Vic,
Reflections now on what your thinking was then?
Would do again:
1) No padding on any benches, and don't miss them either.
-- Yup, still the same, except I have started using the camper as a remote office. I have to sit in it for several hours in a row, so I wanted more comfy seating. That said, using the BonVivo folding chairs gives us both... no padding normally, and padding when we want it.
2) No inside table.
-- Different now. Same reason as above, I need a spot for my laptop, mouse, headset & coffee cup! Plus which we want a place to play crib/cards on. We still don't eat inside often though, so the lagun leg lets us swing the table out of the way most of the time.
3) LED lights inside the cabinets
-- Yup. Love the lighting.
4) 130L TruckFridge mounted on top of propane box, door opens with hinge at front of camper. Makes getting stuff out of the fridge without climbing into the camper itself a breeze. (We cook outside)
-- Mostly still true. Would prefer the fridge in that location for convienience, but moved it as far forward as possible to minimize the bouncing it gets. 3 "refridgerator surprises" on the same trip was 3 too many.
5) Used 3/8" birch plywood. No voids, strong, and lighter than most builds. Inside walls use 1/8" birch. Rubbed oil finish.
-- Yup. I wish I could have found 4'x8' sheets of birch. The baltic birch is a very strong wood. The 1/2" stuff had 9 layers. The maple I used on this build only has 5.
6) Large opening cabinets, so we have flexibility in what to stuff in there.
-- Sort of. We went smaller this time, had have WAY MORE storage space than before. We're hoping it helps with staying more organized.
7) 20g water tank, pump; plumbed so that that the "drain" valve (nice metal ball valve) has pressure for filling bottles and such outside)
-- Yup. Went 30gal this time so we can stay boondocked longer. We really like the outside pressurized water tap!
8) Propex heater.
-- Yup. Went with the bigger 2800 model for more heat output in the bigger camper. And their new digital thermostat which gives us more granular temp control. We also mounted that right at the head end of the bed for the convenience of cranking the heat before climbing out of bed.
9) Home designed/built solar/electrical system.
-- Yup. Way better than most (all?) factory systems.
Would NOT do again:
10) Faucet inside. Thought we might do dishes inside, but that hasn't happened.
-- Nope. Changed our minds on this one. Making hot water inside for coffee/tea and sponge baths has been very nice. Even added a nice flush mount sink and have liked the ability to do the whole morning routine without having to go outside until we are ready to break camp.
11) Batteries quiet as large. I could have gone smaller capacity and saved some weight/space.
-- Nope! Completely changed our minds on this one. I went LiFePo4 and have 2x the actual capacity as before. That said, they are smaller and take up less space and are waaaaay lighter. One BattleBorn 100AH would have been plenty, except we wanted to try cooking on an Induction cooktop, inside and out and needed to be able to draw close to 200 Amps to power the 1800W this thing draws. My wife likes the idea of no flame inside (no worries about starting a fire or carbon monoxide), and I like the idea of using even less propane.
12) Stuff quite as many infrastructure pieces into small spaces. This saved a huge amount of space, and yet can make maintenance a bit more work than it should be. I like the overall benefit, but can also see why FWC "wastes" space for ease of future adjustments.
-- Yup. I was very careful to leave everything easily accessible, AND still not waste space.
Wish list:
13) Full queen bed WITHOUT slide out. I hate having to rearrange bedding, and the lack of space with the bed pulled out. I am thinking of a Grandby shell and using the first foot of floor space as additional bedding space with cabinets underneath. The effective inside space would be like a Hawk. OR, a flatbed Hawk/Fleet would have 5' bed as well
-- Yup, and now we have it. I think we are going to love having no pull out and still having the full queen sized sleeping area. This was the main reason we picked up the Puma when we did.
14) Replace Propex with a TRUMA combined heater/water heater... for an outside shower... maybe...
-- Kinda/sorta. I looked at the TRUMA units. It was super hard to find someone who would sell me a unit, as they are supposed to be installed by a certified tech. I read the install manual and was amazed at how complicated a unit it is. Plus I think you need to have at least two heat outlets. We've been pretty happy with our NEMO portable shower, and heating the water up on a good campstove (Induction is slick, but the Camp Chef Everest is also super quick.)
15) More storage space.
-- Yup, and now we have it!
The outside tap/drain is still the lowest point in the system.
