Me Be Like Me Are

[Every Road Leads Home]

My dog used to lock me out of the truck. Why they put switches on flat horizontal surfaces is beyond me. None of the engineers have a pet?
I got into the habit of rolling down my window enough to stick my arm in if I left the keys in the truck.

I have to do this too.  I always leave the rear window down just enough so I can get my arm in to open it when (not if) my dog locks me out.  Starting to think he does it on purpose!

 

[Txjaybird]

  The thing I like about front window rain guards is that if left down even 1/2in past the bottom of them I can pull the keys out of the ignition switch when I lock myself out with a straightened metal coat hanger.

Jewellann

 

[bullfrog]

Metal coat hangers are getting hard to come by. You might want to carry a welding rod somewhere on the outside of the vehicle!

 

[Headache]

I grabbed a few coat hangers before I left! If I see them I try picking them up. They are almost as useful as duct tape!

I bought a couple of bins for under bed storage but they are too big and I end up with too much wasted space. I'm just going to get a few extra smaller ones. More to shove around but at least they will be easier to slide around and I can store important stuff like my juicer.

Now I need a solution to prevent cat litter from being tracked all over the floor of the van. I have a big cat. I tried using a smaller litter box but she was really unhappy. I put in a big one and she's so happy doing her business but now it's at the end of my bed. Dust gets around. Now I'm unhappy! lol

 

[Txjaybird]

Is the new litter box too big to fit in the front passenger wheel well?  Or maybe some type of cover/surround to help contain the dust?  Even a cardboard box cut and taped to fit allowing ez access?

Jewellann

 

[Headache]

I've been searching for a box or a couple of boxes large enough to cut. Yep that new box is much too big to fit up front. This is how big my cat is: the "small" box took up most of the floor space in front of the passenger seat and she was very unhappy with the arrangement. Sometimes when she got into position she would pee outside the box because her rear was hanging over the edge. Then she was distressed because she couldn't bury it. She's much happier but now I have to contain all that dust and prevent her from jumping up on my bed after she's been in it.

 

[Headache]

So unsurprisingly I survived my first week but it's been a learning curve with my personal belongings 32 miles away. This week I figured out what I wanted and needed and was able to get things all organized(and I'm sure I'll change my mind along the way) so I don't have to go out there. However, that's also where the gym is that I shower at and it's affordable. The gyms where I am right now are twice the cost. I may have to settle on less of a van(but better than what I have) for now because the commute back and forth is going to cost me especially with the warming temps. The van runs worse the warmer it gets. I'll find out soon why that is when I take it to get looked at.

After tonight the temps drop below freezing for a few nights so I'll have to get that Reflectix cut for the windows. Provided they have enough volunteer hosts the church will open for sleeping when it gets to 34 or below and you can bring your pets in if they are in a crate. However my cat takes about a 1/2 hour to settle down and no one is going to want to listen to that yowling. That and I didn't stuff a twin size bed in the van to not sleep on it. Well see how quick I wimp out! lol

 

[BobBski]

Happy everything's falling in place and really like the sounds of your parking spot. All the best to ya

 

[Headache]

Thanks BobBski! It's working out as good as it can be for sure but I'll be honest; once I get another van I'm out of here and ready for the southwest! It's the only thing holding me back at the moment. The one I have has some very serious issues that hope each day won't rear their ugly head. I'm driving on borrowed time.

I'm looking for a 1 ton extended van. I don't "need" extended but the extra room would be nice.

 

[DannyB1954]

I don't know if Bob Wells sold his old van yet, but it would be better than what you now have.

 

[Headache]

I don't know if Bob Wells sold his old van yet, but it would be better than what you now have.

I contacted Bob about his van and unfortunately I wasn't the first one to contact him about it, I was second!  It would certainly be much better than mine.  I've hesitated taking mine into a shop because once they look at it they will want to shut me down and this state is not friendly to houseless people.  I'd end up on the street(literally) with nowhere to go for a long time.

I could definitely afford to buy Bob's van.  Being on a fixed income doesn't allow me much opportunity to buy something decent before someone else gets their mitts on it.  Here's hoping.

I would definitely beg, cry and otherwise make a very immature and demeaning appeal to whoever is in the #1 spot to let me take their place in line!

 

[ArtW]

Well, I was gonna get in that line myself, but my need is less than others', so I'll bear that in mind

 

[Headache]

Everybody line up single file....

After reading all the debate about Reflectix and knowing it was going to be in the 20s the next few nights I finally cut some for my windows and what a difference it made!  It works fantastic as a barrier and blocked the cold coming in from the windows.  Completely worth buying it.  I'll definitely do it again for my next van but even with this half ass job I did last night it was still a big enough difference to notice.

However, it's not without a caveat; I can't tuck the edges under most of the plastic trim so I had to tape them in place and during the day remove most of them for driving and to let light in.  That's going to get annoying really fast.

Also, just a word of advice: if you are going to use Reflectix on your windows and haven't started or completed your build yet it will be much more convenient to cut and fit the panels when you can actually get to the windows rather than after you have a bunch of stuff piled in front of them.  Rolling around my twin bed like a beached whale was no fun but eventually I got the job done.

Just FYI for your DIY!

Also, I have absolutely NO moisture issues.  I use a couple of Dri-Z Air units in my van and everything stays nice and dry.  It's calcium chloride from concentrated salt water so it's safe to be around.  I used the search function and couldn't find anything about them so I'll post about them in the products section.