you have between the fan gasket between the
21:15
van windows gasket and the sheet metal the van and then that's that really is your ceiling surface so you want to make
21:21
sure that your template is very precise so precise that if you cut it out
21:27
then you have to remove a little bit more material after you trace it that's
21:32
okay but once you move remove the material it's gone and how what was your process
21:38
so my process i started the bad process what's the good process i'm just like everyone else i went on youtube and i
21:44
wanted to expose myself to as many ideas and just see what everyone did and i
21:50
actually have let's see here if i can pull it up real quick
22:10
so i'll put this on uh this channel
22:16
i'll try to repurpose this playlist this is just from for me personally but this is what i do i go in and i create a
22:23
playlist in youtube and then when i go down the
22:28
you know rabbit hole of finding out all the all my inspiration or ideas i put them in a playlist so that i can
22:35
always go and reference back whatever the best practice that i thought was so for example i have one two three four
22:42
five six seven eight nine 10 11 12.
22:48
so i've got 12 videos here most of them have so most of them have one way of doing the van install some have another
22:55
one but you always find that one that kind of sticks out and it's a clever way to do it
23:01
and so there was one one guy that i saw i don't know if i can actually
23:07
let's see i talked about it in the actual one window install video
23:12
but what he talks about is the trim ring let me keep sharing this
23:21
all right guys we're gonna get a little fancy here so can you see my screen
23:27
all right this is really behind the scenes this is super behind the scenes
23:33
this is a preview that's the only way i can explain this you guys are actually this video might come out before this podcast
23:40
yeah it's possible so we're let's go here yeah this is pretty awesome
23:46
this is like this video is an hour and a half long it's extreme extremely in in detail but
23:53
when i watch youtube videos it's always a pretty time lapse but nobody ever explains what's going on so this my take
23:59
is to show you guys exactly what happens okay here is the template
24:05
so this is basically what i did is i took a piece of cardboard
24:11
from the window box that it came in and i cut out a bigger section and then
24:17
i laid this on top of the window itself
24:23
and the part of the window that actually goes through the van you want
24:28
this to be as tight to that as possible and then we'll put the link to how to create a template i'm not going to go
24:33
into detail but you make a template out of cardboard and then once you do that
24:40
you're able to there's a couple pieces of the window and see if i can do it let's see here
24:45
okay see this trim ring you see it jamie it's a black trim ring
24:51
if you can't see it so this trim ring right here move my mouse on it
24:56
a lot of people just like to trace the inside the problem with that is there's a gasket here
25:02
and that trim ring gives you more room than you need so you have less sealing area
25:08
so i go in detail talk about how you can get it really clean
25:13
nice tight fit for the install then moving forward
25:20
we talk about placement and then we go through and we talk about
25:26
your overall layout so for example during this process and jamie let me
25:32
know if i'm going on a tangent here from our question no keep going but one thing i actually point out in the video is
25:38
you want to make sure that your window is let's go back to the let's go back
25:44
before here okay as you can see here
25:49
i'm explaining in this video or you will see that your video needs to be you know
25:55
aesthetically pleasing i believe you don't need to just don't randomly put your window in the van without thinking
26:02
about it you need to have time really think about uh what you're doing with your van
26:07
window install since you can only cut the whole out one time so in the video i talked about the importance of taking your time finding
26:14
out where you want to put the window and actually caught myself because i in
26:19
my initial design i knew i was going to have the ladder up here and everything but when you're doing windows first
26:25
guess what you didn't get to the ladder yet so i actually stopped the install of the
26:30
window and installed the ladder on the driver's side of the van so i would be able to
26:36
have a reference point and able to lay out my window so it would be you know visually pleasing on the
26:42
outside it wouldn't look like it was interrupted by the ladder number two it wasn't
26:47
obstructed by the ladder as in when i open the window it's not hitting the ladder and not opening fully
26:54
so that's what i talk about and then let's see here and then we go into actually laying out
26:59
the template let me turn my camera back on
27:07
talk about the template we talked about where does it in reference to like your bed layout ladders over here
27:13
that sort of thing and then we move into okay template all right i think that's where
27:20
you left off jamie with your question what other questions you have besides where to
27:26
lay out the window our template so you mentioned how you created a template what tools were you using
27:33
okay great question so what i do at the beginning of the video
27:40
is we go over here to our table
27:45
and we talk about the tools that are used so i did is i just laid out the tools that i'm using you make sure once
27:51
you watch the template video that i have you'll learn how to make this template these pieces of tape on here are just to make sure that it doesn't you know flop
27:58
around it's nice and rigid it kind of adds structure to the cardboard that's all that's for it's not for anything
28:03
else you'll need a jigsaw to cut it out in the video i talked about the
28:09
the blade you're you need to use what uh thin thick metal
28:14
t-shank or whatever t-slot all that stuff's in there markers masking tape what to use
28:22
tape measure you need two drills one with a small drill bit one with a large drill bit that's large enough to make a
28:27
hole for your jigsaw blade to go into the window and the small one is for reference and
28:33
locating holes so for example you're going to take this drill here and you're going to drill a hole on the
28:40
line at the top and align at the bottom and that's so you can reference
28:47
where your bars need to be cut out on the inside of the van so once you have all this your
28:53
protective equipment safety glasses ear protection metal cutting gloves once you have all that
29:01
the reason you need to have the small drill bit to drill through the van is because it has to do with the
29:06
reference holes so as you can see here let's get to it there's two reference holes there's one
29:12
right here and there's one right here you see those holes you see my mouse two holes there
29:18
and then we're gonna go to the inside i'm sorry i was talking no
29:24
you're okay said um it might be hard for them to see this so
29:29
we're gonna have the the video falling or coming out in a few days yeah and i might i may do some overlay on this
29:35
podcast but it'll be out before this show's out yeah so here's your two reference holes see one of the top one at the bottom and what the the reason
29:42
you need that is because
29:50
let's see here okay that's why i'm in the wrong menu so let's get back to
30:02
stay with me guys
30:10
okay so it right here there's two reference holes and what this is showing me right
30:15
here is how far i need to cut to get these support members out of
30:22
the van you need these support members moved out of the way to install your window so
30:27
i'll talk about that that's important called support members yeah so they're they're what support so
30:34
for example if you bought a passenger van that had a window already in it they would these would already be removed by
30:39
the factory but when you buy a cargo van these ribs these vertical ribs so you got har the
30:46
horizontal ribs for the roof of the the ceiling of the van and then you get these vertical ribs to support the sides
30:52
of the van it supports the sheet metal what's really tricky about this is i'm cutting through the rib
30:59
just enough that i'm not cutting through the sheet metal of the van because it's the sheet metal of the fan
31:05
the difference between the rib cutout and the hole of the window is two completely different things
31:11
please watch the video so you don't screw that up because you need room go ahead
31:16
so what problems did you encounter doing this now that you have the tools
31:22
and template what were any problems someone that's doing this might run into
31:29
so the problem that i had was i'm a very visually
31:34
driven person i want everything to visual and everything to look really nice i over complicated my design
31:41
because instead of just installing the window you know just cutting the window out
31:48
and then let's go down here putting the window in
31:53
and putting the trim ring on right there so most people would end
31:58
their build right here they would just they would have the ring that compresses the window into the van
32:04
and later on they'll build a little a wooden frame around here
32:09
they'll put their panel in and make a nice little window box or they'll have the flare space flares they'll have
32:16
something else but since i'm doing the the adventure way i'm going to install i have this
32:22
second trim ring and the second trim ring you it has to have way more thought put
32:29
in it because not only am i having clearance for this i have to have clearance for this trim
32:34
ring but the end result right there you see the tren see this
32:41
ring so i have to have this ring and then i have to have this in mine because my interior panel what was the
32:48
problem the for the problem is i had to cut my window out first and i had to install my window then i had to
32:58
remove the window install this trim ring glue it in with adhesive reinstall the
33:04
window to compress this trim ring and then once the glue dried
33:11
i had to take the trim ring out and then i had to do my
33:17
rust prevention and then i had to take my window out again
33:22
and put in my my upholster panel because i needed to scribe out
33:29
and trace out where this hole was going to be cut at the panel actually the panel itself
33:38
then i had to take the panel off again let's see if i can do this here so i had to take the panel off
33:45
okay so you see the trim ring and then the panel is traced panel is taken off
33:51
and then i'd had to take the panel i had to cut the profile out
33:57
and then i had to reinstall the panel and then i had to reinstall the panel
34:02
and the window and the final trim ring so i had to reinstall the i had to saw the window
34:08
three times so which is a big learning curve well and you can't mess up on you can't
34:14
mess up on any part of this you can't be off at all everything has to be perfect
34:19
every single time you make a cut you can't mess this up these adventure wagon panels if you mess
34:25
one of them up it's a thousand dollars and that's if you can if you can get in line to get a panel
34:32
due to their production uh but when you get everything in there
34:38
uh it receives right here it looks just it looks excellent
34:43
so since i had to remove the window three times i decided to go with a different
34:49
method of bolting the window to the van and a problem that a lot of
34:55
people have with these sierra lawrence windows is that they use a screw
35:01
to drill into the aluminum frame to mount the window and if someone let's go
35:07
back to the video here so if someone doesn't have any
35:13
experience drilling into an aluminum trim ring you might screw this little you get these little screws and it's
35:20
meant to it's almost like a self-tapping screw it's meant to bite into the
35:26
aluminum frame of the window there's no pre-drilled holes in these windows when you get them
35:32
you are the one that is drilling the hole in the window for the first time to mount it
35:37
and some people that it's not their fault but they're not experienced with you know
35:42
drilling into something that's not pre-fabricated they'll drill a screw in
35:47
and it won't actually cut through the next layer in the aluminum trim ring so that they won't actually get the frame
35:54
won't be as tight as they should it's not as tight as they uh think they should have it in their
36:00
right it's not so they'll have to really bear down on it they can break
36:07
the screws off they can make the heads of the screws can get worn out
36:13
and since i knew i was taking the window in and out i said this doesn't make sense to me these should be tapped holes with a socket head cap
36:19
screw so if you guys don't know what that is let's do this up real quick
36:26
should we go to socket head cap screw
36:33
so the socket head cap screws look like this so there you're able to use an allen wrench and they actually will have
36:39
these little knurls and you can screw it in with your finger and then you can take this and use an allen wrench to
36:44
screw it in what's really nice about these types of screws is if you need to put the window in and
36:50
then you need to take the window out and you tap threads into the aluminum frame you can take the window out and then you
36:55
can put it back in and then when you know you're going to do a final install you can put loctite
37:01
on the end of this screw put it back into the put it back into
37:07
the window and now it's it's secure those screws are not going to back out on you
37:13
that's what i did and it made everything really nice i could go through i was able to go through the whole entire
37:19
window right here and i was able to just ever so slightly just go around and just
37:24
tighten tighten tighten all the way in a circle and as i was doing that the ring this trim ring was it was seating really
37:31
nice to the window and it was sealing really well and nothing was forced and if something got
37:37
forced and pinched which this is a problem i ran into these radiuses right here they're not perfect
37:43
so the radius of this window and the radius of this compression ring i call it
37:48
they're not the same they're off just a little bit but it's enough to where if you are a new if you've never done
37:54
this before in your diy you'll cramp you'll clamp down here but
38:00
then on the other side of the window are you trying to show your screen uh
38:05
can you not see it nope oh
38:11
there we go
38:17
okay see that now guys yeah you might want to go back a minute or two so what would happen is
38:23
i did the screws and i can go through and i can just tighten them down and just do one by one and slowly
38:30
get that seated properly i'm not forcing anything i just do it nice and easy the problem i see some people have is
38:37
these radiuses might not be completely perfect since this outer ring that they provide you is it's bent after the fact
38:43
it's not actually a perfect match to this interior window so if you
38:49
drill this side down and then you go to the other side
38:54
over here you might be pinching on this side and you're not able to get a good seal on the outside and that's where
38:59
people complain that these windows leak is these four corners you're not actually able to get them to seal towards the
39:06
side of the van as effectively as you should so what i did is
39:12
long story short you can watch in the video i explain it with the socket head cap screws being used to clamp this window down
39:18
you have more time to make sure you get a nice good compression onto this this window and i know that's
39:26
i know it's a ton of information that's why that when that window install is take so long to explain once you do the first window
39:33
you're going to fly through the other windows that first learning curve that you have for diyers is going to be pretty steep because you're intimidated
39:39
by cutting a hole in your van that you have to get right the first time and you don't want to mess up a window
39:46
that took you a couple weeks like a couple weeks or months to get
39:51
and you don't want to break in the window and have to reorder one so there's a lot of stress involved but
39:57
i go through in just super detail and walk you through the whole thing yeah that's that was a long way to uh to
40:02
answer that question but um yeah let's uh yeah yeah let's
40:07
go let's go go to some other questions what do you got that was that was pretty much it if we keep going
40:14
or essentially play the video you made i would say we wrap it up here and tell everyone to watch the video that's what
40:20
i would say yeah yeah i'll just say these uh final things and you can close it out so
40:26
there'll be there's two specific videos that are coming out one is the template video so it's just talking about how to
40:32
make a template and then the second video campervan window installed for your camper van
40:38
window install the second video is that whole thing that i just showed you
40:43
some parts of tools you need how to locate the window on your van
40:48
how to plan that out on where you want the window to actual the layout of where you want it
40:54
and then we go through actual cutting it out things to look out for be careful for and then ending it
41:00
with how to make that match up with your interior
41:05
install because the window is one thing but making sure the window and your interior kind of play well when you get
41:11
to that point that's the final part of the video uh yeah but yeah that was a
41:16
that was a lot of stuff in this in this podcast but uh yeah i hope that helped i'm ready i'm ready to watch the video i
41:24
know you're still editing it but i want to see it but yeah that's a wrap for today doing campervan
41:30
windows and nick will show in more depth how to install it the challenges he had
41:36
the tools i know we mentioned some in this episode but the video goes way more in depth and i recommend everyone watch
41:42
it but that's it for van builder hq podcast number three
41:49
this is number three i'm pretty sure that's right we won't keep count forever but yeah that's that's the show we'll
41:55
see you in the next one all right see you guys [Music]
42:17
you
#Campers & RVs
#Convertibles
#Curtains & Window Treatments
#Doors & Windows
#Home Improvement
#Motor Vehicles (By Type)
#Trucks
# Vans & SUVs