articulate
Expedition Leader
Moving down the road: a mid-project evaluation
Water Tank and Shower
I’m going to search for a slightly larger tank of 16-18 gallons. As it turns out, we tend to use this water source for cooking, washing dishes, and showering only (drinking water is stored in a 20-liter Scepter water can). A single econo-shower can use 4-6 gallons, and since the Sureflo pump can crank out 2.8 gallons a minute it can deplete the source fast at full speed. Washing-n-cleaning water is easy enough to replenish if we hit civilization, but a little larger tank will be a good thing to get.
The shower is one of these:
Currently mounted inside the tool box on a custom deck, it takes up too much space. The attached hose is 6’ long and often difficult to pull out and/or stow. While the shower head has two settings – a spray and a stream – it is not trigger-actuated. A sprayer with a trigger would work much better. So here’s my idea for improvement: make a 6’ long hose with a trigger sprayer and a quick connect that “plugs” into a female port mounted on the truck somewhere clever. This would be the hardware:
The reason for this is to save space, and make it easier to use the water supply. We’ll store the hose and plug it in when we want to use it. I think I need to put a valve in the line as well; turn on the water, open the valve, and hit the trigger to release the water. Another dude has done something similar:
I don’t have a photo of the tool box showing how the water pump and shower is situated in there. Bummer. But I’m going to move the pump out of there, too, thereby freeing up a bunch of box space where I’ll probably put tow straps, gloves, and other utility or recovery items.
Bed cap / platform / deck
This is going to be exciting. I’m building a bed cap with a steel (tube) frame where I’ll be mounting a pair of Yakima load bars with their custom mountable Control Towers. This photo shows my concept, but not my execution:
The tent will attach to the load bars. ROCK ON. Also, the load bars will be long enough to allow me to tote two bikes, one on each side.
I believe I’ll be able to incorporate my water chuck on this cap, perhaps in a protected box with the valve and a switch for the water pump . . .
Drawer Storage System
I’m in the concept stage. On our last trip into Baja, it occurred to me how I could do a drawer system in the bed. Currently, we have this large Rubbermaid bin where we keep all the camping supplies other than the bedding (which remains in the tent). The bin is about 15” tall, 30” long, and about 22” wide – I’m estimating here. I thought, “Hell! Why not build a weather proof drawer box that’s about the same size, but longer to take up the space from the tailgate all the way back to the tool box?” We’d store the camping essentials in there: headlamps, extra batteries, the stove, flatware, plates, paper towels, pots, etc etc etc. Plus, I’d be “creating” a little more space (save the Laws of Thermodynamics).
Fridge
I know I’m going to end up getting one of these. I almost don’t want to, but Brooke thinks it’ll be the coolest thing (so to speak). Here’s my issue: It can’t be any taller than 18”. It absolutely must go in the truck bed instead of inside the cab, and I’m limited to an 18” working height with the bed cap in place. I like a good challenge.
The Rear End
I've installed a gas spring to the swing gate, which is frickin' sweet. Remember when I told you all about the nasty dents the swing out caused because the gate stop was welded in the wrong place? (Here's a photo, the story is at the bottom of this page). Well, this gas spring props the gate open now and doesn't allow the gate to swing freely. It also makes the gate "feel" good when opening and closing it since it has a little pressure pushing it open.
And I figured out the hi-lift jack mount - in my original attempt to mount a jack, it appeared I needed to remove the jacking mechanism from the ladder. Not so! But I did have to hammer one of the mounting points to get the bolt to line up with the holes in the jack ladder. Sierra Expeditions provided the new 48" Hi-Lift X-TREME.
And I picked up a fuel can holder from the gentlemen at Adventure Trailers, which I think I'll have welded in place of the current fuel can holder:
It'll look sweet.
There you have it. You do a few trips and you go, "Hey! This doesn't work like I planned." So you have to re-engineer a few things from time to time. But it sure is fun.
:beer:
Kind of a clever idea, actually, but entirely cost prohibitive. With two fridges you could keep a bunch of popsicles and ice cream frozen while keeping fruits and veggies chilled. Not bad.
