A Change in (Floor) Plans

Earlier this week I was FINALLY able to spend some quality time at our Ford dealer with a van very much like the one that we've ordered - a 2015 Transit Connect LWB (long wheelbase) Van.  As a result, we now have enough facts to come up with a floor plan that can accommodate our needs and that we know will work.

It's interesting the numbers that Ford comes up with in their sales brochures, at least regarding the dimensions in the cargo box.  But without going into those boring details, it turns out that the cargo load floor was a couple of inches shorter than we had been planning, and a couple of inches makes a BIG difference for us.  Our current floor plan could work, but it was very doubtful that we'd be able to retrieve the curbside bike without first having to move the bike stored on the streetside.  We could live with that if we had to, but our preference is a layout where we can unload either bike without having to first unload the other.  So it was back to the drawing board...

Fortunately, I was able to take our drawer pedestal with me to the Ford dealership.  So once I had determined that locating the pedestal in front of the rear doors was a no-go, I was able to see how well it might work in front of either side door.  This was actually the simplest configuration we had worked on in the past, but the post that the sliding door closes against leans backward a degree or two - it is not vertical.  So we were concerned about whether our 31.5" pedestal would fit in the '33.0" max width' opening claimed by our sales brochure, especially since the cockpit is really only comfortable with the seats pretty much all the way back.  And in that configuration the seats start to creep into the cargo box area.  

It turns out that the drawer pedestal is pretty much a perfect fit, and once it is installed it will provide easy access to the contents of its drawers, our infra-red grill, charging station and camp chairs:

Checking the fit of our drawer pedestal located in the van's curbside sliding door.

So we've reverted to an earlier floorplan with the drawer pedestal in this configuration.  Doing so means that there is no longer a need to modify the load floor, which saves us a little bit of money, but more importantly it saves time because the main modification that we'll need to make is bolting the pedestal to the load floor.  And we know that there is an empty seatwell below this location, so there's no anxiety about possibly drilling into some wiring or the gas tank.  We'll just need to drill some holes, tighten down a few lag bolts and then we will be ready to roll.

Below is our revised floor plan.  The only thing that this plan lacks in comparison with the previous plan is a place to store our Duraflame logs.  So they are now stored in one of the deep storage bins in the galley of our Camp Inn trailer, which we had recently reorganized as a place to store our our new Polar Bear cooler.  The logs can be stored on the floor of the bin and we'll only need to lift out the small cooler to access them.

Our revised floor plan with the drawer pedestal in front of the curbside sliding door.

Earlier, we had backed away from this plan over concerns about our ability to store our camp chairs atop the drawer pedestal.  This was because they are a bit wider and longer than the top of the pedestal and thus need to overhang on at least two sides.  But while the van's load floor is only about four feet wide, near the top of the sliding doors the inside of the van is closer to five feet wide, so the chair platform can extend out a few inches over the front of the pedestal and a few inches off it's left hand side without interfering with the sliding door.

Ideally, we'd like to be able to stow the curbside bicycle with the handlebars toward the front of the van, as that puts the drive side of both bicycles (and their dirty, oily chains) away from the center of the van.  That would leave Lana with free access to the center of the load floor and prevent her from accidentally rubbing against a chain and getting an oily mess all over her fur (which would eventually end up all over us).  But doing so would be far less stable than the configuration shown above.  Since we normally will be driving with only one bike in back, we can simply make certain that while driving to store that bike on the streetside, and at night store the extra bike as depicted above.  We'll need to devise a simple cover for the drivetrain of the curbside bicycle for those times when we have Lana in back while we are at a restaurant or on a brief shopping trip (perhaps something as simple as a trash bag and some clothespins).

It's worth briefly mentioning our new Polar Bear 24-can soft sided cooler.  We had wanted something to allow us to have a bit more cold storage capacity, particularly during the warmer months of the year, when it would be nice to have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables on hand - items where it wouldn't be critical if we ran out of ice for a day or so.  Our experience with inexpensive coolers is that ice melts in them very quickly, so they can be a much more expensive choice in the long run.  We assessed our options, settling on Polar Bear coolers because they appear to have the best ice retention among soft sided coolers, are built to last, are lightweight and easy to clean.  Their ice retention ability makes them a top choice for transporting medical supplies and they also fold flat when not in use.  The 24 can size fits nicely in one of the deep storage bins in our camper, allowing easy access to the contents while also leaving plenty of room to store other things that we need to access fairly often.

Our new Polar Bear cooler in a deep storage bin of our Camp Inn trailer.