Our Journey Begins - 2018 AI TB Lounge

[ScottP]

Originally Posted by wachuko

To get ready for when we go out during summer and bugs become an issue...

Since I can't lower the rear screen all the way due to the cooler. I can lower the screen so that it rests on the cooler but there is an area next to it that would remain open.

Taking inspiration from some of the work InterBlog has done... Thinking of just getting a 1x3... this would sit on top of the cooler and provide a flat surface for the screen to rest on and then just cover the rest with some screen material...held on the wood on the top and with magnets on the sides and bottom (I now seem to have an overwhelming amount of small magnets ).

This would be easy to remove when I need to open the cooler, instead of using a shelve as I was thinking initially... would stay in place if I need to raise the screen (would not impact screen operation). And would not impact lowering the seat to make the bed (don't mind the stuff on top of the cooler... that was just not stored correctly as I was working on the light), the area over the cooler should always be empty of stuff as I want to lower the bed any time that I want...

I thought about a screen from side to side and held in place with magnets, but any movement from the screen would pull it up with it... I will still try this just to see if I can do away from even having the 1"x3" there...

What do you think? Any other ideas?

ARB

Our experience which may help.

We find it’s easier to access (and less opening / closing the rear doors by kids) to leave our ARB outside when we camp***. In your case, lyou could thread the power cord up through the icebox hole (storage box) in the floor under the rear seat.

I’m envious of your shiny ARB...sadly our’s is polycarbonate (I made that up to sound smart...it’s blue and gray plastic...which may be poly I dunno... I just want a shiny ARB like yours).

***Unless we are in Jackson, WY or other Bear country of course.


Another note:

THANK YOU!!!

For all your enthusiastic and inspirational contributions to the forum with all of your well documented projects. Every time I open the rear door, I wish I hAd an overhead light and a power plug for my ARB fridge / freezer. And I think of your detailed “how to” post with links.

Thank you for “tricking out” your silver bullet and for taking the time to detail “what and how” for the rest of us.

Scott

[Tobbun]

This thread has been awesome... I read it like a book I couldn't put down... copying things into OneNote for later reference, use. Realized it is now 2:30 in the morning but had to see where this thread stopped.

I graduated from USF so you will have to not hold that against me.. but my family is in a similar scenario. We are in our late 40's and just purchased a new 2017 AI Lounge TB. Picking it up in a week. We have two teenagers as well (oldest going to college in the fall) and our goal for the AI is to have fun trips (doubt we will spend more than 2 nights in a row). Time is short and hard to believe our oldest is already going to college. My wife is not a camper. She is more of a room service type... but also very loving and supportive of this journey. I hope to minimize any issues on our first trip like you have done.

My AI only has the 100w of solar versus the 300w. It is one of the areas of interest as well as the extra battery. I too liked the idea of the Galleria Li3/Roadtrek E-trek but didn't want to trade off the electronics for the finish and MB differences.

Thank you so much for sharing your journey.. I have several things in my Amazon cart because of this thread and projects desired. Not sure if I can do that wiring you did...

One thing we saw in another thread and got is the pleasure way chair bed. It is inflatable and goes across the front seats. Packs up pretty small but I do like your wood frame design.

[wachuko]

Originally Posted by Tobbun

This thread has been awesome... I read it like a book I couldn't put down... copying things into OneNote for later reference, use. Realized it is now 2:30 in the morning but had to see where this thread stopped.

I graduated from USF so you will have to not hold that against me.. but my family is in a similar scenario. We are in our late 40's and just purchased a new 2017 AI Lounge TB. Picking it up in a week. We have two teenagers as well (oldest going to college in the fall) and our goal for the AI is to have fun trips (doubt we will spend more than 2 nights in a row). Time is short and hard to believe our oldest is already going to college. My wife is not a camper. She is more of a room service type... but also very loving and supportive of this journey. I hope to minimize any issues on our first trip like you have done.

My AI only has the 100w of solar versus the 300w. It is one of the areas of interest as well as the extra battery. I too liked the idea of the Galleria Li3/Roadtrek E-trek but didn't want to trade off the electronics for the finish and MB differences.

Thank you so much for sharing your journey.. I have several things in my Amazon cart because of this thread and projects desired. Not sure if I can do that wiring you did...

One thing we saw in another thread and got is the pleasure way chair bed. It is inflatable and goes across the front seats. Packs up pretty small but I do like your wood frame design.

Glad it helped. Feel free to ask anything. Great bunch of more experienced folks in the forum that can provide great advise.

[wachuko]

We are heading out to our second trip... just a short one... took Friday off to make it a long weekend. Heading to Hart Springs Park here in FL... only 3 hours away from home.

Looks like another cold outing, lol. Everything packed since yesterday. Cooler and fridge have been running for a few days. Did not make the same mistake of turning on the fridge just a few hours before... since it takes a long time to cool initially...

Even left the fan on auto... and running on batteries for a few days to see how the solar panels compensated for the load and if the batteries held fine... all good from what I can see.

Wife getting more comfortable on packaging stuff for the trip. Kids looking forward to it. Books and eReader ready (did not read one page during the last trip, lol)...

Propane still at 80 % so I do not even have to deal with that... water tanks were empty, so I will fill when we get there.

Only thing we bought for the AI was a basket for toothpaste and toothbrushes. Small one with suction cups. Will see how it works.

Need to clean all the yellow pollen from the AI... at least from the solar panels. That is it...

[Lily&Me]

Have a great time!

Maggie

[DNM]

wachuko, I had trouble installing the sumosprings SS-327-47 on my 2018 GT 4x4. The bolt was too short and even leaving out the washer, there was not enough thread for the nut. Wondered if you had the same issue of if the mounting plate is thicker (7mm) on the 4x4.
Andrew at SuperSprings said they have not heard complaints about it.
thanks.

[wachuko]

Originally Posted by DNM

wachuko, I had trouble installing the sumosprings SS-327-47 on my 2018 GT 4x4. The bolt was too short and even leaving out the washer, there was not enough thread for the nut. Wondered if you had the same issue of if the mounting plate is thicker (7mm) on the 4x4.
Andrew at SuperSprings said they have not heard complaints about it.
thanks.

No issues when installing mine. Can you share photo of your stock bump stop next to the sumospring?

[wachuko]

Learnings from this trip...

Even if you think it is level, use the tool (iPhone app or an actual level) and check - we were using the facilites at the campsite for showers... the one night my daughter uses the shower in the AI, we saw water level reach top of the base of the toilet... lowered rear suspension and fixed drainage....

Take all that fancy manual espresso maker equipment and forgot to take the espresso cups, lol... two glasses for espresso now reside permanently in the AI. Oh, while camping, I had my espresso, and it tasted great, but had to drink it from a stainless steel small bowl

We are definitely better at moving around inside the AI. Remember it is four of us in there. We used the table, played cards... We had ice cream (love having the ARB cooler) while watching a movie...

Need to add a hammer to the toolbox. Improvised with the back of the hatchet.

Need to add some tongue and groove pliers - dump cover was easy to screw, but realized that I did not have pliers to remove in case it is ever hard to undo... I have an extra one in the garage, just need to put it in the AI...

Thick crust pizza sucks for making it in the grill with the stone...must stick to thin crust...

Once again, books were unopened...great time spent with daughter and son just talking and watching them help... priceless... the time around the fire with them is just amazing...they grow so fast...

That is it for now.

[wachuko]

A few random photos from the trip

[wachuko]

One more

[wachuko]

Some more comments...

This folding camping shovel is a blast... used a lot. Folds and it stores in the side pocket of the front door...

The UCO Flatpack portable grill & firepit has already paid for itself... safe fire pit (we have not used it as a grill... but looking forward to it).

Stuff we forgot... I had taken out the 12' pole with the squeegee to clean the solar panels while at home... and forgot to put it in the AI... same with the ladder... As you can see in the photos, we parked next to a tree and I could have used the ladder, pole, and brush to clean all the leaves off the awning before closing

Still love the chairs... inexpensive version, and take so little space. Comfy as well.

[Lily&Me]

Sounds like you had a great weekend.

I have found it easier to keep the Interstate fully equipped, rather than try to remember to take things out each time from the house...like espresso cups.

I also have a number of multi tools, with hammers, screwdrivers of various sorts, files, whatever....that live in the small toolbag for the Interstate.

They take up much less space than full sized tools.

Maggie

[wachuko]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

Sounds like you had a great weekend.

I have found it easier to keep the Interstate fully equipped, rather than try to remember to take things out each time from the house...like espresso cups.

I also have a number of multi tools, with hammers, screwdrivers of various sorts, files, whatever....that live in the small toolbag for the Interstate.

They take up much less space than full sized tools.

Maggie

Maggie,

We had quality family time. Exactly what we were looking for.

On the tools. Yes, I should have those in the AI and not take them out at home... should have a squeegee at home so that I do not take stuff out and forget to put it back. I do have a tool bag in the AI. But it was just missing a few things. I will add the missing tools and it should be set.

On the ladder... that was just laziness on my part as I never put it in the AI... ( really want the one that goes on the outside, but my wife is not sold on the looks...)

I will take care of all this tonight when I get home from work.

[wachuko]

Got a question on the chairs... We got four of these:



Here is the link:

Portable chairs

And no, we do not make any money out of the links, blah blah blah.... at the time these were the least expensive that I could find that had the larger feet option so it would not sink into the ground.

I can now see other alternatives for less when searching Amazon.

A word of caution... these are lower than normal... but not as low as the beach chairs... somewhere in between normal height chairs and beach chairs. You are about 14" from the ground.

Strong chairs, never had an issue with them... but I am always careful when sitting on them just to make sure I do not break them by throwing my weight on them.

The fact that we can fit four in the space above the front seats and still have space for other stuff up there, is great.

[Lily&Me]

We all have that learning curve.

The multi tools, multi head screwdrivers, etc., really help keep the toolbag downsized.

I love mine, and have reduced Doug’s large, 20lb or so bag to a small one weighing less than 5 lbs.

Anything I can’t do with my small tools, I have no business doing, anyway.

Maggie

[wachuko]

One thing that I have to read in the Mercedes Sprinter user manual is the headlight setup... One night I went out and locked the Sprinter and the headlights came on (when I locked or unlocked it, can't remember)... in doing so, I illuminated the RV in front of us... Imagine me trying to get the darn thing to turn off the lights!!! It was around midnight...

The next morning I went to my front neighbors to apologize. Luckily they had covers in their windshield so they really never knew what happened. Still, I need to disable that functionality to avoid disturbing someone else...

[wachuko]

One more thing that we will need as the weather starts to warm up... a screened room... During this trip, when the day was warm, we had lots of fruit flies around... these went away as soon as the temperature dropped, again, not a big deal during this trip.

The screen door on the AI kept them from getting inside... but sitting outside during the warm time of the day was an adventure.

So looking for something built as the chairs, so we have a 10'x10' screened room that can store in a small bag when not in use.

I also need to finish the cover for the exposed area next to the ARB cooler... I could lower the screen up to the point it touched the cooler... but the area next to the cooler was open. Need to finish making a screened cover for that part. Got everything that I need, I just need to make the darn thing... Will keep it simple, just a piece of screen with magnets on the borders...

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by wachuko

Got a question on the chairs... We got four

I can now see other alternatives for less when searching Amazon.

....

That's actually not a bad price, if the chair is good quality construction. We bought the REI-branded equivalent, which is about $50 on sale or $80-ish regular price. The color of ours matches the garnet stripe on the side of our Interstate.

I fashioned a simple harness so that they could be slung under our under-cabinet shelves, one on each side of the van as there are only two of us traveling at any given time:

[wachuko]

And I am ordering the bamboo cut board that fits over the stove... for added counter space and to avoid breaking the stove cover glass by accident...

I imagined the tamper falling off my hands and hitting that glass.... not something I want happening...

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by wachuko

One more thing that we will need as the weather starts to warm up... a screened room... During this trip, when the day was warm, we had lots of fruit flies around... these went away as soon as the temperature dropped, again, not a big deal during this trip.

The screen door on the AI kept them from getting inside... but sitting outside during the warm time of the day was an adventure.

So looking for something built as the chairs, so we have a 10'x10' screened room that can store in a small bag when not in use.

I assume you saw this one but my design may not work well with an awning that does not have side supports.

Your key words above are "small bag". The pack-ability issue was a huge deal for me, which is one of the reasons why I made my own. Nothing I found on the market would pack down to a suitably small size that I could live with, given that (a) our Interstate is not built on an EXT and (b) we carry so much other crap, especially bushcraft type equipment, kayak, etc. We simply don't have room for a bulky screen.

But this was probably the single most time-intensive Interstate project I've ever done - not for the faint of heart. Conversely, if you don't mind a messier presentation, there are off-the-shelf noseeum screens that could be simply draped across an awning, rather than semi-fitted as my design is.

I can't make a claim to having broken new imaginative territory with this one. This idea for an awning screen originated with another Air Forums member whose name escapes me. A male, as I recall, and his wife originally thought he was nuts, until he rolled out his finished product and then she was ecstatic.