Airstream Trailers No comments yet

Trailer Pics! (after)

By on March 14th, 2011

I’ve had a request to update the blog (cough) with pics from our amazing trailer redo. Sure! I know I have been a bad blogmistress, but hey I’ve been busy. (cough, cough). Anyway here is a small photo essay of after pics for inspiration!

Enjoy!

 

Dot at Utica Resevoir 2010 So here Dot is from our trip to a lovely lake in the Sierra Nevada range. We go every year.  Dot is a three window Globetrotter and that gives us a lot of light to play with inside the cabin.

When boondocking we use a solar panel. We’ve done this since 2001 when we purchased Dot. The panel (same one for ten years) charges two deep-cycle batteries.

Since most of our lighting has been converted to LEDs this is more than enough. We can even keep the laptops charged with no problem. Since I am a writer and my husband a workaholic, this is critical! ROFL.

This is the new Banquette in Action! Kyra, our dog, also loves the redo. We have a helluva time getting her out from under the table. Unfortunately, I ‘m slacking about getting the new upholstery finished. Ah well. The table leg is a single Ikea desk leg that we attached by embedding a bolt underneath the table top. We have a knob that screws onto the bolt and holds the leg on. It’s very stable. The table is attached to the trailer by a simple channel attachment we found at Airstream Dreams. However, I can say that if I were to do it again, I would find a simpler way to support the bed height. That channel attachment is a real cast iron b*tch to get installed properly after a long drive, when everyone is cranky and tired.

Here is a detailed view of the leg attachment. The metal plate is the base that came with the leg. We epoxied a bolt inside in pointing down. The orange knob is a cabinet pull we had in the garage. The top of the leg has a hole that we slip into the bolt then screw the knob over to secure the leg.

 

So here is  more cleaned up view of the Banquette. When the table is in “bed” mode it

rests on a channel attached to the trailer wall at bed level. We also  screwed & glued aluminum “L” channel under the top of the cabinet creating a lip that the table top rests on. The drawers are Ikea base cabinet drawers at 30″ and 36″. Fortuitously, the fronts do not come full height leaving a convenient handle. I am just so pleased with how this turned out! Now if I only did that damn upholstery…

I did a post last year that has more images of the banquette in process. You can find those here.

…And I will leave you one more. A view of the assembled but not installed pieces. We did the curve fitting with a compass and belt-sander after roughing the pieces. The drawers are installed here but the fronts are not. I had to make sure that the curves I cut would allowed the drawers to close! But that was not an issue at all, and the foot-room left was perfect for my husband and I and two (close) friends!

We are just delighted with this conversion. It has made the trailer more useful both on the road and at home. My husband  is currently using this as his temporary home office since our middle son has boomeranged.

Ah well.

 

 

Airstream Trailers, Do it yourself, Ikea No comments yet

Parts list for the Airstream Ikea Kitchen

By on October 26th, 2010

I was asked to provide a list of the parts I used to create our very cool Ikea Airstream Kitchen.  Why, what a great idea!

Now that said, this work was done in 2007 and nothing stays the same, not even Ikea part numbers! So, please use the part number listing as a rough guide YMMV. I’ve also added links to images of the cabinets so you can see what they look like. The image on the left has the streetside gaucho pulled out into a bed so even with the new cabinets we still have a narrow if navigable walkway, at least that didn’t change. lol.

The basis for the kitchen is, of course, the Ikea cabinets. We used the white melamine and, as I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, crafted specific sizes by combining two cabinets. For example, our tall cabinets are 18″ — but Ikea does not make an 18″ tall. No worries, just combine the bottom and top of a 18″ base cabinet and the tall sides of the 15″ tall and you have an 18″ tall cabinet. Yes you do have to buy two cabinets, but hello, they are $24 and we made good use of the other bits, too. Once you start thinking of Ikea as big Legos the world of home DIY opens in front of you like s&&t to a pig — or at least it did to me.

Be sure to check out the spanning bits at the bottom after the table.

The list….

Finished Piece parts used modifications
Refrigerator Cabinet Akurum 24″ base (#743-821-10) We shaped the sides to fit curve of trailer, cut bottom to allow for floor vent and gas line for our new Dometic fridge. Can I say here I am not a huge fan of the new Dometic? The silly thing’s catch hardly ever stays closed and the hinges broke on one of our first trips! We did have milk in the door, but hello, that’s the only place you can store a quart of milk!.
Here’s a post showing the innerds of the refrigerator and sink cabinets. The tall cabinet is in the background.
Sink Cabinet Akurum 30″ base (#543-822-10)
2 Rubrik Stainless Steel doors (#300-857-57)
Lagan sink (#801-315-87)		 We shaped the sides to fit curve of trailer, cut bottom right edge and the side to span edge of wheel-well.
Range Cabinet Akurum 24″ base (#743-821-10)
24″ shelf		 We shaped the sides to fit curve of trailer, cut bottom left edge and left side to span edge of wheel- well. The range sits on a 24″ shelf that is attached via Ikea shelf hardware for heavy items (This is small pins wrapped in plastic). We purchased sliding door track from McMaster Carr and created a small cubby below the range with 1/4″ birch plywood sliding doors. We keep heavy dry good such as canned goods under here. Works very nicely. Our range, a 21″ Seaward Princess #3374, was a bit smaller than the 24″ cabinet so we shimmed the edge, this left a rather useful slot that we trimmed an Ikea Lamplig lipped cutting board to slide into. Neat!
Here’s a post with good pics of the innerds of the range cabinet and the tall cabinet. Enjoy!
Tall Pantry (curb side) Akurum 18″ base cabinet (#143-819-10)
Akurum 15″ tall cabinet ( #843-811-10)
2 Rationell 18″ drawers ( #101-070-67)
2 Rubrik 18″ Stainless Steel drawer fronts (#400-857-71**)
1 Aviskt 18×39″ door (#844-298-000)
2 Rationell 18″ full ext. drawers (#201-070-67)		 We used the sides of the 15″ cabinet mounted to the bottom of the 18″ cabinets then shaped sides to fit curve of trailer. There was no top, the cabinets are mounted via “L” brackets to the metal of the trailer. The bottom holds our spiffy new piezo ignition Atwood water heater and the small catalytic heater that we use. We don’t often camp in very cold weather so we don’t need much heat. The middle drawers are for spices etc and utensils. The top door hides our lighter weight food store in two Rationell pull-out drawers and a shelf.
Tall Pantry (street side) Akurum 18″ base cabinet (#143-819-10)
Akurum 15″ tall cabinet (#843-811-10)
1 Aviskt 18×39″ door (#844-298-000)		 We used the sides of the 15″ cabinet mounted to the bottom of the 18″ cabinets then shaped sides to fit curve of trailer. There was no top, the cabinets are mounted via “L” brackets to the metal of the trailer. The bottom of this cabinet holds the inverter, two deep cycle batteries and all that other elecrtical stuff my husband fiddles with. The top is simple birch shelves for our clothes.
18″ Gacho cabinet Akurum 18″ base cabinet (#143-819-10)
Rubrik 18″ Stainless Steel drawer fronts (#400-857-71)		 This is where the old heater used to be and we simply replaced it with amazing amount of storage you can get with 4 Ikea drawers in an 18″ cabinet. We are big fans of Tap Plastic and we cladded each side with bright green plastic for fun.
36″ Banquette seat (street side) Akurum 36″ x 15″ Over refrigerator cabinet (#WFR-3615)
Nexus Birch 36″ drawer with a 13″ tall front. (???)		 There was no trimming needed at all for this cabinet. We merely squared it, then mounted it on 1/4″ furring strips to ensure the that drawer would open properly. The Nexus 36″ drawer front, if you get the tall drawer front (13″ tall), leaves about a 1 1/2 opening at the top. This is an excellent hand hold and ensure that you do not need a handle where your legs will be. Brilliant! Here’s the link to the how-to on the Banquette.
30″ Banquette seat (curb side) Akurum 30″ x 15″ Over refrigerator cabinet (#WFR-3015)
Nexus Birch 30″ drawer with a 13″ tall front. (???)		 This cabinet required a slight bit of trimming along the edge that met the front curve of the trailer. However, it was so slight that it did not impair the installation of the drawer. Yay! We then mounted it on 1/4″ furring strips to ensure the that drawer would open properly. The Nexus 30″ drawer front, if you get the tall drawer front (13″ tall), leaves about a 1 1/2 opening at the top. This is an excellent hand hold and ensure that you do not need a handle where your legs will be.
Here is a post that shows the latex foam we initially used and the installed drawers on the streetside bench. I’ve also added an image below.

Lagniappe

So we also floated the counter top in the kitchen. We installed the base cabinets on furring strips so that the doors would open then using Ikea Capita 3″ stainless steel legs to support the front of the counter. This left a 3″ cubby for storage of things like towels, trays and well anything you need to get off the counter. I honestly think this was one of the most spectacular things that we did in the redo. By doing this we essentially doubled our counter space. Holy Efficiency!

One final word. Stainless steel fittings, you will have invested so much time, spend the extra dollars and get quality joinery. We heart McMaster-Carr. Reasonably priced and if they don’t have it, you likely don’t need it.

Streetside view of Ikea Cabinet Dinette

Airstream Trailers, Do it yourself, Ikea 8 comments

My Ikea Airstream Kitchen: Fitting the Cabinets

By on August 30th, 2010

Ikea cabinets come in big, long, flat boxes. Really, they do.

These boxes make perfect templates. The are stiff but easily cut and very close to the footprint of the cabinets they hold. Et voila! Templates.

But these templates are still square and the Airstream is most decidedly not. Also, the degree of arc changes with the location of the curve on the inside of the trailer, so I can make a template in one location for one side of a cabinet but, say eighteen inches away, where  the other side of the cabinet will be,  is not the same.Dow Airstream

Hey, nobody said this was trivial! But if you use a trusty compass and my handy instructions it’s a lot easier!

I used a Staedtler compass, the nice one not the cheesy plastic ones that the kids use in school.  I wrote about it earlier and that link has a great picture of the one I use.

Fitting the cabinets…..

  1. Fit the bottom first. There may be an arc you need to cut against the bottom of the cabinet so that the whole piece will fit nicely against the side. Cut that first.  That can be very simple and may not even require a cardboard template.  Just be careful if you trace the arc directly on the Ikea base, you don’t want to make a mistake!  ***Note: Also, the fiberboard can shatter when cut with a jigsaw.  I used painters tape, the blue sUse a compass to fit the curve of the trailertuff that is not very sticky, to protect the melamine surface. Works like a charm and it has the additional perk of letting you write on the blue tape and not have to clean pencil off the nice white melamine
  2. Attach your floor pieces. Once the base is cut, secure it to the floor where you have marked its final position. This is critical because the arc of the trailer changes! If you fit the sides a few inches on either side you may have cabinets with gaps! For this work, I actually screw down the base just to be certain. We decided we wanted the cabinets basically on the floor, so ours sit on furring strips just a scant 1/2″ off the floor to give the doors clearance. Screwing in my furring strip cabinet base system before fitting the arcs on the cabinet also helped me see where I needed to place the cabinets.
  3. Then, Fit your first side panel. Use the compass to fit against the curve then heavy shears to cut the cardboard. Trim little bits at a time. The compass will help with this because it’s much more accurate when open to a small angle. I’ve got a picture above showing the fitting of a plastic panel, its identical for the cardboard templates. Keep fitting and cutting until your side panel template fits neatly against the base and the trailer wall arc. Then tape it in place with your painters tape.
  4. Now fit the other side. Do this before you cut the melamine on the first side! And tape it in place.
  5. Test by  measuring. Once both sides are cut, measure the distance between the sides, as fitted at several elevations up and down the inside of the cabinet! This is your test that you cut the cardboard straight and that your cabinet will be true! DON’T SKIP THIS STEP. You could end up with cabinets that will collapse because they are out of square. once I know that this is correct, I trace the interior line in pencil against the trailer wall. Now I know where the final placement will be. I use the interior as my guide because the cardboard is thinner than the melamine so I don’t know where the outside line will be.
  6. Transfer and Check your Ikea pieces. Using your blue painters tape, trace the cut line on the cabinet. Double, triple, and quadruple check that you are cutting on the right side!!!! I am speaking out of experience here!  Those panels look exactly the same! I actually mark them with arrows indicated which edges go towards the wall of the trailer and which side is out vs. in. I bought a couple extra cabinet because of this one! lol.
  7. Cut. I use a jig saw, but you use whatever works for you.
  8. Fit and Sand. Now fit the sides of the cabinet inside the trailer, you may find that there is sanding to do here to get a nice edge. We use a belt sander and leave on the blue tape.
  9. Add the top. Once the sides fit you can fit the top pretty much the same way. Depending on how high your cabinet is, the top may only need an inch or so removed.  However for the tall cabinets in our trailer, we did not use a top at all! Instead we fitted a sturdy, birch plywood shelf fairly high up and that, along with the attachment to the trailer, that we did with Stainless Steel “L” brackets from McMaster-Carr serves to support the cabinet’s shape.

This process worked extremely well for us. All the Ikea cabinets in our trailer were installed like this.  Now, more than two years later they are holding up perfectly and whenever I see some new gizzies that Ikea has for fun inside cabinet fittings, I can play with them in my trailer!

I love my Ikea Globetrotter!

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