im not sure what my van is worth. with 12 months MOT i would like a higher than average asking price with all the future proofing i have done to it. as you can see from my last posts, nothing was bodged. everything was done to a "autisticly" high standard. the van comes with air conditioning, and it comes with a "high quality Chinese" diesel heater fitted (its not a copy of a copy one.. its pretty good! i did my research on it) it will have the roof rack which is unbelievably handy and insanely strong. better than any other roof rack i have seen on one of these vans. dont forget also it has probably the best headlights one of these vans has ever had. they are unreal how good they are.

please look through this thread, and also check my youtube videos of the work i have done. i hope i have done it proud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3zYtbW … O2ISNI3vhn

Casper wrote:

Dont know if there is another Tax hike this April but as yet i am sitting pretty.

Looks like it's going up by £15 per year for those of us with pre-2001 vans. Was £20 the year before

https://www.petebarden.co.uk/news/artic … march-2001

Yeah i thought it was around that. Some bloke on our facebook group was rattling on about a huge hike but its looking like new cars are getting shafted for more. Talk of the free tax band now being 20 quid. Our car is a 20 quid one so that will probably go up also. 22 quid, dont know how we will cope

Usually that was a fiver or a tenner increase a year until there was a 10% inflation blip.

I've probably got a few old V149 tax tables on the computer saved for reference.

When I bought my Vara 125 about 10 years back it was £12/year.  IMO it should never have gone up this much.  It's not like a 125 is as polluting as 2L.

Dont know if there is another Tax hike this April but as yet i am sitting pretty.

Looks like it's going up by £15 per year for those of us with pre-2001 vans. Was £20 the year before

https://www.petebarden.co.uk/news/artic … march-2001

Think my Tax on the Bus is 360 ish paying by DD. I can easily pass that down to my hourly rate and between the average customer per day i need to charge just under 20p per hour Car tax is only £20 just now and work van the customer pays for that in my costing anyway.

Don't know what the tax on my van is currently, think about £170 every 6 months.  I never had the money to drop the £310 or whatever it is for a year.  Insurance was £300.  I would love to know how John got his for under £100.  Cheapest I could ever get was the one I got from Lexham and have been using them for the last three years.

I heard it was going up a lot this year due to the Labour wankers wanting older vehicles off the road.  I'm selling my van this year and looking for a SWB Transit in a Euro 5 variant.  Can't afford a Euro 6, but a Euro 5 will knock something off the road tax and also let me go a few more places abroad if I want to.

You know i've looked into picking up a second hand electric van for the last three years.  Kind of settled on something like the Nissan e-NV200, especially if i can find the high roof version the gas board use (very rare).  If I had more money, then i'd be looking for PHEV (with the battery and a small engine to charge it) given the fact you can always find a petrol station, but not always a charging station. Or Ford do a MHEV Transit that i've seen in L2 H3 config, which would suit me.    Right now I don't have the cash for any purchases of that level, but have seen second hand 40kWh e-NV200's for £5000-6000 and they would likely be what i'd look for assuming they worked out a better deal than a standard diesel. 

I did read about a guy that wandered France for a month in an e-NV200 and spent only 60 euros on charging for the entire trip by using mostly free charging points.  Apparently some supermarkets have enough solar panels to offer free charging for EV's if you buy something.

The warning light on may suggest its getting enough current to excite
but you need to check for a voltage at the D+ terminal on the alternator when you turn the ignition on
to be sure.
Have you fitted an externally regulated ( smart) alternator to a vehicle wired to use an internally regulated type?
Have any of the mods you've done affected the function of the vans charging system and possibly caused the old
unit to fail and negatively affect the new one?

Like most of us, I've bitten in the ass by assumptions too many times
which has taught me to 'Test don't guess'
I'd whip it out, do some checks and bench test it.
If its 'smart' one, change it for a 'dumb' one suitable for the vehicle
If it's 'dumb' and works on the bench, the fault is in the van wiring

the insurance is cheaper than the tax!

Damn! How do you get your insurance so low?!

Probably the only one on the forum haha

As someone who recently poured about 6x the value of my van into getting it rebuilt, my answer is always to do the financially insane thing and throw good money after... well, good in your case

Surely that indicates that it's absolutely the alternator itself if there's no magnetic resistance

What does your gut say?

thing is, i can afford it.. but i really dont want to give them more money that i have to. the state of the roads here in Derby is shameful.
i was really hoping my Ebike would pass its MSVA test but they keep failing that on components that passed on the previous test. the DVLA hate Ebikes.

my worry is that i change the alternator out again and the fault still continues. i only say that because the alternator "should" be charging. the battery light is on which should be enough resistance to excite the windings. an old trick i learnt years ago was to (with the engine running) feel if theres a magnetic pull to the alternators pulley with something like a spanner. if you have magnetism, the alternator is working. if you have no magnetism then its not working. (seriously try it, it works!).
i have no magnetic pull (on the alternator and my effect on females) 

what. do. i. do. ?

ill kick myself for selling it. i made that mistake in the past. i have the van structurally perfect.

Alternator is nowhere near an insurmountable problem, especially with your skills.

How long until MOT?

my plan was a camper but its still only done "enough" to sleep in the back of with some blankets. just the insulation is done really.

i dont know what to do with it.
if i had the space i would just stick it in long term storage. when the mot runs out im going to be screwed.
i want it, but i dont need it.

If you want something prebuilt, that's a pretty good deal.  the only way you get better bang for less is if you build it yourelf, in which case 300Ah for around £400 isn't bad, or maybe £750ish for a 600Ah battery in a 2P4S configuration with a 200A BMS.  300Ah is a lot, but with 600Ah you could run pretty much anything you wanted.

A friend told me you might only get 3000 cycles before capacity drops on grade B, but 3000 full cycles (discharge to 20% and recharge to 80-90%) is still a few years.  If you run a big battery bank, then the 3000 cycles is no longer relevant because your DoD is unlikely to be 80% each time.  If your DoD is 50% I think you get 4500 cycles and 20% 6000+ cycles, but that could be something else.  I will try and answer tomorrow when I am able to see the screen.

https://www.fogstar.co.uk/collections/l … -ascending

I'm just wondering why the 105Ah one is priced 50% higher. Are the cells that much better?

https://sterling-power.com/collections/ … r-warranty

If you are hands on and have the knowledge, you can pick up Grade B cells from fogstar.co.uk and a BMS and build it yourself.  You could have a 300Ah LiFePO4 for about £450 if you go down that route.  Once I get my next van that will be my route.  I want to build a 600Ah 12V with a 200A BMS, charged by 600-800W solar, 30A DC DC or EHU.  Something I can go off grid in and stay off grid indefinitely.

I wouldn't worry about running from vehicle battery, I still run my lights in the back from the VB, but I moved my MPPT output to the Vehicle side and if the voltage gets high enough, the VSR opens and it charges the LB as well.  It's working ok so far.

still gone with having 2x gel or AGM style batteries as lithium is just insane in cost. not yet bought them.. the system runs off the main starting battery for now.. i know risky.
and to add to the risk, the alternator decided to release all its magic smoke. now i cant put that back in as it belongs to the sky now, but i could replace the blown diodes. i could also swap out the original 90 amp alternator.... for a 180 amp alternator...   hmm  180 amps..  take away say 30 amps for the ECU and running of the engine and a bit more for lights and other stuff say another 30 amps.. that give me like 120 amps.. to play with! thats a lot of amps! i like amps.

so to compensate with having no alternator for the past 3 weeks i just ziptied 2x 150w solar panels to the roof rack and thats been keeping the battery at 14.3v all the time the sun it out. nice.
its been working great!

i have also finally installed my full 8 camera 24hr cctv system to the van.. mounted to plates on the roof rack. it has a rather large hard drive and a sim card which constantly uploads to the NAS at home via the internet. (well only the last 4 hours of footage, the whole drive then gets backed up though wifi when parked up back home)
i have a nice monitor in line with where the rear view mirror would go but above the windscreen (as i dont have the top plastic shelf which would get in the way) which is great as one of the cameras is a look down camera when backing up.. something that i never really struggled with but i tell you, im all for being more lazy!
the camera system is that good, you could have the windscreen totally covered and easily drive using just the monitor..  if it was a little bigger..
i will also have a monitor in the back too so at night i will be able to see any "undesirables" around my van. oh and as for night time visibility, i have also added some 940nm IR lighting to the van.. totally invisible you cant even see a red glow like on some IR lighting. it lights around the van nicely on the cameras.

i have also bought a retractable awning too which i will fit to the right hand side of the van i think.. i never use the left hand side sliding door.. 2.5m long and pulls out 2.3m its self supporting too! no legs or needing to tie it to something.

the aim is to still keep it looking stealth.. the solar panels may be a give away however but the awning is being built into one of those pipe tube carrier things that plumbers love to have on roofs of vans. it will just be cut along its length and hinged so it opens up all the way along.

i have also finally got my roof lining in the back. using 3 or 4mm ply board cut to size. i then vinyl wrapped it with this cool green matrix effect reflective iridescent wrap. looks good.

i need to add a fan and pollen filter to the space i made above the roof lining. yes its needed. i require my pollen free air.

i replaced my dead diesel heater.. i used it that much the fan brushes wore out. now have a new one..  they have changed the controller and now it heats up like within 3 to 5 mins! its amazing. the old one was like a good quarter of an hour till it was blowing warm air. also made the decision to never use red diesel again in it. (yes i know you should not anyway but i own a woodland so i get an exemption )  the red diesel would gell up and block the pipes so i would have to flush it through with petrol to clear the lines. quite annoying. from now on its home heating oil/diesel number 1 or just cheap road diesel.

ok thats about it i guess. still not got the cruise control working..  ive not even looked at it yet to change the wiring around.. everything else is pretty good.

dont ask how i blew the alternator... hmm.. lets just say that you can create a chrona on an antenna if you have enough power.

Anyway. I'll update in a bit with some photos of my battery setup.. if I remember to take them..

I am begining to think a flux capacitor may be far too retro and simple for JohnD.  More likely to go for an inter-dimensional vortex portal generator and run if from a fag lighter socket. 

bah. the one in the movies looks nothing like the real thing.

He is right you know. Here is my Pug Expert passing Marty McFly on the Edinburgh bypass and you cant even see the Flux Capacitor.

heres a photo of just one fitted for now:

note the little bit of metal on top of the blue battery, that is the bit i had to cut off the drivers side seat. its the mounting point for the middle seat's seat belt clip. as you can see, i cut it off and relocated the mounting point for it behind the seat. seems a bit more strong being mounted there now. it also lowers it slightly as it used to stick up quite high and now it sits just above the drivers seat belt clip.

the 12v to 24v charging system is almost wired in i am just waiting on the large 350 Amp Anderson connectors to get here. they will not only be one of my isolation points, but they will also be needed to be so big to handle very high current loads if i ever use them to jump start anything... which i do plan on mounting 2 pairs of Anderson connectors under my tow hitch. one for 12v and one for 24v jump lead connection points.

i have just installed 2x fuse boxes one for 12v and one for 24v. i need to make labels and im considering setting up a colour scheme to differentiate between 12v wires and 24v wires. just a wrap of coloured tape or something.

hmm i do need to add a small switched live fuse box too..  maybe..  hmm nahh i can do that on the relay sense side of things.

all exciting stuff.. took me a while to get around to it but its happening!

we bought a lorry. yes. for 10 blueish pictures of the queen with the number 20 stamped on them. well it was more like £270 as we had some spare parts thrown in.
anyway cut a long story short, that will become my brothers permanent residence. parked on a street near to where we live on the road (being 7.5 ton you can legally park it so long as it has the side lights left on).
anyway (x2) my brother has already bought his battery bank for it... and gone fully lithium. costly but nice.

back to me however i do plan on using an inverter or UPS i am trying to get one that is around 3.3kw (13 amp output). an actual pure sinewave inverter is costly.. however a battery backup UPS is very cheap.. bought from a scrap yard for £10 without the batteries. as its my job to dismantle them amongst other things i think i can hack one up to not only be the 24v charger whel on hook up, but also be the main incomer for an electric hook up. given it can uninterruptedly switch from mains to battery in almost an instant and the newer ones have all different control settings, charge rates and all kinds of cool stuff. impressive they get scrapped like they do. good cheap pure sinewave inverters. who knows, i may be able to upgrade to 48v in the future. though i dont think ill need that.

i have just built my "busbar boxes" one for 12v and one for 24v which will be 2x nice boxes with a bit of busbar i can connect things onto.
for the 12v, a small fuse box for small things like aux lighting, the battery to battery charger, my 3 audio amplifiers, and powered subwoofer. also a 350A Anderson connector for jump starting 12v vehicles.
for the 24v, a small fuse box for lighting water pump and the like, the solar charger, the battery to battery charger, an also another 350A Anderson connector for jump starting 24v vehicles.

both boxes will have all the outputs fused too! love it!
the 2 boxes will be put on the passenger side seat base so i can access the fuses via opening the door.

ill worry about cable management when the time comes..  heh...

The cheapest ones seem an expensive risk and the known branded ones are far too expensive.  I will just have to stick with lead acid I think. 

Not till your 6' 2" mate gets in. 

they were still about £60 though. still forgot to take photos of where i have them stored. they do fit well! had to use some washers on the seat to lift it slightly so they would fit under. its not noticeable however.

Apparently retired hospital ones can sometimes be found?

oh and yeah.. ive not done anything with it since my last post. i STILL have not insulated the doors...  i have just bought the expanding insulating foam though to do the job with. also the roof is still not done yet. waiting for the right plastic sheet to come in to my work. i have all the lights already all 24v.

we i hope to get it done this year!..  hope! still i have used it a few times. the cold feels like it pours off the doors onto my feet at night so i need to get then insulated.

hope to continue my updates! and the ones on Youtube.

I don't disagree with you.  Electric isn't the be all and end all of the argument.  I suspect in the end either Hydrogen or ultimately (in many years) Fusion, will be the way around the problem.  I also don't disagree with his thoughts on wind power.  Wind doesn't blow all the time.  Tides on the other hand are like clockwork and tidal flow is similarly mapped out, so that's what we should be using to generate power.  But for some time their has been some underlying problem with governments committing to use or explore it, as an option.  The only working model I know of currently is the Orkney/MeyGen Tidal Stream Turbine, that is capable of generating large amounts of electricity. 

Anyway electric makes sense to me if you work locally and need a small range, also if you generate a ton of power yourself and can afford to redirect it into charging a car.  But beyond that I think hybrids are the way to go for now, like the Prius.  Unfortunately I haven't seen any hybrid vans, but they probably exist.  I have seen a hydrogen powered van, but the amount of space the tank took up was pretty crazy.  Also the thought of sleeping on a tank of hydrogen fills me with nightmares.

For now, I can't afford anything besides my current van, so it's moot.

I concur ...........................
I was just so surprised that someone so switched on to environmental issues would express that opinion...............................

It brings me back to the so called experts telling us How the future will be ..........................
They might as well try to pin the tail on the Donkey ........................
Human nature is like water and will take the easiest path to flow .......................

Anyway electric makes sense to me if you work locally and need a small range, also if you generate a ton of power yourself and can afford to redirect it into charging a car.  But beyond that I think hybrids are the way to go for now, like the Prius.  Unfortunately I haven't seen any hybrid vans, but they probably exist.  I have seen a hydrogen powered van, but the amount of space the tank took up was pretty crazy.  Also the thought of sleeping on a tank of hydrogen fills me with nightmares.

For now, I can't afford anything besides my current van, so it's moot.

I was surprised that such an environmentally switched on family ............
Had thoughts that were so close to mine............
The one thing he said that I found shocking was .................
In his mind So many young folk are so switched on about saving the planet ..................
But are So ready to use and discard items at their backside pollute and  or fill up landfill sites at the drop of a hat..................
Basiclly readily wasting resources without any real thought ..................

So economics, range where two days to get to get a few hundered miles, infastructure and resources does matter after all ...............
He did say that currently Hydrogen is power costly to produce but is so abundant and it's tail pipe emissions are water so clean you could drink plus conversion of current vehicles would not be such a waste of resources plus we need something else to fall back on a plan B so to speak and all our eggs are not in one basket ....................

nothing like having to stop at a motorway charge point for an hour and a half waiting for a battery to recharge. my friend already has a good number of PCNs because he stayed over the allocated parking times while charging his car. nice little money maker they have set up!

You know I wondered whether you could strap a second fast charger into the battery and when you go to an electric charging point, instead of using one, plug two in simultaneously (in parallel) to boost the amps you are pushing in.  A standard charger for electric is 60A I think (but could be 40A).  if you do an aftermarket fast charger into the battery, you might be able to double that, which might cut charge times in half.  No use on a Leaf, but might work well for say an e-NV200 or similar electric van.

I read a thread on one of the Nissan forums about a guy with an electric e-NV200 camper that went around Europe in it and at the end the total cost of fuel was about £16.  He did about 2000 miles and used Aires with free electric and Auchan supermarkets and somehow managed it for under £20.  I guess he stayed two days on the Aires, as i think on slow charge it takes around 2 days to fully recharge the battery.

I've been looking at the e-NV200 as a possible down the line replacement for my Expert.  Specifically the Voltia XL model would be my interest, but I would want more than the 40kwh battery, ideally 60kwh, which would give maybe around 240 miles.  Its a LWB with High Roof, but still not much longer than the Expert.  Too expensive for me right now, but maybe in a couple of years.

i may eventually consider going fully electric. i hope by then the Chinese will have some nice drop in replacements.. and battery technology will be better. will be a damn shame to see the diesel engine go.

until they make an affordable electric vehicle with pretty much identical range and ability to "fill up" as fast as a liquid fuelled vehicle, i dont think i will ever go electric.
i have a friend who has a brand new nissan leaf.. he is forever having to charge it. from derby to buxton and back up the A52 behind traffic, it went from 98% to 14% battery life, and we did not even have the heaters on!
electric is great to use around a town, but long distance.. totally pants. nothing like having to stop at a motorway charge point for an hour and a half wating for a battery to recharge. my friend already has a good number of PCNs because he stayed over the allocated parking times while charging his car. nice little money maker they have set up!

always said that rather than electric, they should have moved over to hydrogen fuel. as it works practically the same as a petrol engine with all the same mileage and fill up times as a vehicle with one.

What's your plans with regards to the clean air zone charges?

added a few decorations..  'tis the season and all that.

sorry i have not been doing much..  we umm..  bought a lorry.  yeah. if you follow my youtube channel you will already know!

have a good one!

Well done.

After finding out that the tyres i have on the van are only 56MPH rated with no load indicator.. combined with the fact they are about worn out and have no grip..

i bought some new ones. probibly the best van tyres you can buy.. and yes i did pay for them. only 2 for now, i will have to wait till next month to buy some for the other axle.

bit overkill.. but should last well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKBM9S4Sayw

it did fail its Mot on the track rod ends..  the ones i replaced.. being loose. even though the nyloc nut is tightened up all the way they still move. tells me that the taper on the ball joints are a few mm too small. so it means i will have to try to find more..  the correct size.

to be fair i am kinda glad as its helped scrub down the horrific ditch finer tyres on the front. something i will be happy to change to something more...  premium.
i am going to swap the tyres around anyway so the ditch finders on the rear will be on the front. i would rather have better tyres on the rear anyway. i will get the thing tracked up after that as it does pull very slightly to the kerb.

wonder if i can convince my boss to work on it in one of his units... at least i will be in the dry! while i am doing all that i will finally get my headlights installed too...  and that engine under tray fitted which i am STILL waiting for. held up at the boarder.. sigh. i am really going to miss that free and open market.

anyhoo till next time!

Currently -3 and snow outside, 21 and cosy in here.

so i am pretty disappointed with how the lights preform.. high beam is pretty good but low beams are just bad.

so i bought some brand new headlights. not to fit to the van, but to modify.

so this happened..

then this

to give a end result something like this

and as i know someone out there in the future will want to also do this, i made a kinda how too video.

when i can, i will take the bumper off and fit the new lights. some wiring relay adaptors or modification is needed to run bi-xenon type lighting however.
just waiting on the wiring adaptors and the engine under tray.. do all the jobs in one go

till next time!

well i have not done much since the last update. i have however upgraded the speakers which is quite nice it also has a nice android head unit.

heres how they have been installed. quite nice with the little crossover box hidden behind the door card to make it all neat.

when was the last time you saw a Gismo air freshener?!

still working on that bulkhead.. i tell you its been in and out of the van more times..  sigh. i just hope all the new brackets i have welded to it all align up to the bolt holes...

till next time!

the system will consist of a diesel powered coolant heater (think of it like a slow central heating boiler), 2x plate heat exchangers, a thermal storage tank, and 2 "coolant" circuits. (the engine and the diesel heaters)

under the van right in the middle between the fuel cooler and exhaust CAT (on the HDI) theres a nice gap that could home a nice 20L jerry can. i was considering using the jerry can as a thermal store for hot water the can being made well  insulated..

using a plate heat exchanger between the engine and diesel heater then another between the diesel heater and fresh water for the sink.

hmm be more easy if i drew a picture...

see, i design it this way so i can completely drain the tap water side with no ill effect..  the party trick here is that the diesel heater can also pre-heat the engine.

what do you think?

the exhaust must have shifted somehow as now it hits the tow bar... bit of a pain to be fair as its rather loud and its damaging the paint on it! 
i have seen some wheel chair converted vairants of our van where it has a side exiting exhaust just before the rear wheels. this is something i would like to do. add an extra silencer closer to the CAT and just shorten the exhaust length slightly with a 45 degree bend exiting just before the rear wheels.
i did take some pictures of one that was scrapped.. but instantly sold. so here is what i want to do..:

this is to make way for the wheel chair ramp built into the back. i think it would work quite well for what i want it to do.
also if ever i wanted to put a tent on the back of the van, i could have the engine running and not be pumping diesel fumes into it

the speakers are oh such an improvement from the old ones. the best money i have spent this far on audio upgrades ever.

the roof rack is on and is very good. i made some feet/brackets for it that sit a little taller than the originals. i kinda made them a bit to big though but thankfully i drilled multiple holes in them as i knew they would be a little high. i just didnt know that i would have to use the lowest hole i drilled in them high haha

i have also drilled a 40mm hole through my roof, behind one of the roof rack mounting points. in the 40mm hole i fit a bit of under sink plumbing U bend pipe. this is what i will use to run my cables through. the U bend will stop water getting inside yet provide a nice smooth conduit to push cables through. the U bend is something i have used before on a vehicle and never had water enter via it. what else you can do is put a rubber or plastic gator/bag over the end of the pipe and zip tie it to the pipe, run the wires through it then zip tie the gator/bag to the wires. works as a wind stopper then.

most of the vans lights have been converted to LED bulbs. both complete rear clusters are now fully LED along with the side lights and all indicator lights including all the internal illumination lights and dash lights. the only bulbs i have not changed yet is the number plate lights as i am not sure how you get into them yet. the bulbs i am not changing are the main headlight bulbs (because of beam pattern issues) and the dash battery light (as the alternator needs that 5 watt load to excite the field winding to start generating electricity however this could be changed to led with a load resistor making up for the bulb's wattage load however i cant be bothered to do this.)

a general "over all" look of the van is that it is working flawlessly with only slight issues i have to fix. i have never been more happy with a vehicle. i should have had one years ago!

the slight issue is the central locking motors on the sliding doors really need an upgrade. the actuators have such a weak push/pull force that often it fails to unlock the doors and you have to use a key. i will upgrade these with after market actuators at some point in the distant future as its not yet annoying me enough

happy to report that the aircon is still holding pressure and no noticeable leaking has happened. it seems all my O ring seal replacements paid off! it works really well. the more i use it the better it seems to get. makes me wonder if the TXV was jammed up and its now slowly working its self free.

the back of the vans floor has been lined with some 4mm rubber flooring. nice and hard wearing while being anti slip. should work well.

the bulkhead is still unfinished however it is all welded up as one piece now with some thin walled 2cm by 2cm box section welded into it to give it strength.
my "tip the seat all the way back to get access to the back/front" system works well. i just need to make a sliding door for it i also need to weld on some angle iron to make some mounting points to the side of it.

that is all really i can report on.

with the darker nights rolling in, i need to get some interior illumination sorted out. i am struggling to find the ignition barrel. it is something i am going to look at tomorrow i think. also add some map reading lighting.

really need to start building up the inside. stick the closed cell auto carpeted wooden ply back on. i am sick of looking at the damp proof membrane covered insulation.

heres my last video:

till next time!

Glad to hear it.  I had visions of you wedged in among the tech like an astronaut in a space capsule. 

you should see my bed room (both for the size and the tech). i have to have a lofty style bed just so i have a bit of space. the van will be roomy to me haha!! its amazing what i can fit into a 10 by 8 ft space.
i even have a fridge freezer in here, an extended sized ATX tower gaming PC, a few filing cabinets, and the NAS lives in here. the biggest issue i have is trying to keep my room cool without putting the split AC on.

years ago i had a twin rack mount server in here as i hosted online game and chat servers for people. easy way to make money when you get the kit for scrap price.
(yes everything came from the scrap yard i work at)

just got back from work and stuck my door card back on. it hammered it down last night so i had to run indoors and leave everything haha!

yes I have the layout planned. I know what I am doing... I think.

Glad to hear it.  I had visions of you wedged in among the tech like an astronaut in a space capsule. 

It's gonna be tight though.