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My Blank Canvas

1290 Views 9 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  ChuckLeGreg, 
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Hello all, just had our 2018 Metris 135 delivered to our house. It’s got 69k miles on it, and my wife and I are excited to turn it into a weekend warrior to take our bikes, kayaks and dog anywhere we can. We’ve wanted to get into a van for a long time to travel more of the US, but a full size van just wasn’t an option. The Metris is perfect though, plenty of room to sleep and stay out of any weather, while still fitting in the garage!

Only had it for about 2 hours, and already removed the bulkhead and anything work-related from its previous life (bulkhead is for sale if there are any tips on where to list it, I’m in PA). Full wash, wax and interior detail to come this weekend, when we can finally see what we have to work with

There’s a lot of great information on this site that I’ve already used when shopping around, just wanted to formally say hello.

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Here it is beside its new sibling, my other German project.
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focus805
Welcome! You'll be happy you bought a 135. You may know all this, but it has a 9 inch longer wheelbase, with no extra overhang at the rear (unlike American vans, like the E250 extended), and the extra length only costs you 50 pounds of load capacity.

I started out with flexibility in mind -- you'll find several of us use the vans as toy haulers or light campers. I wound up installing a bed platform, mainly so my kids can use the van with their families too -- I was happy sleeping on the floor of the van on a Hest Sleep System, which leaves lots of room for fishing tackle!

IMHO, first thing to check is whether you have the factory auxiliary battery under the driver's seat. That's a great help as a power source if you intend to do electrics. You'll also want to check whether you have the EK1 body builder connector option - it's a fuse box where you can add circuits off the main starter battery -- in the passenger footwell on the far right side. I'd also buy the original window sticker from Print Automotive Window Stickers | MonroneyLabels.com to make sure I knew what I had, if you don't already.

Have fun!
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icerabbit
Congratulations with the purchase and welcome to the family.

Looking forward to project questions, stories and photos.
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focus805 said:
IMHO, first thing to check is whether you have the factory auxiliary battery under the driver's seat. That's a great help as a power source if you intend to do electrics. You'll also want to check whether you have the EK1 body builder connector option - it's a fuse box where you can add circuits off the main starter battery -- in the passenger footwell on the far right side.
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All solid info, thanks! I have the Monroney label printed from the dealer, so I can see all of the goodies it has (or doesn’t in this case). No body builder option or Aux battery unfortunately, but I already have a Goal Zero Yeti that I’ll be connecting to the car for DC charging, and I can just grab power from the battery under the passenger seat.

It does have the driver comfort, cold weather and blind spot assist packages, which were the important ones for us to make it nicer on long trips. No cruise control, but it is what it is…

Omac roof rails/bars were just delivered this morning, and cargo door and slider windows are already on order from Van Windows Direct. Excited to see what we can do with this thing. Also trying to come up with a name for the van, open to any suggestions!
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icerabbit
It looks like you have the extended storage partition. When I was driving with my partition or without, there was a lot of noise transferred from the roadway through the seat bases and partition; so I sound deadened everything that was exposed metal seat base etc wise and most of my partition. One place I didn't do, was above the cabin. And, perhaps less of an issue with aerodynamic bars; but when I have my Thule style square bars on, things get a bit loud the more forward I have that front bar. So, sound deadening and maybe a bit of extra insulation above the cabin is on my to do list some time, so maybe I can leave the front roof bar on.
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my1stmetris
welcome to the forum and family of van lovers. my only advise is dont skip on insulation. even if you dont sleep in the van the empty box is am ecco chamber. i used 3M 600 thinsulate. you want to use something under the floor as well. this forum has so much information and great builds. look forward to seeing you do more.
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icerabbit said:
It looks like you have the extended storage partition.
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Funny you say that, that's what just brought me back inside to the laptop. We do indeed, and I was looking at your post where you insulated it all. We were surprised after removing the partition (I'm 6'4", it just wasn't possible to leave it in there and be comfortable on a drive) that the cross beam remains in place. It's not a huge deal, we were just hoping for easier access to the rear. However, with the seat frames floating and bolted to the bar it doesn't seem like a quick fix to swap to standard seat bases and remove the bar. It's just giving us a bear of a time trying to remove the subfloor with the bar in place now...
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I’m back! Build is completely finished, and we’re hitting the road in a few days for a three week road trip. We’ve done plenty of weekend trips as we’ve built, but this was the goal at the finish line of the projects.

We’ve got a sink with ten gallons of fresh water, Lavaner diesel heater, 12V refrigerator, table, benches that pull out and become a queen bed plus too many odds and ends to list I’m sure.

Building Wood Floor House Flooring

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focus805
Very slick!! Congrats!! Where'd you stash the fridge and electrics?
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focus805 said:
Very slick!! Congrats!! Where'd you stash the fridge and electrics?
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Thanks! Electrical is a Goal Zero Yeti 1500X under the bench right behind the driver’s seat. 200W of solar on the roof and 12V charging while driving. Fridge is one of the chest-style ones in a drawer that pulls out into the aisle between cabinets in the back. That way we can get to it from the outside or inside of the van.
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