365+ days of Van life (parking)

This is a video I made roughly one year after beginning my new life living out of my van.

Parking is one thing I cover in this. The transcript reads like…

Hey, what’s up? This is Ian, and we are hanging out by the river. In this video, I’m going to talk about—it’s been around a year of sort of traveling and living out of my van—and we’re going to talk about parking locations: where you can park and where I parked over the last year.

This water is super clear and cold, super cold. It’s one place when you’re traveling on the road where you can find places like this to jump in the water, wash up a bit, and refresh.

So, let me think of all the places I’ve parked. I’ve parked on Forest Service land, BLM land, Walmart, ski areas (which are often forest land), rest areas, and I’ve done urban parking. I guess the best part is that I haven’t paid any money for parking at all. And the best has been places like this—this area is super awesome.

I came out here to a super remote ski area called Titan Pass Ski Area. Not to be confused, there’s a Titon Pass in a couple of locations, but this one’s in Montana. It’s a really remote ski area—you got to travel 11 miles on a dirt road to get there. When I first heard about it, it was three miles, and I was like, “Geez, I don’t know if I’ll even make it. I’m going to go and check it out,” because my van is a step van so it doesn’t handle very well, plus all my stuff is in it and things rattle, like the doors and stuff.

But it turned out this road was actually in pretty good condition, and the Forest Service told me they recently graded the road. It took me a while—my first night I stayed about a mile in on the dirt road, and then the next day to go 10 miles took a long time, over an hour. I hiked up to the top of the ski area, which was maybe 1,200 feet. It’s kind of a smallish ski area, but it’s on a pretty gnarly mountain, and once you get up, you see all the gnarly mountains around you. It’s really smoky; at night it gets worse, though right now it doesn’t look too bad.

So, I’ve had really good luck, a lot of it coming down to Forest Service land and ski areas. (I worked at two different ski areas.) Last night it was super windy—you could see the sticks on the road and my van was rocking from the wind, and I was a little worried a tree was going to fall on my van. But Forest Service land has been good.

Walmart is super popular, but in my experience, lots of Walmarts don’t even allow overnight camping, or they post a sign that says not allowed, and you might be able to get away with it (that was the case for me). I’ve probably stayed at Walmart maybe 10 times over the year. It’s not a regular place for me. Parking in urban Walmart areas always makes me feel on edge; I don’t really sleep that good because it’s kind of illegal and you know it, and you don’t want to wake up to someone knocking on your door. You’ll sleep better if you just find out the rules on where you can legally park.

Rest areas: a few times I’ve stayed at rest areas, but they can be loud or have bright lights, so they’re not so good for sleeping.

Urban: I’ve done the urban thing a bit, and yeah, I don’t really like it. It’s usually illegal to park in a neighborhood. I’ve parked at a church a few times, and near apartments thinking no one’s going to know, but I didn’t do it too many times because I wanted to stay inconspicuous.

The great thing with Forest Service land is you can legally park for 14 days in one spot. That’s great, and then you can move around to a new location in the forest and get another 14 days. That has just been the best situation. For me, probably 70 to 80% of the time, that’s what I’ve done.

Another sidetrack: when you find a place to settle in, getting a gym membership is great. You get a sauna, a shower, and you can work out. I paid like $60 a month at one place and $70 at another, so you can find cheap ones and it’s a really good deal. Washing up in the creek or a public restroom works too, though warm water is nicer than freezing cold water depending on the time of year and where you are.

Let me check my list here: BLM land (which is kind of like Forest Service land), Walmart, urban areas, rest areas, ski areas, water, cleaning, gyms. I think I pretty much talked about all those things.

I’m walking back to my van right now. This area is super awesome, kind of like a hidden gem. The ski area is tucked back behind these big mountains, and it’s cool that the roads are dirt because it would probably blow up with a lot more traffic if they were paved.

So, that’s my overall experience. There’s my van, and those aspen trees are really nice. You don’t always have to drive far down a dirt road; do your research, and if you find Forest Service land nearby, you usually don’t have to drive forever to find parking (I usually don’t because I hate driving down dirt roads).

Pretty sweet. That’s been my experience. If I forgot something, I’ll put it in the comments down below or the description. At one time I was wondering where I was going to park when I first started traveling, but this is Ian saying so long.

Step van build progress in 2025

I am a little late about a yearˆˆ to add this to the blog. I think I filmed this roughly a year ago in the fall. And I will soon add a new one for 2026.
Here is a transcript that might help…

Yo, what’s up? This is Ian, and we are in Montana. Take a look around at the scenery.

And bam, there’s my van. So, in this video, I was going to talk about—I’m a little tired, I didn’t sleep too good. I stayed up too late the last couple nights, kind of messed my schedule up and whatnot. So, I’m going to talk about what I did on my van in the last few months, or the last eight months starting in April.

So, one of the first things I did was those hinges. I changed those hinges. They used to have these kind of barn door style hinges. You can see the impressions of them there below that top hinge. And yeah, there’s a lot of rivets in this door. I’ve redone this door like so many times. So, I put four of these strap hinges. These are aluminum. Why did I change? I guess the other ones worked fine, I just didn’t like how they looked and they rusted. They were steel, they weren’t like stainless steel or anything like that. They would rust, and I would try to put clear coat on it and different oils, but they would still rust.

And I just kind of liked how these ones looked. They’re kind of expensive—like a few hundred at least for eight hinges. So I like them. They’re solid looking. I did that back in April.

Now the other thing I want to show you I just kind of did yesterday. I’m going to climb up here so we get a little bit of a view. So, I put that stove top cap on the roof, and we went straight through the roof. Where that bluish ESL Insider sticker is—that is where it used to come out.

I used to have a 90-degree bend and come out the side because I was basically afraid to go through the roof. Going through the roof was something I really stressed and thought about for a long time. It took some time and preparation. I searched for a long time on how to get a stove cap that I liked, and that was the best one I found. It’s stainless steel from Dickinson Marine. They make diesel heaters for boats and stuff.

Let’s go inside. It’s nice and messy in here.

Talking about the roof—this is the original roof. This is how thin it is; it’s transparent. You can see the light shining through the yellow up there. That’s fiberglass, and this is how thin it is. When I first bought this on the drive home from North Dakota and spent my first rainy day in it, it didn’t give me a sense of security. It sounds like you’re in a tent, basically.

So, I wanted something a little beefier. The whole cargo area of the roof—over the fiberglass roof, I put a lot of cork underlayment. And then I got this massive sheet of aluminum. It’s pretty thin, but definitely stronger and beefier than that fiberglass. And I riveted it to the roof. I made a video about that, I believe.

Let’s see, what else did we do this year? Try to turn on some lights. Got a new yoga mat, which I’m pretty happy about. It’s a cork and natural rubber yoga mat.

Where to start? We’ll start here. In previous videos, I talked about the solar, and this was kind of like the big project of the summer. It took me two months to complete. We wired all these things together. I got two lithium 100 amp-hour batteries. There’s a Renogy DC-to-DC charger with MPPT. Up on the upper left, there’s a battery monitor that tells me it’s at 100%. A 12-volt fuse block, a whole lot of fuses, wires, connectors, and a battery shunt.

The tough thing was learning what goes with what—the connectors, the lugs, the wire, crimping them together. Depending on what you’re connecting, you need different size wires and connectors. It’s a lot of information, and it’s really complex. Now, the box I actually built like a year or a year and a half ago, so this summer was kind of piecing it all together. That’s a 200-watt inverter.

Another thing I did this summer—it’s not complete, but it’s getting there—is setting up my turntables. It’s been a goal. These are my turntables; it’s a work in progress, but we’re connecting it all together. That is an SL3, a device that connects to your computer so you can play MP3 files through your turntables using digital files with a turntable. I’m not too far away from completing it.

Other things I did this summer: we did three carpentry pieces. That bench right there, this cabinet-like thing, and that sort of shelf-like thing.

I’m pretty stoked with it. I have space and storage here. I haven’t used it so much for storage, but it’s pretty comfortable; I can sit on it. Up there, I started some drawings, and eventually there’ll probably be some paint and color on it. That’s my bed—it folds down; it’s a Murphy bed we did a few years back. On the cabinet, the top lifts up. Pretty stoked with how that turned out, though the yellowish color of the birch wasn’t really my favorite. But yeah, that is our bench.

These other things we did since I’ve been in Montana. Since August, I made this cabinet and this shelf. This one I’m pretty happy with; it’s the most recent besides the stove. I finished this just a few weeks ago before starting on the stove. I finally got it bolted up on the wall using rivnuts. Those are a little tricky, but I’m pretty happy with this. I like the open setup where I can just toss random stuff in there. It works good for my style, since I’m not a super organized person and there’s no cabinet or drawer to open.

I noticed when I make drawers—like my clothes drawer here for socks and t-shirts—I like it, but this other shelf section, you kind of throw stuff in there and it’s not so organized. I was unsure if I should make it so I could pull these out, or if I should put a door on it, or put a front on it so it slides out like a drawer. This is all new to me; the carpentry and woodwork on this van is pretty much all the woodwork I’ve ever done, aside from making painting canvases and building frames from scratch. So we’re learning, and it’s been a process.

For this countertop, I used a piece of aluminum. I could probably clean it and get some of the water stains off. It’s just what I had available. I asked online about using aluminum for a countertop, and on Reddit everybody said, “That’s a horrible idea.” Maybe it is, but I did it anyway. I put epoxy over it. It was really shiny, but I didn’t really like the shine, so I sanded it.

Some problems I had with the epoxy were three stupid flies. When you pour it, you have to put stuff on the sides to prevent it from dripping. Three flies landed in the epoxy before it cured and got stuck. There’s a blemish here where I had to pick the fly out while it was wet, another one landed over here, and another one here, leaving little dents. These aluminum sheets used to be part of a shelf—all those doors on the outside with the hinges were made from the same piece of aluminum. They were the original shelves in this postal van, and we cut them up to make doors and this countertop. There aren’t many bugs in Montana, but there seem to be a lot of regular house flies.

This is the inside of my stove setup. We just finished this last night. I had a friend help put this all together. This deck fitting is from Dickinson Marine. I had to build a wooden support because that thin fiberglass roof is flexible. This rectangular space up here was originally planned for a skylight. My plan was to put a big skylight here; I might still do it.

To change this setup—the old pipe went up and then out the side right there. I cut a new piece of birch and put that in to cover the old hole. The old setup didn’t draft well, so I’d get a lot of backdraft out of my stove. This support here is pretty sturdy.

One mistake I made was this piece of wood. The deck fitting on top is steel, with a rubber gasket and RTV sealant. We had to cut a little bit off this stainless steel auto pipe to get it to fit. We haven’t used it yet, so hopefully there are no water leaks from up above, but I lined it up pretty well.

This plywood piece is actually two pieces of 3/16″ glued together with a hole cut out. It’s not squared up; it’s kind of off at an angle. That was one little thing I missed when drilling all the holes. Maybe I should have cut it to match or made it round so it wouldn’t look weird, but I’m not taking it off and doing it again because of all the sealant on top.

Anyways, this is Ian. We’re in Montana, looking out my window, and that’s what I did the last eight months working on my van. Peace.

Taiwan: Hot pot, invisible mosquitos & air pollution

This is a drawing I did during my first year in Taiwan. I ended up staying in Taiwan for two years. But my first year was in Taichung and it was kinda a rough start. I stayed in some dodgy stinky hotels and it was 2-3 months before I found a job. The first room that I rented is where I started to do this drawing. It wasn’t a nice one though.

I had a really dirty roommate who would track all kinds of mud and dirt into the bathtub. It was disgusting. I didn’t stay there for too long. It was a real culture shock and not fun. Things improved though eventually and I got my own place to rent which was better.

Huo guo, bu jian wenzi, & kong chi wu ran (hot pot, invisible mosquitos and air pollution)

Pencil on paper drawing: Hot pot, invisible mosquitos and air pollution

The story behind it… Aside from where I was living (the apartment) when I drew this.. I think it’s about culture shock in a way and feeling uprooted hence my skinny legs, haha.

Hot pot (Huo guo)

Huo guo (hot pot) is really popular there but I never I got it. Didn’t really like it. Every time I ate it I would burn my mouth. You know you’re hungry and you want to eat, but hot pot is kinda slow going and you are cooking various foods over and into a soup. It’s something you usually eat with other people and it seemed like everyone loved it there except for me.

I was a strict vegetarian at the time and ate out at the restaurants every day. One cool thing about Taiwan is that they have some vegetarian restaurants for the Buddhists and that is where I ate everyday. Some of it was really good.

Invisible mosquitos

I remember trying to sleep in that room in my first apartment and hearing mosquitos buzzing around my head at night. Sometimes I would pull the sheets over my head to try to keep them away.

Air pollution

This probably bugged me the most about Taiwan. There are too many scooters, literally millions of scooters. The population of Taiwan is around 23 million and that has not changed much in 20 years.

I was primarily in Taiwan from 2004-2006 in Taichung and later Tainan and it may have changed since, but yeah so many scooters. So much noise and pollution from them. Taichung wasn’t the biggest city. 3rd biggest at the time. There were some buses that I used and I got around by bike too but that also wasn’t very fun as the streets were pretty crowded.

In my 2nd year I moved to Tainan where I did get a scooter and worked out in the “countryside” in Alian, Taiwan at a language school and commuted from Tainan.

Loads of scooters in Taiwan

My experience teaching English in Taiwan was tough, but a good.

Das EFX drawing circa 1993

Das EFX drawing 1993 pencil on paper

I drew this in high school. It was inspired by my friend Randy Mclaughlin and Das EFX. Randy was cool unlike most of the rednecks I went to high school with. He was a great artist who moved to the area from Baltimore. Super cool guy. We both loved Das Efx at the time and he did a drawing of one of them from the inside cover of the album and I thought it was so bad ass I had to do the other Andre Weston which is shown here.

Randy was a year younger than me. And the next year I heard he committed suicide. That was horrible.

Das Efx was one of my faves at the time. I listened to that tape so many times. I never quite got how Das Efx’s 2nd album didn’t do well. There were a couple songs on there that I still bump to this day. Thought those were incredible: Check it out, Underground Rappa. Those beats and rhymes hit so hard. Freak it was more popular, but pretty good too. Had those on vinyl too. The first two were my faves.

Classic 1993 hip hop. Remember bumping Tribe and Das on a long ass bus trip from NC up to NH.

Deeluxe Areth Rin Snowboard boot review

This is a review on the Deeluxe Areth Rin snowboard boot. Over the last few years I’ve tried on a lot of snowboard boots. Over the last 4 seasons I rode the Thirtytwo TM-3 and the Ride Fuse  putting in around 200 days per boot.

I am going to talk about those other boots at first and compare them a bit before getting into the Areth Rin. You’ll find a bunch of pictures and a video on the Areth towards the end of this article.

Deeluxe Areth Rin snowboard boot

But all those days on those boots weren’t comfortable days. Lots of pain and discomfort. Lots of modifications and with each of those boots and I bought different sizes. With the TM-3 I got the 9’s at first they loosened up and then I got the 8.5’s.

With the Fuse’s I bought an 8.5 first and they were too big so I sent those back and got the 8’s and rode those for a while and then decided they were too big and got the 7.5’s which were better volume fitting but ultimately too short on my left foot.

Whatever boots you get know they will loosen up

After a couple of days or a week or more they will loosen up so whatever they feel like on day one won’t be how they feel on day 20, 30, 50, etc.

So the natural inclination is to buy them too big since they only expand after you get them, but you can buy them too small too. Or sometimes they are right on one foot or in some areas but not in the other.

I was tired of pain so last season 2025 I went out shopping again for boots tried on a bunch and found the Deeluxe Areth Rin to be the most comfortable.

But it’s always a challenge for me since I have skinny ankles and two different sized feet and one is more flat than the other.

This boot has been sitting in a box though…

The Ride Fuse is a relatively low volume boot. And I would say that is true of Ride/K2 boots (owned by same company) in general and probably Salomon too.

Thirtytwo boots are not usually low volume. Although the new Grenier boot looks lower volume. But the TM-3’s I had were a heavy duty boot and same with the popular TM-2’s.

Are Deeluxe boots low volume?

No, I would not say these are low volume. They are kind of bulky and that’s why I haven’t taken these out on the snow. Despite being more comfortable wearing around the house they are relatively bulky so my fear is after I wear these for a week or so then they will loosen up a bunch and then I will have to fill that space with another insole and patches of foam here in there.

Deeluxe boots in the box

Why did I buy the boot?

It’s a lace hybrid boot with a BOA. Which is what I like and it was comfortable. I like the simple look too. I think it’s a nice looking boot too. It’s quite a bit softer of a boot compared to the Ride Fuse which is rated an 8 in flex. The Areth Rin is rated a 3 I think which sounds way too soft but it you can get a tongue stiffener to raise that 2-3 points which sounded good.

The liner is a little flimsy looking. I kinda didn’t like the straight back of it or the shell. The Ride Fuse liner/shell is better molded and I liked the look of the wrap liner at first, but it added pressure points and little bruises on the top of my shins. It didn’t really flex naturally so I wouldn’t use that type of liner again.

So am I going to take these Deeluxe boots out of the box? IDK. I might so leave a comment if you’re interested and I can give you an update.

I put them on Ebay if you are interested they are a size 8.

Deeluxe Areth Rin back – note the straight back
Deeluxe Areth power straps w/ cushy looking liners
Street skate style soles which are probably good for board feel and they are rubber which is good, but not a lot of tread if you are hiking around
Deeluxe Areth inside view with power strap
Deeluxe Areth side view with the BOA

Deeluxe says:

Whether it’s a crisp method, a fresh pow slash, or a creative line through the trees, the best riding comes from the soul. United by this belief, DEELUXE and AREth have teamed up to create the
AREth Rin. Armed with a classic appearance, it pairs clean design with rich materials and sophisticated technology.

And thanks to its ability to ride any terrain, it’s Kazu Kokubo’s boot of choice. Combining the best of both worlds, its traditional laces offer a timeless look and familiar feel while the boot’s BOA® Fit System allows you to quickly and effortlessly secure your ankle and heel. A rugged leather patch in the ankle zone enhances comfort and durability while further securing your foot.

The boot’s Stage 3 liner provides a truly custom fit while its Skate Flex sole offers unsurpassed boardfeel. Inspired by the boot’s refined design and impressive performance, Japan’s Freerun magazine recently honored the AREth Rin as one of the top picks in the freeride category of its Best Gear Awards. If your riding comes from within, consider the AREth Rin your soulmate.

Related snowboard boots reviews:

Bent Metal Axtion Binding Review

This will be a review of the Bent Metal Axtion snowboard binding review. I rode this in the 2024/2025 season on a Lib Tech TRS. These bindings are made by Bent Metal which is owned by Mervin manufacturing the maker of Gnu and Lib Tech snowboards.

These are a simple functional binding. I had virtually no problems with this binding except for a while one of the toe strap ratchets was funky sometimes it would get stuck when I would try to loosen it, however I mentioned this to Mervin and they sent me a replacement pair which I never ended up using. The problem went away or I just dealt with it.

Compared to the Union Force bindings which I previously had the Axtion have a smaller (more narrow) foot plate which was better. Both the Strata and Force had empty space on the side of the boot more so near the toes. The Force had a toe strap that would slip off sometimes for whatever reason.

I had the medium sized Axtion bindings and medium sized Force bindings but the Force had more empty space on the sides of the boot when I was in the binding. I had sized down all the way to a 7.5 Ride Fuse boot and previously was on 8.5 Thirtytwo Tm-3 boots so in theory I could have ridden small sized bindings, but…

Before buying the Axtion I bought the Transfer in a small and I never rode them. But my size 7.5 looked doable but on the edge of being too big for the small binding so I returned them. If I remember right size 6-8 is a small binding and 8-10 is medium and 10+ is large.

What I liked about the Aktion…

No tool forward lean adjuster

They just worked. I liked the color of the orange black binding kinda like the old Strata’s. I liked the highback shape. I like the forward lean adjuster that you can do without a tool. Although I never experimented with a different flexing drive plate I like how you can pop them on and off easy.

Drive plate and base plate

The base plate of the Axtion looks better than the old Force ones I had. The Axtion has some kind of rubbery material below the plastic between the bidning and board and the plastic has holes in it probably to reduce weight. The Force had neither. The Force was just plastic on the board which would leave marks when you took them off.

I liked the heel straps on the binding as they seemed more form fitting than my previous ones. They seemed comfortable enough.

And I also like Mervin.

What I didn’t like about the Axtion…

Not much… pretty happy with them but if I was to nit pick I think they could use some stainless steel fasteners on the straps. I believe the ones they use are cheaper looking zinc coated ones. Mine have not rusted, but if those are zinc then they will rust eventually.

And one of the straps on my toes get’s kinda stuck sometimes. Either I got used to it or that problem went away can’t remember.

But overall they were good and I would ride them again. I am also curious about the Transfer too.

Check out the Bent Metal Axtion binding on Evo.com.

Related:

Backwoods boarding 2025

Here’s a little video of some backwoods boarding in NH mostly in February and early March 2025. We got more snow than normal and actually got enough about a foot or so settled to finally ride some slopes by my parents house that I always wanted to.

So the east coast was doing pretty good till mid February then it didn’t do much for a while and then came the March meltdown.

Like if you look at the current thumbnail of the video below you’ll see a treed slope that I cleared a bit to ride and I was pretty much thinking it would never snow enough to cover all the rocks on that slope. It’s mostly beech trees and lots of rocks.

I hit a few little ones on the bottom of that run at 00:34. Rocks buried under snow can be a problem because if you hit one it can throw you off balance and if there are trees around then that’s no good.

I fractured my arm a long time ago doing backwoods boarding like that. I hit a sharp rock hidden under the snow. It pitched me off balance and I was near a pile of stumps and brush and it was either go into the hawthorne tree and rubble or do a hand plant to stop so I put my arm down and then kapow it was fractured at my wrist and elbow. Wore a cast for a long time and that elbow still bugs me sometimes.

We also say in judo and bjj “an extended arm is a broken arm”. It’s true in snowboarding too. Don’t fall on an extended arm.

Try to know what’s under the snow. Know there are things under the snow and be light on your feet and don’t edge too hard if you know there are rocks under there.

There’s another clip of that beeches run at 2:03.

I finally got to jump off the ledge.

See the ledge jump at 00:45.

I always wanted to do this, so if you look at the pic above you can see the back of this ledge which is shaped like a near perfect takeoff and I didn’t have to do any work on it except pack the pow down with snowshoes. Then there’s a little gap and then another ledge to the driveway.

I knew if we got the snow you could build a landing since the snow gets plowed near there. So I did a bit. It was a little short and steep though. Too much speed and you land flat in the driveway. Too little and you land flat in the gap.

The run in was a little sketchy too as there are stumps and bushes but I snowshoed a run in and we gave it go. I didn’t die and got the speed about right on the 2nd try.

Logs are fun

Logs and wood features are like so underused in terrain parks. If you ask me terrain parks nowadays are so cookie cutter and almost every ski area has their boxes and rails, mimicking urban skateparks. I’ve been working in terrain parks for the last 4 years and sometimes I hit those boxes and rails, but they’re not my thing. Wood looks way cooler, it’s more natural and it’s fun.

There are some wood parks though. Some cool wood parks are Burton’s The Stash parks which are located at a few mountains around the world including Jackson Hole and Killington, VT has a cool one and then the wood jumps they made at Baldface NST.

Hiking

Hiking has always been a part of snowboarding for me. Whether it was hiking into the upper bowl of AZ snowbowl, off the Bluebird lift at Brundage towards Hidden Valley and Sargents, early season, late season, Tuckerman’s, hiking a jump to work on a trick, or backwoods boarding like this.

Even at the ski area I’ll hike. Sometimes it’s too stay warm and/or to work on a trick. I like the exercise.

The doors I made for my step van

Man these doors have been a lot of work. I made this video probably close to a couple years ago and I have since updated these doors with more rivets, new hinges, a window, plywood interior and insulation.

So originally these vans have a roll up door which I took down and replaced with some doors I made from the cargo shelves that these vans come with. And lots of rivets. Like over 100 per door, plus a few screws and bolts.

The shelves I used from my step van to make doors

Originally I thought of cutting up the roll up door and turning them into swing doors but decided not to. It wasn’t in great shape and was heavy as hell.

I wouldn’t do it this way again as it took a lot of time and they are flawed but I’ve definitely learned something along the way.

Recently I replaced the rusty steel hinges with aluminum. I went from 2 per door to 4 per door. The aluminum hinges were like $30 a piece so kinda expensive.

In this pick you can see only 3 aluminum hinges and the rusty hinges still on the door but they are gone now.

Step van door exterior replacing the rusty hinges.

So I left the old hinges on while I added the new ones which means I didn’t have to take the door down which is a huge pain. Not fun. Well easier to take down than put it back up.

I used some bike inner tubes to weather strip the outside and under the doors which worked great. I riveted it to the outsides and stapled underneath. But I couldn’t use it above as the space was smaller or in the center for the same reason so I used some commercial stuff instead.

I was thinking 2 hinges was probably not enough and I couldn’t put a third hinge in the middle since the lights were there and I saw some step vans had 4 hinges per door so that’s what I did. Two of those steel hinges were probably better than two of those aluminum hinges though since they were longer and had more surface area, but they are steel and rust.

Lots of work went into these doors. I’ll see how they’ll hold up overtime.

Hanging the doors was super hard and they are still not aligned perfectly but best I could do. Too tight where they come together on the top when you close them.

The sides of the doors are strong as they are made with folded aluminum that was on the edges of the shelves.

In this pic you can see a bit of the door on the interior. There is a deadbolt on the top and bottom. I haven’t figured out how to do one in the middle yet. I don’t need a handle outside. I prefer it without yet another lock there would be good yet not sure how to do it since the door isn’t solid.

Van door interior in April 2024