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) mattress to fit between the wheel wells and from the back of the console to the tailgate.
After all those years with my wife and I getting older, she decided we needed a little more room so she found me a 2001 Chevrolet Express van with low mileage on the internet. After checking it out and taking it for a test drive we bought it on the spot. It was a nice passenger conversion LT model with all the bells and whistles available in 2001. I will chronicle the changes I made to transform it into my Class B- motorhome in the next few postings. I call it my Class B- (B minus) motorhome because it is just a regular van without the raised roof.
Camping at Custer State Park, SD in February, 2015.
Camping and visiting Scott's Bluff National Monument, NE in October, 2014.
After all those years with my wife and I getting older, she decided we needed a little more room so she found me a 2001 Chevrolet Express van with low mileage on the internet. After checking it out and taking it for a test drive we bought it on the spot. It was a nice passenger conversion LT model with all the bells and whistles available in 2001. I will chronicle the changes I made to transform it into my Class B- motorhome in the next few postings. I call it my Class B- (B minus) motorhome because it is just a regular van without the raised roof.
Camping at Custer State Park, SD in February, 2015.
Camping and visiting Scott's Bluff National Monument, NE in October, 2014.
We needed a small fan for our van. I had an old fan used to defrost truck windshields laying around. I mounted it on a block of wood, added the switch to the back of the fan, and a 12 volt cig. lighter cord end on it. With the switch mounted on the back the electronics is always kept cool. I have several cig. lighter plug outlets around the van to draw power while we are at the campsite. They are connected to a 12 volt inverter for power when we are plugged in to shore power and connected to my camper battery when not. It is a good heavy duty fan that has several speeds as well as an oscillating feature. It works very well in our small conversion van and can run all night if we need it.
As I approach 80 years old, I am finding it harder to get up on the van's roof rack to get my recliner camp chairs, table, and tire step down. My wife is afraid I might slip and fall off or she might slip with the chairs as I pass them down and scratch the paint of the van. So I decided it was time for another modification. I built a wood tray to fit over the lid of the rear box that would hold my recliner chairs, collapsible red table, and tire step. They stack and strap in for travel. The tray fits over the top of the blue box lid. I am not worried about the extra weight on the back as this van is a 2500 model which can carry more weight than my old 2001 that was a 1500 model. I also built into it a wood pocket to hold the front tire of our electric scooter that is strapped to the rear ladder.
I built the tray so that when we get to the campsite, we can loosen the connectors and, with the two black handles on each side, lift the whole tray off with everything still strapped on making it easy to get in the back of the van during initial camp setup. With me on one side and my wife on the other, we can easily lift the whole bundle off and set it on the side out of the way for access to the chairs later.
I use turnbuckles to attach it solidly to the metal hitch tray. They are easy to disconnect when we want to take it off at the campsite.
A cup holder hook holds the turnbuckles up out of the way when removing and and reloading the blue tray on the box.
I attached a double magnet to the tray to hold my wrench for the turnbuckles.
I have not updated is quite awhile, So for my latest addition to my van camper is a Christmas present from my son. He knows how I hate flies, so he gave me a Bug-a-salt gun to keep them away from my picnic table. I must admit it works great.
Black95 wrote:
As I mentioned in my previous thread about window screens that slip over the top of the door like a sock to keep the bugs out and still allow you to roll down the windows. The first ones I ordered did not fit so I returned them. I did some more searching on the internet and found another brand called Qualizzi Mottors that came in XXXL size. I am happy with them because they fit over the back doors of my Express van and they fit over the driver & passenger doors too. They even fit over the outside mirrors and were still tight enough to keep the bugs out. See the following pictures.
They even came in their own zippered storage pouch.
Back door fit with the window open.
Inside view of driver's side door.
Outside view of driver's side door with screen covering the mirror.
To make it a better seal against any wind, I added a few strong magnets along the bottom edge.
Hi, they have huge sizes, this is the link for Qualizzi for Trucks sunshades ***Link Removed***
J herb wrote:
HI Mike,
good to see you posting! Like you winter never got nice enough when we had time to do some winter camping....
Even though our winter was long and cold, I managed to accomplish a lot. I purchased a new large format scanner so I could scan in a full page on our scrapbooks. I got through the 40 scrapbooks my wife has kept up over all these years. I digitized them and loaded them on a portable hard drive for each of our boys to keep and look at in their old age when we are long gone. My wife always kept a commentary on each trip we took so they got those scanned in too. Then I purchased a negative and slide scanner (see attached picture). I proceeded to scan in every photo negative (several thousand) that I have taken in my entire lifetime. Also scanned in all the 35mm slides I took with my 35mm SLR camera. I used them in my science teaching for years. Most were bioloby or earth science related or the numerous national parks we visited with our boys. So my boys will get them all digitized for posterity. They may not look at them very often or never, but they will have them if they want them. I guess you could say I am digitizing our life for our family. Next winter I hope to get a digitizing scanner to scan in all of my father's and my 8mm home movies that date back to the late 1950's and early 1960's. That will be a big project too for me to get done. My father even had some of his relatives 8mm movies from the late 1940's that are in surprisingly good shape. Looking forward to next winter, but for now I will concentrate on camping this summer and the Black Hills Corvette Rally in July. My wife got us a really nice airbnb close to all the Corvette action in Spearfish, SD.
It has been a long winter in South Dakota. I usually get to go camping in the Custer State Park area of the Black Hills of South Dakota during February or March when the weather warms up to the 60's for a day or two. Not this year, it never got nice enough for us to get our camper out of the heated garage to go camping out west. In fact our first camping trip for this new year was about a week ago. We took it out to our closest state park for our first trip to rest up and make sure everything was working right before any big trips.
It was time for another upgrade. We always use an electric heater sitting on the floor for heat at night when the temps get too low. This spring I purchased a small faux fireplace style heater for the van. It was just the right size to fit in the top horizontal door area of our kitchen unit. I mounted it in and it works perfectly. It has more air space around it than it had in its original stand and draws its air from around the top, both sides, and the back of the kitchen unit so there is good circulation. The original thermostat I put in for the other heaters works with it. My wife is quite impressed with it and likes that we don't have a cord and the heater on the floor to stumble over and it is a much more even infrared heater.
It was time for another upgrade. We always use an electric heater sitting on the floor for heat at night when the temps get too low. This spring I purchased a small faux fireplace style heater for the van. It was just the right size to fit in the top horizontal door area of our kitchen unit. I mounted it in and it works perfectly. It has more air space around it than it had in its original stand and draws its air from around the top, both sides, and the back of the kitchen unit so there is good circulation. The original thermostat I put in for the other heaters works with it. My wife is quite impressed with it and likes that we don't have a cord and the heater on the floor to stumble over and it is a much more even infrared heater.
Today's posting is about a new grip for my hiking stick. I discovered "My Grip" by FastCap. It is a moldable synthetic that you heat up in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then wrap it around any handle like my walking stick or my hammer or ax. Then you grip it and squeeze your hand grip into it and it cools in that shape. It really gives me a more comfortable grip on my hiking stick while using it. I added one to my small hand ax too.
They come in many colors, but I ordered brown so as not to clash with my hiking sticks.
They come in many colors, but I ordered brown so as not to clash with my hiking sticks.
Last spring I purchased a new awning for my van from NAPA for $99. I have had it mounted on my van's roof rack since but have not had a chance to use it. This weekend we used it for the first time and am totally pleased and happy with it. It was easy for my wife and I to put up as all the parts are attached and simply fold out and connect together. After its storage bag was unzipped we rolled it out, lowered the two legs, folded out the side supports and connected their pins into the holes it the top of the legs and adjusted it tight. There were four Velcro straps on each side to attach the awning to the side supports. The only extra parts were the two ropes and stakes to ground it. It gave us more shade than our old awning.
I have mentioned how I make camp coffee in previous posts, so now I will give you a little more detail on how I do it. I have an old Aluminum percolator coffee pot that I discarded the inside parts. I use it to heat up water to boiling with my camp cooking hook. It gets very black over the open flame so I transport it inside a travel bag.
To brew the coffee, I use an old fashioned drip-o-later like my aunt used in the 1960's. They can still be found at nearly new stores and rummage sales in various sizes. It operates on about the same principle as a modern coffee maker. You pour the hot water in the top and it drips through a metal basket attached to its bottom where the coffee grounds are. I add a paper coffee filter that my aunt did not use back in the day. The brewed coffee drips into the bottom part of the drip-o-later. When the coffee is all brewed, I pour it into a thermos and our two insulated coffee mugs for drinking later.
Another view of the apparatus.
I store my coffee grounds in an old clear ice cream container with my coffee filters held around the outside with a rubber band. This all fits neatly in the top container of the drip-o-later for traveling as seen in the second picture.
I carry the drip-o-later in my old Navy ditty bag and the fire blackened pot in the blue bag for travel. These both fit in one of my wife's 6x12x12 inch under bed boxes.
Now you know the secret to my camp coffee that my wife loves. Yes, I know it is a little time consuming, but when I am camping I have lots of time to putter with it while my wife makes breakfast. We love to waste time around the campfire, relaxing, reading, and enjoying nature.
To brew the coffee, I use an old fashioned drip-o-later like my aunt used in the 1960's. They can still be found at nearly new stores and rummage sales in various sizes. It operates on about the same principle as a modern coffee maker. You pour the hot water in the top and it drips through a metal basket attached to its bottom where the coffee grounds are. I add a paper coffee filter that my aunt did not use back in the day. The brewed coffee drips into the bottom part of the drip-o-later. When the coffee is all brewed, I pour it into a thermos and our two insulated coffee mugs for drinking later.
Another view of the apparatus.
I store my coffee grounds in an old clear ice cream container with my coffee filters held around the outside with a rubber band. This all fits neatly in the top container of the drip-o-later for traveling as seen in the second picture.
I carry the drip-o-later in my old Navy ditty bag and the fire blackened pot in the blue bag for travel. These both fit in one of my wife's 6x12x12 inch under bed boxes.
Now you know the secret to my camp coffee that my wife loves. Yes, I know it is a little time consuming, but when I am camping I have lots of time to putter with it while my wife makes breakfast. We love to waste time around the campfire, relaxing, reading, and enjoying nature.
Previously I posted about the new electric scooter we got to travel around the campground with. Here is how I carry it strapped to my ladder with bungee cords, the heavy duty rubber truck tarp kind. I cover it with a heavy duty trash bag to protect it from road dirt and rain.
Here is what it looks like without the trash bag covering it.
Here is what it looks like without the trash bag covering it.
