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MaxxAir Fan Install: Step-By-Step (Part 1)
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May 2, 2025
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View Video Transcript
0:01
[Music]
0:28
he
0:36
[Music]
0:59
he [Music]
1:22
hey everyone welcome back to the shop welcome back to live stream today we're going to be finishing up our install of
1:27
the max fan so what we're going to be doing is we are going to be hopping Up on the Roof uh we've got everything
1:33
clean so we uh in the last stream um between the last stream and today I've
1:39
taken off the AC put it back down on the ground um we've moved the solar panels
1:45
and the reason we're doing this is because before we put the lap cyant on top of a
1:50
roof you need to make sure that the roof is really clean so just imagine that you
1:56
are never going to get back up on the roof so whatever the the AC unit is going to
2:01
cover whatever the solar panels are going to cover this is your chance to get everything nice and clean um because
2:08
you're pretty much never going to go back to this surface uh two before you put the lapson on all this dirt needs to
2:15
be removed anyway because we don't want to have anything compromising the seal
2:20
um and then third when everything is the lap ceant and everything set on the roof
2:26
uh when you go to wash the van we want to make sure that during this cleaning process we've removed any fine metals
2:34
that we've uh created when we've jigsawed grind or anything like that so
2:41
now's the time to do that we're going to get up there we're just pretty much going to use Windex and we're going to
2:48
um clean it all off uh we'll let that dry and then um I'm going to take a
2:54
little bit of denatured alcohol I'll rub it around the uh the Max fan and the
3:01
nomatic cooling uh AC
3:06
cutout and that'll be all cleaned up and then what we'll do is we're going to take our lap
3:11
cyant we we'll put the max man on first then we'll take this lap
3:18
cyant and we'll cover the screw holes in the max fan and then we're just going to put a bead around the nomatic
3:26
cooling uh adapter piece
3:32
so we'll do that um let's quickly talk about some of these accessories so if
3:37
you missed it in the last stream we'll just quickly go over what we're working with so on the top of our Ford Transit
3:44
van we have an adapter and this adapter we purchased this is not sponsored but
3:50
we purchased this adapter from DIY van uh I've been buying these adapters for different parts of the van for about 3
3:58
and a half years now um from these guys so three and a half years ago it was the first time I found this product and I
4:04
used it on my personal Ford Transit which is a low roof 148 and it really made the uh
4:12
installation uh of that Max fan uh nice and flat was a great
4:18
mounting surface and I didn't have to worry about these corations or dips and valleys into the top of the van I didn't
4:24
have to squirt a bunch of sealant or silicone or you know all the kind of stuff
4:30
that people use to fill in those gaps um so I got that now there's a couple
4:38
different ways you can install this so we used um we're using a product called
4:44
uh 3M window Weld and it's exactly what it sounds like window weld is the product
4:52
that uh car windshields are uh glued into with or
5:00
so this is the this is what we're using it's a little nasty because we're still using it
5:06
um I do have enough left over to do the maxman seal so I'm going to be using
5:11
this today however if you don't have access to that or um you don't want to
5:18
spend $37 and you want to have a different solution uh there's this uh product it's a be tape um now this is a
5:26
version that is sold at uh Ace Hardware
5:31
um cuz it's kind of hard to find other than buying it off Amazon or an R RV dealer uh but yeah but this be tape is
5:40
pretty much it's a tape that goes around and it's like a sticky putty um thought
5:46
it had like a small roll see where I put
5:55
that anyway but yeah it's like a it's like a tacky putty and what you do is you just
6:01
lay it down peel the tape off of it and then when you compress by using uh when you screw down your max fan you're going
6:09
to be able to uh have a really nice watertight seal so
6:15
that's a couple different options uh so the adapter plates will we put on first we use the three and wed
6:21
weld to adhere it to the ceiling and then the fan we're using is the max
6:28
fan so this is a great product pretty much there's two fans in
6:34
the industry that everybody likes to go to one's the fantastic fan by doedic and then this is the max fan by air Exel um
6:43
the reason Max vanan is more popular in my opinion is it has a integrated or
6:49
built-in rain shield so you're able to keep this open uh while it's you know
6:55
raining outside and you're going to be able to to continue to ventilate the van whereas
7:02
if you had a fantastic fan um so let's just pull that
7:13
up so whereas if you had a fantastic fan that looks like this um just a more a more simplistic
7:22
fan in order to have rain protection you have to put this pretty big plastic
7:28
bubble on top of your van um and it looks kind
7:34
of uh it's it's not easy to take on and off um so this is what you'd have to put on
7:41
your van so if you ever wanted to have a low profile roof what you really want to go with is this Max fan because it can
7:48
actually fold down flat onto your roof just like that now there's different options of
7:54
Max fans you got the 6200k the 7500k um there's a smoked version which is this
8:00
it's like a black uh plastic but it is a little translucent a little bit of light
8:06
comes through it um so you got those two the 7500k is what we're using and you're going to be
8:13
able to have a remote control um to open and close the fan uh what's a really
8:20
cool feature is um and it's funny the manufacturer website doesn't have it but
8:27
uh we'll look it up really quick that is the uh let's see here see Max
8:35
fan
8:41
78° see if this will show the button on
8:51
here let's
8:58
see um so there's this button looks just
9:05
like this on the unit and it says hold to set 78° and what you do is you'll hold this
9:12
button and when the temperature in the van gets above 78 the and you're away
9:17
from the van or you could be in the van um the vent fan is automatically going to open and then when it gets below that
9:24
uh it'll close and then they're just telling you in this manual how to
9:30
uh how to get it open and closed and I'll show you on the fan real quick because we may not
9:39
uh once we install this you probably won't be able to
9:50
see okay so this is the fan itself if you
9:56
guys have never seen a Max fan and so what we have here get the rtings
10:04
right so this is the front and this is the back so right here you see there's this
10:10
button that's the auto button you got your remote on and
10:15
off uh open close in and out and then this right here
10:21
is uh let me see
10:28
here
10:33
try to do this two-handed but if the uh motor does go
10:39
out you're able to open this
10:47
um all right now I'm going to leave this open because you actually need to have
10:53
this fully open to access these two screw holes right here to uh actually
11:00
uh Mount this unit so you can see this is how this thing is opened up so the
11:08
air comes in here and you can it's pretty obvious to see how it doesn't get rain
11:13
inside um but yeah you're not uh you're not so
11:20
if you don't um if the uh motor fails or for some
11:26
from for some reason you can't close it uh just for maintenance there's these four tabs right here all you got to do
11:33
is just twist them and the screen comes out and you can clean the screen you got
11:38
one set screw in here and that way you can take the fan off cuz within a year or so it's going to get really pretty
11:44
dusty and you're going to need to give it a nice clean um the circuit board is right here if
11:52
you ever needed to uh get to that uh do some maintenance or replace it but again
11:58
this thing is easy to put in and easy to take out the one thing you have to make
12:04
sure of is um this cable sneaks past
12:11
the so the inside cover is going to go on the outside of that wire I mean uh
12:16
I'm sorry on the inside of that wire and you're just going to need to make sure that you don't pinch the wire between
12:25
where it comes in the van and where that shroud that cleans up all the the interior look goes so just make sure you
12:31
don't pinch it uh there's plenty of wire here to you know get it to where you need it to be
12:38
but just a little mini Max fan review all right so I'm going to put
12:44
this uh Back Up on the
12:57
Roof I'm going to get our trim ring well exterior I guess so this is
13:06
what you'll actually be drilling into so you're going to have four here eight and
13:12
you got 9 10 11 12 13 14 you got 14 screws you're going to put in
13:18
this and I've measured the thickness with the uh adapter in place so the
13:24
adapter plus this plus the sheet metal thickness and we're going to be using
13:30
um uh number eight by an inch 1 and a/4
13:36
inch and these are the modified trust screws so those are going to go in just
13:44
like that and this will be able to self-tap through the adapter plate and the sheet
13:51
metal in the van and what's going to be really important is make sure you have uh a low clutch setting on your
13:59
drill and we want to do an initial tightening so we drill it through an
14:05
initial tightening we kind of want to get them all torque the same because we're going to put adhesive on the back
14:10
here so um today I'm going to make sure I don't miss filming that part I screwed
14:17
up yesterday and didn't change the camera angle so you guys didn't see how I put the adhesive on the adapter rings
14:24
we're going to do the same thing for this so you can just copy it if you've never done that before
14:30
um the only thing that's a pain in the butt with these Max fans is these clips
14:38
so this uh there's a gasket in here so this gasket is what SEALs the max fan
14:45
down and um it's just comes with a territory but when you put the max fan
14:50
on you got to use quite a bit of pressure to get it to smush down on top of the G compress the gasket and then
14:56
get that screw into this uh into this hole and so it's just uh yeah a little
15:04
bit of a pain um I'm probably only going to bolt
15:10
this down today and I'm not going to actually put the max fan in the reason is I don't want to um I want to get the
15:18
lap cyant on and what you'll do if you're trying to do two things at once
15:23
is you'll put your lapset on and then uh
15:28
you might be trying to bolt this in and tighten it and uh it one it gets in the
15:35
way two if you're drill this in and you acally smush your hand on the lap cyant it's not going to look that good and lap
15:41
cyant is weird if you've never worked with it it's uh it kind of has a mind of
15:48
its own so you need to you know go go uh sparingly with it when you do your first
15:55
uh pass around here so what labs's going to do is lapsy is designed to self-level
16:02
so you'll squeeze it out and over time it kind of over the throughout the day as it dries um it's going to kind of
16:10
spread and so um the goal of the lapsy is to cover our screw heads and provide
16:16
an additional seal around this Max fan gasket
16:22
um but if you're doing this at home um maybe a good idea is to set this down
16:29
put the max fan on and then and then do the lap cyant around there uh for me I
16:35
don't have to really I've got time so I don't have to put the fan on so if you need to put the fan on you know put it
16:41
on if you guys are just doing it in the afternoon you want to get rain in the van completely understandable but yeah
16:47
that's a quick rundown of what we're going to do so we're going to get up on the uh
16:53
roof [Music] and get this uh part
17:00
installed clean everything up one more time and then we'll do a beat of laps around the both of our
17:08
adapter uh rings and then I think that'll be
17:17
it okay here we go top of the
17:23
van now I just got to find my
17:57
index
18:27
now we're still going to make some metal shaving mess because we're going to uh
18:33
be drilling over here for our uh solar inputs
18:39
so this we'll we'll contain it over here
18:44
um so what I've done is I've taken an air compressor and real high psi air and
18:52
I've just blown every nook and cranny out on this whole entire top of the van uh so what I did first is I vacuumed up
18:58
any filings that I could see visually then I went and got the uh uh
19:05
air compressor and I blew the whole entire roof off and then now I'm going
19:10
to uh put Windex on it
19:17
and you just really want to do this because any metal filings on this roof
19:23
will over time embed themselves into the actual
19:28
uh roof itself and what's going to happen is
19:34
it's going to start to rust but the problem is you'll never see
19:40
it cuz it's it's up under this uh up under the solar panels and you'll
19:47
just you'll never see it so um so all this stuff that's in these
19:56
channels you it doesn't look like it but but if anybody's worked on your
20:01
van and they have not cleaned the top of it up really well after doing some
20:07
work especially they've installed a fan I guarantee you you have some filings up
20:14
here and as they when they start to rust the rust will actually start to make its way through the paint and
20:23
then uh possibly cause an issue
20:32
plus I mean it only takes five minutes so it's not too hard of a thing to
20:49
do and then before I deliver this van to John and Susan I'll make sure I we
20:54
really clean up this uh roof and and what's cool is you can just use uh they
21:00
make this uh like Windex house wash for cleaning glass windows and so that's
21:06
something really good to use for for solar panels so that's one thing I was telling
21:12
Thomas um with the Marine One build is that you know you don't have to get up
21:19
on top of your van but you can take that Windex house wash and you can uh use
21:25
that to you know soak your solar panels and then
21:30
rinse them off yeah because it's important
21:36
to keep your solar panels clean that's basically what's going to make them
21:41
work uh just a little bit of dir dirt and dust over time will
21:46
actually really uh diminish the effectiveness of your solar
21:57
panels
22:10
okay little 101 on the roof your cross members for from Ford that's where you
22:15
want to have some type of pad and that's where you want to start from if you're
22:20
going to be putting your weight on top of the van cuz these the roof is super thin um
22:33
um
22:47
so guess I could have taken the clamps off before I got up
22:56
here
23:16
all right so there's the wet rag I get the dry
23:26
rag
23:34
actually I'll get this
23:55
too okay we'll go down we'll take our clamps off and then we'll get some dager
24:01
alcohol in a new rag we'll do a nice clean wipe and then on both Services
24:07
then we'll take this um I'll go ahead and I'll do my
24:13
three beads around this we'll lay it down and then we'll uh
24:20
go ahead and start uh screwing it
24:26
down
24:38
[Music]
25:54
so the point of these clamps is really really to make sure that these wood pieces keep
26:02
this area nice and flat if you just clamped it without the wood the problem
26:08
that you run into is the sheet metal will flex and if it
26:15
dries in a flexed position you're going to have a warped uh because this adapter piece is
26:23
so thin it's going to be warped and that can cause things to leak
26:54
so let's see you can just tell by the piece of wood we've got a really nice uh
27:01
surface right here to to work off
27:10
of so this one again perfectly flat now this the uh adhesive
27:17
got stuck up here in a couple places but we'll just uh I'll cut that off um in a
27:26
minute the razor
27:56
blade
28:02
okay let's make sure we got our tools right so we need our screws
28:12
drill screws drill
28:18
adhesive get this soaked up
28:24
in denatured alcohol
28:51
put that rag there
29:07
screws
29:15
drill let's get a razor
29:26
blade
30:15
all right let's double check everything before we start make sure we don't have
30:20
to cut any window weld out of the way
30:27
which we got two spots that I know we need to so we got this back
30:56
section
31:26
that and I'm just cutting any excess that's
31:31
going to interfere with the the max
31:37
fan
31:52
adapter now some stuff that we did that you don't see here is that we actually went
31:58
in uh after we jigs all these holes out and we rust prevented prevented good
32:05
Lord we did rust prevention on the
32:12
van so we used a
32:17
Krylon Fusion I think that's what I
32:24
use you don't have to use matte black but I just like using matte black as the
32:43
color now when you uh place the gasket on here it's going to
32:53
uh it's going to move just a little bit and just make sure before you commit to
32:59
bolting down whatever you're going to bolt down that it's uh you're able
33:05
to that you're still able to uh fit the fan in
33:13
here cuz it's possible that you uh you might offset it too much and then
33:21
you're going to actually have to take maybe a jigsaw and open it up just a little bit
33:44
so what I'm using this is just a microfiber with denatured alcohol on it now this seal around here is
33:52
excellent and we're just going to put uh some lap cying around here just as its
33:58
last kind of line of the fence and then on this one um everything
34:05
looks really
34:10
good yeah we'll get the Laps on this one and this one's uh nice cuz this is where
34:17
the lap C's going to like ooze over the lip of uh the max fan
34:25
um piece of plastic okay so we just going to dust
34:31
this off here this will be the first one we put on so let's go ahead and put we're going
34:38
to put our uh window weld on and then I'll bring it back up and we'll we'll we'll bolt it right
34:45
in um actually so what you need to do make
34:50
sure so this lip is here but this one's out just a little bit so I'm going to
34:55
act like I'm you guys is putting this in and see you just want to make sure that it's nice and even that's
35:04
pretty much all you want to
35:09
do all right let's put our adhesive on it and
35:25
continue
35:43
I know you can't see me down here but we're doing about an e/ inch
35:48
wide well I'll show you up there when I bring it there's three channels in the max van
35:59
uh adapter I guess you're calling
36:07
it and pretty much you're just kind of filling that up just think of like you're making a
36:15
its own
36:25
gasket
36:55
that
37:25
that
37:51
now we're not going to use a uh
37:58
uh window weld sealant for the nomatic cooling
38:04
fan um we're going to use a longer setting uh
38:10
RTV to go on that foam
38:15
gasket Cu uh every time I put in the AC
38:21
I just I've always needed to kind of shift it or move it a little bit
38:28
and I'd like a slower setting material for uh adhesive for
38:42
that the nice part about that is RTV you can buy in a small pack you don't have to buy a whole tube like you do window
38:55
weld
39:25
for so I can confirm you can do two 14 by4
39:35
adapter pieces and two Max fan trim ring
39:40
installs with one tube of
39:46
uh the window weld so that's a good thing all
39:55
right now I can show you what I messed up not showing you
40:03
yesterday pretty much blew through showing you how this actually uh three passes
40:09
look as you guys can see here this is the three passes so there's there's
40:14
three channels in here and uh I just want to do three runs and we do the same
40:21
thing for this you just we just didn't show it um so that's what looks
40:27
like and we just want to make sure that our
40:34
um piece our pieces that we bolt down for the max
40:41
fan we just want to make sure that they are on the left and right hand
40:52
side okay and then we're just going to gently move this back and forth like that
40:57
and kind of just get it
41:09
seated and then we're just going to do one two three we're going to do four screws right there and then we'll
41:21
uh we change up now right here we're on the edge of
41:28
our support beam so we just got to be careful coming across the roof here to
41:33
to drill this in that one's easier you've got more support uh as you're working on it but
41:40
this one's a little bit more challenging so we just want to make sure
41:45
we're centered as best as we can and then we'll go ahead and put our
41:51
first screw in and I'm going to do a three torque setting on this
42:00
drill take these gloves off I just take one
42:25
off
42:50
put on one not even one
42:58
we're only doing that cuz we don't want to pinch one side we want to try to get maintain as even pressure as
43:25
possible
43:52
so they actually caught on our insulation so maybe just want to make make sure that's out of the
44:25
way if you do get some window weld on your
44:31
hands just you need to make sure you get that off really quick that stuff takes forever later to get off your
44:54
hands
45:18
also when you're using self-tapping screws the
45:23
biting what's biting on the screw you're going to have to subtract almost a quarter of an inch off the bottom for
45:29
this where the self Tapper is don't consider the self Tapper as part of what
45:35
your thickness is cuz you might actually not ever bought into the sheet
45:49
metal okay let's see if this thing will go to one for us all right perfect
45:57
so
46:05
nice Okay that's not a bad sound what that's doing is it's allowing us to get a
46:11
even tightness of the bolts around the whole this whole
46:24
thing
47:01
and I'm not going to the outside edges first because I want it to tighten like this I don't want to Bubble Up these
47:08
backsides and have like a a rise on these two
47:24
so
47:40
[Music]
47:46
so I just increase it just to get by and I change it back to
47:54
one
48:12
another reason I'm being so careful is we this uh template it's robust but it's
48:19
uh it still is a CNC piece of material so it's you know don't we
48:26
don't want to crack it that would be
48:47
[Applause]
48:54
bad
49:24
okay
49:33
okay now we can actually start on our outside
49:54
edges
49:59
[Music]
50:26
[Music]
51:28
okay looks good I'll blow this off with some air
51:35
and then we can uh we'll just double check with the screwdriver to make sure that it feels like the tightness we want
51:44
and then we can uh do our lap sealant and that's pretty much
51:54
it [Music]
53:47
you can also go underneath the van or inside and just make sure that all your
53:53
screws came through the way you expected that's a good thing to double check
54:07
on okay oh yeah these are
54:15
perfect so the clutch setting one it's like one
54:21
it's clutch setting two on a DeWalt drill is perfect these things are
54:26
super tight that's awesome that's
54:36
great okay all right I told you that we were
54:42
going to do the lap cyant um I'm actually going to do that Monday because
54:50
um I'm up here and I want to get I got the front and the back but because we
54:55
had the clamps on yesterday I did not get a chance to do this side now for you
55:03
you know this might be Overkill you don't technically have to do this but for me I just want to I want to do
55:09
everything possible so that uh you know my customer does not have a leak up here
55:17
so even though on the inside of this that window weld is there I know it is
55:22
it would be best for me to do one more coat of the window weld since I have
55:28
it and just do these Corners back here where um that the window well did not come out
55:36
all the way plus I'm going to wipe down these Corners before I do the uh the lap cyant
55:46
um so yeah we'll we'll come back uh Monday du the rest but I'll show you
55:52
what I'm talking about up here so I'm going to come in this right
56:01
here and what I want to do is I'm kind of wanting to almost Force this window weld
56:08
into the crease so I did it everywhere else except on these
56:20
sides and that's the UPS guy
56:40
not sure if I got a package a day or not all right just a little bit more
56:47
over
56:52
here okay so now I'm just going to take finger like I
57:00
did yesterday and we're just going to work work that in
57:08
around uh pretty much just where it didn't get to
57:23
yesterday
57:53
for
58:18
[Music]
58:23
for
58:31
I don't think we got anything [Music]
58:36
Nova [Music]
58:47
n going to do a little bit more on this front end but I'm telling you guys the only
58:53
reason I'm paranoid about this is because uh this is where the leaks are
59:00
or in these front areas where that transition is on these
59:07
gaskets and all it takes is just a little bit of extra time spent up
59:13
here and that's going to make sure that nothing happens
59:23
later
59:46
because I promise you water will sit up here because you're you're not your van's not going to be level all the
59:53
time um so you're going to be parked somewhere on a hill or something like
59:59
that and you just want to really make sure that those are taken care of okay
1:00:04
so I am satisfied with the way everything is sealed uh it's the way I want it so next
1:00:12
thing to do is Monday will come back so this will set up really well and then what we're
1:00:19
going to do is we're just going to kind of do a dollop of laps around these
1:00:27
screws and then once we do that we'll do one bead we'll do a continuous bead
1:00:33
around the perimeter of the uh adapter ring until we kind of get like a
1:00:39
waterfall effect and it kind of spills over onto this bottom side for this one
1:00:45
we won't do that uh for this one we're just going to do it on the outside
1:00:50
edge and have it kind of waterfall out um um and that'll keep they'll have like
1:00:57
a a rise so it'll keep the water away because essentially what these channels are doing is this is kind of like the
1:01:03
gutter for the van so the way for has it is this comes down and then it gathers
1:01:09
here goes to the right and then has a dip and then comes off the back of the van so it's I mean it's essentially a uh
1:01:18
like a built-in gutter system so yeah so you're definitely going to
1:01:26
have like these runs of water coming up and
1:01:31
down
1:01:49
um all right we got some questions in the chat I'm coming down to answer them let me just uh
1:01:56
let me just OCD Nick here get this last little crack so there's going to be these
1:02:03
little fractures they're not fractures it's when they make this it's almost like a puzzle piece there's there's
1:02:10
these pieces snap in right here I know it's hard to see but this is like a puzzle piece and so what I'm doing is
1:02:15
making sure there's sealant on the the inside of that
1:02:21
Gap so
1:02:27
okay that's good all right we're done let's move down to uh answering the
1:02:34
chat and finish up what we are talking about
1:02:53
today
1:03:03
nice uh Kathy all right Kathy's question
1:03:13
is I got the camera give me a second there we go um is there no need to put
1:03:18
support inside for the max fan thank you you're doing a great job thanks so much
1:03:23
for the words um yes so there's two two ways to do
1:03:30
this uh what's nice about the that trim ring
1:03:36
that goes in that adds enough structure just for the max fan so if you had some
1:03:43
other things uh on the roof and they were not close to uh a cross member um
1:03:49
then you would be needing to get another product so I'm going to show you that product right now so I keep this in my
1:03:56
toolbox as a backup um that's a fancy way of me
1:04:01
saying that I ordered it and I didn't use
1:04:06
it so let's see here we
1:04:14
go I actually still have it in the
1:04:21
package um let me see if I have an open
1:04:34
one so this is the product this is how big it is I'm just going to show you a picture
1:04:41
first uh let's see so there's a support that they that
1:04:47
DIY van makes for your exact uh the exact thing that you're
1:04:53
looking for so this is what it is so this is the Ford Transit inside sport
1:04:59
mounting sport frame for vent fan and air conditioners it's essentially a support frame for a 14x14 opening and a
1:05:07
Ford Transit so what's cool is these uh
1:05:12
it goes in the van like this so in specific areas it already has the cutout for the
1:05:19
rib um so uh Kathy you just gave me an idea
1:05:26
I think I'm going to repurpose this for my uh to actually box in my AC unit I
1:05:36
didn't even think about that um but yeah this is what it does and it reinforces that ceiling
1:05:44
area that's what it looks like it's made out of the same material as that adapter that I just
1:05:49
installed um yeah but this is what it looks like the the rails they're
1:05:57
pre-notched for the uh and this is why I love live streams
1:06:02
because I did not think about using this for a different
1:06:08
scenario so I'm going to go ahead and open this up I'm going see if I can use
1:06:21
it okay so this is what this is the real this is the thing in real
1:06:26
life right there get some more light on
1:06:32
us so this is what it looks like and you guys can't really see in
1:06:39
the van I'm actually I'm G see what this looks
1:06:44
like that's awesome that's super cool yeah I don't know why I never
1:06:51
thought about this before um
1:06:56
so I'm going to tell you what Kathy has sparked in my
1:07:03
brain if I can find this piece of
1:07:09
aluminum here we go okay so I have this piece of aluminum
1:07:16
now this is different topic so what you guys just saw that is what you would use if you need to support
1:07:25
the air conditioner or the VIN fan so what I just got an idea to do this is
1:07:32
awesome so thank you Cathy for Kathy for doing that give that
1:07:37
question so for some reason I've been going and manually trying to find this
1:07:42
profile because what I do is uh I take the cross members that come with the AC
1:07:50
kits and I just I throw them away because they create about another inch
1:07:57
they make your ceiling about an inch lower because they're just a universal bracket and so what I do is I custom cut
1:08:05
this aluminum square tubing it's nice and thick and what I do
1:08:11
is I have to cut this profile Edge to match this
1:08:19
angle I've been finding the angle manually um I and I've had this in the toolbox the whole time so yeah that's
1:08:27
what happens um somebody asked a question and I think of something else to solve another problem at the same
1:08:33
time all right so what I'm going to do is now I can just now I can just put this
1:08:43
here and to be honest I'm actually going to do something even different I'm going to
1:08:49
probably oh no I'm going to do the same thing so now look I can just make a mark Mar there and then now that's my angle
1:08:58
cuz for this to go into the top of the van so what I do is I take this uh thick
1:09:03
tube Alum Square tube and then I'll drill a
1:09:08
hole for a bolt to go through like that and then this bolt will go into the
1:09:14
AC unit and actually compress it down to the ceiling so I'll take this and I'll
1:09:20
uh use a marine adhesive to glue it in and then this will will come in and compress the AC unit down and this as
1:09:28
you can see here see how much thicker this is so this would be where the
1:09:33
ceiling's at but keep in mind when you're installing an AC unit I need this
1:09:39
area here for my bolt to come out I know this probably doesn't make sense right
1:09:45
now but um actually I'm going to draw it really
1:09:50
quick I'm going to draw it in that way over the weekend I don't
1:09:56
forget what just came to my mind yeah guys I love these questions
1:10:02
just ask away I really appreciate all the
1:10:07
questions any questions all right let's draw what Nick
1:10:13
was talking about okay so we have the van this is the ceiling of the van uh
1:10:20
these are the roof ribs they look like that what we just did was
1:10:28
we cut out this uh bracket like
1:10:35
that um and that is where uh our Max fan or
1:10:40
AC would go so let's say let's say this is our AC
1:10:52
unit okay so this is our
1:11:08
nomatic this is our pneumatic cooling X2 48 volt all right and so this is our these are the
1:11:16
ribs inside the Ford Transit these are the ceiling
1:11:22
supports
1:11:28
okay so what I what I do is I make a that piece of square
1:11:35
tubing and it goes right
1:11:49
here so what's been challenging for me is
1:11:55
this section right
1:12:01
here this profile uh this this angle right
1:12:09
here this has been uh hard to find so I've not been able to find
1:12:22
actually so that angle that whatever that is I've
1:12:28
not been able to find that so Kathy you just helped me find figure an easy way
1:12:33
to do that I can figure it out it's just not as neat as I'd like to um
1:12:39
have okay so what we're going to so what you do is so right here is where the bolts come
1:12:51
through um let let keep writing here so you guys
1:12:57
can understand what this stuff
1:13:14
is so that's the ceiling support
1:13:21
okay yeah so that orange thing this is
1:13:26
our
1:13:34
uh rooftop
1:13:41
AC
1:13:50
bracket and then what we have is we have these bolt these
1:13:58
screws so I got these screws that come out like
1:14:11
that um but the issue is I'm running out of colors let's see
1:14:18
here so this
1:14:26
this is
1:14:32
your this is your van this is your ceiling right
1:14:38
there so the yellow Parts your ceiling so the challenge that I've had
1:14:44
is the the old the bracket that comes in the kit goes like this okay and you lose
1:14:53
all that room so what I do is I remove the bracket and now I make this
1:15:00
thin piece of aluminum and then I have enough room
1:15:08
here that I can still uh put my
1:15:15
bolts so essentially this is going to be
1:15:22
um this is a
1:15:32
M8 threaded Rod I don't know the thread pitch I don't know if it's
1:15:38
1.0 I think it's 1.0
1:15:43
um but then I just take uh threaded Rod
1:15:49
I screw it up into so this goes up into the nomatic AC
1:15:56
unit and inside that AC unit there
1:16:03
are there are these uh plastic I mean these brass inserts threaded brass
1:16:13
inserts and these threaded brass inserts are what bolt the whole thing down
1:16:22
okay so by
1:16:30
using by using this piece of aluminum and you want to make sure you
1:16:35
get the one that's pretty thick walled I think this is eighth of an
1:16:41
inch you can get eighth of an inch at Lowe's believe it or not
1:16:49
um but that method is that method will save
1:16:55
this this area that way you can still have the most lowprofile ceiling and still bolt
1:17:03
your pneumatic cooling X2 to the uh to your
1:17:09
van I mean technically I can make this as a product so let me know if you guys are you guys are interested um because
1:17:16
the back of the van is pretty is standardized for for this but
1:17:22
um yeah I probably should have made one for the dtic and made one for the nomatic
1:17:28
that would been been cool that way you can just get it and you guys don't have to cut it and then
1:17:34
bore the hole or set the hole so uh yeah let me know what you think about stuff like that I'm I'm really
1:17:41
interested one thing I am doing is the The Kitchen Gallery over here so that prototype will be built and I'm going to
1:17:48
be bringing it to uh peace love and vans in Florida
1:17:53
so actually let's talk about that
1:18:21
event so all right if you guys did not see
1:18:28
this video uh this video is live up on YouTube
1:18:33
uh it's really it's just a great video it has to do with the Florida van life Gathering 2023 in Dade City Florida this
1:18:41
event is now called um peace love and vans and I will be bringing the uh spec
1:18:51
build down to uh which is the the adventure wagon build I'll be bringing it down to show off for you guys um it
1:18:57
is currently for sale so if you'd like to see it in person I'm going to be at peace L and vans in Florida February
1:19:03
16th through 19th and um they do have day passes so you can just come down for the day hang
1:19:10
out uh the event is awesome
1:19:16
um let's see if I can fast forward my video so uh besides showing off my van
1:19:23
there's a lot of great vendors showing awesome products uh we got van tours for
1:19:29
some other builders
1:19:41
um uh that was a judging contest that I did super
1:19:50
fun so uh this this is another uh this uh Overland uh Southeast Overland and
1:19:57
Outdoor Expo I really want to go to this I don't think I'm going to have time to go to it
1:20:03
this year but this is more of an overlanding event so if you have more of a
1:20:09
overlanding van uh you know lifted all-wheel drive stuff like that this is
1:20:14
a really cool place to uh go to to hang out um even if you're if you got like a
1:20:21
Tacoma or a 4Runner they actually have trails that you can buy a pass for or actually it's included in your camping
1:20:27
pass and you can um go down the trails this is a separate event but just want
1:20:33
to mention that if you guys are interested in that um but yeah peace love and vans uh over 300 Vans there's
1:20:40
probably more this year and there's some wild DIY builds out there um this is one
1:20:46
guy this is the last interview that I did for the weekend uh really
1:20:51
cool and this one as well this is a an epoxy
1:20:57
artist and he did his van amazing it's got a nice rooftop up there um but
1:21:04
that's when everybody was leaving from the event but yeah super cool um check
1:21:09
it out I wonder if I got the Drone shot where did I put
1:21:21
that so that's me setting up I brought my
1:21:26
personal van there last year but we'll have the other van at the
1:21:32
event for sure um man where's that drone
1:21:45
shot I'm G try to find it
1:21:51
here
1:22:00
there it is heck
1:22:08
yeah there you go yeah so that's what the event looks like uh just a wide shot of
1:22:17
it and that whole back lot is going to be filled up so I would say another
1:22:23
third more Vans are going to be there this year um very well organized event
1:22:29
very impressed so yeah check it out peace love and vans I think that's the
1:22:41
uh there's food vendor trucks uh live music really
1:22:49
fun so peac lovev van.com that is
1:22:55
the here I'm going to put it in the
1:23:01
chat and so with Luchi River Park in Florida is where it's going to be
1:23:07
held um they already got the schedule laid
1:23:12
out really
1:23:21
awesome see raffle [Music]
1:23:34
info day passes because I don't think there's any more camping left Let's uh let's check
1:23:41
this out yeah so the camping sold out uh
1:23:46
there is a waiting list but day passes or um
1:23:53
they do sell out so if you guys are in the area uh let's see
1:24:05
here so it's right it's uh right right in between Orlando and Tampa if you guys
1:24:12
are interested in this event so north of Zephyr Hills but in between Tampa and
1:24:19
Orlando and Dade City Peace Love
1:24:37
Vans all right guys besides P1 Vans let's talk about van Builder HQ so van
1:24:43
Builder hq.com if you guys have not hopped on over to Van Builder hq.com uh
1:24:49
that is our website where we have a bunch of blog posts uh helping you out with DIY Vans we've got van uh builds
1:24:56
from all the shows that we go to um a lot of great articles just helping you
1:25:02
make decisions between what are the best Ford Camper vans you know solar true cost of camper van conversions power
1:25:09
electrical countertop ideas uh and much more um also don't
1:25:14
forget to check out the DIY van build cheat sheet uh this is an Excel sheet that I made uh it has all of my shop
1:25:21
purchase is over the last 3 years on this sheet over 250 curated items that I
1:25:28
have physically purchased and brought into the shop so if you want to jump
1:25:34
start your van conversion download this cheat sheet it's completely free all you got to do is click on the link and put
1:25:40
your name and email address come right to your inbox um you can search products
1:25:46
on it uh it's all Amazon link so it's really convenient for you to find stuff and there's everything from
1:25:53
solar uh solar panel ideas uh products wiring
1:25:59
Electrical uh cabinet hardware water pumps uh the tool section is my favorite
1:26:04
because it's all these weird tools that you don't think you're going to need on a van build but really help you out if
1:26:10
you have them it's on that list the DIY van build cheat sheet uh it's completely
1:26:15
free and you can get it today name email address it'll come right to your inbox and the link is also in the description
1:26:21
below and then also want to mention Odyssey custom van so that is my
1:26:29
van conversion business so the van that we're working on today this one up here this is John and Susan's build and we
1:26:36
are Trucking Along on it but the one that we're taking to peace L and vans is
1:26:42
this one so this is our adventure wagon interior build and we took it uh end of
1:26:47
last year to Adventure van Expo to show it off got a quick little walkthrough video there and and then throughout here
1:26:53
we've got all the uh details for all the stuff that's uh packed into this van 600
1:26:59
amp hours um lithium iron phosphate from Renegy that's their smart series which
1:27:05
also connects to their uh M1 controller which is uh their Bluetooth
1:27:11
control that connects their uh new Rigo off-grid 3000 watt P sine wave inverter
1:27:17
charger so it's got the shore power option to that and then it communicates with two
1:27:23
DC todc and two MPP solar charge controller combo units uh you got over
1:27:28
you have 100 amp hour of dcddc charging um and then we got 420 watts of solar up
1:27:36
top uh on the inside we got some nice Comfort amenities we've got doedic RTX
1:27:42
2000 AC unit we got the wobo airtop Evo 40 unit which is the one that
1:27:48
automatically adjusts for elevation we've coupled that with its uh smart
1:27:53
Bluetooth 3.0 controller so you can have a app to control your heat um you've got
1:27:59
a remote for the AC and then isotherm Cruise 130 fridge uh tons of water
1:28:04
storage we got a 40 gallon Northwest conversions freshwater tank uh we've got a 16-gallon Northwest conversions
1:28:11
graywater undermount tank for the hidden Tetra van shower pan in the floor uh we'
1:28:16
got you know hot water um four gallons of hot water capacity
1:28:22
7 gallons of gray for the sink upgradeable to 14 Gall uh so just a lot
1:28:28
of storage there for water as well um max van uh and this van is the 148
1:28:38
all-wheel drive with the turbocharged EcoBoost uh engine as well so pretty
1:28:44
much fully loaded we even got the Raptor Style Grill on there
1:28:49
um looks really really cool fi f45 awning and then we've got crl uh
1:28:57
tent Windows all around the van and then coupled with the adventure wagon interior kit we've got all
1:29:05
Flatline vanco interior components um they are Adventure wagon compatible they built right into the system to the
1:29:11
ceiling to the sides um 500 lb drawer slide in the
1:29:17
back uh I can't forget the additional fredman flip and fold seating when you
1:29:23
need some seating it's there when you don't it flips up out of the way and it actually has an integrated foldout table
1:29:30
which is really cool um yeah so I'm really proud of this
1:29:37
build would love to uh show this off to you if you guys are interested in purchasing this
1:29:43
van and uh yeah very nice very nice
1:29:49
build if you want to contact me to ask some questions about it or come to see it I'm up in North Carolina um here's my
1:29:57
contact information sales at Odyssey customs.com there's my phone number the best way to get in touch with me is this
1:30:02
link right here click to schedule you have access to my calendar click a date
1:30:08
time and uh it'll notify me that you uh want to hop on a call and yeah just pick
1:30:14
a time that's most convenient for you if you're not interested in purchasing this van that's currently for sale as of
1:30:20
filming this video over here on the left hand side is our phone consultation to
1:30:25
do a uh custom build for you so this is the same uh steps that uh John and Susan
1:30:34
did to come on board and do their van build with me so pretty much all you got to do is just read this little blurb
1:30:41
right here and um it'll just get you prepared to uh get ready for a consultation we'll talk about build
1:30:48
scheduling next steps you know what we have available um um or if you're bringing your own van for a professional
1:30:54
van conversion and all you can do is the same thing just click on a date and a time and it'll come right up on my
1:31:01
calendar and we will talk about your custom van build all right guys that's going to do
1:31:07
it for today's live stream make sure you're subscribed to the channel click that notification Bell so you'll know
1:31:12
when I'm going live um I go live at some random times during the day uh just when
1:31:18
I'm building so I want to make sure that you guys know when I'm coming on so you don't miss live stream um you can ask
1:31:23
questions uh but also give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed this video share it to anyone who is doing their own fan or
1:31:30
roof install and need some help and tips and tricks for uh doing that install in
1:31:35
a professional way um during the live stream you can always ask me questions van related and then after the live
1:31:41
stream you can ask me questions in the comments section below and I'll be happy to answer them in a f future video all
1:31:49
right guys that'll be it for uh this Friday but join us on Monday where we're
1:31:54
going to get back on this van we'll get our lap cyant done we'll finish up our wiring um and we'll actually start to
1:32:01
work on uh some more of the Interior so until then we'll see you guys on the
1:32:07
next live [Music]
1:32:20
stream
#Campers & RVs
#Vehicle Modification & Tuning