Building Our Tiny Home On Wheels
In February of 2017 we drove to Farmington, MO to purchase the core of our tiny home on wheels - a 2016 Ford Transit, Edison.
INSULATION
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First up, insulation! When you live in a van you know that insulation is KEY! We made sure to cover every square inch possible with reflectix first, and R19 anywhere else we could. For our particular Transit, we were able to fit it in the cutouts on the top and bottom from front to back!
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SUBFLOOR
It was early on in the conversion process that we needed to get the subfloor installed because it was our foundation. I called up my dad and asked him if we could knock it out of the ballpark so that we could start moving toward the rest of the interior. Thankfully he was down to help because it involved lots of drilling through the floor of the van (which I wasn't too excited about).
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STAIRS & LOFT
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PULLOUT DECK
The frame of the pullout deck was fabricated by BASIK, a friend's company. After securing the plywood platform, we used cut up wood pallets to give the deck a nice herringbone design.
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The herringbone design was a little tricky, but worth the extra time! Mounted straight to the van frame, our pullout deck can hold up to 350 lbs fully extended.
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Staining all the pallet wood was one of my favorite things to do during the conversion process. I just love seeing the colors come alive. This was done at a random park in McKinney, TX.
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EXTERIOR
ROOF RACK
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The story of installing our Aluminess roof rack is one for the books.
Let me set the scene. Our roof rack was in transit from Santee, CA to Denver, CO via Reddaway. This was one of the last things on our to-do list before the van would be complete for the final day of shooting with HGTV's Tiny House, Big Living... which was scheduled the NEXT morning. Keep in mind this was the day AFTER the rack was supposed to arrive, so we were on even more of a time crunch.
As Steven (our Affinity Coffee business partner) and I waited patiently at Reddaway for the 14' long package delivery of what would soon be the roof of our tiny home on wheels, our plan of using a fork lift went out the window when we found out that the rack would be delivered too late to use it. So we drove to Reddaway to pick it up without a plan and in need of a miracle.
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Upon arriving we had to go through the process of getting it cleared for pickup, still without a plan for transportation or installation. After all the paperwork, we had the rack in our hands!! The only problem now... lifting a 14' long aluminum rack on top of a 9' tall van. As we were coming up with a game plan, a Reddaway driver pulls up next to us (keep in mind we're still in their parking lot). He asks about our plan of attack (still nonexistent) for getting the rack up onto the roof. We decide that I could get on the roof of the van and Steven in the back of this gentlemen's truck, and as he backs up Steven would lift the rack and I would grab it from up top and do my best to guide this sucker up onto the roof. RIGHT as we started this operation another truck driver finishing up his shift runs over to give us an extra hand and just like that we have this roof rack secured and in place! Talk about a huge blessing in a tough situation. Many thanks to those gentlemen for saving the day!
FAN
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One of the most nerve-racking experiences during the build out was cutting out the 14"x14" hole in the roof of our brand new van.
I started by measuring everything out and cutting a tiny bit smaller to start. After some trimming the base of our MaxxFan Deluxe fit in just right!
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