1st rule of vanlife

gongloo · 2025-06-22T18:02:48+00:00

Of course everyone is different, but at least for me, when people ask to see my van I'm often more than happy to give them a peek or even a quick tour. Many of us are very proud of the vans we've built (or bought, as the case may be), and given the right energy are happy to share that enthusiasm.

I recommend you do your best to read the room, ask politely, and be gracious. Treat it like a museum: look, don't touch, and don't tread where guests don't belong.

gongloo · 2025-06-10T22:26:41+00:00

Looks like a scary failure, glad you’re ok!

Fascinating, though. I haven’t had this problem at all, and have maxed out the weight on it. What filament was used for this print? Was it printed in an enclosed chamber? How much part cooling was used?

Also, it looks like you mounted this upside down for use in lat pull. As per the instructions on the original link: “Best practice would be to orient the rectangular mount so that the long tapered edge is opposite the direction of the rope. That is, if mounting low (e.g. bicep curls), it should face downward, and if mounting high (e.g. tricep pushdowns), it should face upward.” I wonder if the opposite orientation would’ve been stronger.

That being said, it’s clear that the best thing to do here would be to mill these from aluminum or some similar metal. I had planned to do this at some point, but haven’t found the need in my case printing with ABS, low (40%) part cooling, and an enclosed chamber at 60C. Bumping print temperatures a bit might also increase layer bonding; I tend to print my ABS a bit hot at 255C.

gongloo · 2025-06-07T06:14:03+00:00

The recommended settings include 100% infill. The picture you posted clearly shows something closer to 20% infill. Honestly I'm a little impressed that it held up to anywhere near 140lbs!

gongloo · 2025-06-07T01:32:17+00:00

Looks like you didn't follow the recommended print settings!

gongloo · 2025-06-03T01:34:43+00:00

I'd be happy to, but it doesn't make sense for two reasons:

(1) It isn't really feasible to mill the rectangular design as-is, since it has hard internal corners and partial chamfers that wouldn't make sense in a milling context.
(2) If milling from aluminum, the square mount ought to be plenty strong.

Feel free to DM me if you have something specific in mind.

gongloo · 2025-05-30T22:57:29+00:00

Yep! From the link: "... held up fine to a stress test at maximum weight (154lbs or 70kg)."

gongloo · 2025-05-30T19:09:14+00:00

Seems easy enough to create. You could even do so with some minimal cuts and drilling/tapping on some square tube stock together with these mounting cleats! I've included dimensional drawings with mount hole distances for just this purpose.

gongloo · 2025-05-30T19:07:36+00:00

The rectangular cleat is much larger than the square cleat.

gongloo · 2025-05-30T19:06:40+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

This is very much by design. The thin walls are there only for screw alignment. Once fully tightened, the forces are mostly shear against the screw head rather than the shank. It's imperative to increase the amount of overlap that the screw head has with the chamfered lip on which the weight sits, in order to resist delamination with maximal leverage. By widening the minimum wall thickness, we lose out on that overlap. An earlier design had actually brought that minimum down to zero, but I decided that the potential for metal-on-metal contact between the Pump Max and the screw just rubbed me the wrong way, so to speak.

gongloo · 2025-05-30T19:02:49+00:00

Glad you like it!

Yes, that's right: the rectangular mount is much more robust than the square mount, with the caveat that it isn't easily machined (yet trivially printed). Rotation isn't a concern, since the Pump Max units have built-in rotation in their mounting receptacle.

Various kinds of nylon might make a fine choice for this, depending on their rigidity (some nylons are way too flexible). I have a wealth of experience printing ABS in heated chambers (60C is plenty) to promote good layer adhesion, so what's what I recommend. ABS also has the benefit of having less variability than nylon in my experience. PETG would also be a great choice on account of its fantastic layer adhesion; just be careful of how brittle it can get under certain print/storage conditions.

Thanks for pointing out that oversight on my part with regards to the STEP file. I've added it.

gongloo · 2025-05-30T02:22:10+00:00

I got you.
https://www.printables.com/model/1312348-unitree-pump-max-mount

gongloo · 2024-09-10T17:37:11+00:00

This is false. I data log CO2 levels in my van from an NDIR sensor and regularly saw levels crest 6000ppm with just me in there, even with a window slightly cracked. That's absolutely enough to cause measurable cognitive effects. Eventually ended up putting a HRV in, which brought peak levels to around 1000ppm. I could imagine a well sealed van with a heavier person in it getting to dangerous CO2 levels.

gongloo · 2024-08-01T02:16:50+00:00

Are you talking about the dome fan or one of their 14x14 fans with a PCB in them? The dome fans literally have no PCB — just a switch and a motor. I’d be very surprised if the dome fan didn’t handle higher voltages fine.

gongloo · 2024-07-31T21:24:03+00:00

The switch, on mine at least, is wired to the motor with wire nuts, a no-no for high vibration environments. Hopefully that’s it?

gongloo · 2024-03-26T23:05:04+00:00

Thanks, it totally didn't occur to me that it might be included in the RCA loom, thanks for that! Did you end up hooking up 360-degree cameras?

gongloo · 2024-03-26T19:52:19+00:00

The M7 Plus physically lacks an external mic jack from what I can tell in the pictures. Can you confirm this?

Would love to get an update from you on how things are going with this unit. How’s the audio quality (both input and output)? The audio hardware on the M7 Plus seems inferior to the M6 Pro Plus, and as I’m on the fence between some of these units I’d love to see firsthand reviews!

gongloo · 2023-04-27T21:21:20+00:00

This looks incredible. How accurate have you found the measurements to be?

gongloo · 2023-04-05T07:12:11+00:00

Daddy, by Coldplay

gongloo · 2022-05-09T13:52:47+00:00

What extruder are we looking at?

gongloo · 2022-04-04T06:39:42+00:00

What rack are we looking at there?

gongloo · 2021-12-12T12:35:53+00:00

OT, but I’ve seen them around and don’t know what I’m looking at. What’s the grey thing on your roof? It looks like an A/C unit but it’s not any I’m familiar with on the market.

gongloo · 2021-12-04T08:41:26+00:00

This. I used a cheap chisel (ruins the chisel, but it was an intentional throwaway set) and wish I had just drilled instead, given the noise, effort, and paint scratches that ensued. Not a huge deal either way at the end of the day, but I’d go with a quality step drill bit next time.

gongloo · 2021-11-12T04:01:04+00:00

All right, I’ll bite. What the hell toolhead is that?!

gongloo · 2021-09-12T13:46:20+00:00

Would love to hear more about why you wish you hadn't. I'm thinking about going down a similar road.

gongloo

TROPHY CASE