We just got back from a nice camping test trip in the jeep camper. The habitat interior is only partially installed, and I still have a lot of habitat systems work to do, but we took a few days for a desert camping trip to meet up with family. It was a good time. Overall, the vehicle ran great and we averaged 19 mpg even with a lot of hills, so I’m pretty happy with that.
It was nice to test out all of my recent additions to the habitat, and the internal layout is getting pretty comfortable. Now that there is better internal habitat storage to keep things organized, it felt a lot less like car camping, so that was a big improvement. I look forward to getting the heater and refrigerator installed soon, but I think the next phase will probably be fabricating and installing the pop-top mechanism and installing the solar panels.
The new insulated carbon fiber roof was a nice upgrade, and with two windows open a little at night, there wasn’t any condensation, but the windows had to be open a little more than I would ideally like for cold weather, so I have a forced ventilation/heater idea that I want to try out.
Overall, things are much improved from our last trip, but I feel like some things still need work/iteration; like the new Hest Dually folding mattress wasn’t as comfortable as we were hoping. We liked the Mattress Insider Gel Foam Mattress + Froli Stars combination that we used in our Unimog habitat, but that combination doesn’t really work with this convertible bed/dinette. We might just need a totally different mattress, but first, I think I’ll try an under-mattress cushion under Hest mattress.
Wabi-sabi Overland 