Project "Shell" nook

[Blue~Go]

Nice job! The extra width on the driver's side one "feels" good to me. I like how it picks up a bit more of that large flat area of overhead aft of the top cake tier.

Yeah.... a level is not that useful. I went more by right angles to anything that felt like a baseline (floor, and in my case the shower bulkhead, plus various other things). If they all agreed, good. If not, then either pick one or split the difference. Final arbiter was to also make sure it didn't look wrong.

You obviously did fine with the bulkheads, but in future (or for anyone else), one good method is the "tick stick" one. I could probably take a thousand words to describe it and it would still be confusing. No doubt someone findable by Google has done it better. It's a common boat technique. Basically (ha, here I go), you take a piece of firm paper (like rosin paper), or in some cases a thin/scrap sheet of ply that is something close to the shape and size you want, but smaller. You get it in place in whatever way seems best, then you take some type of sacred stick and put a point on one end (popsicle stick for small jobs; paint stirrer for larger ones, etc.). Mark the side you will use for the top. Now you set the stick on the paper with the point reaching over and touching any part of the wall whose curves you need to match. Trace around the stick on the paper (the point won't be there to trace of course). Do that a bunch of times pointing every which way and then take the paper down.

Then you fasten the paper to the good bulkhead material. Then take the stick and line it up with each of your tracings, one by one. Place a dot at the point of the stick (on the good ply). When you have done them all, connect the dots and there is your shape. For something really critical, you can have an intermediate "mediocre" sheet of ply and then refine the final one. That said, most bulkheads on boats you don't want to fit tightly, as that can make a hard spot (stress). But you want them uniform and close.

I used this technique most recently to cut insulation board for a friend's fridge compartment (he was downsizing from huge original propane fridge to smaller compressor fridge, so then had room for some inches of insulation all around). In that case it's "easy" cause you can just tape the paper to the existing wall (in your case you are starting with only "air").

Anyway, you obviously got it already - good going!

[eporter123]

Hmm, I suppose I could’ve gone a little wider on the passenger side. My goal was to keep it nice and open from the door straight back. So more of a straight-shot back along that pass. side opening for putting things in there. Maybe I’ll add a second, thinner support somewhere in that backcorner, or tie together more of the wall/ceiling with a long shelf.

I ended up using the plumb bob as a reference and then measured over horizontally at 10” increments and then at the corners of the top. Worked surprisingly well.

[Blue~Go]

Getting those in starting from nothing is no mean feat. One tip you might have figured out already is that you can use Lynx blocks (or wood or whatever) to level the rig. I've never counted on that to the point of having a level exclusively to determine things, but it does help. Otherwise, like yours, mine sits up perkier in the back.

I imagine you can see the marks in the overhead carpet where things came to originally? Like you, one of my big goals was to eliminate (as much as possible) that narrow corridor that constricted the entryway area. What I did on my bulkhead was to narrow it such that it's just a little bit wider than the closet for the lower section (hmm, maybe you don't have a closet... that means that just above the generator box it's about 25" (with trim) to the wooden strip on the outside wall. That continues up to around 46" height above the floor. At that point it has a sort of a C-shaped cutout wherein the bulkhead is cut back to around 9-10" from the wall. Then it comes back out again where the upper cabinets are. So I get the support but have a nice visual "hole" in the middle (the ~46" high wider area is where my refrigerator goes - it's only around 31" tall, plus sits on the gen box). The upper cabinets tie into the bit at the top and stiffen it laterally.

One other note on that account is that in looking at the blueprints, I could see that the wooden reinforcement in the overhead was right by the upper cabinets' inner edge (so Chinook could screw them to the ceiling), but that in the area of the microwave and refrigerator that same strip was much further inboard (as micro and fridge extended much further inboard). When I made my new cabinets I eliminated the microwave "limbo cooking" box and just made one long cabinet of normal depth (so dining cabinet just extended back to bulkhead). That worked out because I was able to tie the aft end of that cabinet to the main bulkhead and it can easily span that section where the wood inside the overhead is not right above the new cabinet. Likewise the cabinet over the fridge (same size as others but its own piece) can tie into both the main bulkhead and the closet bulkhead. (This may not apply to what you are going to do, but maybe it will.)

[eporter123]

Ah, I see what you mean by that roof layout. Looks like the 3/4" roof ply is along the edge of that last "cake step" from the back door forwards ~6 feet. Also on the bathroom side there's no plywood, so it looks like the roof ply is more for hanging cabinets than bulkhead support?

Too bad my support is missing the ply area... Hmm, well maybe I'll add a closet bulkhead once I've got the generator box figured out. Then tie that horizontally to this existing pass. side bulkhead with an upper cabinet. Add a counter/fridge box and it should gain some good structure.

I was looking at dims on my phone while doing this, now that I'm on the computer I found an image of your kitchen mockup that I'd saved. Makes more sense now.

I'm tempted to pull this back out and do a cutout for a more open space/ longer counter. Good thing I didn't screw anything in yet!

[Blue~Go]

That mockup looks familiar Yeah, that's why I let it run further inward on the top section -- so it would "catch" the plywood in the roof for fastening purposes. I still have the mockup in, but I removed it and refined the shape a bit (the "real" bulkhead is waiting in the storage wings...). Also, instead of that box shaped cabinet above it, there is a cabinet that "matches" the shape of the main long cabinet. I also changed the slope of the cabinet fronts to a ~15º angle. That is quite a bit less than the stock Concourse "super wedge" cabinet fronts, but more slanted than the "box" Premier cabinets. I agonized over that for awhile, hence the box shaped mockup.

So in other words, I have one long, three-door cabinet over the dining area and stove. Then a pretty much matching "single" cabinet over the fridge counter. The bulkhead mostly disappears between those cabinets, but does poke out a bit right at the ceiling to catch that more inboard plywood in the roof sandwich.

Also then the upper cabinet in the fridge area (which can't reach the plywood roof strip) attaches to both the closet bulkhead and the main bulkhead, giving it good support plus reinforcing the bulkheads. Then the aft end of the main long cabinet , which is over the stove, also connects to the main bulkhead (that last section over the stove can't hit the roof ply but the forward 2/3 does of course).

It also looks like I cut the closet bulkhead back a bit further - just sticks out enough to catch the closet front piece plus the roof ply.

Does that make any sense?

[eporter123]

Well, I've made a little bit of progress. I got stalled out trying to figure out a good solution for the missing generator box. I really like the idea of an externally-accessed storage box for a generator, gas, propane, etc. I didn't want to just build a wooden box there. Sure, a custom-made metal box would've been nice, but spendy. I learned awhile ago that sometimes the best thing to use is something that's already made.

So, after a couple months of looking on Craigslist, I found this 37" wide Deezee 8537B storage chest. It's made of ~1/16" welded aluminum. Super light, fairly strong. It fits into the generator "hole" fairly well, and leaves a small gap inboard. Just had to cut ~1" out of the side of the hole. It's all laminated plywood back there, no foam core.

It is kind of a black hole in there, plain aluminum would've been easier to see things in, but it's all I could find without spending a ton of $$. I'll be putting a piece of plywood in the bottom to add some strength and spread the load out. I'll add some through-bolted angle brackets that attach the chinook floor to the box sides, and maybe some that strengthen the box sides to the box bottom.

[eporter123]

I had to drill out some rivets to take the lid off the box, then removed the handles and latches. The box sits in the chinook flipped 180-degrees from this picture, with the offset lip/step/opening at the top. It all lines up surprisingly well with the lower support lip on the Chinook Shell, and the top of the hatch opening. I'll have to frame the door with some 3/4" plywood to make up for the curve of the shell, then follow the RV manufacturer method of using lots of screws, adhesive, and caulk to make it all look good...

[Blue~Go]

Well that was clever! Good use of existing product.

My original box is made of galvanized sheet that is "folded together" at the joints to make it airtight (there is probably a better official term for that). Probably easy to make if you have the tools and skills (I don't). Also helps if that is your only project (which, ha, who only has one project going?!)

I totally get how one particular facet of a project can bring the whole thing to a halt. Good on you for getting your momentum back.

For awhile I considered just doing away with most of that compartment so that I could have a flat floor there for more refrigerator room inside. But I quickly decided that more outside storage was more important to me.

[dougm]

Will you be installing a drain tube inside to prevent it from holding water from outside elements?

[eporter123]

I think I'll be adding some holes in the bottom, and some vents down low on the sides. That will hopefully let any water, and any propane/gas fumes vent out.

These louvered/screened style vents just snap into a drilled 1" diameter hole. Looks fairly simple.