Critter bug / Mini Van Conversion

[Staryder61]

Dressed and ready for bed.

Even with the bed on a platform of 12" and 5 1/2" of foam, there is plenty of room, above it for laying down comfortable. Bed is easy to make up with the side and back doors. Laying down with the fantastic fan right above us, will be nice, can reach right up to the switches. It's not loud at all.

, ,

Along the passenger side of the mattress is a little shelf, for phone, and a cup holder circle cut out for no spills, better half always has to have water of a night.. Will make another shelf for the other side later. Threw up a piece of beadboard, temporary, to see how it would work there for storage. A larger piece will work great. And will leave enough room for the bath towels, as I had thought.



Still have to insulate and close in the wall of the van, before going much farther inside. Will hold off on the driver's side, insulation and closing in till I get the solar wiring figured out..

on one item, I'm so glad I had not mounted the countertop down on the cabinets permanent yet. Checking all the lights on the van, I noticed a taillight out. Well, you can only replace them by removing two plastic bolts on the inside of the corner of the van. I raised the counter, propped it up which allowed me enough room to get my hand down in there to replace the light. Will have to come up with a satisfactory fastener to hold the counter down. So, it can be removed without too much hassle.

[Staryder61]

Received notice that my renogy solar starter kit and extras had finally been delivered to post office this morning.

https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocryst ... 05-20&th=1

Now, hopefully, spend the next couple nice weather days and get the top of the van finished sanded, primed, painted. For the installation of the panel.

[Staryder61]

Weather has been beautiful around here in Texas.
So decided we needed to just spend some time for us and get away, here and there.

Critter Bug has worked out great even though we do not have it completed yet. It is campable and was ready to hit the road.
We have so many great places around us to go camping and never have to go very far to get there.

Recently we drove to Colorado Bend State Park for what we call a day trip. (Where we pick a nice area, drive there and check out the camp grounds first hand before reserving a spot). Most all spots were for tents, little disappointing.
A few sites were accessible to small campers, though they were a hike from the river. Not for those with bad backs or knees. And all camp parks were filled in the area.

Saw a couple really kewl things on the way.
Ostrich farm was awesome, must have been 100 of them in those pastures.



And of course a very old barn or maybe even a house, by the way it's built.



The Critter Bug did great on this trip, we topped out at 29 miles to a gal. on the highway fully loaded. Probably do even better with a good tune up.

Then this past Thursday we took a one niter camp fishing trip, just to get away for a day..
A beautiful spot on a river. COE park. Hour away.



Had water, no electric, fire ring (Fires Banned at this time).

We grabbed the end camping spot, and was just a few yards from the river bank.

Set up camp was quick. And was fishing before we knew it.



Dinner was Gourmet Hot Dogs, cooked via the bbg grill, chips and Diet Dr Pepper, with great conversation ending with a scene like this



before bedding down for the night.

Goes to show you, you don't have to drive for hundreds of miles sometimes to make some great memories. Sometimes, some of the best ones can be made right in your own area, (almost your back yard so to say).

[bdosborn]

Looks like a great spot, how did you sleep?
Bruce

[MickinOz]

Ostrich farm was awesome, must have been 100 of them in those pastures.

Ostriches, eh?

A South African or two of my acquaintance say you can make very nice biltong from those big birds.

[Staryder61]

Looks like a great spot, how did you sleep?
Bruce

We slept great Bruce, this time was on the 4 inch foam folded mattress we'd purchased.
Usually have a 1 1/2" egg carton foam pad to help. Not sure why we didn't take it this time.
I can stretch out all the way, plenty of room. I'm 5' 10" tall. Mattress is a full size 54" wide X 6' long.
In this mini the fantastic fan is right over top of us. Very easy to reach. Started with it on speed 3, pulling in. Sometime during the night I turned it down to speed 1, was to chilly.

Only thing that was annoying was the guy, about half way down through the park with the generator that he ran all night.
I'm a firm believer, if you use a semi-primitive site, that has water somewhere (and no electric)
then have the courtesy not to use a generator after 8 pm.

[Staryder61]

Ostrich farm was awesome, must have been 100 of them in those pastures.

Ostriches, eh?

A South African or two of my acquaintance say you can make very nice biltong from those big birds.

Mick, and here I was just thinking of breakfast and maybe the size of those eggs.
Ok mate, you got me once again, I had to look up biltong.
and yes it says beef and ostrich make good biltong
Well a lot of meat in that one pasture there.
And we saw some more down the road
I rode one years ago, didn't stay on very long. It had other ideas.

[S. Heisley]

I'm happy to see some successful van conversions here. I suspect these may become the favored camper of the future, especially if gas powered vehicles become "dinosaurs" of the past. I'm watching for a really good electric/solar powered van to be offered to the general public in a few years. Amazon is already using solar power on their vans. We'll see how that goes. Yes, an easily pulled in and out conversion for vans would probably sell well!

[Staryder61]

I'm happy to see some successful van conversions here. I suspect these may become the favored camper of the future, especially if gas powered vehicles become "dinosaurs" of the past. I'm watching for a really good electric/solar powered van to be offered to the general public in a few years. Amazon is already using solar power on their vans. We'll see how that goes. Yes, an easily pulled in and out conversion for vans would probably sell well!

Thanks for joining in here Sharon.

For almost 2 years now. We've lived in a 33 foot travel trailer all the time. It's just to big to drag around all the time for a couple nights or week here or there.

This van was a do for a camper or not have a camper. We love to get away and go fishing.
So after the tear drop didn't work out. We flipped a coin. Decided to do the van and shopped around for a good deal.

Oh I still love the idea of a tear drop. Just not in the cards for us. I was to old to start another one from scratch. And with materials getting harder to find and purchase.

These vans are weather proof. No problem getting them registered and titled. Already have the basics. Do the building inside that you want. Make it yours.

We love ours. We have everything that was going to be in the tear drop.
If something were to happen to our van and need to replace it. I built everything to come right out of the back and go in another van.

Can always step up to a bigger van if needed later on. Maybe like the one Bruce is working on here :
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=74509
I watch and follow what he does all the time..

I don't think the vans will ever replace the home built trailers. People have been making them forever.. And will continue to do so. I do believe material, wood specifically, will slow some of them down being built. Quality of material is not what it used to be. Then there's the shortage of the product. Prices going up and up won't help either.

S. Heisley wrote ' Yes, an easily pulled in and out conversion for vans would probably sell well!

Sharon, I just mentioned that the other day to my wife. We could set up a shop, crank out the cabinets for conversion vans. Same type Cabinet Shop I had years ago. Actually still have a lot of the tools.

[MickinOz]

Ostrich farm was awesome, must have been 100 of them in those pastures.

Ostriches, eh?

A South African or two of my acquaintance say you can make very nice biltong from those big birds.

Mick, and here I was just thinking of breakfast and maybe the size of those eggs.
Ok mate, you got me once again, I had to look up biltong.
and yes it says beef and ostrich make good biltong
Well a lot of meat in that one pasture there.
And we saw some more down the road
I rode one years ago, didn't stay on very long. It had other ideas.

You rode one? Legendary!
If you ever meet a South African, get him to steer you in the direction of some good biltong.
Seriously, good biltong relegates jerky to second place.
\

[Staryder61]

I rode one years ago, didn't stay on very long. It had other ideas.

You rode one? Legendary!
If you ever meet a South African, get him to steer you in the direction of some good biltong.
Seriously, good biltong relegates jerky to second place.
\

Well to ride one was many many years ago, when I was a much younger man.

Oh, and I love my jerky. Have an uncle that has made jerky for years.
Read some more on the biltong. Looks interesting to try some time.
Is it salty to your taste? Or bitter with all the vinegar?

Our family loves smoked meats. Ribs, brisket, beef and pork, fish. Usually fixed in a metal, BBQ grill/smoker.
Though, one of my near future projects is to build a wooden smoker, to cold smoke.
I've had the cold smoked meat. Cold smoking is so much more favorable then in a grill/smoker.