A Bed with Storage!

Bed is finished, and some bins for storage under a hinged lid...

Ice Maker!

I was browsing through Canadian Tire yesterday and saw this, a portable ice maker. Sure, it needs 120v, but after reading a LOT of reviews, I saw two people who successfully ran it off an inverter, so I went ahead and picked it up this morning.

I've got it sitting on the counter, ready to give it a test, first on regular A/C, then once I know it works, I'll test it on my inverter.   It was $129 (discounted from $159) but at $2 and $3 for a bag of ice, this will surely pay for itself, probably in the first month of travel.

Ok, waited a couple hours, and plugged it in, and filled it with water...

Waited about 10 minutes, and...

It's a Bed! Almost...

We managed to wrangle it outside and into the car, which was a bit of a miracle. We were both so sore, but it's done.  Here you can see it taking shape, just needs the top deck screwed on, and the mattress added.  Actually, both those steps are done, I just need to get a picture...

Construction Begins!

First thing we're doing in the car is adding a bed. We've removed both sets of seats in the back, and with all that lumber (well, some of it) I've built the bed frame.

This is the bottom, it will lay on the floor in the back.  It will feature storage under the bed, one foot high.  This will make a lot more sense once you see it in the car. That's tomorrow morning, hopefully. All this work is testing our limits :) Now we have to carry it out of the spare room, up the stairs, around the corner, and out to the car! Wish us luck...

More stuff for the car...

Picked up some 2x2's and another sheet of plywood. That should cover most of the wood I need. It's hard for me to describe what I'm doing, but you;ll see pictures as I go.

I also picked up a second Deep Cycle Marine battery, so now I have 2, they will be ganged together, and connected to the cars battery system through a Voltage Sensitive Relay, so that when the car is on, it will charge ALL batteries, and when the car is turned off, it will isolate these two batteries so that the car's starting battery will never get drained.

Both batteries will be stored under the bed, in acid proof, tied down, battery boxes.

First Step, turn the car into a camper...

We have an old mattress, not very thick, but it is 6 feet by 38 1/2 inches wide.  



We went to the lumber yard and bought 2 sheets of plywood, thicker for the top, thinner for the bottom. 



We had them make the cuts, or it wouldn't even have fit in the car.



Now we need some 2x2's to make the frame, and we'll have a bed...