80 Series 8020 Cruiser Kitchen (1 Viewer)

[asutherland]

After a year of daydreaming and careful planning, the Cruiser Kitchen is mostly complete. We trialed it on our recent 6 night family trip to Chehalis lake and it performed great. Few small changes coming but overall I am very happy. Many thanks to my good friends Gregory, James, Brock, Lee, Curt, and of course my lovely supportive wife Kerri.

44 inches wide, 36 inches deep and 22 inches high, it features our massive 75L Dometic Fridge/Freezer, a European Dometic 2-burner propane cooktop and sink combo (with running water!), a large renovable 36 inch routered HDPE cutting board work area and a large 36" drawer. Everything is nested together and extends out 36" on 400lb capacity ball bearing full extension lock in/lock out slides.

I designed and built the frame from amazingly light and structurally strong 8020 extruded aluminum, the trays are 1/8th aluminum Brock Smith, a local fabricator bent and welded for me.

The drawer, sides and top are 1/2 inch extremely high quality Baltic birch ply, rabbetted/dado'd into the slots of the 8020 frame. Everything is removable at the end of camping season (same time my tent comes off) and bolts into existing captured nuts in the trunk.

Lighting and pump control is controlled by metallic lit switches on the stove surface. All wiring is done with Deutz connectors and fused appropriately. Water is taken from the marine 12v pump via a 3/8 food grade braided water hose inside a drag chain (used on CNC machines) along with wiring, which allows it to come out two extensions deep.

This is the completed prototype before any changes, but I'll post each section of build below for those curious.

 

[asutherland]

The 8020 is 10 series, ie. 1", sourced from a local company Rocky Mtn Motion Controls. The drawer slides were purchased from Lee Valley and are the Extra Heavy Duty Lock-in Lock-out full extension ball bearing slides. Three 36" and one 30". They are by far the heaviest part of the kitchen.

 

[asutherland]

Tonight: a few steps backward in order to move forward and overcome some big problems.

The two sets of trays in combination with the frame and slides were 5/8th of an inch too wide. There is no forgiveness with extruded aluminum, it either fits perfectly or doesn't fit at all. So Brock took the tray home to remove (get this...) EXACTLY 5/8" of "extra" room on the fridge tray.

I also had another issue: the frame would not fit with my cargo barrier! But, I figured out that I could cut exactly 1 inch off the ends, resulting in the following:

1. The frame fits PERFECTLY just within the cargo barrier and tailgate, about 1/2" of wiggle room
2. Removing one inch made the frame exactly the same length as the slides, so it didn't affect anything there.
3. I was able to remove 3 redundant 8020 posts as the rear slide bolts now line up with the rear 8020 posts.

Of course, the whole thing pretty well had to come apart to do this... Took a few hours!

 

[asutherland]

Learned how to use a dado blade set this afternoon.

The cool part, but also the challenge with this 8020 is that it is SO precise.

The wood is Baltic Birch 1/2 inch cabinet grade ply. VERY strong stuff. Not your "usual" plywood. Sourced from Windsor Plywood locally.

 

[asutherland]

Picked up the rest of my aluminum trays from Brock last night, amazing build quality and attention to detail... As per usual. Starting to look like a Kitchen!

 

[asutherland]

Took a while, but I got the sink and stove installed. Now to remount it in the slides.

 

[asutherland]

BAM! Cool metallic switches for water pump and led kitchen lights installed.

 

[asutherland]

Finished the wiring on the kitchen today. A friend came over with his phallic-sized collection of deutsch connectors and put ends on both the sink/stove slide, the fridge power, and the main power connector on the kitchen box itself, nicely attached to a slide tee nut in the 8020.

This will allow us to simply unplug the kitchen box to remove it from the truck. The fridge cord can also be used in normal situations if we want to put the fridge in another vehicle temporarily, for example.

For the sink and stove slides, I used a drag link which holds both wires and 3/8 food grade hose, keeping it from kinking or getting caught when the slides go in and out. These are often used on CNC tables for example to keep the various wires and torch from getting run over.

The water pump and the led lights have a small inline fuse of 7.5A which is also fed from the larger 12ga wire feeding the fridge. That leads back to the Blue Sea distribution fuse block in the engine bay.

 

[asutherland]

My wife and I built the drawer today and I'm currently applying 4 costs of Crystal Clear diamond wood finish exterior Varathane to the Baltic birch. The corners of the drawer are all dado'd and glued with Titebond 2 premium wood glue. It's starting to look reeeal nice!

 

[asutherland]

Went to James' the other night and we routed the edges of the HDPE so it looks more like a finished cutting board. I installed some nice metal "locating pins" which are actually threaded chair leg pegs. Allows the cutting board to be removed easily, so it can be worked on elsewhere, and frees up additional space in the form of an aluminum work surface.

Finished the drawer too, mounted slides, and Eben popped by for a visit and to lend a hand. Drawer is mounted and works well. Put the Varathaned panels back in and finalized the wiring in the truck. Tonight will be test fitting and finishing the led spot lights in the top of the tailgate.

 

[asutherland]

Tonight I did some wiring, put two led lights into the tailgate housing so it will shine down on the work area.

I spared no headache and routed the wiring all the way thru the factory grommet holder thing in the tailgate so you can't see any wiring, thru the connector for the kitchen wiring and all the way thru the drag chain to the "kitchen lights" button on the stove (previously shown).

We also tested the water pump and sink and it works great! No pics of that because I was exhausted, but will post some soon.

 

[asutherland]

Here is the video of running water as promised

Next up, stainless finger pulls, a custom sized slim but wide food grade water tank behind the seats, quick disconnects for propane tank and sink drain and eventually a freakin awning!

 

[TurboDennis]

That's awesome! Im currently planning a similar system, but i want to go even more crazy with the materials - frame from 7075 angle and all the panels from carbon fiber, riveted together. This will hopefully allow me to use lighter duty slides as well. My goal is to keep the weight to absolute minimum possible.

 

[bj70_guy]

Super impressive Andrew!

 

[renago]

Very nice build , only concern is the weight of construction and space wasted with the all.frame ,

 

[asutherland]

Thanks guys! Weight I estimate at about 160-180 lbs.

 

[RockShoes]

I had the privilege of seeing this beast in person when the final version went in the back of the truck. Beautiful work.

 

[asutherland]

Thanks. Yeah Ed helped me load it in. Hehe

 

[asutherland]

Update!

Swapped all jam nuts for stainless nylocks and used thread locker on all others. Found a bunch rattled loose after our offroad trek.

Added two more triangular braces above the fridge, when I designed it I didn't think I could, but turns out they clear the rounded corners of the fridge just perfectly!

I trimmed the bottom of the fridge tray so it would come forward all the way, putting it more in line visually with the rest of the kitchen.

I also riveted on a 2x2 angle aluminum piece at the back of the fridge to keep it from sliding back and forward.

Behind the fridge I hide my small foldable camping end table. The table is held in place to the back of the fridge by the two old ratcheting straps that used to be my ikamper straps before I upgraded them to the better style. Always fun finding use of old stuff!

I removed the rear handle off the fridge and used the two bolt holes to attach the ikamper straps. Of course using stainless bolts, washers, and little rubber feet on the ends to not scratch the table

This is the view from the rear with the back seats temporary folded up.

 

[RUSH55]

Great build!
What is your water source for the sink?