My Chevrolet Express van Class B- camper
I have been camping in my 1990 Chevrolet Silverado Blazer 2-door for the last 20 years. When I removed the back seat there was just enough room for a 3/4 sized (Hollywood, as some people called them)...
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My first modification to my van after removing the rear seats was to build a bed frame/storage area. I divided it in half front to back. The front area consists of two shelves. Each, the top and the bottom, has space for four Shopko canvas boxes 6" x 6" x 12" and eight 6" x 12" x 12" canvas boxes. That gave my wife 24 locations for storage.
Below are the canvas boxes from one of the shelves. The second shelf holds the same amount of boxes for a total of 24. My wife had to make a picture map and an Excel spreadsheet to remember all the stuff she put in the boxes and their locations.
The rear half of the underbead storage is accessible from the rear doors of the van and I consider it my "basement" storage. It is divided into two lower chambers and two shelves on top. One stores our green popup tent that we occassionally use. The other shelf stores our blue rain tarp that we use with clamps and poles. Three 12" x 12" x 12" canvas boxes provide more storage for my outdoor items. In the second picture you can see the storage behind the canvas boxes and the LED light below the top shelf. I store our campstove, tire step, extension cords, and other outdoor items here.
The right edge of the bed storage has special hooks for storage of my blue rain tarp poles and our two custom made hiking sticks.
Here is an early build picture of the bed frame before I added the top to hold the mattress. You can see that the front half is for my wife's canvas storage boxes and the back half is for my tent storage shelf, tarp storage shelf, area for hooks for walking sticks, and underneath is my large "basement" area accessible from the rear van doors.
All of the windows, from the front windshield to the back door windows are covered with Reflectix insulation. I cut it a little larger than the windows so that I can just press it into place and it will stay there. When not used it is stored on the left side of the bed frame, out of sight. The picture shows the Reflectix used in my old Blazer as I haven't taken van pictures of it yet. It insulates and makes it totally dark inside at night for peaceful sleep.
The next posting will cover other small lighting and electronic changes I made to the van.
Below are the canvas boxes from one of the shelves. The second shelf holds the same amount of boxes for a total of 24. My wife had to make a picture map and an Excel spreadsheet to remember all the stuff she put in the boxes and their locations.
The rear half of the underbead storage is accessible from the rear doors of the van and I consider it my "basement" storage. It is divided into two lower chambers and two shelves on top. One stores our green popup tent that we occassionally use. The other shelf stores our blue rain tarp that we use with clamps and poles. Three 12" x 12" x 12" canvas boxes provide more storage for my outdoor items. In the second picture you can see the storage behind the canvas boxes and the LED light below the top shelf. I store our campstove, tire step, extension cords, and other outdoor items here.
The right edge of the bed storage has special hooks for storage of my blue rain tarp poles and our two custom made hiking sticks.
Here is an early build picture of the bed frame before I added the top to hold the mattress. You can see that the front half is for my wife's canvas storage boxes and the back half is for my tent storage shelf, tarp storage shelf, area for hooks for walking sticks, and underneath is my large "basement" area accessible from the rear van doors.
All of the windows, from the front windshield to the back door windows are covered with Reflectix insulation. I cut it a little larger than the windows so that I can just press it into place and it will stay there. When not used it is stored on the left side of the bed frame, out of sight. The picture shows the Reflectix used in my old Blazer as I haven't taken van pictures of it yet. It insulates and makes it totally dark inside at night for peaceful sleep.
The next posting will cover other small lighting and electronic changes I made to the van.
