This past weekend was a little rainy, and some electrical bits that I was hoping would arrive by the weekend ended up delayed, so Agent May underwent just a couple of small projects. The first was running a wire from the engine compartment, where it will be connected to the van's main battery, back to our electrical cabinet.
This involved adventures in wiggling around under the van to secure the wire along the chassis:
And then up through a hole in the floor of the van.
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By far the most expensive, involved, and lengthy part of this project is the electrical system. It will be able to take in power from the solar panels, from being plugged in to a campground hookup, and from the alternator while the engine is running. That power will then be stored in two large batteries before being used for a variety of devices on both AC and DC circuits. This involves a lot of design and planning, and also a lot of pricey equipment. I'm learning a lot, though!
So... work on the electrical system began with the construction of a cabinet-box-thing to hold most of the equipment on the side of the van. The first step was creating a cardboard template of the curve on the inside of the van, then transferring that onto some 1x12 boards and cutting them out. Then: the first of many test fits!
Looks good so far.
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The Cavalry's vinyl floor has been installed! Very exciting times. Here's where it started:
Well, really it started with me sweeping out the garage so this wouldn't be unmanageably full of little maple helicopter seed things. Then I rolled out the vinyl remnant that we bought a little while ago and put the floppy floor mat that the van came with on top to use as a template. I marked a little larger than the floppy floor mat, for a rough cut of the flooring.
Fun fact: we chose this one because it was the closest to the size we needed, not because of the design (well, except I didn't want something super light which would show dirt very easily), but it's pretty nice!
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This weekend we got the interior subfloor accomplished!
(We also put insulation into the ceiling to kick the weekend off. Very busy!)
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Before I bought her, Agent May sat for a while at the dealership I bought her from. Which means that her tires, while new in terms of miles driven, also had experienced some unusual stresses related to lack of use.
A few weeks ago, one of the tire pressure sensors was telling me that the pressure was low in that tire. It hadn't been that long since the last time air was added to the tires. That, combined with the fact that another one of the tires assumed a somewhat odd shape when parked in certain positions, was enough for me to just decide to replace the tires. The old ones were... probably fine, but I knew I wanted to replace them eventually anyway with ones that were a bit more capable on less-than-paved roads. (I have no plans to take her off-road, but definitely want to be able to drive on not-well-maintained roads.) And it was worth it to me to do that sooner and avoid worrying about the integrity of the tires.
I also (for purely aesthetic reasons) got her some new wheels to go with her new tires. Naturally—The Cavalry needs shoes that are both on point and practical. She's looking awesomely badass!
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