Bedhead Cupboards

We wanted to add a couple of cupboards on the back bedhead of the bus for a couple of reasons.

I wanted to be able to see out of the back window and adding the cupboards squared up the gap so a blind will fit in there more easily. It also means the reversing camera can be installed inside the bus, out of the weather and hidden away. Hubby wanted to close in the back window so the whole back would be storage. I guess this is a little compromise.

The bedhead space is handy for charging gadgets using a solar cell or the USB port we have installed. You can also toss a book up there when you're done reading and it is time for sleep... not to mention the remote control for the TV!

Here's how we did it.

Tint the window behind it nice and black so that when you're looking from the back of the bus, you don't see screws etc on the back of the cupboard (we used the same tint as for the rest of the windows... just more layers!) 

As you can see, the cupboards are made from laminated pine from Bunnings. Lighter than MDF and easy to work with. 

Cut, screw, putty, paint is basically how it works with these cupboards! There was a bit of messing about with cardboard templates and a jigsaw, to get the right curves. The back of the cupboards is the same lining as the walls. Plastic coated thin ply from Mitre10.

This cupboard hides the electrical cable for the USB port and the reversing camera cables. It is a good idea to plan out the electrical parts early, so you can hide as much as possible as you go. That conduit and the saddles are from Bunnings too. Cheap and easy. I believe it is the 20mm conduit.

Make some doors, attach matching locks (see the blog post about the top cupboards for eBay link) and tidy it all up with some timber edging. 

NEW PAGE! Thermal Cooker Recipes.

You may or may not have noticed the new tab at the top of each blog post which says 'Thermal Cooker Recipes'.

A couple of months after buying the bus, I discovered thermal cooking. It seemed like a good idea so, unwilling to spend the big bucks on a Dream Pot, Shuttle Chef or Eco Pot, I went ahead and bought a cheaper Primus Brand 'Campfire' thermal cooker for $150 at Aussie disposals. It comes with a bag, smaller inner pot and trivet. I also bought the optional mess tin for cooking cakes and bread (I haven't tried it yet).
Click here for their online store: http://www.aussiedisposals.com.au/campfire-7lt-travel-cooker

Source: Aussie Disposals website.

My friends and family own the 'name brand' pots and they work really, really well. I'm not showing a preference for any of the brands, but MY pot is excellent. I love it.

One thing I did do was buy the books from Dream Pot as the instruction manual I got with mine only had about three recipes in it. The extra books were a good investment for a beginner.

The other good resources I found were:

Mr D's Thermal Cooking  http://www.thethermalcook.com/category/all-recipes 

Eco Pot (only a few recipes here) http://www.ecopot.com.au/Contents/Page/Recipes 

Shuttle Chef (apparently they also have a book but I haven't bought it) http://www.thermalcookware.com/main.php?mod=Dynamic&id=23

and

Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/

Pinterest isn't just about thermal cooking but people have 'pinned' some of their favourite recipes on there and if you do a search, you'll find them. Also, search for 'slow cooker' or 'crock pot' or even 'dutch oven' recipes because just about anything you can cook in one of those, can be cooked in the thermal cooker.

Of course, the best way to get to know the cooker and what it can do is to EXPERIMENT!

"What does this have to do with buses or motorhoming?" You ask.

Well, they use very little energy.
For a fall-off-the-bone stew, you will use about 20-30 mins of cooking energy. For rice: 2 mins cooking time! This is a great way to save energy on the road.
Although we will have a kitchenette in the bus, we are planning to cook most meals on the camp fire or on a little butane stove outside. This cooker saves lots of energy.

It is a safe and easy way to cook while traveling.
Put the meal on at 8am when you're packing up to go to the next campground. Pull up at  lunchtime and have some of the meal at a park or something (if you'd like to). Keep driving OR enjoy some sight seeing for the day and by dinnertime, when you're tired out and just finished setting up camp, dinner will still be warm (note- if you're frightened of 'bugs' these cookers are safe for around 8 hours, after that, they recommend some reheating, which is no drama, usually only takes a few minutes).

One last reason I REALLY wanted one was because I can prepare most meals at home and pop everything into a large Ziploc bag and freeze them flat. Then, when we go camping, just grab the top one out of the bus fridge or Esky and cook it up! Having frozen meals in the fridge will save on fridge energy, they will defrost slowly and safely and will take up less space all chopped up and flat, also, I won't be spending valuable relaxing time doing food prep. I'm considering buying a vac sealer... but we will have to see about that!

Have I convinced you yet?

Back to the original reason for this blog post...

If you look at the top of the page, I have added a tab labeled 'Thermal Cooker Recipes'. As I experiment, I'll add my 'hits and misses' recipes there, so you can use them too!

Feel free to message me or comment on here if you have any recipes or suggestions that I can add.

Happy cooking!

Painting for the back of the bus

Hubby convinced me that I should do a mural type picture for the back of the bus.

So, a while back, we tootled off to Supercheap Auto and bought a $30 airbrush.

I had a couple of practises and put it away, thinking hubby had forgotten about the whole thing.

Yesterday he said "You know, if you airbrush the back of the bus, I can put all of the lights and handle back on it."

So I did it.

It is inspired by a picture I found on the internet but I can not find the source so I can give him creative credit (so credit to you if you ever see this Mr Artist!)

This is what I did yesterday. I kinda liked it black and white, but hubby wanted colour.

Here it is, all colourful. 

If you ever get the chance to have a go at this sort of thing, do it. It is pretty fun!

Quickie post- Reversing Camera

The power went off the morning so we couldn't get into doing the rest of the bed storage. Instead, we installed the reversing camera.

When we first got the bus, one of the first things I bought was a new touchscreen stereo/GPS/DVD thingy for the hole in the dash where they used to have a cassette player and a radio. It came with a reversing camera.

The whole unit was about $300 from eBay. It is a generic brand (I can't even add a link to the auction because it was soooo long ago!)

Anyway, now that we have installed the bedhead, we were able to put in the camera!
We had to put the old brake light back in and luckily for us, it had a little stand from when it popped up from behind the back seat, when the bus was still a school bus. The little weeny camera fits perfectly under it, so you don't even know it is there.

Now for the pictures:

 Teeny-weeny thing it is!

Connects with regular AV plugs (supplied with the unit). We have tucked them in behind the bedhead and will cover the top of it with grey/black carpet which matches the boot.

Middle of the back window, lines up with the USB socket we have installed on the bedhead too! 

(Note: The USB socket has nothing to do with the reversing camera, that is there for charging gadgets when we are using the bus).

Install the brake light. Reversing camera is invisible. You can't even see it from the outside because of the tinted window... unless you REALLY look for it.

It works!

Bedside Storage

We are on a roll with the storage!

This post is about the bedside storage cabinets for the bus.

First thing to do was to insulate the walls and line the sections with plastic coated paneling. Then we attached the 'brackets' for the cupboards to the side of the bus. In this case, it was a length of pine. The legs have been bolted to the floor using 'L' brackets. We also made a bedhead out of MDF and painted it up. As you can see, this was some time ago as the picture shows untinted windows! The bedhead will have the USB ports for gadgets, reversing camera mounted and the rear brake light on it. There will also be a little more storage on it... but more about that later!

Next we made the boxes from MDF and pine.

Attached them with bolts to the brackets. Ignore the panel at the front. I think we were testing what it might look like with the boor of the bed covered in.

Next we routed, painted and attached the cupboard lids. They have tension hinges so they don't just pop open when we go over a bump and they won't fall on your fingers when they are open. The handles are little ring pull ones in brushed nikel to match the top cupboards. They fold down flush so we won't get anything snagged on them.

The cupboards have been divided into sections using the same lining as on the walls.

All done!

And a comparison with the top cupboards. You can see that we have started some wiring and lighting... but as usual... more on that later!

Top storage cupboards

This post feels like it has been a VERY long time coming.

Remember these?

These are the top lining panels for the bent bits above the windows. I salvaged them from the strip-out, to use around the insides of the cupboards. A bit of paint and some reinforcing behind those cracked parts and they look great.

Anyway, back to the post about these top storage cupboards...

We thought long and hard about the best stuff to use when building these cupboards. Finally we settled on 3mm steel angle. Cheap, paints well, won't cause electrolysis when attached to the steel frame and it is very strong. The engineer stipulated that all steel structural stuff needed to be at least 3mm so this ticks that box.

Once again, the rivnutter came in VERY handy. 

First we insulated the roof and reattached the lining. The insulation has heat AND sound rating which should be good for road noise.

  See the rivnuts for the frame? The rivnuts to attach the steel frame to the bus are M8 but the ones on the frame, which the timber lining will be attached to, are M6.

Frame is bolted on. At this point it looked very weird and wonky but it WAS level... just an optical illusion when compared to the bendy bus.

Other side and big back cupboard too.

We had to see if the melamine dinner set that we got off my family for Christmas would fit in there!

Timber covers the frame (pine). Hubby routed it beautifully and puttied the bolt holes where it is bolted onto the steel. The engineer is very particular about the fact that it should be secured in this way.

Here you can see the bigger end cupboard lining going on. It is laminated pine from Bunnings. The other panel (missing in the photo) has the bus speakers built in. 

Partially painted with the final colour and looking pretty good!

COMPLETED with hinges, doors and special motorhome latches. They are the 'small' size in brushed nickel finish. The knobs pop out when you press them. In this pushed in position, they are locked and will not come open. Whe they are popped out, they clip open like a regular kitchen cupboard latch. I got them for a good price on eBay (click here to see eBay listing: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/321205191473?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 )

Popped out, ready to open.

Open. The hinges are just 'easy-fit' ones from Bunnings.

The deeper back cupboard with speaker installed.

You can't imagine how happy I am! Having these installed means that we can work on the bed/boot with struts and cute side cupboards...

                                                              ...but more about that later!

Last of the tint

The last few bits of tint went in today.

I'm impressed by the white frost tint on the bathroom window (see previous posts for links to the supplier's eBay store).

Nice and frosty! Helloooo, can you see me? This is the view from the inside.

From the outside. The big test will be when it is dark outside and we turn the light on inside.

We decided to only go with the one window and double dark tint the other where the wall will intersect it. When it is double tinted, you can barely see through and it will keep the bus looking a bit more uniform having them all dark except one.

The window is so bright, I'm seriously considering doing away with the glass frosted door that I had planned for the bathroom and building one from ply and Aquapanel instead.