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.

Water System Upgrades

It's time to revisit one of the oh-so-sexy topics of van and camper building: Water Supply.

Management of your water stores is not something to be taken lightly.  You simply must have it.  Moreover, the fact that it's heavy and fluid means you really to make sure you've done a proper job of securing it.  Lastly, you don't want upkeep and usage to be a hassle.

The fresh-water system on the Gandalf-the-Beige has gone through a couple of evolutions that I've failed to document.  Since I just did a little cleanup on that system, I figured it was a good time to finally pen an update. You can catch up on the original installation here.

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:

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".

Roof Rack Improvements

It seems that one of the universal farkles of any overland vehicle is a stout roof rack - usually overloaded with Jerry cans of fuel, dented aluminum cases, and tools.  Clearly, in building an Overlander out of an Astro van, I've eschewed some of the more de rigueur "fashions" of overlanding, but let's face it, a roof rack is just so damned useful..

Chuckbox 101

So after my last post about organizing my food box, in which I referenced the Chuckbox, I got some questions about the box itself, and figured I was due to write that up as well.

Trying to describe our portable camp-kitchen is a bit like trying to hit a moving target - it's constantly changing, and it packs in a lot of functions.

Overland Organization (aka DIY TrekPak inserts)

Those who know me know that I'm constantly working to better organize the stuff in our Adventure Rig.  The available space is quite small, so it needs to be used efficiently.  I've spent years refining how stuff gets stored in the van, replacing a "good" container with a "great" container whenever I can pick up a few more cubic inches of utilized volume or something that makes using the system just that little bit easier.

My "chuckbox" is a prime example. It is under constant revision; each time I can find (or eventually learn to make) a better item that helps me to efficiently store and use the items within, it changes.  It's a dense enough topic that it has its own post, and a second follow-up.

Kitchen circa 11/2016 - I've already changed some things since.