Date:         Thu, 25 Jun 1998 22:18:25 +0200
Reply-To:     Calle Fallberg <calle.fallberg@SWIPNET.SE>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Calle Fallberg <calle.fallberg@SWIPNET.SE>
Subject:      VanaGone Camping ( longish)
Comments: To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hi Vanagonners!
When I joined this list back in .. March I think it was ( this year yes
, feels to me it has been much longer, Iīm really enjoying !!! )
Anyway, at that time we "newbies " wrote something called
"dermographics" and there I bragged about rebuilding my Vanagon into a
camper!
And - to make a long story short- summer came up too soon.
But Iīve "cheated"  myself into something for weekend use anyway, which
I would like to present here , hoping it might be of use to someone else
? :-)
The base being a standard "Transporter" there were none of those fancy
foldable seats and stuff and the first obstacle was my four Belgian
Shepherd dogs, I decided to build two cages on top of the engine (
behind rear seat) for them.
Then I took the middle seat out and with a little help from a grinder
and a socket-set made the backrest slightly foldable and then put the
seat back ,facing the rear .
A peace of plywood over the gap in between the middle and rear seat and
Iīm able to put my 6 feet 1" to sleep there!
And Iīm still able to take the seat out, put the bolts back and then
slide it back in - face forward -  again, for passenger use ( Itīs an
eightseater)
Got me a 60 Ah spare battery from a wreckyard along with a BOSCH
alternator ( from wich I only stripped the diode carrier in order to
hook up  a preventor for "powerdrain" out of the starter battery) wich I
put in a battery box and strapped to the floor behind the driver seat .
Next to the aux. battery I tied down an aftermarket purely 12 V
automobile refridgerator wich along with the inside lights, CD player,
Motorola cellphone, and Eberspracher are hooked to that battery.
Lots of space over the rest of the floor for all the stove īnīstuff
that you canīt do without .
And the plywood stands on pillars in the daytime, a perfect - though
small - table.
I topped it off with some "tinted window film", curtains , and a trailer
type roof-ventilator.
And offcourse 4 NBB floodlights that doesnīt improve the camping but
enlightens me at night!
There you have it ( - BOBīs your uncle)
The only "problem" is that  just last night I stumbeld over a front
bashed -87 "Caravelle Carat" at the wreckyard !
I'm negotiating ībout the complete interior which are "worn but good" so
maybe Iīll start all over again but until then I have something that
works!
And thatīs what iīts gonna do right now, the missus brought two of our
dogs to the national Icelandic horse show, so I'll take the other two, a
sleepingbag, some fishing gear and a sixpac up into the woods ASAP.
Hear from you all in a couple of days, drive safe .....
Calle
-88 Vanagon
Mullhyttan, Sweden