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Meet Vanessa, I found her in New Jersey. Her full name is Vanessa Vanopolis. She's a 2007 AWD Express. She came with ladder racks and an Adrian steel divider and shelves (I have them for sale on craigslist if anyone wants them). I spent today removing them. She's a bit mad at me at the moment, I dumped her friend [2004 GMC] Sierra yesterday morning, but that didn't stop her from coming home with me last night.... white girls, go figure? :ugh: About us Anyways, my girlfriend Rebecca (the real one) and I are going to be spending the next 6-8months living in a van and doing a road trip across Canada to mountain bike and rock climb. Normally the two of us live in New Zealand, but I'm from the USA. I've spent the last 4 years living in Taupo, so I know a few old school guys, ...but I haven't had anything interesting to post up here since I haven't had a garage/project. Also as a side note, I also have a post on Expedition Portal forums, so if some of the posts seem like cut and pastes... that's why. We're taking a year or so off from work to do some traveling before settling down and buying a house, we've just spent the last 3months in Niseko, Japan snowboardin. I'll be building this van at my parents house in Baltimore (though because of the tiny attached garage and all of the tools being stored in the basement it is miserable to work out of.) I've got about 5 weeks to build this van, so this thread should hopefully go along quite quickly. I'll need you guys to keep me motivated though, I'm a bit stressed out about this build since I'm usually a bit of a perfectionist and work kinda slow normally but will be forced to go a bit fast. We'll plan to drive from Baltimore, up the east coast to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, then across the country, making a stop in Wisconsin to see my sister and maybe a stop in Bozeman Montana to see a friend before ending up in BC. Plans: -Sleeping for two -Fridge (Dometic CFX65 Dual Zone) -Solar, house battery etc (using a Renogy 200w kit, and lots and lots of Blue-Sea wiring products) -ARB awning -insulation and sound deadening, tiles of 80mil Noico and Ezcool Low-E, 1/4in plywood walls covered with HullLiner carpet. -Bike mounts inside the van (Rebecca's bike is worth almost as much as the van... :Wow1: so we don't want to keep them outside for too long) -Camp Chef propane oven -storage of some sort -water tanks (about 20-30gal) Things I want if there is time: hot water Backing camera 2in lift+bigger tires Swivel passenger seat (if it makes sense with our layout) Questions: 1. I'm still trying to figure out the layout. The bikes are a bit of a challenge. I'll be using fork mounts to hold the bikes, Rocky Mounts Hot Rods (quite a well made aluminum part for $34). Everyone seems to like having a bed by the back windows, but that makes the bikes a bit of a pain/would limit me to a bed fit in sideways about 70in long by 55in wide. I had them sideways against the front seats but I forgot to take a picture of that. I would have to take the handle bars off each time, and it would kind of make a swivel seat pointless, but otherwise would work decently. Here they are along the back, they fit quite nicely like this with the bars turned a bit. This would mean I would probably buy a RV Queen Short mattress and slide it up against the front seats. It doesn't seem to be a very popular layout in the USA, but every home made van camper in New Zealand seems to do this. Any idea why? Will this make the van less desirable/harder to sell when we finish our trip? 2. Bed sizes... We're both short, so sleeping sideways across the van on a custom mattress is possible. If I put the bed long ways I'm thinking a standard queen or RV queen. I'm not planning to do a fold up bed or anything because I want a quality mattress if I'm going to spend 6months on it. What works for you taller folks/again resale question? 3. The van came with Toyo Open Country ATs 245/75R16 with about 70% tread. I was planning to upgrade to a larger tire, but they look decent, and would save me about $500. Thoughts? 4. The rear park lights don't come on... bulbs are good, the park relay (#29 i think) under the seat seems ok, just isn't getting 12v between terminals 85 and 30 when the headlights are on. Is this the body control module not turning on the signal power to this relay? Any idea how to test that/anyone have a wiring diagram? Anything else I should check first? Also I'm thankful I didn't get pulled over driving it 3.5hrs from Jersey to Maryland at night.