It's taking shape guys, and looking real good! Thanks for the shout out! I appreciate the fact that you are taking the time to explain your process and showing the steps along the way. Many van builders rush through theses parts and leave a lot of people to question how things are done. When I get rolling again (too cold for these old bones) I'll steer some traffic your way and see if we can boost the views. Keep up the work, you'll have a great time when it's finished! Cheers, al
Thanks, Al. So appreciate your insight on how to frame this.....the windows presented a bit of a hassle but I think, at the end, we were able to frame it to make things easier later. And thank you for the compliment on the video. We are really hoping others can take something from them to use towards their own builds.:)
I just used Tania's painter's tape idea to mark plusnut holes in my ceiling framing. Worked wonderfully. No redrills. Three plusnuts using existing holes/slots on each rib - no drilling. Also used adhesive. Now to figure out the front and back framing where there's no rib.
@@marctania2349 FYI, on the rear, I glued three pieces along the curve of the ceiling, doing cut outs like you did where flanges stuck out. This worked ok, but the result wasn't a smooth curve for the next layer to build it up. Too much adhesive. I'll find a workaround. So, on the front end, I made cuts on my 1x3 furring every 6-7 inches down to a little more than a 1/8" to make a single piece flexible so it wouldn't stress the adhesive bond. I kept making the cuts deeper until I got the flex I wanted. To hold it up while it cures, I put a piece of 3/4 plywood under it that was long enough to push the whole piece up tight and wedged in a piece of 8020 to hold it in place. Seems to be holding. We'll see tomorrow. I'll do the same with a second piece if all is good. Nice smooth curve.
@@davidterrie7661 If I remember correctly. I think we used 3/4 inch PVC trim boards on the front and back ceiling locations. Its very flexible and held the curve perfectly
Necessity breeds invention :), The Play-Doh idea seemed really cool, but we kept forgetting to buy it.....and we always have blue tape .... Thank you for watching :)
Thanks for taking time to share your detailed explanation of your build. I looking forward to starting my van build sometime this summer. I have order my Ram Promaster 2500 and it should be here by mid July.
How exciting.....I kind of wish we had started with a brand new van...as we had a few hurdles to overcome . Hope you will be documenting your build. We would love to follow along.
He rocks.....we have learned a lot from his level of detail. There is also a guy in the UK named Greg Virgoe....I think he is an engineer by trade and really has some great content in his videos. You might check him out as well.
3:36 .. The problem is shopping at buildings, on Amazon, al this hardware is always in stock for next day or 2 day delivery. And it's better for the environment (and your sole) than driving all over the county to buildings, and asking "do you have this"
4:35 .. GOOD points, swarf from drilling will 100% rust if left in the cavity! :( .. And like bad apples? dust attracts ryst!. Painting The holes is GREAT, it's little things li this that DIY's can do that shops just won't bother to!. If you cent get in to pint (like for pop rivets is a good example) Grease the fastener with white lithium grease, I used to do van mods back in the 70's :) (worked at an auto body shop) We greased all the pop rivets .. and we'd have a chance to check our work YEARS later )if the van got in an accident), and it makes a HUGE difference, for almost nothing in cost
6:36 If I need long straight boards (especially good pine), I pick through them too!! .. But for example I needed like 16 or 18 pieces of 14" long 2X3's for a build I was working on, I went through the pile and got 3 8 footers that had a good twist in them! Why?? First it make no difference the twist is invisible on a 14" long spacer board, Second, this board is completely dried out, and will not shrink in length, Third it save some nice boards for the next guy, LESS to be sent for firewood at the end of the week. And Lastly it's better for the environment in many ways!! :)
Hi Marc and Tanya how are you guys I’m missing you van building videos, why did you stop filming? I will love to see more of the building of your van. Thanks
Hi Eladio, We actually just released a new video on Upper Cabinets. We had to stop for a while due to some issues with our HOA....just are back to work on it. This weekend, we have our daughters 16th birthday, so we wont be able to release another video until next week. But stay tuned for more. We aren't the quickest van builders on earth....but we are determined to finish it.
I was going to follow oregonbatmans idea as well until I started it and saw how thin the wood was.. then I realized hey its just metal. and pounded that entire lip straight with no effort . worked great lol
4:44 .. TIP for everyone, (especially if you already own an air compressor) If your setting a lot of nuts or rivets, a air powered rivet gun only coats about double the price of a manual one like this!
Hi, Thanks for watching. Yes.....all the framing was done with 1x3 pine. The actual size is .75"x2.5". There may have been some random scrap pieces used as well...but I think it was all 1x3
I'm not a fan of framing out the van just to attach a wall skin to. When using 2x4 or 2x3 laid flat, you are giving up 3" of width in your van with one on each opposing wall. I have a 2500 also, and just attached the plywood skin directly to the metal ribs via rivnuts... I just don't see a benefit having framing behind the wall skin to say nothing of the weight added. My skin is a mix of 1/4" and 1/2" plywood, using 1/2" where I want strength to have 110v wall outlets mounted in the kitchen area. Framing like this also adds a temptation to attach structural items in the van to that Pine using wood screws, which is a huge and potentially lethal mistake. There's a reason that all commercial van shelving is directly attached to rivnuts. All structural (i.e. heavy) elements of your build need to be direct attached by rivnuts to the metal ribs. If you have a collision at even 30-40mph there will be THOUSANDS of pounds of strain at every attachment point and anything that tears loose can be lethal to the occupants. As an example, my shelving up high on the driver side wall is supported by a ledger board of 3/4" attached to the upper horizontal rib that runs the length of the van. Then the shelving sits on that, and each divider along its length to create separate compartments for doors in the face frame is attached to the upper ribbing using steel angle brackets and rivnuts. Where it meets the 3/4" plywood, every angle bracket is bolted through - no wood screws. This way it will have to tear a half dozen bolts through the plywood to come lose in a collision. Wood screws should only be used for light weight decorative items. If you have a rivnut spin on you, you can drill a small screw hole near the edge of the flat rivnut surface which partially notches the surface of the rivnut so that when a tiny screw is inserted it keeps the rivnut from spinning, acting like a key slot on a lawnmower shaft for the pulley... Just tilt the drill in to about a 45 degree angle when starting to drill so that you are aiming for the "space" between the metal rib and the rivnut face, and as you start drilling, slowly stand the drill up vertical so that it is cutting into the edge of the rivnut... No more spinning.
These are great pieces of advice. So your upper cabinets are attached directly to the metal framing? And your ceiling, I assume, butts up to the cabinets but does not go above them? I assume that your wall material also does not extend to behind the cabinets?
@@marctania2349 Close. Thanks for the response. Since the ribs in the ProMaster angle down after crossing the ceiling, you can install your ceiling first and still get a very solid upper cabinet attachment afterward to those ribs. As you saw, there is a long horizontal rib in the van just about where you want your upper cabinets to sit on the wall. This means you can attach your wall up to that horizontal rib before installing your cabinets. I then added a 3/4 thick 2 1/2" wide board to run the length of that rib, which, like everything else, is rivnut'd to the rib multiple times along its length. It's installed over the 1/4" wall skin, so both fastens that down fully along the length but also gives you a very strong support for the upper cabinets to sit on, and in my case, also a place to attach some hooks to hang things from, like a jacket. This gives you what is called a ledger board in installing upper kitchen cabinets in a house, which in that case is usually removed after the cabinets are fastened in place. It also makes the cabinets easier to install, since even my teenage daughter could hold them in place easily on the ledger board while I drilled and attached the angle brackets which I had marked the locations and attached already to the ribs via rivnuts. The upper cabinets in the van will permanently sit on this ledger board, then the steel angle brackets I mentioned attach at about a 45 degree angle to the ceiling ribs that wrap down the side a bit for structural strength in the van. The ends and dividers that segment up the length of this long cabinet into individual storage areas that you'll put separate doors over are 3/4" plywood. I use one angle steel bracket attached to each end piece on the inside of course, then also to each internal divider (3 dividers on the driver side if you're going all the way back to a transverse bed area likely). This means the ledger board is holding about half or more of the weight of it all, and the rest by 5 steel angle brackets, which as I mentioned, you want to bolt through the plywood completely and add a large washer to fight tear out in an accident. Since the bottom cabinet surface is so well supported between the ledger board running the length of the back and the dividers and the face frame all glued and screwed, you can use just 1/2" plywood there. That's one place you can drive a few wood screws down through the 1/2" cabinet plywood into the ledger board. Putting up the ceiling first also means that you can make the upper horizontal part of the face frame for the cabinets just a tad bit wider if the ceiling isn't perfect so that you can scribe it and get a very tight fit. Much better to have the cabinet face frame to scribe a tight fit to the ceiling than to try and scribe the ceiling to the cabinets. You can either close in the back of the cabinets with 1/4" plywood before attaching them, or, as in my case, I put up some Polywall cut to fit in each space which then will curve and give you a nice white background. It's from Home Depot and very useful as it's very durable but easy to work with and cut.
@@McCandless610 It is more solid to attach the plywood directly to the van with Rivnuts. These are what ALL commercial vans use to attach METAL SHELVING in trade vans. There is NOTHING STRONGER. Wood screws into a 2x3 or 2.4 don't even come close in the event of an accident.
What a waste of internal space. I used the van frame, so I only lost 12mm, 6mm on each side, and it has panal deadening, 25mm insulation, and foil bubble wrap.
Hi Carl, Well....not saying ours was the best or only way to do it....but it made sense to us at the time. On our second build, we will work to optimize the framing. I cant visualize how you could fit sound deadener, insulation, bubble wrap....all in 6mm. But more power to you if you got it working.
@@marctania2349 hi, let me explain. You have the outside skin of the van, then you have the ribs, that go from waist height, or the floor, all the way up and under the roof. I can't remember the depth, but it is slightly less on the ceiling. So you cut your sound deadening sheets, half for a small panel, two half's for a big panel, and don't forget above the cab. There's a factory fitted deadening pad, but I put a half, either side of it. Then you glue your 25mm insulation boards. You often see UA-cam vids where the panels are cut very tight. I didn't do this, because I wanted to reduce the chance of squeaking, so I had at least 5mm gaps all the way around the insulation panel. Then I filled the gaps with expanding form, which is all so insulation. When dry, trim it. Now, it doesn't look pretty, but you won't get any squeaks. This should leave you about 5-8mm from the inside of the rib. On the lower sections, it's a couple of inches. So at this point, you've lost zero interior space. You now bubble wrap and tape over where the ribs are, and the waist height beam which runs from front to back. Now you fit your 6mm ply. Now, Relays. Boxers and 'Fiat's' (forgotten name because I have motorbike name in my head) have a slight curve to wall. So if you fix your ply panel near the ceiling, & push it in, then fix to the waist height beam, this 6mm panel is stressed, so it becomes much stronger. Where the ribs are, the bubble wrap is crushed, so the only loss of internal space is the 6mm ply on either side of the van. This is what I meant. Now, if you have a rear transverse bed, and you want a few more inches of leg room. You build in recesses in the walls. Here you would use some sort of thinner insulation. I didn't mean to sound harsh and over critical, but 25mm batons, and then 10mm (& more) tongue and grove, that 70mm, and I know one UA-camr who used very thick T&G, which is mega heavy. So 70mm, or 12mm? I am a big bloke, I don't mean fat, but I am built. The pinch point in my van is between the two rear seats, which is a proper two adult seat, and the kitchen, which covers half the side door. So I can stand between the passenger seat, and the kitchen, standing side on. There's not much room, but I can do it, but normally, I am facing the sink. 🤣🤣🤣 I could never have built a proper double bench seat for two proper sized adults. Most commercial builds, the rear seats are only good for kids, or people under 10 stone. I couldn't fit a shower, because I am a 52/53" chest. Too much time in the gym. I used to be bigger, and never used drugs. Now, I will conced, that not all walls will be perfectly flat. But this doesn't matter, if you are fitting furniture and cupboards. Just about all the joins are covered. Just below the window where the passengers sit, there are 4 visible screws. Two for the top panel which is around the 9mm low profile caravan style window. And two for the lower panel. You can hardly see them, and at some point, there will be trim over them. I say, more space, less weight. My van has pretty much everything, bar a shower. 90lt fridge freezer, and 80lt water tank, and with me in it, it's still over 500kg below the 3500kg max, and I'm not talking 2960kg, it's more like 2820kg. But if it's just one or two of you, weight isn't such an issue. And remember. Bigger wheels and AT tyres add to weight. You also take a lot longer to stop on a wet tarmac road. I once followed a Canadian guy on YT, and he used batons, and 50mm and even 100mm of insulation, because he needed it. If you plan to spend a month every year in the Alps, you might need more insulation, but diesel heaters are easily able to keep your van warm anywhere. You're young, so you'll probably build another van or two. When you do, just have a play around, and see if you want to do it the way I suggest. Anyway, good luck and interesting travels. 🍷
It's taking shape guys, and looking real good! Thanks for the shout out! I appreciate the fact that you are taking the time to explain your process and showing the steps along the way. Many van builders rush through theses parts and leave a lot of people to question how things are done. When I get rolling again (too cold for these old bones) I'll steer some traffic your way and see if we can boost the views. Keep up the work, you'll have a great time when it's finished! Cheers, al
Thanks, Al. So appreciate your insight on how to frame this.....the windows presented a bit of a hassle but I think, at the end, we were able to frame it to make things easier later. And thank you for the compliment on the video. We are really hoping others can take something from them to use towards their own builds.:)
Oreganbatman
@@VanOfAction :) Hey Van Of Action!
@@OregonBatman Hey !!! Your build looks great !!!
@@VanOfAction Thank you sir! Watched your videos on the roof rack... brilliant method!
I just used Tania's painter's tape idea to mark plusnut holes in my ceiling framing. Worked wonderfully. No redrills. Three plusnuts using existing holes/slots on each rib - no drilling. Also used adhesive. Now to figure out the front and back framing where there's no rib.
Oh wow!! That is so awesome to hear!! That was a prety cool trick. The Play Doh thing is good too!!
@@marctania2349 FYI, on the rear, I glued three pieces along the curve of the ceiling, doing cut outs like you did where flanges stuck out. This worked ok, but the result wasn't a smooth curve for the next layer to build it up. Too much adhesive. I'll find a workaround.
So, on the front end, I made cuts on my 1x3 furring every 6-7 inches down to a little more than a 1/8" to make a single piece flexible so it wouldn't stress the adhesive bond. I kept making the cuts deeper until I got the flex I wanted. To hold it up while it cures, I put a piece of 3/4 plywood under it that was long enough to push the whole piece up tight and wedged in a piece of 8020 to hold it in place. Seems to be holding. We'll see tomorrow. I'll do the same with a second piece if all is good. Nice smooth curve.
@@davidterrie7661 If I remember correctly. I think we used 3/4 inch PVC trim boards on the front and back ceiling locations. Its very flexible and held the curve perfectly
The blue tape marking of the riv nut holes was genius! I'm going to do that now, too!
Necessity breeds invention :), The Play-Doh idea seemed really cool, but we kept forgetting to buy it.....and we always have blue tape .... Thank you for watching :)
thanks so much for all Promaster details. especially about the nut sizes. So helpful not to have to figure this out myself.
Hi Carol...So glad it was helpful to you. Feel free to reach out if we can help with anything.
Thanks for taking time to share your detailed explanation of your build. I looking forward to starting my van build sometime this summer. I have order my Ram Promaster 2500 and it should be here by mid July.
How exciting.....I kind of wish we had started with a brand new van...as we had a few hurdles to overcome . Hope you will be documenting your build. We would love to follow along.
I have been watching OregonBatman, awesome awesome built. Keep on the work guys! Love to watch your videos!
He rocks.....we have learned a lot from his level of detail. There is also a guy in the UK named Greg Virgoe....I think he is an engineer by trade and really has some great content in his videos. You might check him out as well.
3:36 .. The problem is shopping at buildings, on Amazon, al this hardware is always in stock for next day or 2 day delivery. And it's better for the environment (and your sole) than driving all over the county to buildings, and asking "do you have this"
wow your framing is amazing! good work!
Thank you, Brian. We might have changed a few things if we knew then what we know now....but it certainly it pretty sturdy :)
Great video
Thank you, Rene :)
4:35 .. GOOD points, swarf from drilling will 100% rust if left in the cavity! :( .. And like bad apples? dust attracts ryst!. Painting The holes is GREAT, it's little things li this that DIY's can do that shops just won't bother to!.
If you cent get in to pint (like for pop rivets is a good example) Grease the fastener with white lithium grease, I used to do van mods back in the 70's :) (worked at an auto body shop)
We greased all the pop rivets .. and we'd have a chance to check our work YEARS later )if the van got in an accident), and it makes a HUGE difference, for almost nothing in cost
You have some great suggestions, Mike. Thank you
6:36 If I need long straight boards (especially good pine), I pick through them too!! ..
But for example I needed like 16 or 18 pieces of 14" long 2X3's for a build I was working on, I went through the pile and got 3 8 footers that had a good twist in them!
Why??
First it make no difference the twist is invisible on a 14" long spacer board,
Second, this board is completely dried out, and will not shrink in length,
Third it save some nice boards for the next guy, LESS to be sent for firewood at the end of the week.
And Lastly it's better for the environment in many ways!! :)
Great points, Mike
Hi Marc and Tanya how are you guys I’m missing you van building videos, why did
you stop filming? I will love to see more of the building of your van. Thanks
Hi Eladio, We actually just released a new video on Upper Cabinets. We had to stop for a while due to some issues with our HOA....just are back to work on it. This weekend, we have our daughters 16th birthday, so we wont be able to release another video until next week. But stay tuned for more. We aren't the quickest van builders on earth....but we are determined to finish it.
I was going to follow oregonbatmans idea as well until I started it and saw how thin the wood was.. then I realized hey its just metal. and pounded that entire lip straight with no effort . worked great lol
A good swift hammer has helped us many times along this build......:)
4:44 .. TIP for everyone, (especially if you already own an air compressor) If your setting a lot of nuts or rivets, a air powered rivet gun only coats about double the price of a manual one like this!
They make an air-powered one????? I wish I had known that
9:22 using flat head screws and countersinking at an angle is much stronger!!
Thanks for the tip, Mike :)
Just wondering why you didn't frame the sliding door?
Hey! Sorry for my English, i have a question: what size did you use for all wood framing(walls)? Only 1x3?
Hi, Thanks for watching. Yes.....all the framing was done with 1x3 pine. The actual size is .75"x2.5". There may have been some random scrap pieces used as well...but I think it was all 1x3
I'm not a fan of framing out the van just to attach a wall skin to. When using 2x4 or 2x3 laid flat, you are giving up 3" of width in your van with one on each opposing wall. I have a 2500 also, and just attached the plywood skin directly to the metal ribs via rivnuts... I just don't see a benefit having framing behind the wall skin to say nothing of the weight added. My skin is a mix of 1/4" and 1/2" plywood, using 1/2" where I want strength to have 110v wall outlets mounted in the kitchen area. Framing like this also adds a temptation to attach structural items in the van to that Pine using wood screws, which is a huge and potentially lethal mistake. There's a reason that all commercial van shelving is directly attached to rivnuts. All structural (i.e. heavy) elements of your build need to be direct attached by rivnuts to the metal ribs. If you have a collision at even 30-40mph there will be THOUSANDS of pounds of strain at every attachment point and anything that tears loose can be lethal to the occupants. As an example, my shelving up high on the driver side wall is supported by a ledger board of 3/4" attached to the upper horizontal rib that runs the length of the van. Then the shelving sits on that, and each divider along its length to create separate compartments for doors in the face frame is attached to the upper ribbing using steel angle brackets and rivnuts. Where it meets the 3/4" plywood, every angle bracket is bolted through - no wood screws. This way it will have to tear a half dozen bolts through the plywood to come lose in a collision.
Wood screws should only be used for light weight decorative items.
If you have a rivnut spin on you, you can drill a small screw hole near the edge of the flat rivnut surface which partially notches the surface of the rivnut so that when a tiny screw is inserted it keeps the rivnut from spinning, acting like a key slot on a lawnmower shaft for the pulley... Just tilt the drill in to about a 45 degree angle when starting to drill so that you are aiming for the "space" between the metal rib and the rivnut face, and as you start drilling, slowly stand the drill up vertical so that it is cutting into the edge of the rivnut... No more spinning.
These are great pieces of advice. So your upper cabinets are attached directly to the metal framing? And your ceiling, I assume, butts up to the cabinets but does not go above them? I assume that your wall material also does not extend to behind the cabinets?
@@marctania2349 Close. Thanks for the response. Since the ribs in the ProMaster angle down after crossing the ceiling, you can install your ceiling first and still get a very solid upper cabinet attachment afterward to those ribs. As you saw, there is a long horizontal rib in the van just about where you want your upper cabinets to sit on the wall. This means you can attach your wall up to that horizontal rib before installing your cabinets. I then added a 3/4 thick 2 1/2" wide board to run the length of that rib, which, like everything else, is rivnut'd to the rib multiple times along its length. It's installed over the 1/4" wall skin, so both fastens that down fully along the length but also gives you a very strong support for the upper cabinets to sit on, and in my case, also a place to attach some hooks to hang things from, like a jacket. This gives you what is called a ledger board in installing upper kitchen cabinets in a house, which in that case is usually removed after the cabinets are fastened in place. It also makes the cabinets easier to install, since even my teenage daughter could hold them in place easily on the ledger board while I drilled and attached the angle brackets which I had marked the locations and attached already to the ribs via rivnuts. The upper cabinets in the van will permanently sit on this ledger board, then the steel angle brackets I mentioned attach at about a 45 degree angle to the ceiling ribs that wrap down the side a bit for structural strength in the van. The ends and dividers that segment up the length of this long cabinet into individual storage areas that you'll put separate doors over are 3/4" plywood. I use one angle steel bracket attached to each end piece on the inside of course, then also to each internal divider (3 dividers on the driver side if you're going all the way back to a transverse bed area likely). This means the ledger board is holding about half or more of the weight of it all, and the rest by 5 steel angle brackets, which as I mentioned, you want to bolt through the plywood completely and add a large washer to fight tear out in an accident. Since the bottom cabinet surface is so well supported between the ledger board running the length of the back and the dividers and the face frame all glued and screwed, you can use just 1/2" plywood there. That's one place you can drive a few wood screws down through the 1/2" cabinet plywood into the ledger board.
Putting up the ceiling first also means that you can make the upper horizontal part of the face frame for the cabinets just a tad bit wider if the ceiling isn't perfect so that you can scribe it and get a very tight fit. Much better to have the cabinet face frame to scribe a tight fit to the ceiling than to try and scribe the ceiling to the cabinets.
You can either close in the back of the cabinets with 1/4" plywood before attaching them, or, as in my case, I put up some Polywall cut to fit in each space which then will curve and give you a nice white background. It's from Home Depot and very useful as it's very durable but easy to work with and cut.
yes, but he is putting in a shower so you want it to be solid.
@@McCandless610 It is more solid to attach the plywood directly to the van with Rivnuts. These are what ALL commercial vans use to attach METAL SHELVING in trade vans. There is NOTHING STRONGER.
Wood screws into a 2x3 or 2.4 don't even come close in the event of an accident.
What a waste of internal space. I used the van frame, so I only lost 12mm, 6mm on each side, and it has panal deadening, 25mm insulation, and foil bubble wrap.
Hi Carl, Well....not saying ours was the best or only way to do it....but it made sense to us at the time. On our second build, we will work to optimize the framing. I cant visualize how you could fit sound deadener, insulation, bubble wrap....all in 6mm. But more power to you if you got it working.
@@marctania2349 hi, let me explain. You have the outside skin of the van, then you have the ribs, that go from waist height, or the floor, all the way up and under the roof. I can't remember the depth, but it is slightly less on the ceiling.
So you cut your sound deadening sheets, half for a small panel, two half's for a big panel, and don't forget above the cab. There's a factory fitted deadening pad, but I put a half, either side of it.
Then you glue your 25mm insulation boards. You often see UA-cam vids where the panels are cut very tight. I didn't do this, because I wanted to reduce the chance of squeaking, so I had at least 5mm gaps all the way around the insulation panel. Then I filled the gaps with expanding form, which is all so insulation. When dry, trim it. Now, it doesn't look pretty, but you won't get any squeaks. This should leave you about 5-8mm from the inside of the rib. On the lower sections, it's a couple of inches.
So at this point, you've lost zero interior space. You now bubble wrap and tape over where the ribs are, and the waist height beam which runs from front to back.
Now you fit your 6mm ply. Now, Relays. Boxers and 'Fiat's' (forgotten name because I have motorbike name in my head) have a slight curve to wall. So if you fix your ply panel near the ceiling, & push it in, then fix to the waist height beam, this 6mm panel is stressed, so it becomes much stronger. Where the ribs are, the bubble wrap is crushed, so the only loss of internal space is the 6mm ply on either side of the van. This is what I meant.
Now, if you have a rear transverse bed, and you want a few more inches of leg room. You build in recesses in the walls. Here you would use some sort of thinner insulation.
I didn't mean to sound harsh and over critical, but 25mm batons, and then 10mm (& more) tongue and grove, that 70mm, and I know one UA-camr who used very thick T&G, which is mega heavy. So 70mm, or 12mm?
I am a big bloke, I don't mean fat, but I am built. The pinch point in my van is between the two rear seats, which is a proper two adult seat, and the kitchen, which covers half the side door. So I can stand between the passenger seat, and the kitchen, standing side on. There's not much room, but I can do it, but normally, I am facing the sink. 🤣🤣🤣
I could never have built a proper double bench seat for two proper sized adults. Most commercial builds, the rear seats are only good for kids, or people under 10 stone. I couldn't fit a shower, because I am a 52/53" chest. Too much time in the gym. I used to be bigger, and never used drugs.
Now, I will conced, that not all walls will be perfectly flat. But this doesn't matter, if you are fitting furniture and cupboards. Just about all the joins are covered. Just below the window where the passengers sit, there are 4 visible screws. Two for the top panel which is around the 9mm low profile caravan style window. And two for the lower panel. You can hardly see them, and at some point, there will be trim over them.
I say, more space, less weight. My van has pretty much everything, bar a shower. 90lt fridge freezer, and 80lt water tank, and with me in it, it's still over 500kg below the 3500kg max, and I'm not talking 2960kg, it's more like 2820kg.
But if it's just one or two of you, weight isn't such an issue. And remember. Bigger wheels and AT tyres add to weight. You also take a lot longer to stop on a wet tarmac road.
I once followed a Canadian guy on YT, and he used batons, and 50mm and even 100mm of insulation, because he needed it. If you plan to spend a month every year in the Alps, you might need more insulation, but diesel heaters are easily able to keep your van warm anywhere. You're young, so you'll probably build another van or two. When you do, just have a play around, and see if you want to do it the way I suggest. Anyway, good luck and interesting travels. 🍷