Projects

When I brought my camper it was fitted out pretty well. It had lots of cupboards and storage. The bed area was large enough to sleep in and it had a fridge and stove. It was not yet really fitted out for full time living though. So I have a few projects underway to ensure that I can live in it full time. All projects have to provide a practical benefit to me, and have to add the minimum extra weight to the campervan.

Bed area.

The bed area in the campervan was actually designed to be converted into a table during the day. Living on board full time however really meant that I was not keen to use the bed area as a table. It would be a real pain to have to make up the bed every day. In addition the mattresses that came with the bus were not very comfortable, so I wanted to add a thicker mattress which would mean that the bed could not be converted into a table without moving the mattress The table also was raised using a sort of spring mounted lifting mechanism which, combined with its feet, made it very hard to use the space beneath the bed / table.

I decided to do away with the table and use the area exclusively as a bed. To this end I removed the spring loaded lifter altogether. This was a saving of about 10 kilograms. This opened up the area beneath the bed for storage. It also meant that the bed would no longer be able to be used as a table, but this was not a problem.

Desk and book shelves.

I like to read. I also have a number of reference books that I really wanted to take with me while living in a campervan. I considered that it would be great to have a desk on board. But where to put it? When I got the van it has a big 54 litre, 240 volt fridge. It also had a huge full size four burner stove. Both weighed about 140 kilograms put together. That was a lot of weight. The stove in particular weighed a lot. I wanted a three way fridge, one that could run on 240 volt, 12 volt or gas. My whole solar power system was designed to power a 12 volt fridge.

I had my mechanic remove the old stove and fridge when he put the hot water service in. This was a bonus as he was building his own camper and only charged me for the materials for the hot water mount if he could keep the stove and fridge. His labor and the welding was done free.

The big space where the old fridge had been started me thinking that I could convert it into a desk. When my neighbor brought a new big desk, he offered me his small one for free. I measured up the space where the fridge had been and cut up my neighbor's desk accordingly. I wanted a nice bit of wood to go against the bare metal of the bus side. I picked one up from a hardware store for free as it was a demo piece of excess stock no longer being sold.

The shelves of the desk each are angled about 15 degrees towards the side of the bus to help hold books in to the shelves. In addition each shelf has a bit of doweling to help hold books in place. The top shelf also has foam padding to help cushion the books. A little bungee cord hooked onto specially places hooks holds my chair in place while traveling. Under the back of the desk top there is three 12 volt cigarette type outlets in place to provide power to my laptop computer and printer.

Fridge.

The three way fridge was another eBay purchase. It is an absorption type. It uses excess heat to cool things. When I first plugged it in I discovered that it would just run overnight and would get the deep cycle batteries down to 11.6 volts. Not good. Then I read a book which suggested that placing baffles at the back of the fridge and using fans to suck the warm air out from the back of the fridge would make it more efficient. I cut two holes in the interior side wall of the bus and one in the outer wall. I put a louvered vent on the outside and covered the exposed surfaces with lots of rust proof paint. (I hate rust). I then glued two computer fans on the interior holes to suck air out of the bus. I hooked them up to the 15 watt solar panel which provides power to five vent fans in the campervan. Lastly I built an airtight baffle to ensure that the vent fans will remove warm air from the top of the back of the fridge.

This system actually works so well that even with the fridge switched off, the fridge is still cool inside. It actually does cool things inside of the fridge purely by sucking air out through a vent in the side of the bus at the back of the fridge. I can take cool drinks out of the fridge during the day without even needing to switch it on. I need a timer or a thermostat to control power to the fridge now to keep it cool at night.

The fridge in place in the campervan. At the back a vent sucks air out.

This is the baffle this wooden board has a space between it and the wall Barely visible here is one of the computer fans. The wiring at the bottom is outside of the baffle and supplies 12 volt to a plug at the back of the fridge.

Water system.

The first project was fitting of an electric water pump, a gas hot water service and new piping to provide a reliable source of hot and cold water. More details here.

Bath and toilet area.

The campervan used to have a three seater bench seat behind the passenger seat. This seat was a bit redundant, as the camper is only licensed to seat two people. This space was an obvious spot to place a toilet and a shower stall. I did have a problem with this however. I really didn't want a full sized shower stall in the bus. The main reason was that it would obstruct vision out of my windows. When driving I can look through the side entry door to check for cars in my blind spots. I do have blind spot mirrors now, but this extra bit of vision helps. It also occurs to me that it would be nice to have a bath in addition to the shower.

So I thought long and hard about methods of having a shower or bath in the van. I thought about having a sort of removable tub in the entry door stair well. Then it occurred to me that I could build a sort of tub / toilet combination with a lid on the top that could convert into a sort of seat or even a small bed if I wanted one. It would mean that wen you went to the toilet your feet would be in the bath tub, and you would have to step over the sides of the bath to get to the toilet. But it would be a neat arrangement with a sort of hide away toilet. The space above the bath and toilet would also be reusable.

Bath amenities.

I had purchased a small bathroom style mirrored cabinet from a sale one day with a mind to using it in the hippy bus. I looked around for places to attach it to the bus but I always had the same problem, mounting it direct to the upper side of the bus was going to mean making some weird bracket to keep it vertical as the upper side walls of the bus are on an angle. One day I thought, well it would fit well into this little nook. If only I had some brackets. Then I realised that instead of bolting it at the back, using the pre-drilled holes, I could mount it on the side, and drill my own holes. It worked. I successfully attached this little cabinet to the side of the bus.

Note the two fire extinguishers in the picture below.

The other bath amenities is the small shampoo, conditioner and soap dispenser. They would help make sure that it was an easy, fuss free way of dispensing these liquids while I am living in the bus. These have been mounted on the wall above where the bath area will be. It adds a bit of class to the vehicle, and is practical.