Adventure Awaits!

[dentedvw]

I spent some time at the scrap metal yard the other day, and scored some shelving steel that I am going to use to attempt to close up the warning light holes. I also got some square stock that I was going to use to build some stairs that can go in the rear hitch, but this morning I woke up with a brainstorm. While I was there, I also spotted a large piece of aluminum ramp, that was used for wheelchair access. It is complete with aluminum railing, and some bracketry. I didn't think much of it until this morning. Then it hit me. I have to have this!

No, not the entire EcoRoamer, though that would be splendid. The tailgate/deck! I haven't much use for a rooftop platform, but a deck out back, that would be cool. It would mean relocating the lights, and not being able to see out of the back window, but that's okay, I think. I can put up a camera, and use some shallow LED lights.

The scrap yard has lots of aluminum tubing, I can use for adjustable legs, and at one forty a pound, it's not too bad either. Especially for a prebuilt platform like that. I am so excited about it, I think I might go and purchase it today at lunchtime. I am going to remove the railings, but keep the hardware for them. The railing is kind of bent, and unnecessary anyway.
Hee hee hee!

I also purchased a two thousand watt inverter at Harbor Freight the other day, as it was on sale. What are people's thoughts on that piece? Is it worth one seventy? Will it last long? We aren't exactly going to use the heck out of it, not fulltiming or anything. I probably didn't even need one that large, but it was there, and on sale... well, you know. I also got a new welding hood, auto darkening, because it was on sale for Fifty! As well as a lot of other odds and ends for the project, consumables mostly like cutoff wheels and brushes, etc.

I still need to hammer down the final location of all this cabinetry, and bolt it to the wall. I planned on welding nuts to the steel channel behind the wall, and bolting through the plates that are in the cabinets for this purpose. I do love Ikea cabinets. I was also considering putting a bar across the inside back, and bolting them down in more than two places per cabinet, but not sure it will be necessary. I am also planning on putting rare earth magnets in the faces of the drawers and doors to keep them shut while traveling. I have a collection of small magnets I used for a project at work, and they are totally underutilized, holding scraps of paper in my van. Probably another trip to Ikea in the next few days for more cabinetry. Hopefully they have replenished the as is section.

[bunedoggle]

Originally Posted by dentedvw

I also purchased a two thousand watt inverter at Harbor Freight the other day, as it was on sale. What are people's thoughts on that piece? Is it worth one seventy? Will it last long? We aren't exactly going to use the heck out of it, not fulltiming or anything. I probably didn't even need one that large, but it was there, and on sale... well, you know. I also got a new welding hood, auto darkening, because it was on sale for Fifty! As well as a lot of other odds and ends for the project, consumables mostly like cutoff wheels and brushes, etc.

Harbor Freight rules. They just put one in near my house (I used to have to order and have it shipped). It's the Ikea of tool stores .

My two cents on the inverter. I decided to buy a large cheap modified wave inverter and I'm planning to buy a small true sine inverter. I figure the real difference between a cheap one and an expensive one (aside from price and perhaps reliability) is the quality of the power that it makes. For most things the power quality doesn't matter. Box fans, refrigerators, microwaves, etc will run fine on ugly power. For the things that do matter, like flat screen TVs or stereos, use the low wattage nice converter. Our computers, (all laptops) change the AC power to 18V DC. So they are unaffected by the modified square wave.

Nice work by the way. I'm heading to Ikea next weekend to start my kitchen.

[browncrown]

Your rear deck idea with the scrap metal sounds cool. The cabinets are really nice, everything looks like its coming right along

[dentedvw]

Okay, so I spent a few minutes at the scrap yard this morning. Came away about $160 poorer for it. But, I got the aluminum deck, the adjustable leg hardware, one railing, some tread plate aluminum to make steps out of, and a few other odds and ends. I mocked it up real quick, and it looked like this:


Sure, it's crooked, but it's sitting on one leg and a kids picnic table. Yes, I walked on it, I am a clown. I am going to weld a mount for it so that it plugs into the trailer hitch, and has hinges to fold up against the bus. It's not as fancy as the one I posted a picture of, but I spent thousands less, I think. It has to be narrowed a bit, because it's about six inches wider than the bus. I first mocked it up so that it was hanging off the long way, but it would be taller than the bus by about eight inches, so it's a wash. It has to be cut down either way. I liked it the other way, but my wife liked it this way. Probably goes on this way.

[dentedvw]

And yes, it will have to have some lights put on it, they will plug into the trailer harness, which is handy because the deck plugs into the trailer hitch.
I can see us now, barbecue grilling on the back, only a short walk from the "kitchen". Maybe have to make an awning for this thing too.
I wanted a camera on the back anyway, this is just accelerating that idea. Easy for me, because I work with cameras every day. Not these kind though.

[Seeria]

Aww man now I want a deck! Shame on you, giving people deck envy

[Mulelover]

I was thinking of using some kind of Trex decking. It doesn't seem to be too heavy and it won't rot. I'm planning on making just a little 4x8. How are you going to store the deck when traveling. Is it going to just go up against back door?

Bus looks great

Jackie

[dentedvw]

Thanks Jackie! Yes, it will fold right up, and sit against some rubber stops, and probably have a latch to keep it from rattling about when we are traveling. It will be hinged about four to six inches above the trailer hitch, perhaps more. I will hopefully start on the hitch attachment soon, but it's not pressing. I would like to have water on board and working by the end of the month, for our first trip, and things like that take precedence at this point.

[dentedvw]

Thanks Jackie! Yes, it will fold right up, and sit against some rubber stops, and probably have a latch to keep it from rattling about when we are traveling. It will be hinged about four to six inches above the trailer hitch, perhaps more. I will hopefully start on the hitch attachment soon, but it's not pressing. I would like to have water on board and working by the end of the month, for our first trip, and things like that take precedence at this point.

[dentedvw]

We went to Ikea again yesterday. The inside of the bus is starting to look like one of the Ikea displays, you know the ones. They have a sign that says "living in 200sq feet!" Unfortunately, the couch we chose dominates the front of the bus. Since it's only made of steel, wood, plastic, foam and fabric, we are thinking of hacking it to be less obtrusive into the walking area of the bus. Haven't tried sleeping on it yet, but it seemed like an okay choice.
Also bought the cabinet doors. Whoa. There went our water heater money. Looks like the only hot water we will have is from a kettle for a while. Drat. It's okay, I didn't have enough to buy a shower yet anyway.
Assembled and installed one more cabinet, the one that will house the 120-12 converter/fuse panel/battery charger. Going to cut it in and start cabling today.
Also received the under dash stereo mount that we will use on top of the dashboard. Hope to get to that today too. And some plumbing of fresh water, and grey water. Need to mount the tank. Doubt I will get to all those things today, but we will do what we can.
Leaving for Texas next week! Or, somewhere. And I still need to find the coolant leak. Too cold to do that today. Snow should melt in a few days. And make the bike run, the carb needs to be cleaned. Aghhh!
I will take some more pictures today.

[dentedvw]

Not much to say. Got the converter panel in, but not much wired from it. The kitchen is almost entirely assembled, still missing a few doors, one drawer, and still have to hang the last top cabinet. Spent a lot of time getting the cut right on the pantry, I wanted it to match the ceiling, wall, and wire chase pretty closely. Success on that count, but that was HOURS of work. Phew, it's worth it though.


I managed to make the lift bring up one bike, after I spent a few hours making both bikes run. Should have taken more care winterizing them early this winter. I will do a better job next time.
It was pretty sluggish lifting the DRZ, so I am pretty worried about the KTM950 it needs to haul in this weekend, and also the BMW Dakar monstrosity too. The lift chain broke after I had the bike up in there, and it's weird because it broke when the left went down and pressed the ground, when it was totally unweighted. That was a bummer, the chain is in pretty bad shape. We temporarily fixed it by putting bolts in the chain, so it doesn't suck it all the way into the lift. Obviously this is a bad fix, but its all I could come up with, short of welding the chain to the tube. I might have to do that too before we go.

It's starting to look like we are going to have trouble putting all four bikes in. I never planned on that when I bought this sorry house with it's tiny driveway. I have all the bus that will fit here, and the city is already on my back about it. I had only figured on needing to put in two bikes when I bought the bus too. And to top it off, one of my buddies is complaining about the fuel mileage! He thinks we should maybe cram four people, four pretty large bikes, a weeks worth of food, water, and gear and drive to Texas. I am thinking that not only will it be incredibly uncomfortable to drive twenty nine hours that way, but that once it's all loaded up we won't get but maybe a mile or two better in his gasoline fueled Ram. Also, we don't have a trailer, so there's nowhere to put the bikes. And it's freezing at night there, terribly windy at times, and still might snow/rain. And I hate sleeping in tents.
But, hey, we made some progress today and yesterday.

[dentedvw]

Oh, and yes, it's really messy. I wasn't going to clean it up spic and span for just these pictures. I had a lot to clean up outside, which is more important. Ideally, I would have a pole barn all this would be taking place in, but that's another story for another time.

[dentedvw]

For one thing, my driveway is too small for all the vehicles we have. Nothing I can do about that, other than move, or have only one vehicle.
The inspector told me that as long as I keep the driveway tidy, he will not give me a ticket for having too many, as long as it doesn't exceed two vehicles wide. That is to say, two lanes. Anything more than that will be considered parking in the yard. He said I could park in the back yard, or the side yard though. But, I don't have any side yards, and the backyard is a swamp, with no access. And a steep hill leads down to it. Both neighbors houses are too close for a drive. Ah well, we have learned our lesson about buying a house. It's not worth it.

[Jarlaxle]

Can you tow your buddy's truck with the bus? If so...problems solved! Two bikes ride in the box.

[dentedvw]

First big trip in the bus is going well, we made it to Big Bend Ranch National Park on Sunday, and have been knocking ourselves flat getting it all in. Hiked about fourteen miles yesterday, gaining about 5000 feet. Kind of sore today. Rode a lot of rough roads on the motorcycles, and soaked in a hot spring. Yup, been pretty nice. Got the propane stove working, and have been using it for dinners.
Stayed most nights in the park, last night in the parking lot of Starlight Theatre in Terligua, Texas. Woke up early to explore, and found a wifi connection.
So, here is a few quick pics.
We drove all night, hard to sleep in moving vehicle. Ugh.

Woke up, everything still looked the same. Repeat for two days.

When we arrived, we had to take the obligatory "we made it somehow" picture.

First thing we did when we arrived is get the bikes out, and go for a short four hour ride.

Then, it was off to the hot springs. Oh yeah. No pics of that, but here is the Rio Grande at night, I took before we got in.



The riding has been fun, even on the road.


It's important to have the right hat. This one kept me from getting totally baked on our hike up Mt. Emory.

I am the gringo on the right.

We scooted out of the park at sunset, and headed to Terlingua, to the Starlight Theatre for dinner. No dogs allowed on the porch, but nobody was there to tell this fellow.

Where we called it a night.


There is more, and we are here til the end of the week, so I may be back with additional photos.

[jkindt]

Is that a KTM? Looks like a great area to ride. Sounds like you are having fun, and that's the most important thing.

[SeanF]

A bus and motorcycles.
cool

[Jarlaxle]

Nice. I'm a little surprised you didn't get hassled about the yellow paint.

[dentedvw]

Me too Jar.
Yeah, it's a KTM 950 adventure, with a huge huge new tank. About seventeen gallons. And it needs it too!

[dentedvw]

So, the harassment starts. One of my neighbors sent me an anonymous letter complaining about my driveway looking like a scrap yard.
Tough luck folks, all of this could have been kept neatly in my two car garage, but the slimy real estate agent cheated us out of the other lot, so it didn't get built. Suggested that maybe I should consider a home in the country too. Well, indeed I would like to do that, unfortunately we are in the most buggered state in the nation, with soaring unemployment, dropping real estate prices, and since we already own this POS, and noboby would likely buy it, I don't think that's a realistic solution. If they had only actually had the courage to tell me who they are, I could have offered for them to purchase our house, and we would gladly move out of the stupid city. But, spineless as they are, they didn't do that.

They mentioned our "toys", most likely referring to our motorcycles and the bus. Again, tough tacos geezers, because these things are going anywhere, nowhere to put them. Hopefully they will settle down, as we were planning on painting the yellow monstrosity soon, and also the bikes we were likely going to be storing in the bus anyway, well, except for mine which I ride often, and her street bike, which she rides almost daily. We were also going to attempt to grow grass in the front yard that is heavily HEAVILY shaded by a beautiful maple tree. It's unfortunate that while it's a magnificent tree, it completely prevents grass from growing for the most part. I may try to thin the tree a bit this year.

But, anyway, we are back from our huge trip across the nation, and while it was slow, and uses too much fuel for most everyone's taste, we had no troubles for the most part. Some trouble with the deer blinding lights (relay not up to the task) and the interior lights (??) and the heater fans (some fool hooked up the switches wrong), but overall nothing major.

Something like 4300 miles round trip. Forgot to collect all the fuel receipts, but it's got to have been near a grand.
Now, to move on to painting that annoying yellow! Ugh!