savannals

Last Thursday, the fellow at the vinyl wraps shop let me know that he could get the van wrapped early if we could drop it off on Friday. We could! Which means the wrapping started a week and a half earlier than we expected! It also meant that we didn't have the van last weekend.

We did have nice weather, some solar panels, and some bits to make a mounting frame for them. So that's what we did!

First step was to get the solar panels laid out so we could measure the distance between the mounting holes on the bottom. I grabbed some red wire thingydoodles from the shed because they were about the right size and we had a lot of them. We used those as spacers between the panels to give them a little bit of wiggle room.

On either end, you can see the cross bars of the roof rack where this array will eventually be installed.

And achievement unlocked: first installation of neat stuff!

Today we added seat swivels to both seats in the van, so they can turn around when it's parked. Melinda May might be pretty fortitudinous compared to your average passenger vehicle, but she's on the small side for a van. Seat swivels will add more interior space when parked, while also adding seats for us to hang out in if the weather is unpleasant outside.

The seats in the van are bolted to a base, which itself is bolted to the floor of the van. We removed the seat from the base:

In December of 2024, I bought a 2021 GMC Savana cargo van. She's going to be a camper!

Her name is Melinda May, aka The Cavalry. Because she's gonna be kind of a badass.