Jan and Feb is due to be very cold. If you don't have a garage or unit for your van/s you may get some mornings where your equipment may freeze.
It's a super hassle if it does.
I've done a few van fits recently as we've been doing a bit of expansion and I wanted to quickly share some tips that will help protect against freezing which I feel are simple and cost effective.
1) Insulate your ply lining if you have wall ply in the van. I've kept the wall based ply lining in each of the vans. It is removed and painted with raptor lining at the same time as the floor protection goes on. On the rear surface I've applied insulation. This is especially helpful where the panels are single skinned and creates a barrier between inside and out. In terms of insulation I've usually used foil bubble wrap type stuff and fixed using a spray adhesive.
2) Adhesive carpet/ trim carpet to your vans roof interior. You can buy this stuff on eBay and comes in various colours but it is basically the stretchy carpet trim stuff. Feels like a car parcel shelf. For a size large enough to cover the roof of a medium wheelbase new dispatch and a short wheel base combo it was around £35 and it came with the spray adhesive too. It's a little fiddly to apply but watch some vids on youtube and it's very forgiving as it's workable.
I've included the photo which shows a combo I fitted earlier in the year. You'll be able to see the roof lining how it looks once in. It stops condensation on the roof too if there's stray water in the van.
This was during the process so excuse the mess as it wasn't quite finished.
Both the above cost less than £50 and to give an idea of how effective it was. When the latest van was delivered end of Nov, I had two of the same on my drive. Long story short I had to fit a system in the newest van super fast to keep up the work so I fitted a system just to have it out working until the xmas break - no raptor lining, no roof lining and the ply was not insulated.
Van 1 had the above. Ply fitted, insulated and roof lining adhered in.
Van 2 ply fitted but not insulated and no roof lining.
We had a fairly cold morning and van 2 had both reels partially frozen. The orange Pu hose in the poles had froze and hoses from tank to reels was frozen. Brushes were stiff from the water freezing too.
Van 1 absolutely fine.
And they are both the same van model.
I'm sure that to some of the more experienced operators here this is basics and you probably do better or more upgrades to help the vans but hopefully this will help some the newer guys with a solution which upgrades your protection for little cost and is quite easy to do as well. Obviously it won't protect against a prolonged freeze period but it will help with those nights where it's just cold enough to make the morning a pain due to some freezing.
Also, for those that do have a heater overnight this will also reduce the costs and improve the efficiency as the van will hold the heat better.
Hope that helps and thanks for checking this out.
It's a super hassle if it does.
I've done a few van fits recently as we've been doing a bit of expansion and I wanted to quickly share some tips that will help protect against freezing which I feel are simple and cost effective.
1) Insulate your ply lining if you have wall ply in the van. I've kept the wall based ply lining in each of the vans. It is removed and painted with raptor lining at the same time as the floor protection goes on. On the rear surface I've applied insulation. This is especially helpful where the panels are single skinned and creates a barrier between inside and out. In terms of insulation I've usually used foil bubble wrap type stuff and fixed using a spray adhesive.
2) Adhesive carpet/ trim carpet to your vans roof interior. You can buy this stuff on eBay and comes in various colours but it is basically the stretchy carpet trim stuff. Feels like a car parcel shelf. For a size large enough to cover the roof of a medium wheelbase new dispatch and a short wheel base combo it was around £35 and it came with the spray adhesive too. It's a little fiddly to apply but watch some vids on youtube and it's very forgiving as it's workable.
I've included the photo which shows a combo I fitted earlier in the year. You'll be able to see the roof lining how it looks once in. It stops condensation on the roof too if there's stray water in the van.
This was during the process so excuse the mess as it wasn't quite finished.
Both the above cost less than £50 and to give an idea of how effective it was. When the latest van was delivered end of Nov, I had two of the same on my drive. Long story short I had to fit a system in the newest van super fast to keep up the work so I fitted a system just to have it out working until the xmas break - no raptor lining, no roof lining and the ply was not insulated.
Van 1 had the above. Ply fitted, insulated and roof lining adhered in.
Van 2 ply fitted but not insulated and no roof lining.
We had a fairly cold morning and van 2 had both reels partially frozen. The orange Pu hose in the poles had froze and hoses from tank to reels was frozen. Brushes were stiff from the water freezing too.
Van 1 absolutely fine.
And they are both the same van model.
I'm sure that to some of the more experienced operators here this is basics and you probably do better or more upgrades to help the vans but hopefully this will help some the newer guys with a solution which upgrades your protection for little cost and is quite easy to do as well. Obviously it won't protect against a prolonged freeze period but it will help with those nights where it's just cold enough to make the morning a pain due to some freezing.
Also, for those that do have a heater overnight this will also reduce the costs and improve the efficiency as the van will hold the heat better.
Hope that helps and thanks for checking this out.
