On the Road With the Roses

Friday, November 12, 2010

The Coffin Gets a Mattress!

Two updates on the same day! I know!

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It's been a real challenge to find a mattress for LeTigre's overhead bunk (the coffin) that won't interfere with the closing of the pop-top. There's only 4" between the top and the bed platform when the top is closed! Not only that the front is rounded at the corners (for aerodynamics...) and there's a little cabinet in the way on one side and the entry door on the other (see photos from previous update). We improvised something for the first camping trip with a yoga mat, a camping pad, and a thin mattress pad. I dubbed it "the Spartan special".

Angie had bruised hips after the second night.
No bueno.
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So I've been looking for awhile for something that I could modify to fit and didn't want to sacrifice something new ($$$) just to find out it wouldn't work. Well, trolling craigslist yesterday and there it was, a near new king size memory foam mattress topper 4" thick and only a mile from the house!. The seller (thanks Brad!) was nice enough to take $50 when I told him what I was doing with it and it already had a little buggered edge which didn't matter because I was going to cut it all up. Now we have the perfect size bed. Once again, craigslist to the rescue. Peruse the photos to see how to ruin (er, customize) a perfectly good memory foam mattress topper!

After rinsing and drying the garage floor I layed out my prize and started measuring.

Like butta'

No turning back now.

In and out of the van a few times, a cut here, a trim there...

And it's done! It's so comfy, like floating on a cloud of marshmallows.

Mmmmmm marshmallows...

Interior Redeux

We've been busy on LeTigre's interior this week. Several things to report such as removing part of the dinette to make more interior space, expanding the bed platform, carpet, and a custom knob for the faucet. Take a look inside!

LeTigre's dinette arrangement created a bottleneck in the center of the space and made it difficult to load the camper for trips, so out with the front bench.

Fake Tigre had an L shaped arrangement so we imitated that with a simple plywood box, borrowed some of the cushions and added a few throw pillows.

Angie be loungin'!

Angie then cut some new carpet and layed it loosely, for now, until we make a final decision on the furniture layout and flooring.

View of the bunk bed.

Vampires are all the rage so we call this "the coffin".

It was only 48" wide so I added an extension to make a true full. Finding the right mattress has been a challenge, more on that soon. We'll see how it goes on the next camping excursion in a couple of weeks since we're used to a king...

Is that my elbow?

Custom "shift knob" added to the faucet hand pump.

10 ball matches LeTigre's paint colors and it's 2010, if you need reasons.

I just think it's cool.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Junk in the Trunk

So one of the things we realized on the Lake Somerville trip is Le Tigre is tiny and lacking in storage. This wasn't a revelation or anything. We were already aware of it just not sure where or how to improve on the storage situation. What we did discover is there's a bunch of stuff that doesn't need to be inside the camper at all, such as our camp grill, cooler, chairs, Kipper stuff, etc. And then Craigslist said "let there be junk in the trunk". Yes thru the magic of craigslist (once again) I picked up a used truck tool box and one of those receiver hitch tray things. Of course, there was a minor snag when the tool box wouldn't fit the tray but it all worked out in the end. I'll let the photos do the talking.