We had really a loooooot of work to do the last week. Good stress, but still much work :D But it's totally worth it.
First of all I have to thank Matze, my twinsisters boyfriend, for his huge support with the box! I think without him it would have taken ages to build it.
As both of us work al lot we mostly only find time at the weekend to work on our camper. A really big challenge was getting the right wood for our car. I read a lot of thread about it and finally found a company (Vöhringer, Trochtelfingen) near to my hometown selling "multiplex" wood with a CPL cover (to keep it weather resistant).
Only problem: the company has just opened during the week and the industrial selling to private people only take place on Thursdays. As I was around the area due to work (a Monday..) I stoppen by anyways and asked if they could help me. The responsible man wasn't present that day but they gave me the number. In the end my father drove there pick out two 15x2500x1400m wooden plates (we also got a uncoated 12mm plate for free) and let them stored on the property. We picked them up on a Sunday with our caddy. Wasn't the best idea, due to their size... but we had to bring them to the workshop of Matze to start working. We had to drive about 1 hours with the rear open to wood sticking out, but it worked (thanks to tension belts)!
We started working around 2 pm and I thought it would take day to finish everything. But we tried to stay focused and finally at the end of the day around 9 pm our box was finished (ok not final, but at least working!).
THE BOX Our box is similar to Amdro, but we made some modifications as we wanted it tobe a bit higher to fit a cool box inside. We choose the "14 L TROPICOOL Classic TCX-14" as it is a good compromise between size and capacity. The size of the box 450 x 328 x 303 mm (WxHxD) is really perfect for a camper and Weaco a good brand with much experience in camper equipment. As the electrical connection of the caddy is on the left we placed the cool box there.
On the right side of the box we like to have a drawer for all of our cooking equipment. But we will build the drawer next year (due to the short time we have to finish the camper). The drawer will get a front, thats why the wood of the side boards are a little shorter and placed with a offset. This year we will just stick with some crates. We also wanted to use the box with an without the back seats, thats why we brought some eu-boxes with the same hight like the construction (if we use the seats we have to put something over the seats as the are not high enough, i think we will use some leftovers of the wood)
I think the measurements will be interesting (maybe someone wants to copy our box):
MATERIAL
2x Multiplex CPL 15x2500x1400cm
1x Multiplex 12x2500x1400cm
1 x box of screws
2 x long hinges (Klavierscharniere)
BOARDS FOR THE BOX
Bottom
- 1,2 x 110 cm x 95 cm
>> as the Caddy is curved at the end of its trunk we also made the bottom curved for a better fit and less movement around the trunk
Box left - left 1,5 x 35 x 73 cm
- right 1,5 x 35 x 78,5 cm
- cover 1,5 x 34,5 x 72 cm
>> we made one side longer to give the folding bed some better hold
> > we cutted some holes out for the air circulation of the cool box, left and right
Box right
- left 1,5 x 35 x 71,5 cm
- right 1,5 x 35 x 77 cm
- cover cover 1,5 x 34,5 x 72 cm
>> sides 1,5 cm shorter because of the cover of the planned drawer
Box middle
- cover 1,5 x 40,5 x 72 cm
>> we added some piece of wood on each side of the left and right boxes to keep the cover from falling down while sleeping (you can find it in the pics)
Sleeping Parts:
- middle 1,5 x 110 x 60 cm
- front 1,5 x 110 x 55 cm
- endpiece 1,5 x 110 x 55 cm
>> endpiece: it's just the basic measurements, we made a very individual form fitting to our seat, to either stick in the seats or on the floor while sleeping > you can see the final form in the pictures
Attaching: The sleeping plates are connected with a piano hinge. The whole Construction is connected to the box with some sliding hinge.
COSTS
180 € for the wood
10 € hinges 6 € screws 10 € varnish
I sanded all of the edges before we started woking, als the CPL cover was a bit crushed on the sides where the boards were cutted. In the end, to give the boards a better finish and make it look more professional, we milled all of the edges.
Here are some pics of the progress:
As you maybe recognized we didn't connect the box with sleeping parts. Thats because we want to make a modular system. We will finish the box this weekend and add some features like the connection, the table etc... I my next post i will show you the sleeping mattress and our brand new color!! (picking up the caddy today!)
Im reeeeeally excited about our upcoming holiday (only 1,5 weeks left!!) It's gonna be awesome!
soapbubbles