Got BOB all buttoned up and it looks just like an rpod!
Just kidding, I decided to abandon my build and buy an rpod.
Kidding again! My brother wanted to take his tiger moth on a trip up to Pikes Peak in Colorado and I rented the rpod to go along too
I've always tent camped until now and this was my first experience with a camper. One reason we rented a camper was to find out what we liked and didn't like about it before I finished BOB, and I did learn a few things:
- The rpod towed like a ton of bricks... attached to a loaded cement mixer... attached to Australia. I've towed a 3k lb boat before with the 4runner before and it was like towing a feather compared to the ~2k lb rpod. I bought a 100watt Renogy solar panel for BOB and was planning on mounting it on the roof, but now I'm thinking I should keep BOB as aerodynamic as possible and make the toolbox big enough to stow the solar panel and keep it in there.
- I bought an aquatainer and was considering getting one of the pumps for it, but my brother's trailer came with one and they're not really the best. I don't want a sink in BOB, but now I'm thinking I'll install an electric water pump and either a water tank under BOB, or maybe just have it pump from the aquatainer, and have a hookup for a hose so I can run water to... wherever. BOB's fenders are big enough to stow two aquatainers each so I could bring along 28 gallons of water if I made some mounts for them.
- We didn't really like having to open cabinet doors inside the rpod to stow things, so the interior cabinets in BOB may turn into shelves
- My brother's moth has a pretty cool attachment point system on the ceiling where you can string things up with carabiners, bungee cords, and bungee cord nets. I might add something similar.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled build... haven't made too much progress due to the trip, but I did make some:
Wired up the clearance lights and the brakes:
And then the next step was to figure out what to do about a galley countertop. I wasn't exactly sure what to use, but knew I wanted something interesting, so I decided to make a butchers block for the counter out of 1x2's. Starting to cut:
Gluing and brad nailing together:
Time to cut it down to size. A little scary, but it came out the right size:
Then it was time to customize it a little. Tracing a stencil into the wood with a razorblade knife:
And burning the design into the wood with a soldering iron:
And we have BOB!
And finally we sealed it with food safe mineral oil that deepened the colors a little bit. I wish it had a little more of the purplish wood running throughout it, but we ran out of it and the back part of the counter will be covered by some of the cabinetry so I think it'll turn out just fine.
That's about it for now. I also started polyurethaning the beginning of the cabinets I installed a few weeks ago so I can install the countertop without worrying about spilling polyurethane on it. Next up is finishing out the galley cabinets so I can start installing things like the PD 4045 and doing some wiring.
by Camp4Life » Mon Aug 22, 2016 9:08 am 
