[JVance]

OK, not a weekender or Westy, and unless I find a donor pop-top for a song and dance, it likely will never be. But it's an EV, and it has to meet our needs for camping and MTB'ing. The family and I will still be sleeping in tents, but the plan is to have a rolling kitchen/bathroom to make extended and/or dirty trips more convenient, as well as haul the camping and biking equipment.

'99 GLS with some MV seats installed by the previous owner. High miles, cheap...for some reason, I gravitate towards this.

[JVance]

Kumho 225/65r16 tires on et42 steel wheels. Bus Depot add-a-room tent on the rear hatch will enclose the shower and toilet when in the camp.

[JVance]

Smittybuilt awning (an ARB clone), mounted to the Yakima rack using SNap-ARound mounts.

[JVance]

20"x60" cargo slide by MOR/Ryde, purchased from Tweety's RV. I will construct an insulated cabinet using marine-grade plywood and foam insulation boards to house a cooler, camp utensil storage, and a sink.

I'm not keen on the overhang above the step. I may modify the interior panel to recess the far end of the slide and mount it flush with the step at the door. I was also hoping that the slide would extend further than it does...it's not bad as it is, will not affect access to the sink, and would only marginally affect access to the cooler. I could modify the stop to allow it to extend further, but I may need to fabricate telescoping legs to support it outside of the van. The goal is to have the kitchen/bathroom functional by mid-November (2-day endurance MTB race in Pisgah, NC), so what I'd like to do may get postponed until later this winter.

[JVance]

Still to start/finish:
Shower: no pics yet. We'll be using a portable propane-powered hot-water heater, and probably whatever spray nozzle comes with that kit. The shower "pan" is a plastic 26"x30" washing-machine drain pan I picked up at Lowes for $25. The side walls of the pan are about 2" high and will allow a drain to be mounted in the side. An electric pump will be used to drain the pan into a grey-water tank. I need to fab a rectangular aluminum "halo" which will mount to the hatch to serve as a curtain "rod" to enclose the shower.

Toilet: haven't purchased yet. I like the features of the Thetford Curve, but its odd shape will probably make packaging the toilet (among the other camp equipment) a challenge. I will probably opt for a model that is more "square".

Rear Rack: I plan to fabricate a swing-out rear rack. I'm considering using 3/16" (or 1/4" if it fits) plate that sandwiches the rear pillars above the brake lights, and turns 90-degrees at the side of the hatch, extending rearwards to locate a hinge on each side of the hatch. The rack will be composed of 2 swing-outs, which can be fastened in the center of the hatch (I figured I would mount that interface, secure the ends of the 2 swing-outs in the middle of the hatch, where the VW emblem currently resides)...hopefully that makes sense? The driver's side rack/swing-out will hold the spare tire; the passenger side swing-out will hold vertical bike racks, and a 10 lb propane tank (tall and narrow). The passenger side rack will swing out 180 degrees and can hold a counter-top (under the extended awning) for the Coleman camp stove after bikes have been removed.

Countertop: currently considering ways to mount a counter-top for food-prep to the open sliding door. I have a few options, more on that later.

Water tanks: I need to mount fresh-water and grey-water tanks to the chassis. The relocation of the spare tire should free up the spare-tire well for at least 1 of these tanks. There's real-estate elsewhere under the van...need to crawl around, measure, research, and measure some more.

I have 4 weeks.

[JVance]

Oh, and this isn't simply off-the-cuff. A lot of planning is going into this build...

[Itsamoto]

Cool stuff here!

3 cheers for GLS campers! 

I have a GLS 'camper' as well -- using the MV bench bed and its been great. I tore out the carpet and put down a rubber/plywood floor and longer seat mounting bolts so it can be a 7 seater still.

I hung an ARB awning off my roof rack system too - works good. I had a pair of "ARB" brackets -- total beef overkill for the awning. Thetford porta potty (for the kids), a cooler and camping stove -- all packed raw (no cabinet enclosure) -- but all tied down well with lots of room. Swivel seat on the passenger side -- pocket storage thingy on the drivers side. I miss having the weekender table - but that is an easy thing to substitute with a fold out table (or tv dinner tray).

And when we're done camping -- I put the middle seats in and she's back to a 7 seat hauler! Super utility!
 

[JVance]

Still brainstorming on the swing-out tire and bike carriers. Here's the idea, 3/16" steel plate mounted to the rear pillar above the taillight (outline in the first pic), 90-degree bend extending rearward to mount a hinge in double-shear behind the hatch; rectangular tube from the hinge to a latch where the VW emblem is located (outlined in the 2nd pic). There would be another swing-out mirrored on the driver's side as well.

Where I'm scratching my head is I first considered bolting this plate to the pillar, with a matching 3/16" plate on the backside, effectively sandwiching the sheet-metal. However, after inspection, the backside of the pillar is boxed-in in that area. I'm certain I can back up any hardware in that area with large washers, but am uncertain about fitting a plate that mirrors the mount on the outside of the pillar.

On the other hand, I can TIG the mounting plate onto the pillar (just a big lap joint all the way around). I'm not terribly keen on this due to how thin the sheet metal *may* be, and the potential for rust to form between the mounting plate and the body; I can deal with the potential for rust on the backside of the pillar (where the coating/paint will be burned away) by blindly shooting paint up into the boxed-in area.

Any thoughts? Cole, you've probably cut up the most EVs out of this group...can you comment on whether the rear pillar is thick/strong enough to weld such a mount to it?

[JVance]

Attaching pics on this forum is an exercise in futility...once a post is rejected, it's almost impossible to resubmit as it's considered a duplicate post (even though it was never accepted to begin with). So, no more narratives...just a complete waste of time.

Materials:


Decided to bumper-mount the swing-out instead:

[JVance]

There's a considerable amount of reinforcement that has been added since these pics (12" of 3/16" plate that ties the side of the hitch receiver to the side of the bumper and extends forward along the lower rocker to tie-in with the cross-member that's behind the rear wheels).

[JVance]

[JVance]

I love the utility of skateboard wheels...

[JVance]

[rcowan]

Really cool. I like the idea of using the dummy lights in the bumper!

[JVance]

The EV has been plugging away the last 2 months, mostly just local trips across the lowcountry to log some miles on the bike.


I did replace the heater-core last month. This required removing the bypass the previous owner installed. The cost of a new heater hose ($160+) that has the thermoswitch housing was more than I wanted to spend, so I picked up some aluminum hose barbs and found a billet of aluminum in the shop:




Mock-up prior to welding:



I'll snap a finished pic eventually. It's installed and the EV now has heat. And on that note, the rear heat was working in October, but has not worked this winter since I reconnected all of the fan switches and fuses, and replaced the radiator. Could be the solenoid directing coolant to the rear heater core, a sensor, or a controller...I'm hoping it's just a loose wire.



My early-style instrument cluster had been giving me problems. The PO replaced the stock cluster with an earlier unit, maybe a 96-98? Or maybe not even from an EV at all. It worked, but the gauge lighting was awful. I put the stock cluster back in, which looked years newer despite being the same general style (it's all about the lighting), and it worked for a month before dying once again.

So, I opted to swap in a newer "blue" cluster from a 2000 EV.




Biggest PITA was the Bentley wire diagrams...
- my EV is a 1999 GLS, the January 1996+ Bentley wire diagram is in the ball-park for this chassis/instrument cluster.
- The September 1998+ wire-diagram is incorrect for the 1999 chassis/instrument cluster
- The 2000 EV instrument cluster is partially explained by the September 1998+ wire-diagram and the May 1999+ wire-diagram. I suppose greens look grey when you're colorblind.

Splicing the 2000 harness into the 1999 chassis was relatively trivial. After confirming all of the pin assignments, I clipped one wire at a time (hurray for 25 white wires!!!) from the 1999 connector and soldered each to the pigtail for the 2000 connectors. All functions from the 1999 cluster work; some functions of the 2000 EV cluster do not (brake pad wear indicator - grounded to deactivate light; EPC light - not connected; dead bulb indicator - not connected; etc); some are redundant (I spliced the parking brake and ABS leads, so both the dash lights and instrument cluster light up simultaneously).

I'll probably pick up a late steering wheel and airbag off eBay to complete the cockpit update. Did VW ever make the Climatronic with blue back-lighting instead of green?