More preparedness...

As we near the start date of our big trip, it's time to check of those last few things that need to get done.

Below, my wife is sewing a strap that we will be using to put a thin folding plastic table under the piece of wood located under the bedding on the backside of the van above the storage area.

Essentially, we are making a prep table we can use at the campsite.  Here you can see the plastic table strapped on, hardly taking up much space in the storage area.

I also added some lovely imitation fur seat covers I bought on clearance. They did require taking the armrests off with an allen wrench and cutting holes for the armrests and headrests.  They look pretty sharp and are very comfortable.

Next, I've gone ahead and attached velcro straps around the galley area of the van.  They can be used to hold lightweight items.  We've also setup a cargo net to help keep things off the ground while we are driving. Nothing is more frustrating then clutter on the ground when working in a small space.

On our last big trip, we had the check engine light come on.  It became frustrating because we couldn't just take it to an Auto parts store as they have stopped giving the free service of reading the faults with their OBD scanner.  In fact, they told me I had to either buy their $200 scanner or go to a mechanic who will charge at least $40.

After talking with a friend of ours, he told us about a how check you can get a tool on the internet that can read the ECU and give you the fault codes, and other data that the ECU collects and display it on an Android smart phone.  I ended up ordering the hardware which is a cheap OBD bluetooth scanner which ranges from $15 to $25 and the software is free in the Google Play market and called "Torque."  It works like a charm.  This particular one I picked up from Amazon.com because of it's very good reviews and build quality.  It is from a company called BAFX.

Finally, my wife has been working on a roof top vent screen that we can velcro on and allow us to get ventilation without the mosquitos.  We'll be making some for driver and passenger side windows next which should allow plenty of ventilation without getting eaten up.

Here the felt heart is to let us know the vent is open.

It's official!

We've taken the next logical step in personalizing Moby. Now it's got it's own custom decal which I designed. Looks great and our van is just a little different than the rest!

More small mods

Just a quick post with more small mods.

I flipped the fridge door so the it opens to the left. This makes it easier to reach in and get items while we are cooking.

The next thing I have done is Velcro a small wattage power inverter to the side of the cabinets where the fridge and table storage is located. Because the 120 volt plugs don't work unless plugged into an outside electrical source, we need a power inverter to run off the 12 volt marine battery. This is useful for charging cell phones at night, running a small fan for cooling at night, laptops, Xmas lights, and anything else with low wattage. For higher wattage items excluding hair dryers I have a 400 watt power inverter I store in the cabinet. Anyway, both power inverters have support to USB charging as well.

The camper an has a particularly bad blind spot on the drivers side due to the closet covering up where a window would be. To help alleviate this situation, I bought some stick on concave blind spot mirrors and put them on the side mirrors. We put them to the test and they work great in the daytime. It doesn't help much though with night driving.

We also bought an expandable 4 pocket cargo box from U-haul for $20. It is particularly useful because the bottom and each pocket has Velcro on it meaning that the bag won't slide around while driving and you can expand only as many pockets as you need. We have been storing items in it for quick reach like food, drinking cups, snacks, etc. I think the only problem we have run into is when fully expanded it takes up a lot of precious floor space so we will need to put a little more thought into this.

Finally, as we sleep in 24 hour Wal-mart parking lots for free, we want to be incognito, especially in the ones that put up signs about no overnight parking. We decided to put up some Velcro strips on the ceiling just behind the seats and attach the privacy curtain to this allowing people to see the driver and passenger seats if the van making us look more like a regular van. This makes us feel a little safer.

Future mods might include a cargo net with command hooks to get things off the ground and I'd like to get a weather station in.

Small Mods

Ok, 3 small mods completed, 2 more on the way.

Sometimes it's nice to see yourself when you comb your hair or brush your teeth, so we wanted to put up a mirror in the van that would not fall off when driving but is removeable when you need it to be.  We looked at mirror decals but you just can't get as clear of a reflection as you can with a real mirror, plus nobody made one small enough.  We wanted to put it on the inside door of the medicine cabinet which is 10"x15". You wouldn't believe what companies want to charge for a smallish mirror.  Finally, we went to the Dollar Tree where I found a mirror for $1 that fit almost perfectly.  We decided to put on some velcro on the back of it that would keep the mirror secure but with a little effort we could pull it out and put it anywhere.  I think with the velcro, we spent under $5 for this simple mod.

We also wanted to have a chalkboard decal so that if the wife and I seperate out and want to leave notes, we could write it on the chalkboard.  We could also add items we needed on a visibile list as we remembered them for the next trip we go on.  We found the perfect decal in the shake of a bag of groceries here:

http://www.amazon.com/Wallies-Peel-Stick-Chalkboard-Accent/dp/B003VTZ83G/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344366475&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=chalkboard+decal+grocery+bag

It was a 9"x12" decal which is perfect as it will hang on the outside of the medicine cabinet.  We spent $12.81 on it.

The next thing I wanted to do was to have wall to wall carpeting that was durable, good looking, easy to clean, and a low profile since the rear set has to slide forward to make the bed.  Rugs can be very expensive, not low profile, and certainly not wall-to-wall. You have to keep this in mind, the inside of the EVC is not all straight lines. There are too many curves to deal with that this option would have uncovered spots.  Next was using real carpet.  We had some scraps for putting in new carpet in the house, however it was going to be painful to cut just right, and painful to clean.  I think the thickness might be an issue too.  Finally, I saw carpet tile.  You custom fit them by using a utility knife. They are definitely low profile, you only have to replace one piece if it gets ruined, and you can just pick up the pieces that are dirty and shake them off.  They only problem is that they don't sell them individually in hardware or carpeting stores so you would have to get a box for $36 to $72 dollars.  After a search on Craigslist, I found a carpet store with a surplus of carpet tiles for $1 a tile. It didn't matter what size the tile was.  We decided to go there and found something that worked.  We needed 5 tiles that were 24"x24" to cover the floor.  They only had 5 tiles that were similar, so we bought them. We would have liked to have more just in case one of the tiles gets ruined, but no such luck.  However, for a $5 investment and about 4 hours of my time, we thought it was a good gamble.

The next two mods are going will be done before we head out on our next camping trip in a few weeks.

Winnebago states that for the EVC you cannot have more than 3 degrees from left to right or 6 degrees from front to pack in order to operate the LP propane tank. The tank operates the fridge, the heater, and the stove.  Exceeding it could be a costly mistake.  I ended up buying these inclinometers because of their 1 degree accuracy:

http://www.amazon.com/Company-306-R--gage-Inclinometer-Gauge/dp/B003D2AVMO/ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1344367190&sr=1-2&keywords=lev-o-gage

We need to get the van level to install these, so we are waiting on the arrival of some RV leveling blocks before I put these in.  I plan to color the danger areas with red so it is fairly obvious when you are able to operate the propane devices.

Finally, the last mod is an awning.  This is going to be handy next year when we are travelling through the southern states where there might not be as much shade.  However, most awnings are expensive and require drilling into the body of the EVC.  You definitely don't want to mess up.   I can't stand the thought of drilling into the van to put on a permanent awning, plus the last owner of the EVC said that a permanent awning will make too much noise while driving.  Awnings like the Fiamma F35 or F45 are very expensive at around $700 to $900 and require permanent mounting.  The Shady Boy awning was the next option at $500 but it too was more than I wanted to pay and was permanent.  On our first camping trip and maiden voyage of Moby, we ran into a friend that had a Westy and this collapsible tent-like awning from busdepot.com.  He spent under $200 for the whole setup and nothing was permament.  The awning can be moved around as well.  We decided to go for this option because it was very affordable and packs down small.  But the real kicker was the ability to add walls and make a screen room or almost a tent (minus the floor).  We were thinking of times were we might go camping and take 2 more people with us.  Yes, the top of the EVC pops up into a 2 person tent, but there is a weight restriction of 400lbs, so if you have some bigger people or if you just want some room to move around it isn't possible. Therefore this option was very appealing to us.

http://www.busdepot.com/details/awning/

It is mounted with strong suction cups. As you can see you can put it on other cars and there is even a kit to have 4 legs and have a complete standalone awning (perfect for covering picnic tables).  Heck, if we add the walls, you have a private space where you can even take a shower using a portable solar shower.

Well that's it for now.  We have lots of other ideas brewing in our heads for small mods, as we have been learning so far that keeping things organized and off the floor is the key to living in the EVC.