In this video, I create a handy door bar to the tackle the problem of the van barn doors blowing and slamming in the wind. For just £25, I've built a strong, sturdy, portable and smart door pole which attaches securely to the van - let me show you how I did it...
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👉 Rubber grommets: bit.ly/3ridiZQ
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👉 D-shackles: amzn.to/3JYa9JN
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0:00 - Intro & the problem
0:41 - The original door bar designs
1:21 - The new door bar design
2:41 - Making the new door bar
3:51 - Storing the pole in the van
4:52 - The finished door bar
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I’m not new to door poles, & I featured my original one in my van essentials video, which was just a broom handle with notches cut in the ends & magnets holding it in place on the van. Perfectly useful for hanging things, but not good enough to withstand serious wind & difficult to store. I tried a second broom handle version, which was in two pieces, but I couldn't get the join strong enough. To get my third version underway, I first measured the van doors to see what I was working with.
After a good deal of research into what products might already be out there I started looking into extendable poles with a view to adapting one into a door bar. I had seen a really interesting idea on a van forum which tackled the same problem & they had utilised the door latches as a secure way to hold the bar in place. I found the Frenessa Stainless Steel Extendable Spring Tension Rod Shower Pole on Amazon, & the 70-110cm version was a good length for my van & a good price.
First, I could remove the end caps as I wouldn’t be needing them. It has pins instead of a twisting mechanism, which I figured would be a quicker way to extend the pole. It was very sturdy when extended to the length I needed it, which was the 6th hole from the end, however if you did use the final hole then it gets very flimsy very quickly!
On one end of the pole, I punched a mark for the first hole and drilled my it out to fit the grommet. I then drilled another hole on the other side, and then flipped the bar to drill two holes on the other end using exactly the same method. I could then and the grommets and D shackles test the pole out.
The shackles fit in the latches really smoothly...and they can easily be removed by pressing the door handles.
I could now turn my efforts to where to store the pole. I originally wanted to attach it to the underside of my wheel arch storage box lid, but the space in there is too valuable, so after some thinking I decided to attach it to the underside of my new folding table unit.
Here it’s out of the way and out of sight, and although there are a couple pockets on the wall, I only really use them when sleeping in the van, and there’s still adequate access to them in any case. And talking of sleeping in the van, I did pull the bed out to make sure the pole wouldn’t interfere with sleeping room.
With the space measured up, I could think about fixings, and I got these plastic-coated tool clips off eBay and they fit perfectly and don’t rub or rattle the metal. Once I had decided where these would fit, I drilled pilot holes and screwed them both in.
As a whole, the pole looks really smart and meets all of my criteria - easy to store, quick to assemble, strong and won’t damage the door. Well, all the criteria bar one - you may have noticed that the pole sits quite low on the doors and very close to my head and that I may end up hitting my head every so often.
I suppose this all depends on how high your van latches are and how tall you are, but it’s worth bearing in mind that I’ve been standing on the pavement, while the van is on the road, so once I pull forward and stand on ground level, my head just fits under it!
I thought I’d finish this video with a real time clip of me putting the bar up, to show just how quickly and easily it can be done. I think the door bar will be incredibly useful for my van, and the fact that the whole thing only came to about £25 is a bonus.
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#Vanlife #NissanNV200 #LensOfJames
DISCLAIMER: In this video, I am in no way stating that this is the proper way to undertake the conversion of a van, however after research and experience using the van, I believe this to be the way that is best suited to my van and the way I intend to use it.
29 июл 2024
