The culprit in the tale that went wrong is this little thing... Let me introduce you all to Stihl MS170, a hell of a camp saw, but the bane to my previous build "The Escape Pod Pandemic Edition. V.1.
Because I bought this little chainsaw I all of a sudden realized that I didn't really have any room for it under the bed, so in my infinite wisdom I decided to redesign the bed and storage space.
In the beginning like in every other fairy tale everything was fine. I quickly rebuilt the bed and made enough room for the little chainsaw to live happily ever after.
The chainsaw's new humble abode fit well, but what I didn't anticipate was that we would have a really cold spell this winter where it dipped below -40F. Now, having said that.... -40F isn't that bad, but apparently the jerry can with the gasoline for the chainsaw was left in my van and somehow it must have slid into something and cracked cause one day I could smell gasoline and when I popped op
Well, what else could I do, other than tear it all out?
It was devastating, but it all had to be tossed out...
Might as well start from scratch and since I had to rebuild, I might as well go all out...
Bought some cedar boards, pine boards and a few sheets of 1/2" Baltic Birch.
Began gluing and nailing cedar boards to the ceiling nailers and added 8 recessed LED lights
My kid was enlisted or more or less voluntold...
Cut one piece wall sides in 1/4" plywood and used pine boards for wainscotting... and yeah, he is still voluntold....
Looks a bit different than the previous build, doesn't it?
If you attempt doing this with 1/4" Plywood make sure you add a couple inches to the top so you can adjust the cut, cause the bitch curves when you try to screw it to the nailers and you'll find yourself cutting another piece cause you didn't account for the curve and cut it too short. don't ask me how I know.... just trust me on this one, ok?
Passenger side is now done...
Yeah I know, I make a mess, but it's not like I'm asking you to clean up my mess, so if your OCD is freaking you out, deal with it lol
Before you all go like "What kinda messed up color scheme is this??" hear me out...
I hate the sterile, white, cookie cutter, IKEA kitchen look that every IG "Vanlifer" strive to build, just as much as I've grown to hate the page out of "Cottage Living" that everybody is building. Yeah, I know... my first build was all wood too, so I guess I'm guilty of ripping a page out of the "Cottage Livin
Anyways... Time to build a new bed and storage...
Since I'm going all out on this one I decided to add a compressor fridge in the back. 23 Quart BougeRV compressor fridge for food seemed like a good idea since I'll also add a 30 quart that will hold as much as 40 cans of beer up front right next to my wikkid awesome swivel chair.
Might as well be fancy and put that fridge on a slider.
How do I plan on powering the 2 fridges....
200W solar suitcase should do the trick, but it also need some space so I reckon I'll keep on adding sliders and drawers
Ok, since that seems to work time to figure out how to fit my stove. I might be primitive in certain ways, but there ain't no way in hell that I eat my meat raw. What do you think I am, a savage?
Since I'm already way down the path of fancy schmancy I might as well add a 40" long locking slider for a pull out stove.
Ok, so now we have a fancy pull out stove, I might as well throw a fancy counter top on it so I can use it as a prep station.
I'm sure some of you are just howling over there saying shit like " You dumb SOB, how are you gonna cook with that top covering you stove"...
Well, I'll just take the damn top off and lay it on top of the fridge box I guess. Oh, looky, looky... I can use it as an additional prepping station when I cook.
I'm sure someone will probably point out that it's gonna suck big time to cook if it rains and you're out there trying to fry up a soaking burrito or something, but we will address that issue soon enough...
And since I have paint left I might as well use it...
Time to do some electrical work. Wired up a DC to DC with MPPT Solar controller so I can power my lights and fridges
Man, doing electrical work can be such a pain in the ass...
Oh, yeah.. almost forgot.. I built a new cabinet with a live edge slab of white pine as the cabinet top...
Turned out ok though. Added a Bluetooth transmitter so I can see what the charge controller is doing as it has a lot more information than a battery monitor.
Wired in a quick connect SAE port for the solar suitcase, 2 USB port outlets and a 12v cigarette lighter outlet
Since doing the electrical work was such a pain in the ass I decided to have a little fun and I painted my 5lbs propane cylinder bracket from Power Tank.
Painted the 5lbs tank yellow
Say hello to my little friend...
Yeah, I know.... he wears a mask, but if I have to wear one so does he...
Anyway... since I had a short break from the electrical I decided to test run the solar and without any adjustment to the angle it still pumped out a decent amount of power
Remember the Bluetooth transmitter I installed? Well, it shows that I got 170W out of the panel and with adjustments I've gotten over 194W so I'm pleased with that.
Slightly different when my alternator is charging my house battery...
Since we already established that fancy schmancy is the way we go, I also installed shore power so I can run my lithium battery charger whenever I can get access to shore power
Now, since we're going all out I ordered a 84"x56" Rhino Rack pioneer platform, but by the looks of the package when it was dropped on my door step it looked like it fell off the damn truck, they ran over it a couple times and probably was dragging it under the truck all the way to my door cause they managed to rip the box wide open, threw everything that fell out back into it and taped the
Damn thing had a crack at the base so I asked for a refund, which they gave me and they didn't even ask for me to ship it back.
Since they didn't want it back and they refunded me the grand or so that I paid I decided to drill a relief hole in the cracked rail so the crack wouldn't spread beyond the relief hole and bent it back with a wisegrip before I assembled it.
Looks alright, huh?
Lets fast rewind to the "it's gonna suck big time to cook if it rains" part up there ^^^^
This is why I got the 270 degree Batwing awning and the sidewalls too
It adds on about 120 Sq ft so basically I'll have 120 sq ft enclosed space if it gets shitty outside or if I want privacy
And since my passenger seat swivel I'll have a reclining chair with a window view ...
in my whiskey and cigar bar ....
and if I don't like what I see in my little window... there's always a solution to any problem
Might as well add some wall decorations to make it feel a bit more cozy
Finally it is ready to escape the madness with friends.