Jake's Caddy Camper Build

[Jase14]

Cheers and thanks for your help

[jakemcc97]

Sorry Jase, haven't got round to doing any wiring diagrams/cost lists yet.

Been busy with my girlfriends Polo. Bought it, got it up on Dad's lift, only to realise that it's been crashed and the sill repaired badly. Sorting that took a bit of cutting and welding but it's in much better shape now.



Fresh underseal, and after a bit of paint it should look as good as new (from a few feet away, or if you have bad eyesight...) Quite pleased that I managed to make it match the messy OEM VW underseal.



Anyway. Managed to get back to the van for a bit today.

I've been trying to work out how everyone fits their rear interior ply when it just covers the window recess, not the entire side of the van. Only way I can think of doing it while keeping it removable is this... (I don't want to use self tappers for two reasons - 1. I hate self tappers, and 2. I'm terrified of firing one through the side panel of the van.)

So, nut welded to a plate, bit of epoxy to hold it in place:



Two of these slotted into the vertical brace:





Panel cut from 1/4" ply to fill in the recess. This will have 2 countersunk holes drilled to allow it to be bolted to the two new anchor nuts.



I think I'll carpet this separately to the walls of the van, that way it can be removed if I want to screw something into it at some point. Will add a dab of silicone to each corner to stop it from vibrating at the edges (since it's only properly fixed in the centre)

[jakemcc97]

Some big progress recently, feels like I'm getting somewhere!

First opened up a little slot at the drivers side rear "window" recess for the reading light wire. This will hide behind my new ply panels.



Dad made some washer plates for the side panels, bit sturdier than countersunk screws straight into thin ply.



Test fit:



Bit of leftover floor underlay on the back, and added some carpet to the front.



Test fit, should look nice.



Decided the floor needed a bit of insulation. Used some bubble wrap type LVT floor underlay, has self adhesive strips on the underside which is handy.



Panels back off and all holes in the walls taped up with ali tape. Took ages.



Finally, carpet on the walls. What a horrible job to do, ha. I wasn't looking forward to this and wouldn't look forward to doing it again! Glad it's done now. This should definitely make the van a bit quieter, and it feels SO much nicer inside now. Ended up with a couple of seams but overall I'm quite happy with it - it's not perfect but it looks decent enough.

For reference it took about 6m of carpet, 4 cans of spray adhesive, and about 35 "oh f***"'s



Floor temporarily back in, I installed some M6 riv nuts to bolt it down - 5 in original locations and two in slightly different spots. Holes zinc primed then a bit sprayed over from below. I'm using the original floor panel, tidied it up a bit with some filler and will put some lino over the top like everyone else.



What a change!

[jakemcc97]

Side panels finally up. Pleased with how these came out, but they were a right pain to get right. Turns out the nut plates I epoxied in didn't want to stick, so after committing to riv nuts, then deciding that wasn't the option, drilling out, and switching to pop riveting the nut plates in with dad's help, we finally got it fitting nicely.

Drivers side (bed side).



Passenger side (cabinet side) - the cabinet will partially cover the bottom of this one, the upper cabinet will partially cover the top, and the switch box will go on the right hand side by the door.

[jakemcc97]

Switch panel underway. Battery monitor at the top, diesel heater controller in the middle, switches at the bottom. Two rotaries for fan speed control and ceiling light brightness.

[gazza31112]

Coming along nicely this

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[jakemcc97]

Cheers Gazza!

Big job on today - fitted the diesel heater. Went for a Lavaner Pro as it seems to strike a nice balance between the expensive ones and the cheapy ones.

Dropped the tank and removed the fuel sender (hell of a job on your own!)



Removed the OEM diesel heater barb and fitted the stand pipe - didn't go all the way to the bottom of the tank so it'll never run the tank dry.



The heater is fitted behind the drivers seat in the "rear footwell"



Made a plate to mount the fuel filter and pump - mounted with two M5 riv nuts, sealed with tiger seal. I'd like to make a spray guard for this to stop them getting absolutely caked in dirt.
Fitted the exhaust (muffler is upside down in this photo), and air intake (missing in this photo)



Managed to crack the exhaust heat shield in a couple of places, no idea how you drop the tank without cracking it, unless you remove exhaust and heat shield which I definitely wasn't doing.

Fired it up and it works great. Really pleased with it. If I were to do it again I'd definitely do it on a lift, rolling around on the ground in the rain isn't much fun...

[jakemcc97]

Started on the ceiling today, got as far as the first bit that needed scribed in, still need one more plank on the right and two on the left. Went for the sauna look rather than the acoustic slat panel I originally planned to use.

So good to have ceiling lights, gonna be much easier to work inside the van now.

Excuse the crap photo...



Also covered the drivers side (ie. Bed side) lower trim panel in suede like stuff. Tidies it up a bit and gives a bit of contrast to the carpet. Instead of reusing the trim clips I snipped off the legs, removed the centre piece, and replaced with black stainless torx screws into M5 rivnuts behind.

[jakemcc97]

Annoying to be redoing stuff at this stage but the Anderson connector I put on for the battery charger had started to corrode horribly. Turns out the little rubber covers aren't enough to protect the connector underneath the van...



Decided to replace it with a CNLINKO YM-20. I don't usually like Chinese connectors but 12 Volt Planet carry them so I'm happy enough to trust that, turns out they're very nicely made, and should be a fair bit more water/dirt resistant than the Anderson. It's a panel mount connector, so I mounted it to a waterproof junction box which I mounted in the same place under the van.

Amazon Link

The 2 pin one is rated to 20A, plenty for my 10A charger.

Wires go in through a grommet, the connector is sealed with a rubber gasket and a smear of CT1, and there are a couple of little drain holes at the rear for any water that does get in.



And installed, showing the screw on cap that should protect the terminals.

[uins]

Great build mate, looks really good


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[stu_b]

@jakemcc97

Looking good, progress even if it's little or unseen to the average is still massive in the build

The CNLINKO YM-20 doesn't look like it fits the anderson plug ??
How does that work

Ceiling looks good, will u paint or white wash it or anything ?

How did u end up doing the M5 rivnuts on the side panels - any pics ?

Diesel heater looks a faff job but the result is comfy nights

I'm in awe with your work

[jakemcc97]

Cheers @uins and @stu_b!

The CNLINKO YM-20 dowwnt look like it fits the anderson plug ??
How does that work

I have a mating plug for the YM-20 on an adapter for my charger, means I can swap between van charging and croc clips if I want to charge any other batteries. Anderson connector is in the bin now.



Ceiling wise, once it's all up and fitting nicely I'll take it back down and give it a coat of hard wax - thinking Osmo Polyx oil. Should protect the wood from any moisture ingress and eventually mold.

How did u end up doing the M5 rivnuts on the side panels - any pics ?

For the side panels I just popped a riv nut in each of the original fixing holes! They don't quite take an M6, and really they're a bit big for an M5 but they work. Unfortunately the head of an M5 screw is a bit small for the original panels so it needs a washer, hence using the outer bit of the trim clips, would've used normal black washers if I had any!

[jakemcc97]

Was having a browse through some camper van specific BS regs and it highlighted the need for a master switch for the leisure battery. Not entirely sure why I didn't put one of these in before...



Went for a Blue Sea Systems 6006 M-series one, can handle more amps than I can throw at it. Have seen some scary stories of cheap switches melting and going on fire so I don't regret buying a decent one.

It'll be mounted to a piece of ply (with a back box on the switch) which will fill in the gap behind the passenger seat, alongside a DIN box with an RCBO for the inverter and circuit breaker for the solar (also realised that technically + and - should be broken for solar, so my little cut-off switch I was planning to use as a solar cut off will be used for the DC-DC instead). Annoyingly I forgot to connect the neutral-earth bond inside the inverter which is needed for the RCBO, so the electronics tray will need to come out again!

[stu_b]

So the detailed pic of the rivnut with washer underneath is the cosmetic face side we see

Looks OEM tbh
Yeah black washers would work but using the existing also save landfill !

Remind me when location
That cut off looks pretty hefty, no wonder it'll surpass your requirements

The adapter makes sense

[jakemcc97]

Cleaned it for the first time since I bought it, I don't clean my cars anywhere near as often as I should... Gave it a good clean inside and out, and polished out the worst of the nice scratch the postman left me a few months ago (which RM refused to reimburse me for despite doorbell footage!)



Played with my new Bissell extractor, got so much dirt out of the seats These were second hand Touran seats, years of dirt getting sucked out makes me feel a lot happier about sitting in them.





And removed the "CADDY" and "TDI" badges. Have done this to every VW I've owned! Cleans up the back end nicely imo.