# Some Of My Mods.



## Traveling Tek (Oct 15, 2010)

I thought I would share some of the things we did in our Outback bunkhouse. We full time and have put on 22,000 miles in 5 short months. We have four kids and we tow with a Chevy Express Van gasser. Just to give you an idea of what we do.









First mod I will show is actually in the van, but made traveling with four kids much nicer. I built a center console and attached a 13" TV/DVD player combo to it. The post is here.

















I also made some wheel chocks. The kind that lock the two tires of the trailer together. It was a fairly simple process of a couple chunks of 4x4 and some all thread and nuts.










These seem to work pretty good. I did buy a $22 ratcheting wrench to tighten and loosen the nuts with, but still have less the $40 in two wheel chocks instead of the normal $45 a piece. The post is here.

One big mod we did was to weld reinforcements to the rear bumper so that we could install a 2" receiver and carry our bikes. We knew the bumper on these things was just made so weak it couldn't do it. So my welder friend grabbed me some 2" angle from work and came over and welded it all up for me. Over 10,000 miles now with no issues. It's nice to have our bikes with us. The two younger kids bikes fit in the back of the van, so the rack has two mountain bikes for the adults and two 20" girls bikes. We will have to do something different as they get older and need bigger bikes. The post is here.


















We have done other things like add a towel rack in the bathroom, add an indoor outdoor thermometer, extra propane tank, lock downs for the rear bed, and other silly little things that I don't think really count as mods.

Anyhow, thanks all for the great resources and tips, those are a few of mine.


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## mmblantz (Jul 1, 2007)

Wow four kids AND full timers??? Must be home schoolers? ---Mike


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## jasonrebecca (Oct 30, 2007)

I was going to say I am concerned about rear vision with the tv there but then I realized that you can't see past the Outback anyways.


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## Traveling Tek (Oct 15, 2010)

jasonrebecca said:


> I was going to say I am concerned about rear vision with the tv there but then I realized that you can't see past the Outback anyways.


Actually with the way the van is I made it so the TV is just at the bottom of the rear view mirror. The 2x4 holding it is centered and the rear doors of the van have a huge thing in the middle of them so it lines up perfectly. Have been no issues with it. Plus it's removable. Sometime the wife and I bring it into the back bedroom for watching TV on.


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