Darkness, Darkness

 We have been pretty much "home bodies" this Winter so have had plenty of time for little projects. We love performing small upgrades on our Camper Van.

Recently, I updated all the old light fixtures to LED lights. The old filament lights got very HOT and they draw much more energy.

The rear door access was poor, so I priced a rear receiver hitch step at a local RV Store...$49.00?...no way. I had a number of unused receiver hitches, some heavy aluminum plate, rubber matting, so I fabricated my own. Cost me $2.00 for a large black anodized nut/bolt/washers.

I noticed that light was detectable through our accordion shades at night. I decided to do a little test, and turned on the TV one night. Went outside and peered through the shades, to my dismay, I could see right through them and into our sleeping area. With that in mind we decided to make up additional privacy curtains to be used with the stock shades. Chose these "common sense" (didn't know they were called that) twist lock fasteners, as they won't stress the fabric like snaps would.

Darian recently purchased a new sewing machine so she was ready to go!

Left rear shade installed:

     Fastener locations:

We ended up making numerous covers...a rear door cover that stays in place when door is opened. 

A side door cover.

Rear "Cubby hole" covers.

The rear cover is attached to interior panels, rather than the door. This way privacy is maintained when door is opened.

Roof Vent Covers.

Used snaps on the rear cover:

I had to get creative on the front roof vent cover as we had only a tiny bit of material leftover, plus the crank extends down.

When we were done, I went out to van in pitch darkness...turned on 6 different lights, and the TV inside...could not see any detectable light through the two layers of curtains from outside.

We don't always need to be completely "stealthy" when out camping, but the thought of the possibility of someone peering into van in the middle of the night kind of bothered us.

We are firm "2nd. Ammendment" believers, and always travel with self defense "options". These days a bit of paranoia is not a bad thing! Lol

Our rig has a large table, but when bed is made up it is unusable.

I made up a smaller table which has multiple uses:

We used a small aluminum folding table a couple times but it was awkward. This small wood panel stores right next to the larger dinette table.