The Ideal Galley?

[jim7310]

I am in the planning stages for my teardrop now and am trying to plan out the galley. I have seen lots of variations on the various site photo albums.

I was wondering if some folks could take the time to explain why they chose to configure their galley the way they did? (Photos would be helpful!).

What are your favorite features of your galley?

What things seemed like a good idea when you built your galley, but you now regret?

What would you add/change if you were to do the galley over?

Thanks for sharing experiences,
Jim

[mbader]

We wanted maximum counter space so I put the stove on a heavy duty draw slide. All the cooking stuff is in the draws under the stove.
Ice box top is more counter space, only thing is you need to get everything out of the ice chest before you start cooking your meal.
The sink is nice but it's not big enough to wash dishes in.
I put wire mesh in front of the upper storage area so you could see stuff.
Surfaces are stainless steel for easy clean up.
The stove is 15,000 btu per burner so you can really go to it.
We cooked dinner for 20 people at a bike race last weekend and it was a snap.

Overall we are happy with the layout.

[IraRat]

No fair, Malcolm--that looks too perfect. Plus, you're 5' wide, right?

And that wire mesh idea is COOL!

[Clay]

Have to agree: Wire mesh idea is COOL!

[Denny Unfried]

I put my pull out burner drawer on the right so it wouldn't be in the way when I wanted to get things out of the ice chest on the left which is on hd full extension slides and pulls out. Four foot wide tears need to use every cu/in of space available.



Denny

[TomS]

Here's my galley.

I'm just finishing my 5-foot wide tear. I haven't camped in it yet.

I tried to adhere to the K.I.S.S. principal while maximizing storage space. One thing I hate about tent camping is having to put all my food in the car at night, then, taking it all out again in the morning. If you leave food out at night, sooner or later, you'll have four-legged company. I like the idea of simply closing the hatch and going to bed.

I used sliding doors for my upper galley cabinets. Sliding doors are easy to make and don't require hardware to keep them closed while towing. The left and center sections have shelves. The right compartment has no shelf to accomodate tall items like cereal and pasta boxes.

On the bottom left, I have a slide out cooler drawer. I use a sliding door bolt to keep it from slamming into the hatch while towing.

The bottom center compartment holds a 7-gallon Aquatainer jug. I also installed 110 volt and 12 volt outlets here.

On the bottom right, I have a small enclosed cabinet. At the top of this cabinet, I have a silverware drawer. The drawer is a little tight for the first couple of inches of travel. It shouldn't open up while towing.

Below the drawer, I have my electrical closet. It holds my battery, an inverter, a charger and a 12-volt fuse box. Not shown on the curb side of the trailer, is an electrical cord hatch for bringing in shore power. The door is held closed with self closing hinges. That should be sufficient since all the electrical components are screwed to the walls and floor of the cabinet.

I used Formica on the counter. I also laminated wood grain pattern Formica to the plywood sides.

You'll notice I don't have a stove in my galley. In order to save counter space and avoid spattering grease on my cabinets, I'll place my Coleman Grill Stove on a stand next to the galley.

[Steve Frederick]

Here's our 'Diner!
The stove slides in/out, and has a tool drawer and a big utility drawer. There's also storage for three 1# propane bottles behind the stove.The drawers can be accessed whether the stove is in or out. We opted for water in a tank below the trailer, fed by a demand pump. The sink slides in/out also. It's really a stainless steel bowl. There's storage in two cabinets below the counter. The two cabinets up top are shallow, for dry goods etc. The center area is Phyll's knick-knackery! We camp in bear country a lot, so the cooler stays in the car.

[Steve Frederick]

Really nice wood work Tom!! Nice use of space too!!
What's the story on the lid props??

[TomS]

Thanks Steve. Coming from a really talented woodworker like yourself, that's quite a complement.

I got the idea for the hatch props from someone on this board. I used 4 kick-down door stops, conduit, and pipe insulation. I cut the end off the door stops and secured them to the bottom of the conduit with bolts. The top is held in place with retaining pins. Pipe insulation hides the conduit and keeps it from scratching my galley.

I've got a slideshow in my site showing this is more detail.

[Gage]

The ideal galley is the one that best fits your needs. Here's what mine looks like.




Have a good day.

[Steve Frederick]

Gage, Is that an icebox or regular fridge??

[randy chesnutt]

from right to left i have my pull out stove from htf and below it is a pull out drawer 12x24. nexts is my 12 v. ice box and nexts to it is another pull out drawer that have all my pots hanging on one side and on the other side is shelfs for can goods. you can lock it out and the top has formica on it to make another work place.then nexts to it is my 10gal. water tank and 12v pump for when you are not hooked up to city water.the switch is above the door. there is a single sink.above the sink is the paper towel holder next to it another shelf and below the shelf on the counter top is a plex-glas lid you push down on and the lid comes up and you put your bread in out of the way on the back wall above the stove is the switch for the ice box.110vac gfi and 12v on the hatch i have two lights set on boxs that makes the lights level when hatch is up and nexts to them on each side is my drop down speakersi like my galley, no regrets and change

[Gage]

Gage, Is that an icebox or regular fridge??

That's an ice box. But before I built the unit that the box sits in, I went down to Camping World and measured fridge's for a later upgrade. Gas, 110 & 12v with the vent out the side.

Also as a side note. With the chop board in place, I have about 3 square feet of counter, plus the top of the ice box.

Have a good day.

[bdosborn]

We wanted maximum storage in ours. We decided to keep the cooler in the truck rather than give up room in the galley. I sized everything around our Coleman grill.




After camping in it, I've gone in a little different direction. I'm building shelves now for more storage in the cabinets. I added a grill to the tongue and we're leaving the full size Coleman at home. We're trying a single burner camping stove instead. We found that we wanted even more counter space. I purposely waited to make the shelves until we had camped in it so we would have a better idea of what we wanted. I'd still install a sink if I were doing it all over again. I just finished building a rack to hold 3 propane bottles for the lower cabinet.
Bruce

[Gage]

Good looking galley Bruce. Now you have a place to put the chop board. Are those to small fans that go into the sleeping area?

Have a good day.