Yet another bed-drawer build with a pull-out kitchen twist

[BACKSTORY/CONTEXT]

My wife and I did a fair amount of backcountry camping in our 20s, but switched to drive-up camping after our daughters (twins) were born. Now that they are old enough to rough it a bit, we are hoping to do more dispersed camping in National Forests and other public lands, especially now that our new Taco can take us places we wouldn’t have ventured before. ( **)

We also have a road trip planned for late June/early July (Covid-dependent), driving cross country and hitting several National Parks in the Southwest (Grand Canyon > Zion > Bryce > Arches > Mesa Verde). We did the same trip in a Cherokee 24 years ago on our honeymoon, and are really looking forward to experiencing these places with our kids.

(**) If anyone reading this has a suggestion for good spots on BLM land near Grand Staircase Escalante for a night, we have nothing booked and a free window in our itinerary. So far I've heard good things about Hole in the Rock.

Given all that, I wanted to streamline our camping setup a bit and so I followed a few of the bed drawer builds here and elsewhere and adapted them to my own design of a pull-out kitchen. I'm pretty big into salvage and re-use, so most of the raw material for this build (all but the 1/2 ply sheet for the platform) was sourced from shelving and other display wood scavenged from the closure of a costume shop in Richmond that opened in the early 70s. The wood was dinged up and full of nails and screws, but fairly true and very strong, tight grained pine that I hope will hold up to abuse.



Basic design for the drawers was lifted from this excellent write-up. Major differences being one "drawer" is actually a pull-out kitchen, and my platform only spans about 3/4 of the bed, width-wise, so that I could fit a bunch of fold up camp chairs, a fold-out canopy, recovery boards, and a Yeti knockoff cooler under the sidemount toolbox of my second-hand A.R.E. DCU top. I'll try to add a post at the end of this listing the various ways I was able to cut costs even further.

 

The pull-out kitchen is comprised of two different pieces of the same width and height and slightly different lengths: one for the camp stove and associated pots/cutlery, etc. and one for a portable sink.

I'll cover the camp stove section first.




Two clamp knobs hold on the stove reveal.




Those same clamp knobs are reused for affixing the stove reveal on the opposite side to create an unbroken prep surface.



Legs for additional support. These are made from drop-down shelf hardware salvaged from a 1970s overhead projector cart. I'll be adding rubber feet to provide a bit more stability and to keep the metal from scratching anything.

 

Just barely enough space beneath the stove area for a utensil drawer.

 

Second piece is the portable sink.



But before we get to that, here's the other drawer which, along with the side tool box, will hopefully keep our need for additional rubbermaids to a minimum



Side compartments lift up for access, only hinge is the PVC material.



For the sink, the two side lids hinge up, while the center comes off completely to be the faucet bracket. Sink, tub, and drain rack are all collapsible pieces. Support legs came off a table also acquired from the costume store closure. I added more clamp knobs for quick/easy assembly. There's a hole cut dead center you can't see, which the PVC reducer (on left) fits into, along with the drain tube.

 

Gray water bucket for easy dumping. Not pictured is the Cornelius/homebrew keg which holds 5 gallons of water. I added a Schroeder valve so I can easily pressurize the keg with my portable air compressor.



[I'll be back later to add a few more details and links to various components.]

 

Looks great! Simple is always best. Any big trips in mind?

 

That’s a nice setup, more pics when you get a chance. Everyone likes pictures

 

Looks good, but they have door dash now.
Seriously, looks good. Keep us posted on how it’s working.

 

Thanks man for the pics, great job, very versatile, nicely done.