In October, Mark and I – in the company of Maya – continued our Mercedes T2 (pre-Vario) camper build at Premiumcamper in Much, Germany. The truck is parked in front of Mirko’s workshop, where we can use his tools and expertise. Our live-in camper, Duke, is parked on the street, two minutes away by foot.
(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)
When I leave Maya at home, she gets in trouble (breaking into the trash can, spreading the contents, and eating everything “edible” or chewing through our pants pockets to reach treats) and when I take her to the Vario/T2, she is uncomfortable (and now cold) outside or in the way inside. It’s been tricky. But not nearly as tricky as all the projects we accomplished – or tried to accomplish.
We sold our old alternator and the fridge and table that came with the Vario to make up a little bit for our expenses, and donated an extra 100W solar panel to Mirko, our builder.
It took many after-work hours to discuss, draw, and detail our dinette and bed area. But that job was done by mid-October. Producing the pieces of wood with the CNC machine followed.
Mark and I installed a fan in the ceiling of the bathroom (but we had Darius cut that first giant hole in the roof) and an air conditioning unit in the living area. Those were big projects. We also added another junction box, lights, USB-charging ports, and other electronics in our living quarters.
The two water tanks needed cleaning, fittings, and connecting. And after one failed attempt, laminate siding appeared on the widened partition that separates our dinette area from the kitchen.
During the first half of October, we also put a magnetic doorstop in the bathroom, cut a protective rubber mat to size (this would be glued to our existing chassis rails as a buffer for the extra frame rails), figured out the positions for our backup camera and grab bar, dry-fitted our bathroom sink, ran more wires, and started working on the bathroom plumbing.
