THX so much for the van-kudos, it has been a 5 year labor of luv for my wife and I.
On the bumpers/galley box : ) Some may remember I was seriously thinking of selling the van and getting something larger such as a Ford Transit, as the extra four or so feet on the floor behind the seats we believed to be one way to address some ongoing issues/desires we had on setting camp. Deciding to get back to basics and go back to a van only, rather than towing a small trailer behind van, we wanted to be able to have a simpler galley set up. We'd been hauling out all sorts of kitchen tables, chuck boxes and gear. During some research I saw a setup on a sportsmobile utilizing a bumper mounted swing-away box they had placed their kitchen gear into. I showed Cari and after more research, many emails to/from Aluminess, we decided to place an order.
Sooooo....what we will have is the typical Aluminum rear bumper with two swing away boxes (they can swing ~100 degrees outward-away from the locked position). Both are ~20"h x ~18"w x ~15"deep. The street side box will store 3 Five gallon water
jerry cans from Frontrunner and look like this:
On the curb side will be the galley box that has a drop down lockable door:
I can't really find a good picture of the whole thing on the back of a van the way ours will be set up, but from the volley of emails with the Aluminess crew I'm believing it will breathe new life into the van and meet our desire to have an easy galley set up.
On the front bumper, it will be your basic aluminum buck-stop style bumper. It will actually weigh a wee bit less than the stock steel bumper. Our daily commute goes past a large 60+ elk herd. As much as we would hate to do any damage to one of those beauties, the idea of crunching the front of the van is even more painful ; )
: ) Thom
