Made in the Shade - Awning Bracket Upgrade

 Of all the creature comforts on Vandalf the Beige, the one that is the most valuable, and most consistently used, is our ARB 2500 awning.  Our "living room" is defined by the space under the awning, next to the van.  Whether it be sun, rain, or bugs, the awning (and accessories) helps protect us and make our time outdoors more enjoyable.

But all was not perfect in awning-land.  We were in desperate need of an upgrade.

Photo courtesy Martin Meyers

Retro Post: Our Portable Firepot - Roadii Fire Grill Clone

This past weekend I undertook some upgrades to the portable firepit system we often use when camping.  When I started writing things up, I realized that I hadn't really ever documented the original construction and use.  So before I cover the upgrades, let's back up slightly and talk about how we do campfires.

Bespoke Luggage for the Discerning Overlander

A careful reading of this blog will generally confirm one overriding theme:  Wherever possible, I try to optimize every facet of our overlanding experience.  Usually, patience and careful "spec-shopping" nets me a low-cost, lightweight solution.  Sometimes iteration is required, and I work from a coarse solution to a finer one.  The end of that trend-line, though, is that at a certain point, if things are going to get any better, I need to go custom.  And usually, that means making it myself.  This project follows that arc perfectly.

Off-the-Shelf vs. Custom

Chuckbox 102: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

As I have mentioned in my previous post Chuckbox 101, gear storage is a "continual improvement" process for me.  I'm constantly refining how I pack, store, and use my gear to improve my experience and gain efficiency.  Things have changed enough that rather than simply update old posts, it's time to present a whole new write-up.

Two factors drive the most recent change:  First is that small organizational changes as noted in this post have let me reduce (or at least relocate) the volume of gear in my kitchen kit.  Secondly, I'm on a larger push to put the rig on a diet to ensure we stay under our GVWR.  This involves lots of steps such as the recent roof reconfiguration.

Cutting to the chase, here's the new package.  Read on to see how I built it:

Campervan Curtains Update: Leather Tie-Backs

Back in 2016, just before our California Coast Roadtrip, I had finally got round to finishing the installation of curtains in the van.  For curtain tie-backs, I used some 1" Nylon webbing I'd found in a matching color.

Reupholstering the Rock-n-Roll Bed

After I built a steel-framed VW-style Rock-n-Roll bed last year (Part 1, Part 2), I had big plans to quickly purchase some made-to-order box-cushion covers from one of several online vendors who have leveraged CNC pattern cutting and inexpensive overseas labor.  I was hitting project fatigue on the whole seat/bed thing, so I just wanted to get it over with.

Quarter-Window Utility Rack

A quick update, now that I've finished the build on my utility rack that spans the rear quarter window between the C and D pillars on the driver's side.  Like many of my projects, this starts with inspiration provided by the wonderfully rich aftermarket available to the Volkswagen crowd, which I then shamelessly copy and duplicate DIY-fashion for the Astro van and its (non-existent) aftermarket.  In this case, I took inspiration from the Campervan Culture "Side Mount System".

On Board Air, Part 1

So we spend a lot of our time in the van out in the desert.  A lot of those trails have pretty badly washboarded roads, and I know that the best way to smooth those over is to air-down my tires.  Yet sometimes, I don't.  I just grit my teeth and listen to everything rattle.  Why?  Because I dread the hassle of airing back up.  It's not that it takes that long, but the whole process of fetching the portable compressor out of the back box, popping the hood to connect the battery clamps, airing up, and then reversing the process just to try to deal with a too-hot-to-touch compressor does make me think twice before grabbing the deflators.  And that's dumb.

Ergo, time to simplify that as much as possible.  Hard-mounting the compressor and an air tank under the van won't shorten the actual time to re-inflate by very much (though having a bit of reserve in the tank should help a bit).  The biggest motivator here is just to have everything "ready to use" as much as possible.  Connect the coiled hose to an outlet on either side, and start the air. When complete, disconnect and stow the hose, and off I go.

To that end, I did my usual "slow burn" on this project.  I spent a few months gathering datasheets and crawling around the van with a measuring tape.  A few months back, I picked up a hard-mount version of my Viair 400-series compressor from a friend at a swap-meet.  Next I scored a nice air tank off eBay for about half of normal price.  Today's project is to get ready to mount the tank.

After a lot of lying under the van, I chose this spot - this is the recess under the body behind (inboard) of the entry step.  It's long and skinny, and just about tailor-made for the Viair 2.5gallon tank.  Towards the top-end of the photo you can see two captured nuts in the body "frame rail".  Not sure if these serve a purpose on older or 2WD vans, but on mine they're un-used, so I took them over for my purposes.  I happened to have the right metric thread bolts in my collection of things I've removed from the van over time.  Towards the bottom of the photo (forward end of the frame rail) you can see that I added a pair of riv-nuts for a second bracket.

I used some 2" angle iron for the body-side, and 1.5" angle on the tank-feet, with 1" square tube connecting them.  You can see from how the mount sits on the tank that just about half of the tank will fit up inside that space.  If I could have found a 5" diameter tank, I think the entire thing would have fit into that recess.

Here's a low-angle shot of the brackets test-fit.

And here's a shot level with the bottom of the van body.  Can you see it?  Nope, it all tucks up into that space really nicely, so very little risk of damage there.

Can I also just say: What a delight working under a lifted van!  So easy to just slide under there for test-fittings and installation.  No jacks, no ramps, just a single jack-stand to help hold the tank while I do up the bolts.

Brackets finished welded and primed.  I'll finish the paint this week, and I hope to be able to get the tank and compressor mounted sometime after Thanksgiving (though I hope to head out to do some hiking on Black Friday).  It's looking like the compressor will get mounted in the rear near the spare-tire mount, there's an out-of-the-way spot up there.

Stay tuned for more!

Retro Post: Astro Van Lift-Kit Installation

I've been guilty, multiple times during the life of the Astrolander project, of letting my detailed blog posts get out of sync with the current state of affairs.  My build threads on ExpeditionPortal and the AstroSafariVans.org forums have been maintained somewhat more diligently, but I realize not everyone follows there.  To help remedy that, I'm undertaking some "Retro" posts to re-document some of the work that I've done but not covered here.

Here's the first installment:  Installing the Overland Vans 4" Lift Kit.