So the day is rapidly approaching…I’ve finally made the gray water tank and installed it, we’re just about ready to hit the road…I don’t know what I’ll be posting here, but our trip will be blogged with photos, video, etc at http://www.dingoroo.com
See you on the road!
Someone asked if I had a photo of how the muffler strap went on, and I’ve been dying to play with the new video camera. Result:
Whew! Can’t wait to stop working on it so much and take a trip! ‘Nother month…
Finished up one of the dining/computer tables:
It’s less pretty underneath:
Made an insertable screen with a shrouded fan…not the prettiest, but it’ll come in handy:
The water finally works without twisting wires together etc:
10 gallons of water for hand and dishwashing in the sink cabinet, and storage above tank:
Hasps and padlocks for the Thule pod:
Also got the swingarm for a Westfalia table from Busdepot, but the part that goes on the table is backordered. And topped up the power steering fluid, fixed a dead taillight, put a bit of Marvel Mystery Oil in the crankcase for luck, got 4 new tires put on, finished boxing in the rest of the passenger-side rear cabinetry, found a little rack to hang from the front console, and finished wiring up the solar stuff.
Finally got a 10 gal freshwater tank put in for the little hand/dishwashing sink. Hooked up the pump, and watched my 3 gallon test fill run dry in no time flat.
Lazily, I bought a little GE switchable voltage power supply for $12 at home labyrinth. It converts 12v into 3, 6, and 9, and has one more setting that feeds the 12v straight through. At 3v, the pump wouldn’t run. At 6v, it took about two to two and half minutes to run a gallon of water, which seems about perfect. I’m just gonna wire that puppy in, so the sink can be on “water economy” setting most of the time but put out a fire when it’s needed.
For potable water, there’s a 5 gallon thermos, which in the boonies will be fed by a Katadyn Base Camp gravity feed water filter, which rocks.
Naturally, with so much going right, something had to go wrong. My accessory battery has run very low, and I’ve been driving much more than using the appliances, so I must have blown the fuse (easy) or the relay (annoyingly hidden under passenger seat)…or something somewhere is eating up a lot of juice despite being turned off. I’ll plug in the solar panels while I’m at work tomorrow to fill it back up and figure it out this weekend. I cheaped out a bit on the deep cycle battery (Energizer instead of Optima), home that’s not coming back to bite me. edit: The power sucker was the 12v–>16v adaptor I got for my laptop. I’ll have to remember to unplug it when not in use.
With the cargo area, engine, and thule gear pod all on the back of my Vanagon, I wanted to shift some of the weight forward, so I’ve installed a Saris Bones bicycle rack in a way that the manufacturer never intended.
I drove around bumpy Brooklyn streets all day with a bike on there, plus a bit of highway driving, and everything still seems as tight as it was before. My only concern is that the top straps might slide down, so I’m toying with the idea of putting a big-ass pop rivet through them, but I hate making holes in the van.
It did require two bungee cords to keep the front wheel from swinging around and generally damp out lateral movement, but this is not the rack’s fault; I have a full-suspension bike and had to move the hanger arms pretty close together to get it on there. They sell a thing that goes from seat tube to stem for hanging girls’ bikes and full suspensions, but I’m going to try a giant turnbuckle before springing $25 for each of those.
There’s a cable lock looped through the tow loop and through the aluminum tube that forms the center of the rack. When I’ve got bikes on there, it’s threaded through the frames too.
Finally mounted the solar panels to the roof!
I built a frame with aluminum tubing and mounted it with a hinge toward the front (hence the holes – small, well-siliconed rivet holes) and the back secured on an extra Thule bar I had lying around. The Thule end can be disconnected to raise the panels up to whatever angle gets the best light, and there’s a removable, clear plexiglass shield over the whole thing for hail, road debris, etc.
Also installed some coathooks and invented hardware to mount one of the removable cabinet lids as a dining/work table, but no pix yet as it’s not quite done.