Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[jscherb]

That is awesome Jeff. How was the trail kitchen received with the final design?

Very high interest in the kitchen. MORryde brought twice the amount of literature they brought lasy year and ran out hours before the show was over. On a related note, I talked to the guys at Dometic, they brought twice the number of fridges to sell that they did last year and they closed their booth and went home halfway through the second day because they sold out. Seems to be a lot of interest in fridges and kitchens this year.

 

[jscherb]

I'm told the Trail Kitchen got a mention in the June issue of JP Magazine but I haven't seen it yet because I'm still on my way home from EJS, the magazine is probably in my held mail at the Post Office. I think it might also be in the current issue of Four Wheeler as well but I haven't seen that either.

 

[jscherb]

At the EJS Vendor Expo a few people a few people asked me if I was going to design a companion cabinet to go alongside the Trail Kitchen, something that would use the space shown by the yellow or green boxes drawn in the photo below. I was thinking the people would rather use that space themselves, or maybe make their own box with drawers or cabinet doors, but what do you guys think? Should I do something there of should I just leave the space for the Jeep owner to use? The cabinet would be optional so people could use the space as they want anyway but I don't know if enough people would want an optional cabinet to make it worthwhile for me to design one.

Or, I could design one to be DIY-built from plywood and let people have the plans for it.

 

[jgaz]

It would be interesting to see what kind of new ideas you came up with if you designed a box.
However, I think many people would probably use the space for their own gear. Also in your photo it looks like a box would intrude into the space where you have the water can mounted to your kitchen. If this was the case I think a box would compromise one of the really useful parts of your excellent kitchen design.

 

[rubicon91]

At the EJS Vendor Expo a few people a few people asked me if I was going to design a companion cabinet to go alongside the Trail Kitchen, something that would use the space shown by the yellow or green boxes drawn in the photo below. I was thinking the people would rather use that space themselves, or maybe make their own box with drawers or cabinet doors, but what do you guys think? Should I do something there of should I just leave the space for the Jeep owner to use? The cabinet would be optional so people could use the space as they want anyway but I don't know if enough people would want an optional cabinet to make it worthwhile for me to design one.

Or, I could design one to be DIY-built from plywood and let people have the plans for it.

Jeff,

I like the cabinet idea but I may be one of the few. The first issue and I know you always address this is price point. The GG is beautiful but extremely expensive so something that enables the masses to afford it would be great to see. I also think if you do the cabinet you should be able to store things above it meaning i think it should be same height as the fridge side but the fridge side would need some sort of top to it so you could easily store long items on top. Like a rear cargo rack. With having the fridge and trail kitchen I am pretty sure none of the cargo racks on the market could fit so usable space up top for chairs and long items would be great.

The other part of the cabinet idea I would love is an easily removable one. You could also design maybe one where front runner boxers fit under the drawer and have a single draw above? That would be awesome or vice versa. Just throwing stuff out. This would be fun to see.

 

[jscherb]

It would be interesting to see what kind of new ideas you came up with if you designed a box.
However, I think many people would probably use the space for their own gear. Also in your photo it looks like a box would intrude into the space where you have the water can mounted to your kitchen. If this was the case I think a box would compromise one of the really useful parts of your excellent kitchen design.

I drew the boxes as if the water container wasn't mounted, but the boxes could be narrower so the water would fit.

That's what I'm thinking, I suspect many people would want the space for their own specific needs rather than getting a ready-made box/drawers, etc.

Jeff,

I like the cabinet idea but I may be one of the few. The first issue and I know you always address this is price point. The GG is beautiful but extremely expensive so something that enables the masses to afford it would be great to see. I also think if you do the cabinet you should be able to store things above it meaning i think it should be same height as the fridge side but the fridge side would need some sort of top to it so you could easily store long items on top. Like a rear cargo rack. With having the fridge and trail kitchen I am pretty sure none of the cargo racks on the market could fit so usable space up top for chairs and long items would be great.

The other part of the cabinet idea I would love is an easily removable one. You could also design maybe one where front runner boxers fit under the drawer and have a single draw above? That would be awesome or vice versa. Just throwing stuff out. This would be fun to see.

All good points, thanks.

Easy install/removal is part of the plan, it would attach to the same no-drill mounting system that the kitchen uses.

Probably the best thing for me to do is to build an example and make the plans available so DIYers can build their own to those plans or modify the plans to suit their needs. Plan would show how to mount it to the kitchen mounting system.

 

[jgaz]

I agree with Rubicon91. I find the roll bar mounted cargo basket in my LJ very handy for long items such as my my tent, chairs etc. (Pardon the “under construction” version 3 photo)


That being said, I’d be very interested in seeing the drawer design your creative mind comes up with.

 

[jscherb]

Back from Easter Jeep Safari now, this morning I installed the new Trail Kitchen in my Jeep. Here's a quick video showing how the Trail Kitchen deploys and stows. The entire video is 46 seconds, and in it I deploy the kitchen, wait a few seconds and then stow it.


Also this morning I implemented the sink option. The water source is a Rotopax mounted to the Trail Kitchen's side Molle/Rotopax panel. It can be set up to be gravity-fed, but I've set it up with an on-demand pump - turn on the faucet and the pump starts, turn off the facuet and the pump stops. If you listen carefully you can hear the pump start and stop over the background noise.

 

[jscherb]

I agree with Rubicon91. I find the roll bar mounted cargo basket in my LJ very handy for long items such as my my tent, chairs etc.

That being said, I’d be very interested in seeing the drawer design your creative mind comes up with.

I've got a few ideas but probably won't get to them for a while, I've got other projects that have higher priority right now. In the meantime I'm very interested in hearing any ideas people have.

 

[jscherb]

A few more views of the Trail Kitchen sink.

The sink drain I chose comes with several options - a rubber stopper, a grille or a drain basket.

I've set up the water source on the side of the kitchen. A two gallon Rotopax.

The sink can be operated with gravity feed but pressure is better with a pump. The pump is behind the Molle panel under the battery but all that's visible is the aluminum mounting plate to secure the pump to the Molle panel.

The hoses to the water source Rotopax and from the pump to the sink use self-sealing quick-connects so everything can be disconnect quickly without leaks.

The water source doesn't have to be mounted to the side of the kitchen, it can be anywhere convenient if it's better to not use cargo space for the water supply. Could be on an overhead/swing-down panel like this one:

Putting it on the overhead panel allows for a larger container, this is a 5-gallon Rubican; a 4-gallon Rotopax fits here as well.

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[rubicon91]

That looks awesome Jeff. Can't wait to see it out on the site ready for purchase. I would love to know how high the slide is in total. I wonder if adding this with my 50qt on it will still fit below the cargo rack I have in the rear of the Jeep. If it does I am going to switch from the arb slide that is currently installed. If not then decision decision. Do you happen to know the overall height of it without the fridge installed on it?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[jscherb]

That looks awesome Jeff. Can't wait to see it out on the site ready for purchase. I would love to know how high the slide is in total. I wonder if adding this with my 50qt on it will still fit below the cargo rack I have in the rear of the Jeep. If it does I am going to switch from the arb slide that is currently installed. If not then decision decision. Do you happen to know the overall height of it without the fridge installed on it?

Thanks Donny!

The tray surface is 7 1/4" above the floor. I think the ARB50 is 20" tall, so you'll need 27 1/4" + to fit under your cargo rack.

 

[jscherb]

This morning I made a cutting board that fits over the Trail Kitchen sink. It's got a raised section on the bottom that fits inside the sink and prevents the cutting board from slipping off the sink. Also serves use as a countertop when the sink is installed but you don't need the sink at the moment, put this in place and gain back some counter space, remove it when you need to use the sink. The faucet swivels up and out of the way when the cutting board is in place. In the photo at right the cutting board is turned over to show how raised section on the bottom that fits into the sink to prevent it from sliding away.

 

[Florida Native]

The hoses to the water source Rotopax and from the pump to the sink use self-sealing quick-connects so everything can be disconnect quickly without leaks.

If you are going to actually use those quick
disconnects as intended (ie actually connecting and disconnecting them many times), I would highly recommend using the metal versions. The plastic ones will break in time.

-Mike



Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[jscherb]

If you are going to actually use those quick
disconnects as intended (ie actually connecting and disconnecting them many times), I would highly recommend using the metal versions. The plastic ones will break in time.

-Mike

Mike,
Thanks for the input. When I sourced these I checked on life expectancy and reliability and here's what they said:

We don't have a maximum no. of cycles before failure occurs, nor is there a guarantee on how many cycles can be realized. However, in testing 10K cycles yielded no failure.

I'll keep testing them in my Jeep but so far I'm very impressed with the ease of use, lack of leaks and the price per connection. If I find that they don't hold up I'll look for an alternative.

jeff