Refrigeration Area

"Refrigeration area" is just a fancy way of saying that this is the area where my 12 volt cooler will live. The cooler is pretty big, and takes up much (but not all) of this space. Because it is a "cooler" and not a "refrigerator", I will need to leave room over the cooler to open up the lid on top of the cooler. The little areas adjacent to the cooler will eventually be turned into sliding drawers next winter. And, there will be a nice big countertop area above the cooler, plus my overhead storage cabinets above the countertop. Step 1, however, was to cover up the insulation on the van wall.

Most of the insulation is now covered.  However, you can see that there is still a lot of steel van structure showing. Another job for next winter will be to remove most of the plywood in this picture and cover up as much of that exposed van steel structure as possible. Any exposed van structure is going to turn the inside of my van into an ice cube on a cold day.

Throughout the van, I have chosen to bolt aluminum angle to the floors and walls, and then bolt the plywood to the aluminum angle. I don't think this is common in van builds, but it's the way I decided to do mine.

This is as much "refrigeration area" as I have time to do this year. The cooler will be secured (somehow) inside this box. Those 2 triangular pieces of wood are both temporary, placed there to give the countertop some rigidity. Next winter, the 2 triangular pieces will be replaced with a solid piece of plywood, and some drawers will be added where room allows it. Although the cooler will sit on the floor this summer, I think next winter I will raise the cooler a foot or so above floor level and attach it to some heavy duty drawer slides. As you can see, when the driver's seat is rotated 180 degrees, the countertop has the potential to turn into a desk. And, I think there might be enough room over the cooler between the hanging locker and the back of the driver's seat for a temporary guest bed. All those details will be worked out next winter.