Collie,
Ask away, its the only way to find out how to do things and also to not make mistakes that others have learnt in doing their own vehicles.
Have a look at my thread. Now that I am a year later and have spent three months of winter in the van touring northern Australia there are a few things that I would/will change on the van.
The first one is that i imported a pop top. The cost to do so exceeded the cost of now getting it done here in Australia by a lot. I understand there is a company on the east coast that does them for about 2/3 what I paid. I think they are around the $8.5k. I have seen one of the tops and they are a pretty good slim roof and pop up vertically rather than hinged from one end. It is the preferred way having had both in a VW Kombi T2 and now T6.
Second is that touring in the north and the warm weather and high humidity, the wider bed, ours is 1300mm makes it a much more comfortable sleep. Again I have had the narrower bed with side cupboards and now the wider one. Wider is certainly better but you do fore go cupboard space. However, again given the warm climate that we travel in, the amount of clothing can be kept to the minimum.
Solar panels, (Soft flexible type) glued to the roof using one of the sikaflex glues is the way to go rather than the rigid units bolted on. They work great but with a 100ah battery and 120w panel, I am putting a second one on the poptop, there is plenty of room and they are relatively light,
Lastly, the more insulation/sound deadener you can put in the better, you can never have too much. It works wonders on both sound and heat. doors, walls roof, floor.
If you want to ask more or photos of some of the installation contact me by email at
bytemarkspty@gmail.com
Garry
