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Install Your CRL AW1033 Windows The Right Way
2K views
May 2, 2025
In this video, I teach you how to layout your Rear Bunk Windows the right way! Learn why it's important to consider bed height and exterior obstructions like ladders. Don't forget to check out Odyssey Custom Vans latest build currently for sale here: https://www.odysseycustomvans.com/ Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways we can help you: 1. If you need a vetted parts list, download our → FREE DIY Van Build Cheatsheet to help you save time and money on Van Parts and Gear: CLICK HERE: https://van-builder-hq.ck.page/846c83ab54 2. If you want to get Done-For-You Van Build help, book a → FREE Consultation with my Calendly Link: CLICK HERE: https://calendly.com/odysseycustomvans/intro-call?month=2023-07
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:08
all right let's talk about window layout
0:11
specifically the rear of a van where
0:13
you're going to have a bunk window or
0:15
awning style window like this and this
0:18
is how to even get started so where do
0:21
you place the window why should you
0:23
place it there things to
0:26
consider so what we have with us is a AV
0:30
DC rig window pill that's the name of
0:33
this foam outer ring and it's not a
0:36
sponsored video but just wanted to talk
0:38
about a couple good products that you
0:39
guys may use in your build and I think
0:42
this is really good this is the first
0:43
time I've used it so a couple steps that
0:46
I'm taking I'm doing a little bit slower
0:47
just to make sure that I got my steps
0:49
laid out and defined before I go to the
0:52
other side of the van so that's another
0:55
thing to get that's really good to do
0:57
when
0:58
you're uh working on a van is don't rush
1:01
this spend a lot of time on one side
1:04
especially if it's your first then you
1:07
can speed it up on the second side now
1:10
one thing that's speeding this up for me
1:12
is I have this cardboard template I've
1:14
cut out a number of these windows so my
1:16
template for the crl awning style window
1:20
is pretty set it's a perfect size
1:22
template if I trace this and cut it out
1:25
with the jigsaw it'd be perfect every
1:27
time so that is a little cheat that have
1:30
in here you can make your own I have a
1:32
video on the channel um where I show you
1:35
how to make that but for now we're going
1:38
to assume that you already made this
1:39
template for the whole
1:42
cutout this video is mainly going over
1:45
where you put the window and why you
1:47
should consider other parts of the van
1:50
and locating the
1:52
window
1:53
so the ABC rig part right here is the
1:56
window pill this is helping us step out
1:58
from the van and and bring us out to our
2:01
wall so our wall panel is right here so
2:04
when our wall panel comes down it's
2:05
going to come flush we'll have a cut out
2:08
and then the wall panel will come back
2:09
down and it gives this a nice clean
2:11
place the foam is going to be uh glued
2:15
together and then upholstered so it's
2:17
got a nice essentially the foam is to
2:19
have an upholster base um this is very
2:22
rigid foam uh it's light but you could
2:25
also do it out of wood if you wanted it
2:27
to wanted to uh it's going to be pretty
2:30
heavy but you can do it out of
2:32
wood uh what ABC rig has done is I have
2:35
this end backwards there is a piece of
2:38
underlayment that is glued to the rim of
2:41
this so that when I put my wall penel on
2:44
I can screw it into this wood that's
2:46
glued to the foam uh this foam you're
2:49
seeing now is actually the inner spacer
2:51
so it's light but once we wrap it glue
2:54
it and then screw it to the panel will
2:56
be good to go this is not meant to be
2:57
structural in any way it's really just
2:59
way to transition from the wall opening
3:02
to the frame the wood outside of the
3:05
wood panel and all the screws are going
3:08
to be the structure it will rest on the
3:11
inner frame so we're going to we're
3:13
going to take this apart like a sandwich
3:15
and then we'll show you the inner frame
3:16
and how we did that so that's what
3:17
you're looking
3:18
at now for height the first thing you
3:23
want to do when you're looking at this
3:25
is consider your
3:28
height now the first that comes through
3:30
my mind is what are my what are my
3:32
limits so what are my what's my wi my
3:36
tolerances to work in between and my
3:39
first one is this cutout opening so up
3:42
here on the top I have an opening so
3:45
after I go and I take a jigsaw and I cut
3:49
out my these support members I cut this
3:52
out so I have a nice flush place to work
3:55
with I have to cut this out anyway
3:57
because uh you have to remove it to to
3:59
cut the window out you need to cut this
4:00
off first um cuz this is extremely
4:04
difficult to jigsaw through so you're
4:05
going to need to take a handheld grinder
4:09
with a cut off wheel and cut this it
4:11
will be a pain in the butt to jig so it
4:13
off trust me so after you cut that out
4:17
what you're going to do is there is a a
4:20
line that we drew and that clean line is
4:24
as far up that this window frame not the
4:30
window frame but this window uh
4:33
transition piece this window pill can go
4:35
up so he pushed it all the way up and
4:38
then what I did is I took an aluminum
4:41
spacer and it gave me an in of eighth of
4:43
an inch of wiggle room the eighth of an
4:45
inch of wiggle room is just uh for some
4:48
wiggle room but also so that when I uh
4:52
put my fabric on here any additional
4:55
thickness that the fabric adds won't
4:57
mess me up when I'm putting this back in
4:59
and I have maybe you know I don't have
5:01
enough room to to move it because once
5:03
we cut our window out that's it we can't
5:05
adjust it at
5:07
all so what I do is I put the foam on
5:10
and then I put this up here and I bum it
5:12
up against there we're going to take
5:13
this apart I I will show you that part
5:16
um but this is just to get a concept of
5:18
where to start so I have my spacer to
5:21
give me some wiggle room I have my
5:23
foam and so I start from that limit and
5:27
I come down because that's as high as I
5:29
can go I can't go any higher with the
5:32
window
5:34
so that's where the window's going to be
5:36
the next thing I want to do is take my
5:38
tape measure and I just want to double
5:40
check that if I'm going to store bikes
5:43
or anything like that underneath here um
5:47
we're about to find out what this is
5:49
going to look like measurement wise and
5:50
what we have to work
5:52
with now this is just a rough
5:54
measurement um because I don't have the
5:57
floor in all that good stuff so this is
6:00
just a rough measurement but right here
6:03
at the bottom of the window I've got
6:07
43 and let's see if I actually let's
6:10
just say 43
6:12
in yeah 43 in I got this wheel well my
6:16
in my way so it's kind of hard to uh
6:20
yeah so 43
6:21
in let's just write that on the
6:24
van let's do 43
6:28
in and that is my
6:32
height so we got 43 and again this is
6:37
not the final number I'm just doing this
6:38
to show you the relationship between the
6:40
floor and the other
6:43
material um so let's just assume just
6:48
assuming for uh simplistic
6:52
purposes 43 in is from the bottom of
6:55
this Frame
6:57
down so actually I'm going to do
7:03
this I'm about to tell you what you can
7:06
expect for bed height and thickness so
7:10
we're actually going to jump this
7:13
up see if we can get a little bit closer
7:15
on closer on our
7:21
measurements so let's call this
7:28
um let's call let's do four let's do 44
7:34
Ines so let's change this to
7:40
44 so 44
7:42
in from the top right
7:47
here so the top of this foam to the
7:51
bottom of the
7:52
floor now we're doing that
7:55
because we want to see one we want to
7:59
put fit bikes under here so a minimum
8:02
for bikes is 36
8:09
in uh let's do 36 inch
8:13
bike
8:17
bikes if you can do more that's good but
8:20
let's just start with 36 right
8:22
now so now we have 36 is our floor
8:28
up
8:32
and we want to start so we want to start
8:34
segmenting all this so let's guess get
8:37
an example let's see here so here is the
8:40
window frame that we're working with is
8:42
right
8:43
here and then from there to the bottom
8:45
of the floor is 44 in okay from the
8:51
bottom of the floor up let's just say to
8:53
here this dotted line that's going to be
8:56
our 36 in Mark so this part right here
9:01
is what we have a question what how what
9:04
room right here do we
9:05
have we it's important to find out what
9:07
that room is because that's your bed
9:10
that's your bed mattress uh the frame
9:13
how you're supporting the bed all of
9:15
that is in this one section
9:17
here so if we
9:20
have um if we start to take this apart
9:23
let's see how much we have to work with
9:27
so we should have let's see eight
9:30
should be 8 in so
9:33
36 so 8
9:38
in so we're looking at 8 in
9:43
and we're probably going to go with a 6
9:46
in
9:49
mattress so you have eight and then you
9:51
minus 6 in for the
9:56
mattress okay and that leaves you two
9:59
2
10:00
in the two in is for the
10:05
frame okay so the 2 in is for the
10:09
frame and so we're probably going to
10:12
because that is our frame we're probably
10:15
going to use um inch and a
10:19
half square
10:24
tubing and a half
10:26
inch sheet
10:29
ply
10:32
plywood okay so you do see how see how
10:34
the sandwich just got created so we have
10:37
enough room for bikes we have enough
10:39
room for
10:40
a uh our frame right here so we have an
10:45
inch and a half for our Square Tubing
10:47
that's going to go
10:49
here then we have a half inch that is
10:54
our plywood that's going to go and
10:56
that's going to support the bed and then
10:58
we have our 6in memory foam mattress or
11:02
whatever now we do that so that once all
11:06
these layers are add up we are ending up
11:09
here
11:11
at uh we're ending up here where the
11:15
mattress will
11:17
be
11:19
now that is assuming that our floor 44
11:23
inches is down to our floor so in all
11:28
actuality
11:29
there's going to be an inch and a half
11:31
subtracted from
11:32
that so we need to take that inch and a
11:35
half from
11:36
somewhere
11:38
and we have the 36 or we have the frame
11:42
or we have the
11:44
mattress so we got to figure out later
11:47
on we can't the window is as high up as
11:49
it can go we can't go any higher up so
11:51
this is the fixed location for the
11:54
window so that inch and a half that we
11:57
need for the floor
11:59
because it's going to have the foam and
12:01
a piece of plywood so it's an inch and a
12:02
half it's going to have to come from the
12:05
frame thickness or the uh mountain bike
12:12
area so we'll uh we'll tackle that when
12:17
we get there but I just wanted to show
12:19
you where you need to consider putting
12:22
your window don't just instantly cut
12:25
your window out and then maybe have it
12:26
right here because you're match will
12:29
cover it um you know you won't have the
12:32
garage space that you need so those are
12:35
things to think
12:36
about so now that you
12:39
know your fixed height for your window
12:42
this is as high as up up as it can go
12:45
You Now understand where your mattress
12:47
your sleeping on is going to land which
12:48
will be right here now if we really need
12:52
that space for our bikes in the bottom
12:55
we can have our 6in mattress come up an
12:58
inch and a half up around here um it's
13:01
not ideal but again a van is fixed you
13:04
have these fixed spaces and it's really
13:05
hard to a it's a give and take on
13:09
this uh you could go with a 4inch
13:11
mattress but most people are going to
13:12
want to do a
13:14
six um so we'll figure out that later
13:17
because this is something we can't
13:18
change the window has to be here it's as
13:21
high as up it can go it's enough room
13:23
for our lip I think you guys get the
13:26
point so the next is let's reverse first
13:29
engineer this and found find out how we
13:31
got our window location where it's
13:34
at the first thing I'm going to do is
13:37
I'm going to just step by step take
13:39
apart this Frame so right here as you
13:43
guys can
13:49
see this is the inner foam spacer so
13:52
rigid foam this is what we're going to
13:57
upholster
14:00
here's our frame that we use to make
14:03
sure we have enough uh
14:07
spacing so we're going to come here and
14:09
take this
14:13
off and you see this wood frame on the
14:17
outside will actually will this it'll
14:20
actually look like
14:25
this so imagine this being glued
14:29
together upholstered inside and out and
14:32
then this being a whole Cube I mean not
14:35
a cube but a whole unit and then this is
14:37
going to once the window is in this is
14:41
going to straddle the frame like
14:43
that and the the wood panel is going to
14:48
come on here we'll trace it from the
14:50
inside cut it out and when all the
14:53
panels are upholster and ready to go
14:55
we'll put this in and then we'll just
14:58
screw in into this piece of
15:00
wood and this will all be attached to
15:03
the wood panel so all it'll all become
15:06
one
15:08
piece now make sure you consider the
15:11
frame so don't just consider the foam
15:14
trim ring you got to think of the metal
15:17
compression ring for the window so this
15:20
is C crl a1033 window
15:25
frame so what I did is I made sure that
15:27
the foam can fit in over the frame
15:30
everything fits and then for the frame
15:33
here
15:35
this I just taped together and I put it
15:38
over our template just to make sure I
15:41
knew how everything worked since I
15:43
haven't used that foam before I wanted
15:44
to make sure I understood how everything
15:46
fits together so we're just like taking
15:49
we're just taking this sandwich apart so
15:51
this
15:52
part lets us know where this is going to
15:55
be and
15:57
since this is is where we want it to be
15:59
and we're happy with the way this got
16:02
put
16:03
in uh also let me show you a couple
16:06
things this Center Line is the center
16:09
line of our window it is it's matched up
16:11
with our Center dot of this Frame we're
16:14
in the center of this rib so we have
16:16
three ribs here this is the wider one
16:19
this is a four Transit 148 in
16:22
wheelbase so this wider one we are
16:25
marking the
16:26
center and we've got the center line and
16:29
then these two pieces of tape I measured
16:31
16 and 1/2 here 16 and 1/2 here this
16:34
black middle space is the center so I
16:37
just line that up Center and as long as
16:39
it comes over my template nice and
16:43
even okay I'm happy with
16:47
that um if you watch our other video the
16:52
other four Transit we worked on this
16:53
window is in a different location the
16:55
reason it's in a different location is
16:57
because we have a la ladder on the
16:58
outside of the vam and it would look
17:00
very strange if the ladder rail was
17:03
covering this part of the window and not
17:05
over here it it would just look weird so
17:08
this one is a more typical inst install
17:11
that one back the back window back there
17:13
is I had to move it so that it would
17:16
visually look
17:21
accurate all right it would look it
17:23
would look not weird so now this is our
17:26
uh final template this is what we're
17:28
going to cut
17:29
out the outer ring is the foam trim
17:36
ring so what I did is now notice how I
17:39
keep turning this up backwards is
17:41
because I want this hard Edge to trace
17:43
to up
17:45
here so to get this outer
17:49
line to be used to Center this
17:53
cardboard what I did is I put this up
17:57
here before before I put this temp piece
17:59
of carpet on here I took my spacer just
18:02
a piece of
18:03
aluminum I put it up here so this
18:07
aluminum is very rigid it's almost like
18:10
a ruler so this is going to come up here
18:14
Mount flush nice and flush so make sure
18:17
when you clean this up so see this line
18:20
make sure when you clean this line
18:22
up you also sand it to get all the Burrs
18:25
and all the glue and the foam adhesive
18:28
off CU you want to make sure when this
18:31
goes up
18:33
here it's as flat as can
18:37
be then just lay it on top of
18:40
here and we're going to click just push
18:43
it up there and we want to push this up
18:45
and hold it in
18:47
place
18:49
this uh this I'm not moving this
18:51
template I've I have it set but this
18:52
wouldn't be here when you're doing this
18:54
step you would have this outer ring you
18:57
would trace it to know that this is
18:59
where this foam has to be I can't change
19:01
it so once you're happy with how you
19:03
traced
19:06
it that next step is going to be you
19:09
coming in with the foam template that we
19:12
showed you how to make in a separate
19:13
video and centering it making sure up
19:17
down left right that it's nice and
19:19
centered what I did is and not the
19:22
pieces that I cut out right here these
19:24
three and grinded these two right here
19:28
put a
19:29
mark So this point and this point have
19:34
not been disturbed by me they haven't
19:36
been grinded on so those are my
19:37
reference points and so what I do is I
19:41
get this close to where I think it's
19:42
going to be I tape it
19:45
off and then I'm going to take my
19:47
measurement and I have an inch and 38
19:50
and I come over here I've got an inch
19:52
and 38 so I know that this is going to
19:56
be even uh
19:58
in my
20:00
van and then all I do is just do a final
20:02
measurement over here let's see we got a
20:04
quarter of an
20:05
inch and come over here we got a quarter
20:08
of an inch so I know I'm good left and
20:11
right level and left to right
20:17
even um now this may sound odd but if
20:22
your top two marks are nice and even to
20:26
your template understanding that it's
20:28
straight and then your left to right is
20:31
good this down here at the bottom
20:34
there's really you know nothing that you
20:36
can really change on this uh
20:41
because this is going to have to do with
20:43
how good you cut your template out how
20:45
straight you were when you cut this out
20:49
um so if this line is even and this line
20:52
is
20:54
crooked
20:55
uh this is the most important just in my
20:58
experience you don't want the window to
21:00
be slightly crooked um so this Top Line
21:03
is important because there's a body line
21:05
that goes up here and just visually when
21:09
people see your van or when you see your
21:11
van the top line is going to be the
21:14
reference to this and you're going to
21:16
look at it and be like that's nice and
21:17
even but if you didn't get this and this
21:20
even then it's going to be it's going to
21:23
look weird
21:24
so we really just don't want things to
21:26
look weird that's that's
21:28
our goal all right so this is where it's
21:31
going to be it's going to be cut out
21:34
here in just a
21:36
second so you may ask Nick how do I
21:39
transfer this to the other side because
21:41
you're not going to cut from this side
21:42
you're going to cut from the other side
21:44
you're actually going to take this
21:45
template and move it to the other side
21:47
so you're going to do two things so I've
21:50
probably taped over
21:52
it and you probably can't see it um but
21:55
there's going to be
21:57
two holes drilled in
22:02
here and what we're going to do is they
22:06
they can be here here here you just need
22:08
two holes opposite of each other and
22:11
we're going to take a drill bit small
22:13
drill bit 8 inch drill bit E8 inch is
22:17
okay uh actually maybe like a 16th
22:21
something in between there like the D
22:23
this this marker for example and you're
22:25
going to drill a hole through here don't
22:27
move the template you're going to drill
22:29
a hole here don't move it and then
22:32
you're going to take two of those drill
22:34
bits you need two and you're going to
22:36
put them in through these
22:37
holes and then once those holes are
22:42
drilled you know you'll take those drill
22:44
bits out and what you're going to do is
22:46
you're going to take this and then we're
22:49
going to transfer it to the other side
22:53
we're going to take those two drill bits
22:54
we're going to put them back through the
22:55
holes and just like a puzzle piece
22:59
we're going to take
23:01
this from the inside of the van same
23:04
orientation and then on the outside of
23:06
the van we're going to find those two
23:08
holes that we drilled and we're going to
23:10
slide that template over them that's how
23:13
we mirror this to the other side so
23:16
these two holes coming through here will
23:18
be like two uh like Dow pins almost then
23:23
our template's going to slide over them
23:25
then we're going to trace where that
23:27
landed we'll mask off the outside for
23:30
our jigsaw and then we'll cut it so that
23:35
is the whole entire process um I'm going
23:38
to keep this video short we will'll be
23:41
another part uh I may end with a time
23:43
lapse of me cutting the hole out um but
23:45
I wanted to keep this nice and short
23:47
because this is probably the most
23:49
important um most stressful part of
23:52
doing a DIY van conversion is just being
23:56
confident that you have this laid out so
23:59
that your end result is what you want it
24:01
to look like yeah so hope that helped if
24:04
you have any questions make sure you
24:05
guys put those in the comments uh
24:08
comment section of this video I'll be
24:09
happy to answer them in a future video
24:12
or a live stream we'll probably hop on
24:14
and talk about a live
24:15
stream and throughout this whole entire
24:17
process there's a lot of tools I use
24:19
there's a lot of parts that I use and
24:21
want to talk to you guys about the DIY
24:23
van build cheat sheet so this cheat
24:25
sheet is essentially an Excel sheet that
24:28
I put together of the last three years
24:29
of all my Amazon purchases for the shop
24:32
so anything I bought off Amazon it's on
24:34
that list the best part is this list is
24:37
completely free so all you got to do is
24:39
click on the link uh put your name email
24:41
address it's going to come straight to
24:42
your inbox it's completely free there's
24:44
only two there's over 250 cure rated
24:47
items on this list um specifically for
24:50
Van builds and items like that there's
24:52
solar components there's electrical
24:54
components um there's you know the max
24:56
fan ventilation there's water
24:59
pumps uh the most important part of this
25:01
list is the tools so there's a tool
25:04
section and it is awesome so it's all
25:06
these tools that I use to do the van
25:08
conversions they're mainly specialty
25:10
tools like wire strippers PEX a crimpers
25:13
the riv rivet plusnut Riv nut it's a
25:17
hydraulic Riv nut drill adapter it's a
25:20
big name but something like that is hard
25:22
to find so on this list you can find
25:24
that so check it out it's a DIY van
25:27
build sheat sheet it's completely free I
25:29
really think it's going to help you out
25:30
on your next DIY van build also make
25:33
sure you guys are subscribed to the
25:34
channel like it if you enjoyed this
25:36
video and then share it if somebody is
25:38
putting in a window like this and they
25:41
may need some help so until next time I
25:44
will see you guys in the next
25:47
[Music]
25:56
video
#Curtains & Window Treatments