Bug Screen

Bug screen. This was one of the most complicated sub-projects on our build, behind only 1. Electrical 2. Heat 3. Galley Cabinetry. We bought small bug screen material at Lowes and ordered zippers and all weather fabric at sailrite.com. Neodymium Magnets were available at Amazon. We used the Rolef design as inspiration (as seen on Fit RV, Far Out Ride, etc.) The roughly 10-12 bar magnets are sewn in with rigid fiberglass rod spacers in between. On the vehicle side, a 6’ steel threaded rod (cut to size) is sewn in to complete the magnetic closure.

Complicating the design, and we wouldn’t do this for 2.0, is a design that allows the screen to be closed but the table/water access port to be accessible with the screens closed. Next time, we’d just go with a single roll-up panel.

Tools needed: standard sewing machine, upholstery/leather needles, medium duty nylon thread, plastic drop cloth for template, stick-on and sew-in hook and loop tape, self attaching hook and loop tape (hook on one side/loop on other). Total cost: just under $100, but many hours of work.

Weight Watchers

We’re just over one week from heading out on our Really Awesome Tour of the Great American West (RATGAW), so we’ve got as much build done as we’re going to do, weight wise. For now. So off to the CAT scales we went today, to see how we’re doing and how much of our crap we can stuff in there. We bought a 350 Transit, so with a 9500 lb Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR), I was hoping for good news. We had about 10 gallons of fresh water in the tank and a few items, so subtracted out that would put us at about 7600, with a OCCC (Occupant and Cargo Carrying Capacity) of 1,900 lbs. I’m happy with that. Yay!