October Project Update

Friday, October 3rd, 2025

This project update covers everything completed between September 1st and September 30th.

I was out of the country for half the month — traveling through Canada, Iceland, and England — but progress didn’t stop completely while I was gone. I left the van with a friend, who was able to knock out a few key tasks:

• Installed the 30A shore power plug

• Ripped down 2.5-inch furring strips from a 4’x8’ sheet of 1/2” Baltic birch

• Attempted to fix the subfloor warping issue (unfortunately unsuccessful)

Once I got back, I tackled the subfloor issue myself. The warped middle panel (right side) had to go. I cut a large section off and replaced it with two custom-cut spare pieces. It’s not the prettiest fix — but it worked.

After that, I pulled 4 of the 5 subfloor boards and applied Thompson Water Seal to each one. I let them dry for 4–5 hours before reinstalling. While they dried, I started working on the upper furring strips, but didn’t get very far before calling it a night. The following week, I sealed the final subfloor board using the same method.

I started prepping the solar cable entry, but quickly realized I was missing the solar extension cables I needed to actually route them into the van. Those are now ordered and should arrive the first week of October.

What's the plan for October?

Honestly, expectations are low. October will be incredibly busy, and I’m realistically expecting to only have about 12 hours total to work on the van this month. That said, here’s what I hope to accomplish:

• Glue down the subfloor
• Route the solar cables via the solar entry gland once the extension cables arrive
• Starlink Mounting/Cable Passthrough
• Antenna Mounting/Cable Passthrough
• Make progress on the furring strips
• Once the strips are completed, apply more insulation using the spare 3M Thinsulate
• Begin routing wires for the maxxfan, lighting, etc to the rear of the van, as well as route empty wires to expected USB/accessory port locations 
• Begin working on the bed platform (realistically, unlikely to happen this month)
• Once the bed platform is in, mount a small wiring box and route all wires into a DC fuse box.

The rest of the year will be hectic, but my goal is to have the van in a livable state by the end of December. Things are definitely behind schedule, but that’s not surprising given I’ve been working 90–120 hours per week just to fund this project.

Come December 1st, I’ll finally have more free time to catch up and finish whatever’s left. Like I mentioned last month, I’ve got some huge changes coming, and I’m beyond excited to finally share more once everything is official.

It’s kinda wild to think that just a year ago, this was nothing more than an idea... and now it’s finally starting to come to life.

Keep an eye out for more updates coming soon... see you then!