Monday, July 26, 2021

Dutch Door Rack Simplification


"Simplify, and add lightness" - Colin Chapman


It's not just for race car engineers, it's good for overlanders too.

Like a lot of folks in this hobby, I've expended a fair amount of time and energy on figuring out cool ways to bolt useful things to our rig. The irony is not lost on me, therefore, that much of my latest work on the van involve either setting aside previous projects, or undoing them altogether.

Prior to our 2016 California Coast roadtrip, our first excursion as a family longer than a weekend, I had undertaken adding a second load-carrying rack to the passenger-side dutch door, and adding a Pelican iM2720 case to the driver-side rack. This was at least partially motivated by the need to free up a little more interior storage space.  The revamped left-side rack also saw the addition of a step which made accessing the roof basket infinitely easier and safer.


Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Rear Suspension Refresh

Aside from a few COVID-projects to optimize a couple parts of the van, things have been pretty stable/reliable for a while.  After a particularly hard push at the day job, I took advantage of a free day to take a solo overnighter up to one of my favorite areas in the San Bernardino National Forest.  Access is via a pretty good FS road, but there are a few spots where the graded dirt gives way to a vein of rock poking through the terrain.