Back in the 80’s international languages did not really seem too important to me, so when we had a choice to do carpentry or French in school, I figured that being able to converse with our European colleagues once a year on holidays was less important than being able to make a decent dovetail joint or install a bookshelf over a bed in a Unimog camper. In hindsight, it was a poor call as languages are one of the things I wish I had worked on in school, but over the last few months it was pretty handy being able to do a lot of the moglander interior modifications ourselves.
We decided we wanted to change the types of storage in the moglander. Sarah was very keen on drawers, and now that we are on the road, I can see she was right. We put in 4 normal drawers, and put in locks in them so they don’t fly open when driving. 4 drawers does not sound like a big deal until I explain we had to move the battery charger and inverter to make them fit, as well as shift the microwave up to the Luton (bit over the cab for the non truckers). We also relocated all 5 batteries from the right had side to the left hand side of the truck to help balance the weight better. All this translates to a serious rewiring job before even starting the carpentry.
Once we were on a roll we decided to place the chemical toilet onto a sliding drawer to make it easier than lifting it out of and into a cupboard when the call of nature came and we didn’t feel like getting out. That meant getting some heavy duty drawer sliders, rated to carry a load that can be calculated to almost 100kg at times. We located ones in the USA rated to 135kg, so we got a few sets as they work for the engel freezer too!
At this stage the few drawers project was taking on a life of its own, and my brother Adrian stepped in to help out in a big way. He let me work on Moglander in his factory so I could be inside and use the really cool saws, air tools and cnc routers that they have. Ok, so I didn’t use the cnc machine, but Adrian did, and made the coolest set of doors for our drawers and presses. Cheers Adrian!
