The journey begins – The black turtle?

[DLN]

Oh Yah, lookin' good, very nice work.

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

Nice countertops, podpal. Nice flush hardware.

Next time, I'm gettin' a shell model!

 

[Yukon]

Congratulations!

I know you will enjoy your camper as much as we do.

Chris

 

[pods8]

Nice countertops, podpal. Nice flush hardware.

Next time, I'm gettin' a shell model!

One of the main reasons I was looking for something around my age bracket of a camper that was still in okay shape. Cheaper than a shell but not too expensive that I'd feel bad for tearing into it.

Congratulations!

I know you will enjoy your camper as much as we do.

Chris

If this sunny weather keeps up (yeah right) I'll be enjoying it and not spending too much time inside aside from night!

 

[pods8]

New bed covers

Got a package from the MIL today with the new mattress covers she was kind enough to sew up for us. I just ordered the foam for the two pieces that will go on the new bed extension so those aren't installed yet but I was able to fit up the matching cover made up for the original mattress section.

 

[pods8]

Queen/King size!

Rest of the foam is here, now we're set for some sprawling in bed:

They package it up rather nicely, this is 77"x30"x4" of foam

Unpacked

King size bed!

Optional queen size as well

Cushions stowed behind the couch nicely for now

 

[Tomas Tierra]

Pod,
Wow, is that ever a sweet upgrade! How is the foam with moisture???

do you think you will ever use the queen option??

TT

 

[pods8]

Pod,
Wow, is that ever a sweet upgrade! How is the foam with moisture???

do you think you will ever use the queen option??

TT

The foam is the same kind of stuff as the stock mattress/cushions (this stuff just happens to be bluish) so it will soak up water as that stuff will if doused but other than that I don't think its an issue. The new covers are made of an acrylic canvas material as well, I haven't checked but I'd guess water probably beads up on it for a bit if you spill something and clean it quickly.

I'm thinking we'll use the queen option if we ever have folks in the camper with us or don't want to carry the extra cushion for whatever reason. The queen version only sticks out into the camper 15" or so which can be worked around, when in king its sticking out 30" and would be hard to avoid with people actually up. Either way the dual cushions are easier to store/maneuver so the queen option was inherently going to happen whether intended or not based on how I wanted things to work.

Next up is convert the lower cabinet over to drawers and build a new front face for the stock drawer which I enlarged to ~12"x4"x18". I still need to get a faucet in there and pump reinstalled. Then couch (I've been tinkering with it some but haven't gotten fully into it yet) which will get matching upholstery.

 

[pods8]

Drawers

Did some rework to make some more functional drawers. The original drawer was deepened to 4" and is now 18" long (width is the same). The lower slider cabinets I pulled out flush with the main cabinets (added about 1.5" in depth) and built some drawers to allow better storage in my mind. I didn't like the sliders much and trying to dig backwards into a cabinet that low forced a lot of stooping over as opposed to having a deep drawer to rummage through. I can just barely fit a 10" plate in there.

Probably will be going out camping next weekend and then I have to turn my attention to getting some doors for the house stained so that will delay and further camper tinkering for a bit.

How I mounted the slides prior to installing the countertop.

New face for the original drawer location.

Reworked cabinet prior to installation

Installed look

And here is one open

 

[chnlisle]

Looks good. Nice job.

 

[Mark W. Ingalls]

Plus, if you inadvertently leave the drawers unlatched, the contents won't automatically end up on the floor.

Well executed, Podpal.

 

[DLN]

Very nice work , I'd say that's the best use of that space thus far, keep up the good work.

 

[pods8]

Plus, if you inadvertently leave the drawers unlatched, the contents won't automatically end up on the floor.

Well executed, Podpal.

Very true. Ideally with those pop out latches like you're using it should be a reminder to push them flush before heading out.

Very nice work , I'd say that's the best use of that space thus far, keep up the good work.

Stain color is a bit off (funny because previous use of the same color, such as the countertop edge and new slide out, matched a lot better) oh well its functional.

I'm pretty sure Mark basically has the same kind of setup but just didn't picture it in his all drawer setup. Down the road I might do drawers under the sink but I'll see how I like to use the space as is, I just knew I didn't like the original lower cabinets so that was a no brainer.

 

[pods8]

Stove. Eventually I'll make a small heat shield for the left side burner but for now we'll just stick with using the right side which shouldn't need anything.

Update: I've used this stove a few times now and the larger (right) burner gets water headed up fast and I don't really notice much for off odors that I'd get a bit of with the original stove. For simmering with the a pot covered it doesn't quite turn quite as low as preferable though but ideally the smaller burner (left) will be good for that kind of stuff, I just haven't bothered to try it out yet.

 

[pods8]

Updates

Installed a shurflo faucet and pump, they are routed to gravity drain back to the tank when the faucet is opened without power on.

Faucet fits nicely under the sink cover

Under counter view of sink all piped up

Plumbing is routed to gravity drain behind 110 breaker box (similar to how pvstoy set his up)

Installed an atwood pilot light religher on the fridge propane. More details here: http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1251&page=4

 

[Phil]

Wow

Great job on all the mods What is the counter top ?

 

[pods8]

Great job on all the mods What is the counter top ?

Laminate over plywood with an oak edge band.

 

[pods8]

Just an update, I converted my single fan over to a fantastic fan with the 6 speed mod. Relatively easy conversion, just remove the insides and lid of the old one and swap the new one in. I may use the spare parts to add a non-powered vent over the bed but I see I'd have to move one of the roof racks so I'm in no rush to do that.

On the horizon in preparation for our trip a month out I finally decided to buck up for a sliding rear window in the truck so we can toss stuff back and forth if we want (getting installed this week). Also this whole time my 210ah AGM's have been stand alone and I've just been charging them up with shore power when I get home from weekend trips but finally decided to pull the trigger on this smaller DC-DC smart charger http://www.powerstream.com/DCC.htm to top the batteries up while driving using stage charging. I plan to mount this right by the batteries so it'll help self correct line voltage losses on the way back to the camper even though I'll likely have oversided wire for the amp draw. I'll have an ignition positive switch to the remote control terminal on this (basically the same as an audio amplifier set up) so it'll isolate itself from the truck when not running, no need for additional relays/isolators/solenoids. It'd be nice to have a bit higher charge rate but for my daily usage verse run time between locations I think it'll handle just fine (however an older version of this allowed you to switch over to 15amp mode so I might look up if there is a way to have that option if it becomes an issue).

 

[rich]

Did some rework to make some more functional drawers. The original drawer was deepened to 4" and is now 18" long (width is the same). The lower slider cabinets I pulled out flush with the main cabinets (added about 1.5" in depth) and built some drawers to allow better storage in my mind. I didn't like the sliders much and trying to dig backwards into a cabinet that low forced a lot of stooping over as opposed to having a deep drawer to rummage through. I can just barely fit a 10" plate in there.


Probably will be going out camping next weekend and then I have to turn my attention to getting some doors for the house stained so that will delay and further camper tinkering for a bit.


How I mounted the slides prior to installing the countertop.

New face for the original drawer location.

Reworked cabinet prior to installation

Installed look

And here is one open

PODS - you do great work! Where did you get those pop out latches and counter top?

 

[pods8]

Mark Ingalls turned me onto them in his cabinet rebuild: http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/index.php?/topic/1526/page__st__10 He got his from Lee Valley for a better price: http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.aspx?c=2&p=41864&cat=3,41399,56514&ap=1

I got mine at a local rockler store which cost more but didn't pay shipping, plus I needed some drawer slides, etc: http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=1376&filter=latch