A Simple Refrigeration Setup in a Chevy Express

Clean Cargo Area

The Chevy Express is not a large van, so you might describe this rig as "cozy". Steel shelving with tall shelf heights occupy the driver and passenger walls of the van.

The shelving isn't very adjustable, but this tech came up with some easy ways to make it work well anyway!

The shelves have lips, but the tech still needs to store some tall items like parts boxes and liquids for space efficiency. So he simply runs a bungie cord across the front face of the shelf to keep things from falling off a shelf in a hard turn.

Budget Organization

A fairly tall-drawered Husky tool box is situated at the middle of the bulkhead, facing to the rear of the van. He used to have it a bit closer to the side cargo door, but moved it to make more space to enter from the side door.

Some builds block off the side cargo door partly or completely. On a small van this helps to bring the inside out. On a large van, you can block the side door partly and still have enough width to climb in.

He says that the tool box freed up a lot of shelf space and it's easy to see that it's ideal for storing his battery-powered tools and hand tools. A nice side benefit it that tools aren't on display like some trucks - a glance into the van mostly lets you see refrigerant tanks and parts.

He also uses bungie cords to hold his inexpensive organizers closed. The organizers are the simple plastic bin pull-out type. With a bungie in front of each row, he doesn't need to worry about them flying open and they are loose enough that he doesn't need to remove them.

A couple pieces of webbing hold a few short lengths of copper tubing and PVC pipe to the inside of the ceiling. He doesn't need a lot of pipe or tube, so this is a cheap, simple, and quick solution.

The tech has an inexpensive cart to transport his tools, particularly his heavy Veto backpack and his gauges. Carts make it easier to open doors, give you a flat, elevated area to put things, and just generally take a load off.

Tool Kits for a Purpose

The tech has a small Veto bag for diagnosis and troubleshooting and a larger Veto Tech MC backpack for when he needs to pull out the big guns. The small bag is easy to reach at the side cargo door and the backpack is located right at the passenger rear cargo door.

He also has a vacuum bag and a recovery kit. Putting tool kits together is an easy way to speed you up!

Other Stuff

You might notice that this tech carries tons of refrigerant - 11 tanks! But he points out that if you work in refrigeration, this is typical and necessary.

He has a few ladders on the roof rack that get him up high.