Fiamma Awning for the Promaster

Well, we tried the cheap route with the set-up and clamp-on awning (see my post about the Ezy-Awning.)  It worked, but it was enough of a hassle to set up and tear down, that we didn't use it unless we were going to stay put for a couple days.  Also, it was easier to set up if we had a step ladder handy, but since we don't travel with a step ladder, it really took some gymnastics to set it up.

Soooo, we decided to slash out the cash and buy a Fiamma awning.  The US dealer for Fiamma is in Florida, and while the folks there were very helpful, getting a hold of them is difficult.  According to the Fiamma website, they make brackets for a wide variety of vehicles, so the awning can be easily mounted to most recreational vehicles and vans.  The Promaster brackets are made to fit over the three mounting buttons that are on the roof of the van.   Seemed easy, and looked perfect. 

But of course, things never workout that easily.  First of all, the brackets didn't fit in the way they are shown in the diagram.  The red arm labeled "A" was too short to reach the front awning support, mainly because the leading edge of the awning...the part above the gap, was already resting ON the top of the van, with no gap at all. 
 

 Luckily, Howard is a handy bloke, so he made some 3/16" aluminum shims to put under "B".  This allowed the front of the awning to slip into the V-formation on arm A.  You can see the shim (covered in glue) in the photo below.  This allowed the front support of the awning to slip into the front support arm (A).  But still did not allow the awning's leading edge clear the top of the van, as shown in the second photo below.

When we crank the awning out, it takes a couple of twists before there is enough force to pop the leading edge loose from being wedged between the awning housing and the van roof. 

As you can see there is NO gap like the Fiamma diagram above shows.  We figured (hoped) Fiamma would have worked out the brackets for the Promaster, since the Promaster is the same as the Italian Ducato, which has been in production for years, but apparently not.

We have left messages for the Florida Dealer of Fiamma USA two days ago, but have not had a return call, so for the time being we are waiting.  What we really need to do is pry the darn thing off (yikes that SikaFlex sticks like mad) and add at least another 1/16th thickness to the shim, but we wonder what stress that will put on the back bracket--this thing isn't light.  In any case, if you have a Promaster and want a Fiamma awning...proceed with caution.

Ezy-Awning Meets the Promaster

We opted for the 8x11 foot awning for full coverage

From the first time we took the Buster-mobile on our first outing, we have wanted to add a canopy.  We cobbled one together from an old sail and old dining fly poles, and it worked OK, but not great.

Most of the canopies/awnings we looked at didn't appeal to us for these reasons:

1.  They were too expensive.  $1000 or more just for a little rain protection or shade seemed looney to us.

2.  They needed to be permanently mounted to the roof of the Van which meant putting holes in perfectly good sheet metal, AND making us too tall for the cheap seats on the ferry.

3.  If they weren't permanently installed, they took up WAY too much space to haul around, were heavy, and involved an engineering degree to deploy them.

Ezy-Awning bags

Then we found Ezy-Awning from the Bus Depot.  It met all our needs.  It was cheap, at $119 plus shipping. When not in use, the awning fit in to two bags about the size of those fold-up camp chairs.  When in use it has shock-corded tent poles holding up the roof, so it sheds water like a champ.

This video shows an Ezy-Awning being set up on a VW Westie.  She actually labors it longer than need be, mainly because she's trying to make it all clear to the viewer.  From the decision to set it up, til we say, "there, that'll work", takes us about 10 minutes.  Same with taking it down.

homemade bracket to adapt Ezy-Awning to the Promaster

The Esy Awning is made for VW vans that have rain gutters.  It comes with three clamps that clamp the side toward the van to the rain gutter.  Unfortunately the Promaster doesn't have rain gutters, so we need to come up with plan B.  Howard used the Ezy-Awning clamps and bolted three adapters that he machined from C-channel aluminum.

Their are three mounting pegs on the roof of the Promaster, presumably for roof racks.  Howard's key-hole slotted brackets drop over the pegs, and slide about an inch toward the rear of the van to lock in place, and make a very sturdy connection.

So in a nutshell, here's what we like about the Ezy Awning:
1.  Cheap
2.  Easy to set up
3  Drains well with not puddles.  The back edge drips into the channel on the  van roof.
4.  Only two poles makes for a very useable space.
5.  Tie downs and the shock-corded support poles make the awning very wind resistant.
6.  It's light weight.
7.  No storage problems either when we are hauling it around with us, or when we store it between camping trips.

Taking the Buster the Promaster on the Road

After all the theorizing about how the camper van would work on the road, we loaded the Buster-mobile and hit the road.--1800 miles in almost 3 weeks, in two countries, through four mountain ranges, onto eight ferries, two major highways, many country roads, and several logging roads.  As a vehicle the Promaster handled extremely well, and was very comfortable for both driver and passenger.  We must have said about a thousand times, "I really like this vehicle."

As a camper, we LOVED it.  It worked very well for us.  Our stuff fit, we slept like logs, had a comfortable space to sit and eat, write, draw, and read.  We enjoyed the convenience of our galley, storage space, and porta-potty.  Our water system was adequate because we were always in places where we could replenish our supply.  In the future, if we camp in a more remote location without access to potable water for more than a couple days, we'd need to take another 5-gallon jug with us, but mostly that's not the kind of camping we have in mind.

the seat cushion now divided into 2 sections

We did decided to make a few tweeks to our lay-out.  First of all, both our bench seats that  convert to the bed had one long seat cushion each.  We decided to split the lids to the benches in two, and also split the cushions into two sections.  This made it possible to access either the left or right storage space under the bench without as much effort.  I thought about doing this originally, but was afraid the cushions would shift too much when we were sleeping on them.  We tested the new cushion configuration on a recent 5-day venture to the Washington Coast, and found they stayed in place just fine.   The bench lids are covered with felting that is used in automobile trunks.  The friction keeps everything in place.

Note the seatbelt holding the fridge in place.

The only other change was to shift the position of the Norcold chest refrigerator.  Instead of being next to the passenger-side bench seat on the left side of the sliding side door, it is now behind the passenger seat, and belted in with a repurposed seat belt.  By the way, we really like the chest-style fridge.  Having used small upright refrigerators in the past, this one worked much better--it could be packed tight, nothing falls out when you open the door. , and it worked very efficiently on the 12-volt system.

We also decided we want an awning, and not the cobbled-together thing we made out of an old sail shortly before we left, but a real awning.  We think we've hit on the perfect solution, and will write about that in the next post.


One of the things that attracted us to the Promaster in the first place was the efficient Dodge V-6 engine and it's highway mileage rating of 24 miles to the gallon.  We had Buster pretty loaded on this trip, and traveled very few miles on anything approximating a highway.  Even so, we got 20 miles to the gallon, so we were happy.

Adding a Window…Gulp.

Even though Howard longed for a Sietz window over the galley space where the poppy quilt had been hanging, he had to face the reality that finding one in the US was not going to happen, and importing one would be hideously expensive.  In the end we ordered a window from Motion Windows in Vancouver, Washington.

The windows are made as replacement windows for RVs and trailers, but since the sides of the Promaster are basically flat and straight, we figured a trailer replacement window would work for us.

The one we got is a double pane, slider with a screen.  Jeff at Motion Windows was very helpful and answered a million questions for us about ordering the window (custom sizes available) and the instillation.  Never the less, when the window came, it sat in the garage for quite a while awaiting a surge of the wild abandon it takes to saw a giant hole in the side of your brand new vehicle.

Now that the window is installed, I like it a lot.  It lets lots of light in, along with ventilation.   It looks like it was factory installed because the black trim matches the factory windows.  I made the same red accordian pleated curtains as I did for the other windows.

So that's the majority of the big (AKA expensive) jobs done.  We are thinking we'll probably get a swivel seat base for the passenger seat at some point, and though we've made a canapy from leftover dacron sail fabric to go over the side door, we've never really tested it out in campling conditions, so it might end up blowing away in the first puff of wind.  All will be revealed in due time.

Privacy Curtains and the Art of Recycling

We used to have a place on the island called the Exchange where we could take things we no longer wanted, but that still had a bit of life left in them, and where people who were looking for usable items could go to retrieve them.  It was a wonderful place and must have kept tons of stuff out of the landfill.  We've made both deposits and withdrawals from the Exchange over the years.  Unfortunately, the Exchange burned to the ground about a year ago, leaving us with usable stuff that we'd like to get rid of and wishing we could go shop the Exchange for a piece of metal, or 1 foot of pipe.  At least a dozen times while we were working on Buster, we've said, "dang, I wish the Exchange were in operation."

But, if the Exchange had been in operation this last year, we would have had to have done something different for our privacy curtains because I recycled a shade I took down in our kitchen.  Now we don't have curtains on our windows at home, but sometimes, in campgrounds, you need them either for privacy or to cut down on the light.

So starting with my old, stained, accordion pleated shade, I cut the metal top and bottom rails off it, and spray painted the interior side red.  (I  LOVE paint--it's transformational, and I am willing to try to paint darn near anything.).  Then I cut the pleated material to size, and sewed some industrial strength Velcro tabs on the curtain, and glued the other side of the Velcro to the van.  These meet my criteria for curtains:

• they are out of the way 99% of the time
• can easily be removed completely
• can be deployed in a snap if needed  
• AND, they were my favorite price, which is FREE.

Folded out of the way and held in place with little velcro strips.

pulling the curtain up

velcro tab on the back of the curtain, and matching piece on the metal of the van

The Bed

We are pretty pleased with the bed.  It takes about 5 minutes to set up, including putting the bedding on, and about the same to put it all away.

The table legs fold up, and the table top fits perfectly between the benches, resting on to rails that run the length of the benches. 

We use the big seat cushions for the middle sections of the bed, and the two smaller cushions for the head and foot sections.  I made the cushion slightly larger than the space, so they would be a tight fit and not slide around during the night.  Since the tops of the benches are covered in trunk-lining fabric, that also keeps things from shifting.

We sleep crossways...our heads where the small red cushions are in the photo.  Originally I was going to buy a double sleeping bag, but then nixed that idea in favor of making up a regular bed.  We put a mattress pad and bottom sheet on the cushions, and then cover up with a comforter that has a fleece duvet cover.  We are warm and cozy.  A sheet and duvet cover are much easier to wash and dry than a double-sized sleeping bag.

The final size of the bed is 60 inches wide and 74 inches wide--a short queen-size, but since neither of us are 6'2", it works for us just fine.

The Table

 Howard built the table top to fit exactly between the two benches to make a bed.  He topped it with white formica so it would have a durable surface.  We wanted a table that could be removed completely so we could use the van to haul stuff.  Also, we thought a table we could set up outside might be handy if the place we stopped had no picnic tables.  I ordered the folding legs on line.  They are very sturdy.

When we are underway, we strap the table to a D-ring bolted to the floor.  By the way, the floor between the benches is raised about 6 inches higher than the floor in the rest of the van.  The wheel wells dictated the height of the benches, but that left our feet dangling like Edith Ann.  Raising the floor also gives us a long thin storage area, accessible from the rear doors for things  folding sun chairs, and walking sticks.
In the photo you can see the rails that the table rests on when it is lowered.  I intend to paint the rails black, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

You can also see the open end of the bench on the right.  The lid of this bench lifts also, so items can be accessed from inside or outside the van.  We wanted a place to store mucky things like muddy boots, a wet awning, our shovel, axe, tire chains, and toolbox--things that we wanted to have accessible, but that we didn't want to live with.

Because Howard is a belt and braces man, as an after thought, he put a bar across between the benches on the forward side of the table to make sure the table doesn't come sliding forward when we are underway.  The bar is easily removable, but securely locks in place.  Next to the bunk on the left is our chest NorCold refrigerator that runs on shore power or 12-volt. 

To lower the table into the bed position, we fold the legs.  In this photo the legs are folded, but not locked in place up against the underside of the table.  We usual leave the legs like this when we make up the bed, because  it is easier to set the table back up.  We merely have to lift the table up, and the legs drop down into position and lock.