The Stealth Camper Basic Buildout is Complete.
It’s been a long time coming, but it’s basically done. The essential structure and infrastructure is complete including all the walls cabinets, major appliances, etc. I could essentially hit the road tomorrow if I had to (but I wouldn’t want to).
The next phase is what I would call equipping, or possibly furnishing. The first order of business is to install the TV’s, computer, and related peripherals, and of course I need to get it to all play together including the external WiFi and whatever internal wireless and wired network I come up with. The conduits are all there, so mostly it is just a matter of spending money and hooking it all up. There will also be a learning curve with various software packages, but in theory at least this is all pretty standard stuff.
Beyond that there is an endless list of tweaks, improvements and loose ends that will probably continue for as long as I own the truck. Some of these include…
1. Steel covers over the flexible propane pipes under the truck bed.
2. Finding and stowing a collapsible ladder under the truck for long term maintenance
3. Improve the shelves in the refrigerator so stuff won’t slide around and fall over in transit.
4. General travel prep. of cabinets to keep things from bouncing around.
5. A 2nd heated mattress pad for the top bunk
6. Get the truck to the Mitsubishi dealer to fix whatever the various recall notices are all about.
7. General truck maintenance, lubrication, and new front tires.
8. Build a baffle wall ahead of the left rear tire to reduce the possibility of generator exhaust gasses traveling under the truck and getting to my fresh air inlet.
9. Adding remote valve stems to the rear wheels to make them easier to fill and check air pressure.
10. Think about tie down points for possible roof storage.
11. Possibly add a tow hitch and wiring for flat towing a small car.
After the furnishing phase comes the moving in phase. You get the idea, food, clothes, lawn chairs, etc. Then comes the living in the driveway phase. I think that might be the most important of them all. It will give me a chance to really live the life while still having the safety net of my sticks and brick house. Mixed in with that is the moving out of the house phase. That may well be the hardest one of all. I have way too much junk to load in the truck and it will be hard to sell, give away, or take it to the dump. You can imagine my reticence to give up my tools, so some things will go into storage, but that is mostly just an expensive way to delay the inevitable.
In the mean time, I need to swallow my fear and make a trip to the DMV. It’s time to get this thing registered and then insured as an RV.
One last thing… I just installed my smoke detector, propane and CO detector, and mounted the fire extinguisher. More on that later….
As always, pictures can be found under keyword “Stealth”.
To be continued….
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