Date:         Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:10:00 -0700
Reply-To:     obeechi@RUNBOX.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mark C <obeechi@RUNBOX.COM>
Subject:      bED eXTENSION
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

The latest, the greatest, idea... 

Heres what it is... 

I have a carat... minus the mid seat on the drivers side... 

I've used the under the rearseat for things.. but mostly thats an aggravating place to put things... esp when you need to fix something en route.. you're cover with grease, its hot or raining, and what you need is buried someplace... 

Thats not why I bought my vanagon..  the ideal was supposed to be... gee this made my life so much better... 

Which leads to a solution that leads to more solutions... 

The width across this seatless area is about equal to the width created when the bed is in full extension... So what I need is a chest of a nice wood like cherry veneer or mahogany ... with rounded corners.. which allows for shallow drawers for wrenches, just like with a professional tool box aka SnapOn... where there drawers are near the bottom, and closer to the sliding door side... then closer to the driver side is where there would be a larger drawer, still low to the floor, which would hold two four ton jacks two deep... 

Above this tooling area... would be a larger drawer to hide a nice down pillow and twin down comforter... (hey I camp in style.. got these from Down Works in Santa Cruz.. and gee there is no such thing as cold when I sleep... they use 800 fill power and don't charge too much.. but its kind of a crummy thing when after a blissful sleep I drive up to the local starbucks and slide the door open so the world can stare at my comforter... which being exposed is likely to get exposed to grease as I have to get close to the suburu engine at some inconvienent times and locations... )... anyway... the idea only gets better here.. 

Since the chest (positioned so the longer side runs side to side in the vanagon), is about half the distance of the area from passenger seat to folded out bed ... all I need is a top that unfolds to fill this area at a height equal to rearseat when in bed position... Now you've got a much bigger and longer bed... in fact... you could leave the rear hatch cushion in a vertical position, for easy earlier morning access to the engine.. so if you're crossing the rockies.. and want to check a few things first thing in the morning after a late night nap.. you could do it easily.. with the bedding in the way, or the tools in a hard to find location... and without a bunch of stuff piled on top of the hatch of the engine (I already have some thules to help with that)... and if you have a bit of an embarrassing albeit now smaller mess, or someone wants to change their clothes or even nap a little more... you could work unfettered on you engine... with the partition privacy of the rear hatch cushion propped up i a vertical position... 

Of course I have a sunbrella material for a behind the front seats curtain... a rod hangs on the coat hanger plastic knobbers, and the sunbrella material has a sleeve made at the top for the rod.. and even parts in the middle... 

I guess on the side of four ton jacks could be a drawer or drawers suitable for storing quarts of oil... kendal... 

Under the rear seat, in the cubby... is where I have a large marine deep cycle battery.. and  thats where a propex heater would go too.. (anyone know how wide the space of the propex will be, measure side to side in the vanagon...?)... and I don't know yet.. maybe a drawer under that metal bar of the rear seat, behind the kick panel, could be under the bar for shoes.. and a legal size shallow drawer above the bar could be for misc. storage.... even a map drawer? (I hate the side map pockets of the driver door panel ... only thing that should be there is a small umbrella..).. 

And gee.. maybe that molded plastic of the D and C pillars in the rear could be replaced with molded veneered thin aircraft ply (think of the curves of a guitar for a minute.. ) and some odd little storage places could be built into these... 

For the center console area, a center console... (what else...)... and for the glovebox, nothing but drivers registration, and proof of insurance... (always good to be ready for an inquistive police officer... make their job easier and they might make you life easier...)

For under the remaining mid carat seat, I did find a small metal case, with a handle, that fits perfectly there.(under the seat).. got it at Homedepot... 

That just leaves the area under the driver seat where a battery could go but which is really too small for a large deep cycle... (face the music boys...)... what about a plastic water container especially made for this area, complete with baffles so you don't hear swashing... so you can have fresh drinking water while you drive ... stop somewhere.. buy a good water... and pour a gallon of into this thing.... 

Now as far as under the passenger front seat, in front of the battery... I'm stumped... really... I've put stuff there... but its a hassle to pull it out... maybe something made to easily and safely stash receipts... they always seem to pile up on me... and when I go to return something... good look finding the dog-gone receipt... 

As a matter of fact.. that center AC duct could be put to better use... replaced with more contoured and veneered ply...