2003 VW Westfalia Weekender: Kitchen Pod

I completed a new kitchen pod about a few months ago. After several successful outings with it I thought I'd share some details on the design. My first design was built on a removable seat frame and was located behind the passenger seat. It was great for traveling while sleeping in the top bed. I quickly found that the van was much more comfortable and versatile if I moved the pod to the area behind the driver's seat. With this new configuration I'm able to use the more comfortable lower bed and leave it out, remove the upper bed board for more headroom and rotate the passenger seat to open up the space. I also found that the rear shelf for the upper bed is a great storage shelf while camped with the top up.

A couple of note on my design goals:

I wanted it to be easily removable

It had to have a sink, stove and refrigerator.

It had to contain the fresh and waste water tanks and the propane supply.

It had to be no wider than the driver's seat to allow me to continue to move between the front seat and rear area.

The top of the unit had to be at a height that was useable while sitting in the van.

All items had to be accessible with the bottom bed deployed

I purchased the following parts:

Smev 8821 Hob and Sink Combination Unit

Dometic CF-018DC Portable Freezer/Refrigerator

Reliance 7 Gallon Water Can

Propane Gas Regulator

Coleman Propane Grill Adapter # 3000002048

Custom Accessories 49997 12V Dual Cigarette Lighter Receptacle

Assorted bolts, nuts and cable management

Coleman 1lb propane canister

1 - 2' x 4' sheet of finish grade birch plywood.

1 - Pack of 1 1/2" Conduit Straps

IKEA 18 x 24 x 30 Cabinet

2 - Drawer Handles

4 - Pushbutton Locks

Heavy Duty Angle Strikes

Bamboo Countertop

Bamboo Cutting Board

Rolling Desk (cannibalized to make the adjustable shelf)

Propane and Carbon Monoxide detector

Here are some images of the assembled pod. The hardest part of the assembly was adjusting the height of the drawer tracks and drawer front sizes to accommodate the refrigerator. The drawer fronts that came with the cabinet were used as a template to mount the new drawer fronts. The pod is mounted to the floor using the same bolts that were used to mount the rear-facing seat. There is still quite a bit of refinement left to do but it works really well and has added a lot to the camping experience. Having the water in a portable container is great when its time to refill and your camper needs to stay parked. The pod also serves as the water source for the inside shower (more on that later) and as the mounting point for the solar controller, inverter and battery tender referred to in my earlier post on the Electrical System.

Happy camping!