Expeditionary Galley / Kitchen from Maxing Out

[maxingout]

Preparing a vechicle for an expedition around the world is like solving a puzzle. The pieces of the puzzle are well-known to all expeditionary travelers, but the size and placement of each piece in the puzzle varies with the experience and priorities of those making the trip. Most adventurers take similar gear, but the way they solve the puzzle is different. That's why it's helpful to look at other vehicles to decide your priorities, and how you will solve the puzzle. I like websites like Graham Jackson's Land Rover website because his solution to the puzzle has been tested on the African continent.

After preparing five Defenders for expeditionary travel, I am now deciding how I will solve the expeditionary puzzle on Defender number six. My first step was to install a Brownchurch full length expeditionary roof rack. Now that the roof rack is in place, other pieces of the puzzle are coming into focus. http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/71806-Land-Rover-Roof-Rack-Flooring-Red-Wood-Composite-Construction

One of my highest priorities is to set up the Defender so that it is easy for my wife to do the things that she enjoys doing. The most important vehicle modification for my wife is the expeditionary galley / kitchen. If the galley/kitchen is easy to use, if it is user friendly, then meal preparation and clean up will be a joy. If chaos reigns supreme in the galley and meal preparation is an ordeal to be endured, then the trip is not nearly as much fun. Therefore, the first major interior vehicle modification I have made is creating a galley / kitchen that works for her. All other interior vehicle modification will work around this galley because it is the most important piece of gear for my wife enjoying the trip.

Although I am not a woodworker or highly skilled craftsman, when I build something for expeditionary travel, I make it strong. The rigors of expeditionary travel results in a demolition derby when gear is not up to the task. It doesn't have to be pretty, but it must be durable and strong.

I don't have fancy tools, and I don't use nails or glue. My fabrication is always the same - plywood, screws, aluminum pop rivets, and aluminum angle iron. I developed my basic construction technique in Saudi Arabia because I didn't have much to work with when I made gear for my Defenders.

I went to Lowes for the drawer sliders, and I had Home Depot cut up all the plywood for the project. I also picked up the aluminum angle iron, rivets, and screws at Home Depot. The door latches are magnetic from Home Depot. There are no hinges. Polyester chord supports the galley work surface, and the handles are also made from polyester chord. It's a very basic design that my wife likes, and since she is happy, I am declaring this project a success.

The expeditionary galley / kitchen was my highest priority, and I will procede to build other modifcations around my wife's galley.

Here is what we have created:

 

[maxingout]

Basic box construction with birch plywood, aluminum angle, and rivets. Nothing complicated using only basic tools.



Sliders from Lowes consisted of one double deck narrow slider and one double deck slightly wider slider. I could have used two narrow sliders if I wanted a narrower box.



Sliders come a long way out giving full access to items in the galley / kitchen.



The wide slider/basket creates space for storage of larger galley items.



Upper level wide slider/basket comes all the way out for good access to big items on upper level.



All four sliders/baskets being used.



Comparison of width of the wide slider/basket with the narrower slider/basket.

The door on the box is strong enough that it can be used for a prep area once you pull out everything that you need from the sliders/baskets.

 

[1leglance]

very nice looking and seems pretty strong.
So if I understand you the wire baskets & drawer sliders are combined and came from Lowes? Are they a kitchen thing?

 

[maxingout]

very nice looking and seems pretty strong.
So if I understand you the wire baskets & drawer sliders are combined and came from Lowes? Are they a kitchen thing?

They are a kitchen thing. They are called Double Tier Wire Baskets, Rev-a-Shelf 5 WB Series. Here is the link where you can see some pictures of the mechanism.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=21827&utm_source=Nextag&utm_medium=CSE&utm_campaign=V9124&utm_term=Rev-a-Shelf

Click on the larger images and you will see how they are set up. They come in different widths depending on how much storage you want to create.

Our priority was to pull as much of the galley gear into one single location rather than have it spread out in three or four inconvenient locations in the truck. It is more convenient and less frustration trying to remember where you put stuff. If you want a smaller installation, you use one set of shelves that are narrow. You can go wider with two narrow sets side by side. Or you can do as I did with one narrow and one wide. You can also vary the height of the baskets and height of the enclosure. I could have made ours four inches shorter without any problem. It's a flexible solution. My wife wanted one wide and one narrow wire basket, and we made the enclosure height consistent with her packing and use patterns. There is very little wasted space in this solution when you create a basket height and width that works for you.

 

[AeroNautiCal]

That's a very neat, modular system you've designed and beautifully constructed, looks light yet strong too!

 

[maxingout]

That's a very neat, modular system you've designed and beautifully constructed, looks light yet strong too! View attachment 82085 View attachment 82084

I used the thinnest plywood that I felt would stand up to the abuse. I didn't have to put the vertical plywood section in the middle of the box. I could have simply put the two slider/basket sections side by side and bolted them together. That would have made the installation narrower if I did that, but I wanted more vertical support on the box. As it is now, I can sit on the box without any problem.

I plan to add some handles/tie down points along the top of the box near the right and left sides. That way I can easily lift the box out and put it in my other truck if I want to use the kitchen in the pick up truck. The same handles/tie down points would be used for anchoring other gear when underway. I will have to see how the rest of the truck design develops to see the best type of handles/tie down points that would be most effective.

I did seal the wood with polyurethane. The first door that I put on the galley showed some warpage, and the people at Home Depot told me to seal the plywood to prevent it from warping. The galley itself won't warp with all the aluminum angle and rivets. I made up a second door and immediately sealed it with polyurethane, and that prevented it from warping. I went ahead and coated the galley with polyurethane to seal the surface as well.

 

[ckkone]

I really like that, nice work...

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

This is really nice, and a great way to use off the shelf items. You should post this to the Kitchen/Chuck Box Thread

 

[maxingout]

This is really nice, and a great way to use off the shelf items. You should post this to the Kitchen/Chuck Box Thread

I am always looking for off the shelf solutions that can be adapted to an expeditionary vehicle. I did not want a bunch of wood drawers that are hard for me to build and that would be heavy. I also didn't want to fiddle around with installing eight different sliders. I took the easy way out with an off the shelf solution. The two slider modules made design and construction fairly easy. The wire baskets are relatively light and create an open feeling in the galley rather than the closed feeling of drawers.

My projects usually take weeks to months because it takes a long time to figure out what I want to do, and an equally long time to find the material that make the project feasible. I happened to be walking through Lowes on other business, and when I saw the slider basket modules, I instantly knew what the next project woud be. I had my wife come to Lowes for a look, and she immediately said it would be a winner.

I think it will take a long time to kit out my truck waiting for serendipity to come along and solve my problems. And if serendepity does not work out, I can always come to the Expedition Portal and see what other people have done. It is an awesome resource.

 

[Ray Hyland]

Cool solution David, thanks for posting it.

 

[Herbie]

Question about the rivets? Did you rivet through the plywood, or just into the meat of it? I like rivets but have only used them in a through-hole capacity on metal - not sure how it would work on something softer.

 

[maxingout]

Question about the rivets? Did you rivet through the plywood, or just into the meat of it? I like rivets but have only used them in a through-hole capacity on metal - not sure how it would work on something softer.

I rivet metal to metal. The way I achieve it is using a 5 mm flat washer on a 5 mm rivet.



I drill the hole in the aluminum angle and wood, insert the rivet, put the flat washer on the far end of the rivet, and then activate the riveting tool. The aluminum rivet pulls up firmly against the flat washer which is then pulled up against the wood.



Just be sure that the rivets are the right length for the thickness of wood and aluminum. Once you have the right length rivet, you end up riveting metal to metal with a sandwich of wood inbetween. It is very strong.

The only place I used screws was on the aluminum angle on the front of the box. If I had used rivets in this location, the inner part of the rivet and associated washer would have made it impossible to make the front door close the way I wanted it to close. On those edges, I used short screws with finishing washers on the outside of the box. Everywhere else the construction was rivets with flat washers.