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Sienna Van Camper Re-Conversion

April 6, 2024 by · Leave a Comment

Sienna Van Camper Re-Converion

Thank you for reading my post on the Sienna Van Camper Re-Converion. The van in question is a 2014 Toyota Sienna with about 135,000 miles on it. It’s just about broken in, I’d guess.

The original build, done in 2021. This baby is gone!

 

Susan relaxing in the original build. Main problem? You couldn’t sit up.

Motivated by Susan, I tore the original camper build apart and started from scratch. These photos show the new build.

1. From bottom left, clockwise:
– at the bottom on a vertical support is a small blue-black dot, the light switch for the “trunk.” Directly above it is a large black square, the electrical distribution panel, a.k.a. fuse box. Above that is the charge controller, which takes the raw electrical input from the solar panel (not shown) and feeds it to the battery. The fuse box and controller are mounted on the face of the main storage cabinet. Along the top is a rack, storage for linens, towels, shopping bags, etc. Along the top right side of the frame is Susan’s storage cabinet. On the bottom right is a yellow extension cord. The red and black cables are the solar panel electrical feeds. In the center is the couch/bed, shown in the couch position. You can couch out the back or in the van. All the interior lights are turned on.

2. Close-up of the fuse box and charge controller. Above the fuse box is a light switch and a 12-volt plug. You can see I’ve tossed some essentials into the cabinet. Don’t forget the loo roll. The red-orange thing below it is a knife sharpener.

3. Same shot as 2, with the panel open. There are 15 different circuits, not all in use.

4. View of the “trunk”. The usual trunk junk and the all-important battery.

5. View from passenger sliding door, from top left. Susan and I both have reading lamps. In between is the ceiling storage rack, currently just holding a couple shopping bags. The main storage cabinet’s front face has 12-volt plug, a power strip (we have an inverter that changes the 12-volt DC current to 110-volt AC current), the battery power gauge, and the switch that turns the inverter on/off. In front of that is the sink on a vanity. Extending across the van from that is the dining table, and of course, the couch/bed, still in the couch position.

6. The back windows are screened. The sink has a 5-gallon reservoir in the vanity, along with an electric pump to deliver the water (cold only). It drains (by gravity) into another 5-gallon jug. The counter top was polyurethaned to protect it (we hope) from moisture.

7. View from the couch, from left clockwise. Above the sink is a black blob, my fan. Next to it is a 12-volt plug that supplies its power, and a light switch that turns the light strip on and off. The headboard has hooks (actual fishhooks!) that keep clothes and hats off the floor. To the right of Susan’s hat and the paper towel roll is Susan’s fan with another 12-volt plug. And the table.

8. A view from the table, dominated by the guy who did all the work. He looks like he’s wondering, When did I get to be the same age as old people?? You can see Susan’s cabinet with a 12-volt plug and her reading lamp.

No holes were made in the van for this build. If this van dies, I could remove all this stuff and put it in another Sienna in a day or two, and most of that time would be spent on the wiring.

I would like to thank Eric enjoys Earth for his many design ideas that were incorporated into this build. Anyone considering a van conversion should check out Eric’s youtube channel!

And that, folks, is the Sienna Van Camper Re-Converion post. Thanks again for reading!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Convert a van! Stay active!

John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
www.spottedtail.com/blog

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, © John Kumiski 2024. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Sienna Van conversion · Tagged: , , ,

Van Conversion and Two Days Fishing, Again

January 27, 2024 by · Leave a Comment

Van Conversion and Two Days Fishing

Didn’t I use this title last week? Thank you for reading this post on Van Conversion and Two Days Fishing. The fishing was fair at best, but let’s look to the van first…

Subscribers without photos- go to https://www.spottedtail.com/blog/, please.

I’ve built the cabinet in the back of the van. Debating as to whether to put doors on the hatches. Will need to take a couple short trips to see if stuff falls out, I suppose.

Whenever I use the Bang-O-Craft, I always run all the gasoline out of the carburetor at the end of the trip. When I used it last week, I forgot to do that. When I finished working on the van Tuesday, it was about 1500 hours. I’ll run the gas out of the boat! I’ll bring a fishing rod!

I went to CS Lee Park. There was exactly one trailer in the lot, not a good sign. I ran the boat up to the mouth of the Econ. Saw no breaking fish at all- no gar, no mullet, and certainly no shad. Did not get a bite on tandem-rigged crappie jigs. A virtual biological desert! Floated down the river to the boat ramp, casting the entire way, solidly skunked.

There was an FWC creel survey dude there, who interviewed me. He told me no one has caught anything out of that ramp for at least three weeks. He further said such shad as were being caught were being taken out of the Cameron Wright ramp, near Sanford. Sounds like a poor shad season to me…

Friday under a heavy overcast I went back to the Indian River Lagoon, tailing black drum on my mind. Naturally, I didn’t see a one. I did get rained on. In my waders, with a raincoat on, it was not unpleasant. I did see a fair number of redfish. Unfortunately, all but two were flushed by running them over with the kayak, not a good technique for catching them.

The two I had shots at were bank-crawlers. I hit one on the tail with the RipTide shad, also not a good technique for catching them. The other spooked off my schmutz-coated fly (a wiry green algae collection guaranteed to offend any fish).

I got a trout and a small red blind-casting the shad to keep the skunk at bay. I have to think if I went there with good visibility I’d get a few fish. It doesn’t look like that chance will happen this week, though

And that, folks, is a Van Conversion and Two Days Fishing Report. Thanks again for reading!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Go on a walk! Stay active!

John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
www.spottedtail.com/blog

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, © John Kumiski 2024. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Paddle Fishing Florida, Sienna Van conversion · Tagged: , , ,

Virtual Tour of Sienna Van Build

March 27, 2021 by · 2 Comments

Virtual Tour of Sienna Van Build

The beast.

Thank you for reading this week’s Virtual Tour of Sienna Van Build.

Anyone who reads these posts on a regular basis knows that I have been working on a camper van conversion since purchasing the Sienna. I’m finished! thank you for your patience!

The solar panel supplies the power.

As you peruse the photos, keep in mind that I don’t have any sort of shop. I do have a rickety folding table and a couple of c-clamps, as well as a skil-saw, an electric jig saw, and an electric sander. And an electric drill, that was real important.

The power feeds into a charge controller.

On the roof is mounted a 200 watt, 12 volt solar panel from Rich Solar. Wires feed the generated current into a Rich Solar charge controller. From there a steady 12V current feeds into a positive busbar, which routes the energy to whatever circuits might be active (lights, fans, refrigerator, 12V sockets) or charges the auxiliary battery, or both. Or it might go into a Renogy inverter and get changed from 12V DC to 120V AC, for charging computers and i-pads, running an electric shaver, or what-have-you.

The positive busbar feeds power to the battery and to the 12V circuits, including the Dometic refrigerator. The inverter is under the busbars, hidden from view by the fridge.

There’s also a cable from the battery to a Renogy DC to DC charger, so I can charge my auxiliary battery from the car’s alternator.

The electrical distribution panel, full of fuses and two circuit breakers. We’re under the bed here. The yellow plug is the shore power line. There is an LED strip under here, too!

Again, I used a wiring diagram I got from ExploristLife.com. The only difference is that Nate uses his panels to charge four auxiliary batteries. He’s got a beefier vehicle than I, however. My thoughts were, if he uses these gauges of wire for a 400 watt system, they are way more than adequate for mine.

The rear cabinet, passenger side. Light strip underneath.

I have lots of fuses and circuit breakers in that wiring. And a fire extinguisher in the van!

The rear cabinet, driver side. Light strip underneath.

Lights- I have seven separate light circuits. Five of them are LED strips, two are LED reading lamps.

Switches and 12V plug, driver side. Top switch for under cabinet light, middle switch for under bed light, bottom switch controls inverter.To the right of the switches find the battery gauge. Above that is the reading lamp base. Below the gauge is a power strip, but I took the photo before installing the strip.

12 Volt plugs. There are five separate circuits for 12V plugs. Two of them are dedicated to our fans. The other three are for charging devices with a USB adapter plug.

Battery monitor.

There’s a battery monitor, analogous to a fuel gauge on a vehicle.

Looking in from the rear.

Under the rear bumper is a plug for plugging into the grid. I carry an extension cord.

Looking back from the sliding door.

Mounted inside the vehicle at the back of the driver side sliding door is a power strip that either plugs into the grid power or the inverter, for using devices requiring 120 volt AC power.

A headboard makes use of formerly unusable space, with lots of hooks for hanging things. At each end are our fans, those black things. And another light strip.

There are four small cabinets. There are plenty of hooks for hanging things.

The water box, filled with odds and ends. The front end of the bed is folded up.

I built a wooden box, for carrying bottles of water. It holds four one-gallon bottles and a five-gallon jug.

Of course there’s the bed, but the mattress is not in the van in these photos.

There’s also a little port-a-potty for buggy night-time urges.

We’re ready to pack it up and go.

Thank you for reading this week’s Virtual Tour of Sienna Van Build!

Life is great and I love life!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! or walk on a trail!

John Kumiski, author of Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide

Purchase a signed copy of Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide at http://www.spottedtail.com/fishing-florida-by-paddle/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2021. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Photo Essays, Sienna Van conversion · Tagged: , , ,

Van Conversion Update, Fishing and Sunset

February 6, 2021 by · Leave a Comment

Van Conversion Update, Fishing and Sunset

Thank you for reading this week’s post. It’s certainly not exciting from a fishing standpoint, but I am excited about progress on the van conversion. Gee, that sounded exactly like last week!

Had two other posts this week-

–What’s in Your Fishing First Aid Kit?, a guest blog courtesy of Justin Walker, and

–Free and Fearless: The Amazing Impact of One Precious Life– A Book Review. This was an inspiring book about love and loss. Check them out!

————————————————-

Before we do anything else, a shout-out!

Sunday my phone rang, kind of unusual these days. Ed Wasicki called me. He subscribes to this blog, so he knows I’m working on a van conversion. During our conversation he offered to give some camping gear he no longer needed, which I thought rather generous of him.

Monday morning, we met at the SR 50 St. Johns River boat ramp, where he did his best to fill the van! Here’s a photo of the boo-tay:

Ed gave me a pile of good stuff!

So, I gotta shout out, THANK YOU SO MUCH, ED!

Ed also gave me the number of the VA COVID vaccination clinic, a place I’d already called without luck. I called while driving home, and got an appointment for Wednesday. Wednesday morning, I went and got the first shot. So, thanks again, Ed!

On Tuesday I worked on the van, doing wiring.

Thursday, while cool, had not much wind. I went kayak fishing on Mosquito Lagoon on a spectacular day. The fishing was not spectacular. It was pretty dreadful, for hours.

This was the weather I had to endure. Pretty easy!

I found a culvert with water flowing through it. Not expecting anything, I cast into the flow. BAM! After a second or two it came unbuttoned. He did get my attention, though. I continued casting to that same ten foot area for about 45 minutes, and released a half-dozen slot reds. It was shocking, although in a good way.

Yah yah, I caught da feesh!

I started with the- wait, what fly was it? That’s right! The brown slider! I had some short strikes so I took it off, for the first time in six or eight weeks, and put a smaller fly on that I tied by making dubbing from our cat’s fur (no I’m not making this up). It looks like a big nymph, the kind you would use for trout fishing. The fish seemed to like it!

That bite dried up, the way they always do, and that was it. I stopped at the Big Little Econ State Forest on the way home and photographed the sunset.

Cirrus clouds equal awesome sunsets, a simple equation.

Friday and Saturday I worked on wiring the van. Here’s a photo I took on Friday of what I’m doing.

Even though I’m a gomer, this looks fairly professional.

Here’s picture of my wiring diagram, courtesy of exploristlife.com.

Click on the diagram to see a bigger copy.

As long as I’m shouting out, Nate Yarborough, who I have never met, has, through his website and youtube channel, taught me how to do this job. Awesome information there, Nate, and thank you so much!

There’s a football game coming up, that Super Bowl thing you may have heard of. Go Bucs!

Thank you for reading this week’s blog post about the van conversion!

Life is great and I love life!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! or walk on a trail!

John Kumiski, author of Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide

Purchase a signed copy of Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide at http://www.spottedtail.com/fishing-florida-by-paddle/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2021. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report, Sienna Van conversion · Tagged: , ,

Sienna Van Conversion- Cabinets

November 6, 2020 by · Leave a Comment

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Sienna Van Conversion- Cabinets

This Sienna van conversion- cabinets post is about making and installing cabinets in our Sienna van!

Once again I used Bruce Parks’s design. And again, Bruce Parks’s work is far superior to mine!

This is a beautiful piece of work by Bruce Parks.

The four cabinet legs were first measured, cut, sanded, and screwed to the bed frame.

Making Templates

Once again I used corrugated cardboard to make templates. There were four of them for one cabinet. There are no flat surfaces where the cabinet was going, so the bottom, each side, and partition all needed templates cut. It was a slow process. Cut, check fit. Cut some more, check fit. For four pieces. Took an entire afternoon.

The diligent reader may recall in my last post I wrote, “although starting with the cardboard was an excellent idea, the cardboard cutout only approximates reality.” That was certainly true here!

Once satisfied the templates were close, I traced the outline on a piece of 1″ pine board. Next a jig saw was used to cut out the piece I wanted from the rest of the board. Then there was sanding. Then we tried the fit.

Trying the Fit (and my patience)

None of the pieces fit the first time. More cutting, more sanding, another fit. Repeat as needed. There’s a good argument that, even now when the “finished product” is in the van, they don’t fit.

My version of Bruce’s cabinet.

A trip to Home Depot happened, where, sadly, I had to purchase three eight foot 1″x2″ to make the frames for the cabinet fronts, and supports for the partition. It was the first wood I had to buy for the entire project! I also needed 1 1/4″ screws to hold everything together.

Once I had everything I needed assembly started. I attached the two sides and the partition to the bottom, then mitred the corners for the frame for the front. Once that was all done I measured the “windows” to get the sizes of the front panels, which I cut out of polycarbonate. A hole was cut in each polycarbonate panel- got to get your hand in and out of the cabinet!

I tried putting the cabinet on its legs. Didn’t fit. More cutting and sanding. More fitting. More cutting and sanding. Etc. Finally got it on there and used five screws to hold it down. Put the front panels on. Voila! Must say, not bad!

It took an entire day. The second one went faster- the templates were already cut, and all the problem-solving had been done. That one only took a half day. I cannot say it fits any better, however.

Looking in from the back hatch.

They look good (if not completely professional). They are secure. They don’t have huge capacity but they turn wasted space into storage space. If I were to do it over again I absolutely would.

The happy builder, resting in the van, glad the first phase is done!

There are odds and ends to finish and a trip to take before the electrical phase starts. We’re not done with the build just yet!

Thanks for reading about our Sienna van conversion- cabinets!

Filed Under: Sienna Van conversion, travel blog, Uncategorized · Tagged: , , , ,

Sienna Van Conversion- Installing the Bed

November 6, 2020 by · Leave a Comment

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Sienna Van Conversion- Installing the Bed

In our last installment about the Sienna van conversion I discussed how the rear seat well of the Sienna needed to be framed before I could install the bed. Once that was done, and I had the slide-out drawer finished, it was time to install said bed.

Tools Used

Before we get there, though, I’d like to thank my tools. Simple though they may be, they have done me right. I’ve used (and will continue to use) two power hand saws, a basic Skilsaw and a Black and Decker jigsaw. I also used a small hand saw for a few jobs. I used a Black and Decker cordless electric drill quite a lot. Also used on every piece of lumber was a small DeWalt electric sander armed with 60 grit sandpaper. Rounding out the kit- a tape measure, a speed square, two C-clamps, a level, and various pencils and markers. I don’t have any kind of shop, so all work was done on an ancient folding table.

My tools and workspace are basic.

Lumber Used

For those readers who hate throwing stuff away, here’s my take. You can keep useless stuff around forever. It gets in the way, collects dust and spiders, and is a pain in the neck. If you don’t use something for a year or two, it’s time to donate or sell it to someone who will use it.

Having said that, all the lumber I have used in this project so far is stuff I had hanging around the property, in some cases for decades. I live in a building, and lumber is building material! Makes sense! My out-of-pocket expenses so far have been limited to fasteners, the mattress, the window rain guards (which I need to install), and the potty.

Bed Installation

Back to the van. After removing the middle seats and clearing out assorted debris, I backed the van up to the garage. I got Susan and Cheryl to help me. We lifted the bed out of the garage and inserted it into the back of the van. Voila! An almost perfect fit!

campervan bed
The bed is in the van, and the kitchen box is pulled out.

Both ends of the bed fold up by way of hinges, allowing you to get at whatever may be lurking below. A Sienna has less space than say, an Airstream, so maximizing storage space is important.

folding van bed
Susan shows the front of the bed folding up. The rear does the same to allow access to the well. The seat trolleys gotta go, though!

We bought a full-sized tri-fold mattress from Amazon, but we won’t install that until just before our upcoming North Carolina trip.

In the meantime, I still have window screens and cabinets to build and install. Time to get back to work!

Thanks for reading about our Sienna van conversion- installing the bed!

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