Pete & Teri’s Next Big Adventure

I’ve been making lots of rough sketches, trying to figure out where to put everything for practical, aesthetic, and weight-distribution reasons. I really like the bed in the middle with cabinets to either side, but those cabinets would be only about 7″ wide so it’s probably not the most usable plan: A more careful measurement shows that there would be 9+ inches on either side, so this looks like the plan!

Here’s a quickie photoshop visualization of what the bed area would be like with this plan (the right-foreground area would have a stove, not another sliding door. I was too lazy to photoshop out the ugly speaker arrangement from the donor photo):

The other prime candidate is a partial mirroring of the usual westy layout, with bedside cabinetry running along the passenger side, the idea being to balance out the weight of the kitchen on drivers’ side. Picture the bed and bedside cabinets switched in this pic:

Whichever way I go, cabinets will only go up to window level, to keep the excellent visibility and make the camper feel more open (except behind driver/passenger seats, where I can go a little higher without losing my view of other cars)

Now you know why I’m a programmer, not a designer :-p

Jalousie window for the sliding door:

This one is not under serious consideration, but it’s fun playing with the plate configurator on the NY State DMV website:

My dog and her toys, chilling inside my toy.

The front left marker light/turn signal wasn’t working, so I grabbed a spare bulb and opened it up. Somehow, water was getting in there; the orange plastic lens let a few ounces out when I tilted it. There doesn’t seem to be a gasket between it and the body, will have to go hunt that down. Here’s what I found inside:

Ewww!

A $5 socket from the auto parts store brings me tantalizingly close to inspectable…I’m not anxious to tackle the horn, but it must happen soon…

Greyhound package express is totally the way to go for shipping big, unwieldy stuff. One and a half days to get a big package from Alabama to Brooklyn, and at a pretty reasonable price.

Here’s the hardware and wood for the bed.

The laminate on the visible part (with the door) is mostly good. There’s one big chip, so that’s where the heat vent will go. Only the bottom board is bad, but I just need that as a template for mounting the hardware; putting this bed in the Vanagon will require a totally custom bottom. The sides will probably only serve as templates too.

Preliminary fitting (ie, holding one part of the bed against the engine firewall and fantasizing about camping trips) suggests that the height will match up pretty well with the rear deck. (EDIT – HA! It’s actually a couple of inches high and I’ll have to build a short platform in the back, but that will make a nice storage space for the solar panel and other flat objects)

Not sure if the rear cushion will fit, it comes tomorrow, but overall the bed area should fold out to about 75″x46″. New covers will have to be made immediately; the 37 year old mucous-colored vinyl is not to my taste.

Westy!