Van cargo area leveling

06 Express Van.  It's actually a passenger van with carpet in the back, but I have removed the seats and I use it as a camper/cargo van.  The existing carpet is getting destroyed, so I want to level the floor and put something on it that is that perfect combination of "slippery enough that it's easy to slide plywood in," and "sticky enough that things don't slide around every time I come to a stop sign."

Leveling it will be pretty easy.  It's built like a corrugated truck bed, so I'm just going to bevel-cut some ply or OSB strips to fill the valleys and glue it in.  My first desire was to make it something pretty and coat with polyester resin or polyurethane, but that would be slippery, and it would also likely get chewed up pretty fast.

I'm taking nominations for coverings - linoleum, rubber sheeting, bedliner coating, or [insert brilliant idea here]

Alright, let me think this through...

The bare floor is corrugated, painted steel. Tough and not that grippy. Corrugations allow drainage to prevent puddling but are hard for little wheels to roll across. Noisy and probably uninsulated. 

Plastic sheet is tough as well, but slippery.

Plywood is cheap and flat and reasonably impact tolerant. It is also susceptible to water damage.

Berliner coatings of the Hercuraptor variety are fashionable. If they are as tough as the advertising makes them sound, they are probably worth considering.

The fact that you also use the van for camping makes it tempting to civilize it while you have the opportunity. Cheap carpet squares would outlast the factory carpet and be more cargo-friendly.

How expensive is cheap laminate flooring, and how big a beating can it take? You could even throw a little insulation under it and make the van a nicer place to be.

I wouldn't bother leveling the floor. Just go put a couple of horse stall mats down. They're about $50 each and are 4'x6' at your local farm store. I had floor runner from Lowe's in my last Astro. Buy it by the foot at any big box building store..

Not sure I would glue the strips to the steel.  Seems smarter to glue it to a piece of plywood, then put the grippy surface on top of that.

Never know when you might want to take it out.

In my express camper van I had to deal with the seat mount brackets so I put down 1-1/2" foam insulation with plywood over it. 

On top of that I glued a sheet of hardwood look vinyl flooring, may be too slippery for your use, totes and items in the back will slide around a bit while driving if it isn't packed so they can't move much. 

If you want stuff to not move around while only partially loaded, I would think of something along the lines of a floor made of pegboard (not actually pegboard, just a visual)

Make up a couple of dividers that drop in, potentially lock in place somehow?

A concrete self-leveler would be ideal, if you didn't want to drive the van. 

I've used BedRug in two vans and like it a lot. The BedRug for my E350 was shaped to fill the valleys in the floor. They offer a VanMat liner as well.

https://realtruck.com/b/bedrug/v/chevy/express-van/2006/

I'm confused. 
 

A "slippery" floor would only help the FIRST sheet of plywood slide in. I could see that being annoying with carpet, but there are very few other materials that would limit my ability to slide a sheet of plywood in.

My truck has a rubberized mat. I definitely prefer the un-slippery-ness.

I use an old  rug , the type you would put on a hardwood floor , 

Cut it to size around the wheelwells , 

boxes will slide on it a little but not like a bare floor , 

and it cuts the road noise down some......

Not exactly what your looking for, but I have a cheap rubber door mat - the type that a business would use, with the little nubs to catch debris & water - and it does a damn good job of keeping stuff from sliding around. 
 

Of course it's only about 2'x3' so you'd need something larger. 

Level  and insulate it and use these? ^

Maybe some kind of pourable rubbery stuff if you want to fill the grooves. Something fairly tough like self leveling urethane sealant made for sidewalks. That'll give it a little grip in between the bumps. 

Something like a 1.5 gallon pail of Masterseal SL2. Two component product so it cures by chemical reaction, not "eventually" from exposure to the atmosphere. Read the prep steps carefully..

BedRug comes pre-cut, pre-formed, and pre-grooved. I've spilled water, oil, various cleaners, and gasoline, on it and they all just bead up and wipe off.

I'm not affiliated with them, I just love their product.

Bedrug 100% = way better than any DIY option and not that expensive.  

I do love the bedrug product, and it's not terribly expensive (around $300), but I'm just exceedingly cheap.

I'll poke around and see if I can find a decent used one.  I think my concern there is the transition from grimy axle smearing junk into the fibers one weekend, and camping the next weekend.  It would mean a removal and thorough cleaning, whereas something solid like a rubber or linoleum would just take some Spray Nine and a rag.

I also like the livestock mat idea.  I've seen what horses do to them, and they usually get replaced every year.  Not planning on transporting 20 ponies, but I would imagine things like longblocks, transmissions, and axles might shorten their lives.

EvanB said:

In my express camper van I had to deal with the seat mount brackets so I put down 1-1/2" foam insulation with plywood over it. 

On top of that I glued a sheet of hardwood look vinyl flooring, may be too slippery for your use, totes and items in the back will slide around a bit while driving if it isn't packed so they can't move much. 

I have the seat mounts as well.  Mine was an 8-passenger, so two rows.  I sold the second seat, and the first row has been collecting dust in my shop for 3 years.  I'm tempted to either cut the rails so that it only holds one row, or just remove them completely.

I wouldn't mind having the pretty laminate part if there was a rubber mat I could throw in there for utility purposes.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I do love the bedrug product, and it's not terribly expensive (around $300), but I'm just exceedingly cheap.

The BedRug company also sells VanTred. Sounds like what you're looking for. I enjoy not spending $ too, but the fact that I didn't have to measure or cut anything to fit was what put me over the edge.

The BedRug isn't really a rug. There aren't fibers for things to soak into. I haven't had to wipe up grease though.

Or once you get your bedrug, cruise around for a Weathertech rear liner from a Suburban or some other big SUV on Marketplace and use that to protect your nice clean cargo area.  Used weathertechs are worth whatever you have in your pocket unless you have a coupon for McDonalds, they are not worth that much.  

By the time you buy materials and your time, you can just buy the bedrug and be out drinking beer by the bonfire.  

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

EvanB said:

In my express camper van I had to deal with the seat mount brackets so I put down 1-1/2" foam insulation with plywood over it. 

On top of that I glued a sheet of hardwood look vinyl flooring, may be too slippery for your use, totes and items in the back will slide around a bit while driving if it isn't packed so they can't move much. 

I have the seat mounts as well.  Mine was an 8-passenger, so two rows.  I sold the second seat, and the first row has been collecting dust in my shop for 3 years.  I'm tempted to either cut the rails so that it only holds one row, or just remove them completely.

I wouldn't mind having the pretty laminate part if there was a rubber mat I could throw in there for utility purposes.

I looked at what was involved in removing the rails and decided to just work around them. With the 1-1/2 insulation in the floor, 1/2 on the ceiling and minimal on the walls it stays comfortable inside for camping. 

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

I wouldn't bother leveling the floor. Just go put a couple of horse stall mats down. They're about $50 each and are 4'x6' at your local farm store. I had floor runner from Lowe's in my last Astro. Buy it by the foot at any big box building store..

I had this same thought when it came to putting a surface in the back deck of the Molvo. I think it was $50 for the horse stall mat. 

The problem is that it stinks. Like really bad to the point where I did not want it in the shop, let alone the car. The horse that lives on it now does not seem to care.

myf16n said:

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I do love the bedrug product, and it's not terribly expensive (around $300), but I'm just exceedingly cheap.

The BedRug company also sells VanTred. Sounds like what you're looking for. I enjoy not spending $ too, but the fact that I didn't have to measure or cut anything to fit was what put me over the edge.

The BedRug isn't really a rug. There aren't fibers for things to soak into. I haven't had to wipe up grease though.

Hmmm.... looking at VanTred now.