Date:         Wed, 14 Jun 2000 20:44:34 EDT
Reply-To:     Harold Teer <teerhb@hotmail.com>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Harold Teer <teerhb@hotmail.com>
Subject:      My new Interior lighting, awning, and shower stall
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

In preparing for our trip to the Atlantic Provinces, I made a few changes to
the van that I wanted to share with everyone.

After several long trips in our westy, we decided we needed heat, more
light, a shower stall, and an awning.  Several years ago I solved the heat
problem by installing a propex heater when the original group purchase
occurred.  But I was too busy to work on the rest of the issues that we had
identified as important.  The following modifications have recently been
completed

1) More interior light -- I purchased two Thinlite #171 low amp fluorescent
lights and following the procedure in Bentley, removed the existing tray
that held the original incadescent light.  I removed the incadescent light
and replaced it with one of the Thinlites.  The other Thinlite was placed on
the same tray over the stove and tied in to the existing wiring.  I ran new
wiring from the auxillary battery to the back of the van and placed the old
incadescent lamp in the rear above the bed on the passenger side parallel to
the window.  Therefore it is out of the way and doesn't block the view out
of the rearview mirrow.  We are thrilled with the new lighting.  The
Thinlites only hang down 1".  These Thinlites can be purchased from several
of the list vendors for $59.95 each.  Or, you can buy two of them for $45
from http://www.rv-solar.com/wind-sun/lighting.html or for $23.75 each from
http://www.windsun.com/Misc_AE/Thin-Lite.htm  Both of these sites have many
different models of Thinlite to choose from and are great sources for RV
lighting.

2) Shower Stall -- We like to camp in many places that don't have showers so
we usually bring along a sunshower for warmed water.  I place the sunshower
in the luggage rack and tie the handle side of the sunshower to the luggage
tiedown eye on the passenger side.  When we want to wash our hair or take a
shower, I just flip the sunshower over the side of the luggage rack and it
is very convenient.  Out of modesty, we have always rigged up some sort of
tarp, but that has always been pretty clumsy since we needed trees to tie
the tarp to, etc.  So, after thinking about how to do this very easily we
came up with something that is inexpensive, easy to set up and easy to
store.  We bought a hula hoop toy at Wal-Mart for about $2.50.  Under the
label, are two staples holding the hoop together.  I undid the staples and
my wife took two cloth shower curtains and sewed them together.  You don't
need a real long curtain so we cut the top of the curtain off and she made a
pocket to thread the hula hoop through by turning the top of the curtain
down and stitched it. At the midpoint of the pocket, she cut one hole.  At
the midpoint of the hula hoop, I screwed in an eye hook.  We bought two
small spring clamps (the kind with rubber paddded jaws).  To set up the
shower, we thread the hoop through the pocket in the curtain, slide one
handle of each clamp into the open end of the hoop (I had to flatten about
1" at each end of the hoop in order to fit the clamp handle) and attach one
clamp to the rain gutter above the front of the passenger door and the other
to the rain gutter above the back rear of the passenger door.  Tie one end
of a string to the eye hook in the hoop and the other end to the luggage tie
down above the passenger door(better yet, put a hook at each end of the
string after you decide the length you need.)  That keeps the outer edge of
the hoop from sagging too far.  That is it!  Now, flip down the sunshower
and you are set.  Later, after the curtain has dried, remove it from the
hoop, fold it up and store where you wish.  We store the hoop between the
poptop and the top mattress.

3) Awning -- We didn't need a big one so we ordered the Shadyboy awning
described at Vanagon.com.  The owner, Wolfgang, was very easy to work with
and shipping was prompt--in fact he shipped it a day earlier than promised.
The awning seems like it will work well but I will know more after using it
for a few weeks. It was easy to install on the van although it was a little
scary drilling the holes required for installation.   The instructions could
have been clearer, but I have seen much worse.

Hope some of this is of help to others.

Harold
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Harold Teer
Harrisonburg, VA
teerhb@hotmail.com
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