[ant01ne]

Got the PM for a camper conversion. Ended up discovering I find it more important to have it build around my lifestyle for daily use, instead of planning everything around this once or twice a year bike trip.

My life is all about mountain biking, road biking, skiing and running.

People make great beds with garage underneath. The downside is loosing precious rear door walkthrough + loosing huge amount of floor space for permanent bed. Discovered early in the process how much I love the rear right door. Sliding door is huge, but a bit too picky and mechanically too complicated compared to rear hinged doors.

Been biking for some years. Never met anyone who appreciate fussing around installing/removing wheels. I hate it. I can be biking every day. No way I'm gonna remove these other than for changing tires. Van build is planned around not removing wheels.

Bike rack doubles as mechanic stand for basic maintenance. Bike rack is also the bottom part of full size bed. Bed unfolds with piano hinges.
Cutting a huge opening in roof was not an option. Body alterations will occur in places I can easily "rollback" to factory condition (installing rear door glass instead of fans/electrical outlets for example) in case of selling.

Huge roof rack: hang out / camping / yoga studio / shield/deflector against intense heat during summer time / easier snow management during winter.

Stay tuned.

 

[ant01ne]

 

[ant01ne]

Bought the PM last winter. Didn't notice how worn out the suspension was.

Parking lot manoeuvres used to be a real attention getter, like driving an old manual coffee grinder. Gone is the rattling also.

Truly satisfied with Bilstein B6 front and medium Sumos rear. Next will be B6 rear and maybe Sumos front. Bump stop nut weld broke during removal. This was not a pleasant surprise.

 

[ant01ne]

The roof rack.
5'x10', 1.5" cross bars, 1x3 contour, 1/8 diamond plate.
Next will be custom *"gutters", lights, awning, etc.

*directing water to avoid dripping on roof to get quiet sleep

 

[bcblues]

What do you do with the bike while sleeping?

 

[ant01ne]

What do you do with the bike while sleeping?

Custom bike rack on roof will hold bikes while camping. Then back inside for travelling. Might as well sleep next to bike until I meet a nice adventurer lady unwilling to share bed with bike

 

[fishfund]

Do you have any more pictures of that Roof Rack. It looks really nice! How did the instal go with mounting to the factory mounts?

 

[ant01ne]

Do you have any more pictures of that Roof Rack. It looks really nice! How did the instal go with mounting to the factory mounts?

Yeah I really like it too. Been a long process but totally worth it.

Still carry great memories of summer nights under the stars from those backpacking years.

Can't wait to test the "heat shield" concept against living space overheating
Install was the unpleasant part. We machined brackets out of aluminum blocs. Then 1 1/4" vertical mounts on rack insterting onto 1" receiving brackets. Fair amount of lube, bit of jiggling, clear silicon, then bolted.
3/8" anchors mostly for lifting purpose as I really dont plan on putting tons of stuff on roof to keep a good drivin

 

[Motor7]

Hey that looks familiar:

This was the roof of my 28' pontoon boat. It was originally built with 1/2" PT ply on it....with 24" centers! So I bought a spool gun and taught myself Al welding. Added extra xmembers 6 more feet in length, covered in .090 sheet....

Had to phone a friend with a backhoe as my tractor w/forks was 3' to low to install roof:

So I will be building my own roof rack, how did you build the attachment points to the built in oem roof rack studs?

 

[ant01ne]

Motor7, how good is it as sun shield?
Expectations are quite high here.. kind of "passive cooling" idea instead of noisy fans

 

[Motor7]

Rats, I do not have machining capability........

 

[ant01ne]

New rear step. 1/2" alu. Bolted to frame.
Another step towards the custom ladder build / installation.
Hitch extension (being able to open door with bike rack installed) (remove if hauling trailer)