Interstate Mods - I'll go First

[Camerons]

Flooring.
The floor is too cold so we installed carpet I cut carefully. However it was hard to keep clean and had to go. Used it as a pattern to install 1/4 foam flooring that interlocks. Now the floor is easy to clean and warm. Removed the carpet at the back of the airstream as it was covered in pine needles from camping. Foam flooring is so much easier to keep clean.

Tv
Removed from tv as we never used it. Installed a 32 inch tv that is rotated 90
Degrees. Finally a tv we can stream to TCL ROKU and walk past without hitting our shoulders.

WiFi booster
This helps a lot when we are close to WiFi but not in the store. Could be Walmart Macdonald’s etc. this picks up a signal from 2 miles away and boosts it. Then assembled a few WiFi signals into one decent one.

Cell booster.
Required for being in areas that are more remote. Adds one to two bars to the signal.

AGS
Required if you have a pet and would like the ac to come on when the van gets too hot. Had to replace the magnum controller with a smarter one and AGS module. Works well. Also starts generator if batteries are 55% SOC

BMK.
Upgraded magnum has the ability to know the state of charge (SOC) rather than just a voltage. Now we know if we go to sleep at 85% we will wake up at 65%

Doubled batteries.
Hung two more batteries on passenger side under van. AGM due to cold temps we live in. Will do lithium some day.

Upgraded radio

Solar
4 100w panels and Victron controller.

Box on back for bikes
Added bike storage where the bikes can be covered. Also extra storage in box beneath bikes.

[Alex AVI]

CAMERONS - any mention of bikes and/or storage and my eyes perk-up & ears open-wide Nice stuff!

[InterBlog]

Mods FYI --

Sprinter Parts Depot is advertising Black Friday week sales. One or more deals each day of this week. I don't see this promotion on their home page, but it's in the email circulars.

[Camerons]

It puzzled me as to why airstream installed one garbage can in a massive drawer under the kitchen sink in our GT 2016. It is a colossal waste of space. I took out all the drawers and had a look at how to gain back some space. some of it is gone forever, airstream installed 15 inch deep drawers in cabinets that are 18-19 inches deep ?? why would anyone waste that much space ?! without rebuilding all the drawers that space is hard to recover. However, the garbage drawer is too colossal a screw up not to address I removed the drawer and rebuild one then remounted the existing cabinet front. the result was that I could fit double the number of garbage cans and had a space for recycling. Or in our case we opted for one garbage can and using the rest for storage. For those who want to do the same PM me and I will share some learnings if I did it again.

[Alex AVI]

CAMERONS - You lucky they gave you a garbage can. With my AI Lounge, my garbage receptacle is to open the sliding door and throw garbage out the side. I can only sit in envy of your problem

Nice job reclaiming wasted space. As far as drawers being too short, you do not need to rebuild it. You can still reclaim some space by attaching a box of same width behind drawer for smaller stuff & lesser accessed items, like duct tape, TP, paper towels, etc. You get the picture. I have done it before in my home (not in AI). Build it out of wood or acrylic or PCB. Screw it on, glue it on, or even just hang it on its top rear edge or even heavy duty double edge tape.

[Camerons]

Too funny Alex. I guess airstream was learning and installed a garbage can some progress. Good point on extending the drawers ! I am going to solve the solution a different way today. Rather than rebuild another drawer to reclaim the length I am going to build drawers to install on top of the existing drawers. There is 3-5 inches of space atop most of the large drawers. This space is about the same size as the cutlery drawer. So when I am done we will have 4 times more smaller drawers. Hopefully this will mean we don’t have to store stuff in the microwave

[Camerons]

Several of the airstream installed drawers have a large amount of space above the drawer box. Initially I thought this was ok. However having fished out things that fell behind the drawers I noticed some improvements that could be made. Amazes me that airstream installs 20 inch deep cabinets and yet drawers are 15 inches deep. Waste of 5 inches per drawer. The drawers are also too deep to be usable. Solution: install a second drawer on top. I made these drawers 19 inches deep to take advantage of the extra space. Installed three is these which massively improved the storage and organizational capabilities. No longer do we have things falling out the back of drawers too

[Tronadora]

Cameron: Nice innovative mod, young squire.

Care to share with us a link to the actual drawer slides you used? And did you manufacture the drawer boxes yourself?

Really a great addition.

[Alex AVI]

CAMERONS - VERY NICE JOB ! You sir & JOHN (PAHASKA) are expert cabinet makers. I have a hard time keeping my router edge straight

[Lily&Me]

Very nice, Camerons.

I have a gap below my galley drawers, in both Interstates, and not being clever nor handy so as to make new drawers to fill this space I use it for parchment paper, cling wrap, foil, etc.

A nice, after market side business could be made by some of you, serving with modifications those of us who are not so clever.

Maggie

[InterBlog]

Minor mod I should have done four years ago to fix a routine P.I.T.A.:

Certain T1N Interstates have a semi-permanently-screwed-on cabinetry panel covering the hot water heater's isolation valves. Many a newbie has concluded erroneously that this panel was never intended to be removed (such confusion usually manifests as a declaration of "hot water heater not working" because the valves are in the wrong position).

Typically this space is accessed for winterizing, but I find I also need to vacuum dog hair, dirt, and goose down out of that area. Plus certain small items that accidentally fall down behind the couch can only be retrieved by removing that panel.

It is not a fun job to lay down on that floor and un-do those four screws, then do them back up again in that awkward little recessed area. It typically takes four times the energy as the task for which they needed to be removed in the first place.

So, now the panel attaches via neodyms instead. To remove, just yank at the finger pull hole.

This panel fronts on a small but valuable recessed space that I intend to re-purpose, hence the completion of this first ergonomic step.

[Lotus54]

After I removed those screws (T1N) I was planning on using Dzus fasteners or the like. But since I didn’t have any handy- I just pushed it back and and it was darn tight like it was.
It is still like that- no screws at all.
But it bugs me and I should really do something.

[Sebtown]

I used velcro to secure that panel. I also captured enough space in there to store my unused, but required to carry, snow chains.

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

It is not a fun job to lay down on that floor and un-do those four screws, then do them back up again in that awkward little recessed area. It typically takes four times the energy as the task for which they needed to be removed in the first place.

So, now the panel attaches via neodyms instead. To remove, just yank at the finger pull hole.

INTERBLOG - Great idea. Even in the NCV3, there's couple of panels that I know could use this mod and still be secure even when driving.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Sebtown

I used velcro to secure that panel. I also captured enough space in there to store my unused, but required to carry, snow chains.

I thought about it, but I'm avoiding organic materials and especially adhesives wherever possible. I applied Velcro dots to secure Reflectix sheets to the inside surfaces of the windows, and it's all a smeared mess by this time. The heat, again. It just destroys everything. Now I have to de-goo that stuff and start over.

I suppose perhaps I could have stapled the Velcro to the two wooden surfaces, but I kinda wanted to re-use the same screw holes.

[InterBlog]

Smallest mod ever:

A Grid-It cord organizer screwed to the inside of one of the flip-down cabinet faces. A bit inconvenient being near the floor, but I didn't want to waste more valuable real estate on it. I'm sick of cords cluttering up the place.

As well as having multiple needs for the the "old" USB cables, we now have to carry USB Type-C. And iPhone cords, and HDMI, and my Powerpoint projector is so old that it only takes VGA, which requires an adapter because my computer only takes HDMI.

Don't even get me started on the more elaborate device charging apparatus.

Sanity hint: Buy each type of cord in a different color. White for iPhones only; white USB cords are banned from our house. Black for older USB unless you have an application where high visibility is needed. I chose red as the color of my new USB-C cords.

I'm gradually consuming the back side of every cabinet face for organizational stuff like this.

[Mansderm161]

Here's my mod after 4 days with Lew at AM solar, 4 solar panels, weBoost with antenna at the rear, victron amazing blue power center with bluetooth apps, lithium battery, interior propane switch. I can reach control panel from driver's seat. I told him I needed to retain space in back for litter box since I travel with a cat and everything fit perfectly. The space now occupied by the battery and inverter was where the cat sometimes slept, but he has plenty of other places to sleep. And, now I can sleep while travelling without worrying about the lousy batteries. Lew does amazing work.

[rowiebowie]

Nice!. Let us know how it performs.


Is that a single battery and what is the AH rating?

[Pahaska]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

A Grid-It cord organizer screwed to the inside of one of the flip-down cabinet faces. A bit inconvenient being near the floor, but I didn't want to waste more valuable real estate on it. I'm sick of cords cluttering up the place.
Sanity hint: Buy each type of cord in a different color.

Nice idea. I can do this on the back of the drop down panel over my fuse box, between the twin beds. There is plenty of clearance there.

I have gone with purple for the USB C cords. Much better than having to check the ends to find the right cord. USB C is the best idea ever; no more checking for right side up.

[Hittenstiehl]

IB that Grid It organizer is going on my next to buy list.

You are so right with technology these days the amount of cords and plugs and wires, it can get a little overwhelming. We use our label maker to label them as we are also using two generations of phones right now also.