Date:         Wed, 23 Feb 2005 12:53:00 -0700
Reply-To:     Gerald Masar <azsun99@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Gerald Masar <azsun99@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      hole trip report to San Diego and Anza-Borrego
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I'm back! But then you probably didn't know I was gone!
A while back I asked the list about cutting a 2" hole in the floor of my '90 Westy to
install a propane furnace. Created quite a bit of discussion and I got some good
suggestions.
To keep this short, after using a wood hole saw to cut through the plywood floor, I
opted to drill a series of holes and connect the dots, so to speak.
In the right hands and with a powerful drill, a hole saw would have worked, but as I
found out, the hole is right up against the main frame and the back half of it is 3
layers of metal thick. I bought a new B&D titanium bit that also has cutters on the
shaft, so supposedly you can drill, cut and saw. Worked okay on the single thickness,
less well on the triple thick.
Anyway, 1 jigsaw blade and two hacksaw blades, and a lot of work later, I had a large
hole which I enlarged and smoothed into roundness with a new half-round file and a
grinder wheel in my basic Dremel tool.
The furnace is in. I removed the fridge, which I don't use anyway, and connected the
gas line to the same fitting. And my porta-potti fits neatly in where the fridge was
and eventually slide-out shelves will fill the rest of the space.

Just returned from a week of stealth camping in rainy San Diego, and thoroughly
enjoyed my new creature comforts. With wet towels, swim suit, raincoat, and wet black
Lab, the heater was great. And no more cold, windy, wet beach area public toilets!

On the way back to Arizona (also rainy), I spent time in Anza-Borrego Desert State
Park and the wildflowers are out in abundance. Actually, all of the lower deserts are
green and colorful.

You can see some photos of my two Westys and the furnace install on my updated
website:
    http://home.earthlink.net/~azsun99/jerryspage/index.html

Jerry