All this sounds great, any chance of seeing some photos of what it all looks
like?

on 6/14/00 8:44 PM, Harold Teer at teerhb@hotmail.com wrote:

> 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
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com