Making the base

Sorry about the pictures being kinda small. I'm still trying to figure out this blogging business. If you click on the pictures you will see a bigger picture.

There are a few special things about this base that I would like to point out.

1) Where the bed will be located I created a frame on top of the trailer which raises that platform up the height of one 2X4. This is done because the bed extends out over the wheels and the wheels need that much clearance for the travel of the springs.

2) The rear part, where the galley will be built, steps down to rest right on top of the frame. I did this because when you are standing back at the galley you want the counter top to be about normal height so I needed to make this part as low as possible so I could fit the cooler, camp stove, etc... under that counter top and not have the counter too high to comfortbly work on.

3) You can see some black stuff painted on the inside of the wood framework. That is the black jack tar junk that is used on roofs. It is nasty sticky stuff to work with but I painted it on all of the 2X4s before I bolted them to the frame. I painted all of the exposed wood on the underside of the frame before I laid down the plywood and each peice of plywood was painted on the underside with black jack before I fastened it in place. This will waterproof the wood to prevent rot that would occur from rainwater from the road being splashed up onto the wood and into unprotected crevices. You can see that there is plastic on the floor to protect my garage floor and that the levis I used for this phase came out pretty badly. They went straight into the trash at the end of the day.

4) There is a 6-inch deep box in the floor with a trap door cover. This will be used for storage however I also have an idea, if it works out, that this may be a place to set your feet when I stack the cushions from the bed into a bench in the front. That idea remains to be worked out so for now it is extra storage space.