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Jolly Ollie Advent Calendar, 2020
- Thread starter usern4cr
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Ok Bert63, since you asked, here's how I converted our old 2000 Honda Odyssey van to a (very)mini RV.
I built a dresser behind the driver, and a slightly shorter one behind the passenger (allowing their seat to recline for snoozing). The driver side has 10 drawers of various heights with 14" of travel (13.5" usable) and the passenger side has 2 coolers, and 6 drawers of various heights with 16" of travel (15.5" usable). The top of the driver dresser is the baseboard of the bed, with 3 more piano-hinged bed pieces folding in a shell shape above it which will tightly contain the 2" nylon mattress, sheets & two comforters.
The sytrofoam coolers are reinforced with fiberglass window screen and Glidden Gripper for glue, with 2 handles on each top. Inside them is a plexiglass partition so 1/3rd is for ice and 2/3rds for food & bottles. Two removable aluminum bars are for support when the bed is folded down over the passenger dresser.
A view from the back of the van shows a 2'x4' heavy duty Costco folding table and the bed folded down.
Last fall (2019) we took it on a long vacation from Kentucky through the Colorado mountains into Utah, California & back through Arizona (etc) back home. Everything held together just fine. Now Ollie can enjoy traveling in it with us (with the bed up or down as we drive, but he prefers the bed down as it's all his then).
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Ok Bert63, since you asked, these pics of the van are for you (and for those not interested, well ... talk to Bert!
2 years ago, I took the middle & back seats out of our old 2000 Honda Odyssey van (with a gazillion miles on it).
I first bolted one long wood board to the floor, where the middle seats were. You can see the edge of this at the bottom of this photo:
View attachment 194386
I then designed & built a long dresser behind the driver, and a slightly shorter one behind the passenger (shorter to allow their seat to recline for sleeping while traveling). The dressers were built in my lower garage, after making sure they would fit to all edges of the van. The driver side has 10 drawers of various heights, all with 14" of 100% opening travel with 13.5" depth usable. The passenger side has 2 coolers, and 6 drawers of various height, all with 16" of 100% opening travel with 15.5" depth usable (when they are fully opened they come with 1mm of touching the driver drawers). The top of the driver dresser is the baseboard of the bed, with 3 more piano-hinged bed pieces folding in a shell shape (with locking strap) above it which will contain the mattress, sheets & comforters (not shown here). You can see the drawers here, with dresser behind:
View attachment 194387
Here you can see the drawers inserted into the dressers. The drawers are partially pulled out to show them all at the same time. You can also see the 2 thick sytrofoam coolers (from Omaha Steaks) which are reinforced with fiberglass window screen and Glidden Gripper for glue, with 2 handles for each top. Inside them is a plexiglass partition with holes (not yet installed) so 1/3rd is for block or cube ice, and 2/3rds for Systema stacking food containers & water or beer bottles. Melted ice is drained with a siphon hose. The coolers are inside a snug-fit wood bottom (shown in 1st image near top left) which can slide out for removal. 2 removable aluminum bars are used for support when the bed is folded down over the passenger dresser:
View attachment 194388
This is what it looks like with drawers put away. A temporary wood brace is used to keep the dressers in exact spacing to each other as they would be in the van (where it is removed):
View attachment 194392
Three parts (2 empty dressers and bed assembly) are moved and re-assembled into the van, and drawers & coolers added. Note I wanted to use every mm of space so if I had to cut off pieces from the dresser to fit the van shape, I did so (as you can see in the top left corner of the driver dresser (where you can actually see the back of the top drawer when it's closed):
View attachment 194393
Another view when opening a couple of drawers part way:View attachment 194394
Finally, a view from the back of the van which shows where I tucked a 2'x4' heavy duty Costco folding table, and the bed folded down:
View attachment 194395
I had to get creative to do the locks for the drawers (by blocking the travel of their metal glides), and when done you could lock or unlock all 16 drawers with your little finger by moving four vertical lengths of 1/4" x ~1" wood by about an inch up or down (no tools involved). The coolers were locked in place by sliding a little alan wrench down a hole in the wood for each of them. I added mosquito netting to all 4 windows.
Last year we took it on a long vacation from Kentucky through the Colorado mountains into Utah, California & back through Arizona (etc) back home. Everything held together just fine. I made 2 Costco photobooks from that trip. Now Ollie can enjoy traveling in it with us (with the bed up or down as we drive, but he prefers the bed down as it's all his then).
This is awesome and exactly what we're planning on doing here in the very near future.
We have a full blown Winnebago 27K that we named the "camera bag.." We want to get a Promaster and turn it into a daytripper and your setup is amazing...
Thanks so very much for pasting these - you've done a really nice job with yours. I can't get over how well done it is... SO AWESOME!
Our kitty loves our camper too!
One question - just in terms of safety - have you weighed the van fully loaded, and have you weighed the axles fully loaded?
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That Winnebago looks nice! You've got a whole world of comfortable room compared to what we have. If you have pictures you'd like to share then feel free to do so here, or directly to me via CanonRumors.
Thanks for your kind words. I know there was a lot of weight removed by losing all the seats (which were quite heavy) and we only have the two of us is in (we don't weigh that much, or so I'd like to think
). But I did build it very strong and the drawers are so efficient that you can choose to load it up with a lot if you want. I haven't weighed it, and if I did I'd assume I might be somewhat over what it's supposed to be, but I doubt if it's enough to really worry about. We chose to drive 60mph max (really!) to enjoy the view, save gas, and make sudden stops a lot safer. We use engine downshifting and hardly need to touch the brakes going down the mountains (yes, slower than traffic behind us, but they can pass when they get a chance or we pull over to let them). Our goal is to enjoy the trip as we drive as well as when we stop, and try to make it as safe as this old bucket of bolts can be. By the way, that Odyssey van is super smooth riding with a great view and high mpg, and it's very stealthy so you can just pull over and park pretty much anywhere without notice.
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Your build is awesome man. Very professionally done IMO.
Yes, we love big bertha. We've had several different RVs over the decades but this one is perfect for two and she's small enough to fit almost anywhere.
And yes, you can stealth camp her, but only to a very small degree. Walmart parking lot maybe, but not much else. That's why we're looking at a smaller van for day-tripping and maybe over-nighting spur of the moment type stuff.
On non-COVID years we're in bertha about 150 days a year - March to November sort of thing.
Just two pictures in her natural habitat. That's our Jeep we drag behind her.. The rest is exactly the same as the video except we have a better color scheme IMO..
We won't talk about MPG...
Yes, we love big bertha. We've had several different RVs over the decades but this one is perfect for two and she's small enough to fit almost anywhere.
And yes, you can stealth camp her, but only to a very small degree. Walmart parking lot maybe, but not much else. That's why we're looking at a smaller van for day-tripping and maybe over-nighting spur of the moment type stuff.
On non-COVID years we're in bertha about 150 days a year - March to November sort of thing.
Just two pictures in her natural habitat. That's our Jeep we drag behind her.. The rest is exactly the same as the video except we have a better color scheme IMO..
We won't talk about MPG...
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Great pictures. You have 150 days a year in her? Wow, that's a lot! Do you go all over the US and Canada, I assume? You must have a ton of nice pictures with all those views to enjoy!Your build is awesome man. Very professionally done IMO.
Yes, we love big bertha. We've had several different RVs over the decades but this one is perfect for two and she's small enough to fit almost anywhere.
And yes, you can stealth camp her, but only to a very small degree. Walmart parking lot maybe, but not much else. That's why we're looking at a smaller van for day-tripping and maybe over-nighting spur of the moment type stuff.
On non-COVID years we're in bertha about 150 days a year - March to November sort of thing.
Just two pictures in her natural habitat. That's our Jeep we drag behind her.. The rest is exactly the same as the video except we have a better color scheme IMO..
We won't talk about MPG...
View attachment 194397
View attachment 194398
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Yes, for photos of Ollie I always use animal eye AF (with R5, Olympus was more limited). I started using f8 to make sure I got good focus, but soon dropped it down to f2.8 (wide open) to get better isolation. Now I almost always try to use wide open on my lens if at all possible. f2.8 gives you plenty of DOF for a moving cat. In the last few days I got a 85mm f1.2L and am seeing how it does wide open vs. stopping down a little. While f1.2 is great if your portrait model does what you ask, for a moving cat it is hard to get an ideal photo that wide open, so somewhere between f1.4 and f2 might be ideal for it with a moving cat in the early photos I'm taking so far. I also recently got the 100-500L and it takes superb shots of a cat at 500mm f7.1 (all those will be towards the end of the calendar).
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Thanks, Click! Before Advent's over, I've got some shots with the 2 new lenses I recently got and I'm looking forward to posting them. (too bad there aren't any green leaves on the trees as they make a lovely smeared background)Beautiful shots.Keep posting.
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Jolly Ollie Advent Calendar
Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020
(Ollie sees all the birds at the feeder next to the tree)
"OK, now I've climbed up within striking distance of the feeder
and am completely hidden from them! ...
Hey! - Where'd they all go?! "
EM1_II with 300mm f4 lens.
300mm, f5.6, 1/250", ISO 1250
Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020
(Ollie sees all the birds at the feeder next to the tree)
"OK, now I've climbed up within striking distance of the feeder
and am completely hidden from them! ...
Hey! - Where'd they all go?! "
EM1_II with 300mm f4 lens.
300mm, f5.6, 1/250", ISO 1250
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