Miles is a 1984 Volkswagon Vanagon Westfalia. It has a popup top that
acts as a 2 person bed. It also contains a small refrigerator, sink, 10
gallon water tank, storage, dinner table and another 2 person sleeping
area. As you can see we have it packed pretty full. We found the clothing
storage to be inadequate so we added 3 Rubbermaid storage units. One for
Kristin's clothes, one for mine and one for our winter clothes. It seems
to be working ok, so far. The hanging closet inside stores all of my "work"
clothes that I use when I teach for Esperan
Ltd.
RefrigeratorThe refrigerator can operate from DC, AC or propane. Some guy on the web really went to a lot of trouble and took his apart to see how it worked. Luckily he photographed the whole ordeal. Click here to learn more. I actually installed a secondary battery from which the radio and refrigerator are powered. I followed the instructions on Vanagon.com for the installation and it went pretty smooth. I used deep cycle marine battery and while I was there I also installed a charger for when I'm hooked to "shore power". I found the refrigerator to be less than wonderful, initially. Recently I have added a $15.00 gizmo that has really helped out. It's a small fan that runs for 30 days on 2 D cell batteries. The refrigerator cools much faster since air is being forced over the heat sinks and not relying on convection currents. |
Bike RackThe bike rack has been a royal pain. At first I bought a 2 inch receiver hitch from "Discount Auto Parts" for $30.00 and had a plate welded to it and then bolted this whole assembly to the bumper. This first attempt had too much play in it as soon as I added the bike rack.The rack is a Thule "Rack-n-Lock". We ordered it from REI for $250.00. It's tough and it can tilt back with the bikes on it allowing me to get to the hatch back. The picture above is the second attempt. I've added some stabelizing bars underneath the bumper going to the tow hooks. Unfortunately, I'm still not very happy with it since I have had to add guy wires from the poptop looping through the rack to alleviate the last bit of play. It's quite stable with the guy wires but I think the real solution is a whole new bumber made of tubular steel. I've read about someone who has made the ultimate bumper on the vanagon list but I'll wait to see it before committing. External Propane TankThe Extend-a-stay kit from Marshall has been installed by Majors RV on Cape Cod, MA. The kit allows you to connect an external tank to your LP system. In order for the installation the installer used a flexible low pressure hose to connect to the stove and refrigerator fittings which I probably wouldn't have done but it should be just fine. Below is a picture of the finished job. |
External FlyThe tent is made by Moss and isn't intended to be used as a van tent but with some small spring clips it seems to work just dandy. |
