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Since I planned to do a lot of traveling, I knew I'd be encountering extreme temperatures! I wanted to stay warm on those frigid desert/mountain nights, but also, don't underestimate how hot it can get inside a vehicle even on a moderately warm day with the sun beating down! (I realized too late that I might be at a disadvantage here, with a yellow van - white is more advisable both because it is stealth and because the white paint reflects the sun and is a bit cooler.)
So - first things first. Insulation!
It seems there is a lot of debate among the van life community about the proper way to insulate a van. There is no "right" or "wrong," I suppose, just opinions, but what I can tell you is that I absolutely love the Thinsulate that I ended up using! It is very easy - dare I say fun, even - to install, and seems to work very well.
On this page I'm only going to cover the wall/ceiling insulation, but it's very important to insulate the floor as well - that's covered in the Flooring section. You can also check out the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, & Air Conditioning) page for more info on keeping the temperature comfortable inside the van.
Insulation parts & tools:
Push pin pliers tool - $12, but you may not need this
Thinsulate - $525 - I bought 50 linear feet from the DIYVan's eBay store
Tailor shears to cut the Thinsulate - $12 - these are basically just some great scissors and I love them!
3M 90 spray adhesive to attach the Thinsulate - we'll say $160 total, because I ended up going through 7-8 of these bottles throughout the whole build
L-square or carpenter framing square for measurements - $16
White paint pens to mark measurements - $11
Ez-Cool - $180 - I used about 200 sq feet of Ez-Cool on my wall panels, ceiling panels, and water tank
Aluminum Tape for the Ez-Cool installation - $16 - It comes with some tape but I needed more
Hush Mat sound deadening - $160 for 20 pieces
Tennis ball for the Hush Mat install - don't bother with the tool they offer
Cost = $1,092 + sweat equity
My van arrived with plastic paneling, like this.
Using a push pin pliers tool I removed the paneling...
...almost ready!
Clean slate! (Except for the bulkhead between the cargo area and the driver's seat, which was a pain to remove, but that's a whole other story which I'll talk about in Flooring.)
Beginning the HushMat install. HushMat is supposed to 'deaden' some of the noise of your vehicle rattling as it rolls down the road. It's hard to gauge how much effect the HushMat really has, but it can't hurt!
The instructions say that you don't need to completely cover the vehicle, only to cover small areas. I left open space where the windows would be installed later.
Now on to the Thinsulate! It comes in a big roll and expands as you unroll it. You'll want to cut it quickly before it expands to full size.
Like I said, this stuff was pretty easy and fun to work with. I used a carpenter's framing square and marked the measurements with the white paint pen. It cuts easily with tailor shears.
Thinsulate isn't itchy like the insulation you might find in your attic. It does leave little white fuzzies here and there, but it's just a minor annoyance.
I attached the Thinsulate to the walls using the 3M 90 spray adhesive - I wore a mask because the adhesive smells and I'm sure it's not good to inhale it in a small space!
It was a little tricky attaching Thinsulate to the ceiling, because you have to hold it for it to adhere. I didn't finish the ceiling insulation until later when I had my Lighting wiring in place.
Here are a couple shots from later in the build, after the Windows went in, where you can see the Thinsulate coverage a bit better:
Since the Thinsulate doesn't completely cover the interior of the vehicle, I also used Ez-Cool in all the areas that weren't covered, specifically over the exposed pillars that you see in the photos above. I also lined the back of the ceiling and wall panels with Ez-Cool, which is covered a bit more in the Paneling section.
But we're not quite there yet. We need to get the Flooring in first!
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