Bear's Lair

[lincolnlerner]

As you know, make sure the hatch supports also hold the hatch from blowing up from wind. Make sure it doesn't rip out the support either.

[Graniterich]

Plus one!

As you know, make sure the hatch supports also hold the hatch from blowing up from wind. Make sure it doesn't rip out the support either.

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[Nobes]

Roger.

[Nobes]

Galley lower cabinet is installed. We damaged the upper right door hinge. Doors need to be taken off anyway so they can clear the metal lip. For now I'm leaving the hatch support on the floor, meaning the door swing is slightly inhibited. I'm just not sure the weight of the hatch on the cabinet on both sides is a good idea. The left hatch support will be on the cabinet above the drawers.

Disadvantages of working without access to the TD: the cabinet unit was VERY tight. I wish I had made it 1/8" less wide. Also, the cubbie assembly (shown sitting on the countertop) should have been adjusted slightly for the power outlets. No idea how I will fix that.

This pic shows the upper shelf sitting on spacers--the shelf will be the last thing in after cubbie and light install.

[KCStudly]

Really is looking great.

Could you get away with shimming the rear and sides of the whole cabinet assembly up a hair to avoid reworking the doors and drawer? The shims would almost disappear into a "shadow line".

[Nobes]

KC, I thought about that, and in retrospect that's what I should have done. Frankly I'm not sure why I decided against it. I even have some extra 1/4 alder from making the door faces. But, I ended up taking the doors off and trimmed the bottom of each. The left door now fits fine. The right door, with the damaged hinge, I decided to try to straighten it out and thought I had done so but when I put the door back on there's still an issue. I have an extra hinge and will replace that today. It also may need one more pass on the saw, and both might need 1/16 off the top. I better be careful here you can trim too much!

Cubbie repairs: I went old school and pulled out my miter saw and -- BY HAND -- cut about 1/4" off one of the dividers. For the other one, the miter saw wouldn't fit in the space so I had pull out my coping saw! There's a blast from the past.

After installing the cubbies, and then putting my trusty toaster oven up there, I kinda wished I had made the cubbie thing only about 3/4 long instead of all the way. That still may change, but for now the whole thing is installed and the toaster oven will just travel in the truck.

My friend Spoons, who's going with me to Grand Canyon & Utah, came over to help with wiring up the lights and final installation of the cubbies & the shelf. Here are the results. There's still some fine tuning to be done, and it may or may not get done before this trip, but these pics show the galley is ... probably 92.7% done.

It ain't perfect, but I am very pleased with how this came out.

[KCStudly]

Looks awesome!

[Nobes]

The new galley & cubbies was a huge success on my latest trip. The cubbies helped tremendously with ease of use and organization of things you use every day, multiple times a day. I think I will eventually add a shelf in the open cabinet on the right, as that will enable me to use all the available space.

We traveled over 3000 miles, and spent 9 consecutive nights in the TD. My longest trip by far. The truck & trailer performed with excellence.

The only negative of the trip was that I flipped an ATV and hurt my leg, cancelling all hiking in Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Canyonlands. I was (still am) on crutches and couldn't even go the half mile or less to additional viewpoints in Bryce, Arches, and Canyonlands.

Already wondering, what's my next trip?