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I use cables and padlocks on all my external goodies for short stints away from the vehicle. My TRED boards and shovel secure with a single cable and padlock. Propane tank and jerry can secure with another cable/padlock combo. If we stop in a town for lunch en route, I'm generally confident...

That's a nice looking ratchet! Maybe I can justify that and putting the breaker bar back in the toolbox... Another pound or two. :D I need to crawl under the rear at some point and check the depths on the leaf spring nuts/bolts - with the right 21mm socket I may be able to ditch the 21mm combo...

OK, here's a first stab at deletion: Thus far, I've shaved about 24lbs from the kit. Most of that (~19lbs) was from swapping out the Bogert Safe Jack/jackstand kit in favor of returning to the factory scissor jack. I still need to fab up an axle tube adapter and maybe an extended baseplate...

Nothing is 100% crazy, but in my experience with Kei trucks and vans - they're optimized for dense city work. Small diameter tires and powertrains optimized for efficient operation in city traffic on relatively flat metro streets. Nothing is impossible with the swift and frequent application...

<headdesk> 12" inches, give or take. If my driveway was longer by like one. stupid. foot.

That's a lot of truck for the money. More truck than I can justify, but still...

I just wish you were closer. Getting into a Khaya from our van would take a bit of selling to the wife, and she ain't making a trip like that on a "maybe". :/

Now we're talkin'. Nice, thanks for the pointer. Don't get me wrong, I think the world should definitely have $50k Turbo 6-speed AWD BMW Station Wagons with pristine leather and 35k miles on the clock, but it should also have $20k examples that have been used like pickup trucks and turning...

I miss the days when you could reliably find a good price on a niche vehicle on BAT. Stuff that only an enthusiast would love and that sometimes actually required one to, you know, bring a trailer to get it home. Now it's all cherry examples going for top dollar.

Waiting to see interior photos. Based on what I know about who's doing the work, I expect it to be done to a very high level of finish, but the real question is whether the Gladiator bed really offers enough space for "family camping".

The XP Camper/Nimbl offerings also are relatively "bolt on". If you want crawl-through/pass-through, you're now into custom build territory. There are a number of composite camper builders who have "standard" packages, so you could maybe buy something pre-fabbed (maybe fabbed for YOU) and then...

I really do dig the Khaya layout. How wide is that bench? Looks like you'd need to double it width wise to sleep someone downstairs...

Fair point - you gotta be able to reach the zippers! I recently relocated my awning up a couple more inches to better clear the slider door. With a 4" lift, I can just do it at 5'7". Sometimes if I park on uneven ground, I need the foot stool (which the wife/kid need to get into the van anyhow).

ARB 2500 has been good to us. It's deep enough to actually provide some livable shade, and the "accessories" system (bug screen room, side shade panels, full tent room, etc.) is really key for us. Easy to deploy solo too, which was important since I'm sometimes on my own.

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So as in my original post, I may need to do as BritKLR suggests and set aside some quality bonding time to go through the rig fastener-by-fastener, but I think at a baseline I can probably safely lose the shallow 3/8" sockets, any of the redundant 1/4" sockets, and verify if I can lose some...

Part 2: The contents of the Bogert Kit (30lbs) - Bottle jack adapters and extensions and a baseplate to use same as a jackstand Tire patch kit and digital torque meter also live in that bag. The bottle jack itself lives in the cubby where the factory scissor jack used to live. The three main...

OK, as promised - the current kit. Part 1: Most of the tools (and some other odds and ends) live in this drawer/box that latches under the bench seat/bed. Here's the drawer pulled out - handles on both ends so I can carry it to the work. Warning triangle and consumables like JB Weld, Hose...

We sleep in our van with a Truckfridge TF49 (upright) compressor fridge. When the compressor cycles on, you can hear it, but it's tolerable. At some point I switched the fan over the coils (PC-style 120mm fan) to a quieter model, which helped the most. I also backed off the mounting screws...

I went with a "hybrid" solution - I have a rigid panel mounted on the roof of the van, but it's mounted in a locking frame so that I can pull it out and deploy it on an extension cord if I am parked in the sun (or forced to park such that the sun-angle doesn't play well with the angle of the...