The Left Side of The Truck is done. Well sort of…
The closets and bunk beds were already done on both sides, so all I had left to do on the left side was the computer bay, the range, the desk or secondary kitchen countertop bay, and the little tiny coat hangar area at the rear.
The computer bay was pretty easy. I laminated my own desk top and built my own drawers, but everything is rectangular so that simplified things a bit. There is only one little tiny cabinet under the desktop with a fold up door. The space above the desktop has shelves, but no fold up doors. That is because they are intended to hold my printer scanner, DVD player, and anything else of the sort. I didn’t want to have to open doors to get to those things, so they are just open shelves with generous lips to make sure nothing falls off. I will ultimately strap, or glue, or otherwise tie everything down as well. Of course, none of the electronics is installed yet.
I had originally intended to install my current home desktop computer, but it is getting pretty old, so I have been thinking about buying a modest laptop. I will rarely use it as a laptop, but I figure those things are made for travel, so they should work well in an RV. I also figure I may end up turning my AC power off at odd times, and I don’t want to forget to power down properly and frag my disk drive. With a laptop, they are running on internal battery power anyway so it should be tolerant of my occasional senior moment. I will get a docking station and a real keyboard and mouse, as well as a nice big LCD monitor so the computing experience should be pretty much the same as my desktop.
I reinstalled my Platinum Cat catalytic heater, hopefully for the last time. I opened up the hole through the floor to give some clearance for the gas line. After it was installed I filled the gap around the pipe with some fiberglass insulation and then caulked it from the bottom with silicone. The 12V and thermostat had previously been installed, and the system was already fully tested, so it went back in quickly. I still need to add some polished stainless steel on the side wall near the heater under the computer desk. I ran the heater for a couple of hours and it was getting pretty warm to the touch so I figure a reflector is a good idea.
The range went in pretty much as planned. I was double checking the manufacturers installation instructions and I realized that I was violating the safety keep out zones for flammable surfaces above the stove top. As a result, I decided to line the entire area with .040 aluminum plate that I recycled from one of the trucks original side doors. I also lined the entire back wall behind the stove with aluminum flashing all the way to the floor. I was a little worried about the vinyl flooring under the range, but I have since run the oven up to 350F for several hours and then put my hand under there to see if it gets hot. I needn’t have worried. There are a couple of layers of steel, and heat rises, so it barely gets warm under there.
My original intent was to install the fan-filter cartridge above the stove with some sort of a hood, but I realized that it would be in a bad location where I needed head room to be able to lean in over the stove. I could have mounted it up near the ceiling, but I figured it would be so far away from the cooking food that it wouldn’t capture much of the tiny grease droplets and might as well not be there.
There was a space above and behind the stove that I couldn’t use for storage due to the heat so I decided to put it there. I reworked my LED light to shine down at an angle, and built ducting in to the wall to blow the filtered air back out near the bottom of the upper cabinet. The fan unit does not exhaust to the outside because I didn’t want to make any more holes in the walls or the ceiling, so it is just a filter box. Besides, the overhead exhaust fan is just a few feet away.
I also installed the desk and drawers that doubles as additional counter space to the left of the range. It was my 3rd custom laminated countertop in the truck, but I am getting pretty comfortable with laminating Formica on plywood. The drawers have angled faces to match the shape of the countertop so they were a little harder to make, but not too difficult. There are also 2 shelves below the countertop and 3 above, each with fold up doors. Making and mounting cabinet doors is a little more work than simple shelves but I pretty much know the drill by now. I even ground a special molding cutter for my table saw so I could shape the bottom edges of the doors to provide clearance for the hinges. It was ultimately much easier and more precise than sanding the doors to shape, even with a belt sander.
I installed one of my cheap little 12V florescent fixtures for task lighting above the desk. It doesn’t make much light, and it practically screams cheap, (truth in advertising) but it works fine. I may upgrade it at some point, but for now I am on a mission to get this done.
The last little bay, my coat hangar area and boot storage, was really simple. All I had to do was mount the coat hooks and put in a toe kick plate to keep the boots from sliding out into the walk way.
The only remaining aspect of the basic buildout is 5 shelves and corresponding cabinet doors above and behind the toilet. Then there is the installation of all the computer and entertainment electronics. The endless flow of tweaks and improvements aside, I would say that I am now about 98% complete. It’s been a long haul to this point, and I am starting to get a little tired of having all my free time tied up in truck building. As always, pictures can be found under keyword “Stealth”.
To be continued…
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