Escapees May June 2015 Demo

Early in the project, my mate, Judy, threw me a curve. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could use it as an overnighter? All you would have to do is make a space for a queen-size air mattress.” Actually it is the kind of challenge I enjoy. I made the two benches on opposite sides of the aisle with flip tops. They are hinged with full-length piano hinges and meet in the middle. As it turned out, I only had enough space for a standard-size air mattress. Saw Mount The most interesting feature is the mount for the Shopsmith saw. It is mounted on a 60-inch long Kwik-kie storage bay tray mounted crossways at the front of the van. What you buy from Kwik-kie is a kit to build a tray. You supply the plywood bottom to fit your storage bay and bolt the rails onto the plywood. My plywood is only 20 inches wide. I removed the Shopsmith’s legs and built two 4.5- inch tall legs that are bolted directly to the tray. With the tray fully extended from the side

probably create an added slide func- tion to get that width of cut. We will wait and see how important this issue becomes. As it is, I get along with the skillsaw for those cuts. Weight Check With everything settled into its perma- nent position, the van tips the scales at 9,500 pounds. This leaves us 500 pounds of unused capacity before it becomes overloaded. The only issue while towing is the inability to back up. With the Haulmark trailer, I could, and did, back up frequently, once for nearly a mile when the road we were on turned into a cow-path. On the other hand, it is nice to pull in and dis- connect and then only have to back the coach into that tight-fitting campsite. Driving and Parking At this time, we have towed the Sprinter 6,500 miles. We have only

ing stalls in a parking lot between curbed islands with trees. Extracting ourselves from these tight quarters required disconnecting and jockeying each vehicle independently. Everything has worked out won- derfully. The Sprinter is easy to drive, gets about 18 miles to the gallon and we can find a parking spot almost anywhere. It is about 2,000 pounds heavier than the trailer, but yet the im- pact on our fuel mileage on the Alpine motorhome has been minimal. I will add that, as a camper, it is a bit Spartan. First of all, it is not self- contained. There is no water and no potty, unless you count the paint buck- et chamber pot. It is about equivalent to camping with a tent. You blow up the mattress and make the bed every night and take it all down every morn- ing. It is wired for 30-amp service, so there are lights, and you can bring your coffee pot—so life is good. All I need is a sign to mount over the door that says, “Gary’s Man Cave.”

“…we have towed the Sprinter 5,300 miles. We have only gotten into a pickle once.”

gotten into a pickle once. We parked across several park-

door, I can cut 13- inch slices off of full-length plywood sheets. It would be better, of course, if I could cut a bit over 24 inches. I could

Gary retired from the paper industry and Judy closed her window treatments work room in May 2004. In June 2004 they went on the road full-time in a Honda Civic and a tent. They purchased a 2001 Alpine motorhome in September 2004 and joined Escapees that fall. Gary says, “It has been a great journey.”

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