Roadtrip 2013, towards Karlskoga, Kristinehamn and Karlstad

I am home being sick, so I thought I would share some pictures from my roadtrip that I did this summer..


The second day of my vacation.. I was out on the freeway again, aiming for Karlskoga first.

Doing "miles" on the E18 highway.. no AC in the car, but hey I got windows to wind down.. :)

There were not much action in the town of Karlskoga (today). Very empty.. This is the weaponmaker Bofors here in Sweden. This is the headquarter (I think).. Looks like an old military building. I am always fascinated by industry that manufactures stuff. So when I find a company that I have heard of, I like to see it!

After that I contiuned to Kristinehamn. I was hungry and stopped at the first restaurang (pizza) that I could find.

I then took the pizza to go and tryed to find a nice place to eat it. The Picasso sculpture sounded interresting so I took left towards the archipelago of Kristinehamn.

This is were I ate the pizza. This is an inlett from the sea "Vänern". The biggest sea-lake in Sweden.

After getting something in my stomach I continued to the Picasso sculpture. Nice area! I think this place is called Vålösundet. People were hanging out and the weather was nice.

It turns out that the people were waiting for a boatrace to show up. I stayed a while and after a while some really fast boats came and this was some of the first boats to arrive. Here they have stopped racing. They started in Kalstad.

Well after that I got back into the car and continued to Karlstad. That was the goal for the day. In Karlstad I finally found this place (after much searching), south of the town Karlstad. Going past a dog club and some "kolonilotts" (perhaps allotment? not shure of the englai name. But it is like small

cultivable lands. People cultivatin potatoes and other vegetables). When setled I put out my solar panel to charge the battery, and writing on the laptop in the shadows.

This is me waking up early the morning after..I slept ok, even thouh I could hear the antennas buzz of energy..

Picture of sleeping place from inside the car..I slept next to the antennas... Nuked by radiowaves.. Mobile pole. Well I didnt find any better place, and I thought that perhaps there isnt so much radiation at the bottom of the pole??

Well, more later.

Rain protection and ropes in tha ceiling?

Well, there is little progress now that winter here in Sweden are (is?) coming (Late Autumn right now, and it is getting cold!). I do however continues to declutter the apartment (from excess of stuff). I am making slow progress, but still progress. Check out my other site levafri (only in Swedish) for more info. I do feel freer for every item that gets out of my life.

Car vise.. I have continued testing alternatives for car curtains and more privacy.

I measured the length between the grip handles in the ceiling, thinking I might put a curtain rod there..  About 95-97 cm rod would be fine.

I tore down the shower curtain rod from the apartment to see if it would fit. I did not. Here is a picture of it.

I am having a hard time finding any suitable hangers (for the curtain) in the back. But I guess it will work anyway.

Next project was making a tent for the car? No. However I got a bright idea when I decided to replace the shower curtain in my apartment. Instead of just throwing the old one out, I decided to recycle..

So I cut the plastic curtain into rain protectors. It does not win any beauty contest, but it is practical. It has always been a "hassle" to get fresh air into the car when it is raining. If I wind the window down, of course there is poring in rain inside the car (when raining, very frustrating). This will prevent that from happening! YES!

Here is the other side of the car. Preparing to cut the shower curtain. Yes, I admit not the nicest shower curtain, ehh.

Okey, what else? Well I did try some ropes inside of the car. The thought is that they will act as some sort of curtain holders also. Yes much curtain thoughts right now! :)

Here hooks clamber from Ikea. I will hang the fleece curtain in those.

This will do.. Ropes everywhere, can you tell that I like the simplicity of ropes. They are so versatile!

Well I am pretty pleased with this solution. At-least, it is enough for me. Don't overdo it is my new philosophy.

Heat storage thinking

Today I was out to the garage again. Testing a heat transfer "cable". This heatchannels goes to the backseat footarea I my thought was to try to get the heat to warm water bottles.

Here are the two outlets under the passenger chair. The electric cable is for the heating of the chair.

Hmm. bad fit. Round vs round rectangular. Have to come up with something bright here.

Onother useless picture of the same objects..

The plan is to connect this with the "pipes"... and then transfer the it to a box with lots of water bottles. Heat storage! Good when cold.

Did not fit there either. Duh.

Instead of writing the diameter I use my hand as measure...

Finger size so I know the size of the outlets.

Well, I shall be thinking a bit more on this.. Bye!

Grip handle and more car curtains in the Toyota

Yesterday I went to an automobile dismantling firm (scrap yard in English?), Kungsåra Bildemontering. I was looking for some grip handles for my Toyota. They have plenty of cars and you have to bring your tools your self and remove the object you want. They also have a homepage so you can see if they got your car model in “stock”.

At the automobile dismantling firm (scrap yard in English?)

Back to the handles. You know the ones in the ceiling right besides the doors. They only had an older Toyota Starlet, but I took a handle from that car (even though it did not match entirely by color.., but that I found out later) and then found some other “twisted” ones in a Toyota Previa, the right color. I took them also! The plan was to use them as curtain holders! Well with some sort of string (rope?) that is. And you can’t have to many handles right? Ehhmm. I know this from a fact, dragging up you heavy body of the floor when sleeping for example.

As you might have reed before (earlier posts) I did not find any good way to attach a curtain, but I think this will solve that problem. And besides, there are already nuts in place (behind the ceiling). So it was perfect to attach something there. But of course the first hole in the ceiling I missed that nut, so I got an extra small hole, sheize.

Ok, so here are the results.

Just started to attach the handle

Here the other side. New handles in place!

I then hung a paracord across the handles and to the sunshades. Again trying the "curtain" with that old dust cloth.

More testing, I think the handles will do a good job to hold my curtains. This will do, until I find a better way!

Here trying a fleece curtain in the front. I will try to get some black fleece. Dark is better atleast from the outside.

Well you get the picture, if it was black you would not see much.

It is getting cold here in Sweden now so I will not be working any more on the car. I got a cold being out in the car this weekend :-(.

Ok, bye for now!

Roadtrip 2013: First night, Island Björnön

On my vacation I went on a roadtrip. I thought I should share some pictures of it. It took a long time to get everything packed and "installed" so I left the apartment late (at night) and decided to sleep on a well knowned spot, the Island Björnön, just about 15 kilometers from my (nonmoving) home.

Here the day before leaving. I have removed the passenger seat and the backseat. Trying out if I can lay, straight. Yes I CAN! :) (using my belly muscles.. =) )..Excuse my dirty pants, my excuse is that I was doing rust protective treatment on my other car, the Toyota (that is supposed to replace the Kia later on).

Ahh. The Kia Pride parked.. This is were I slept first night. I arrived pretty late. And was waken by some other cars arriving in the middle of the night. Playing music (really loud). Burnout and so on.. However after THAT.. I slept good. This is the early morning the day after.

Check out my Crib! Bombastic. Luxury everywere you look, huh?

A little later the sun was shining plenty much and I picked out the solar panel to test if it was working. Yes it was! I have about 6 meters of cable to the solarpanel, so I can put the car in shadow and put the panel out in the sun. 

Here is my installation of solar regulator and a "switch panel". A small chipboard. Also showing that 0,44 amps is getting into the extra battery, charging!

I left the car "charging" and went for an early morning walk, love to explore! Often gives me good ideas to/inspiration. Listening to some podcast or some inspirational speaker (personal development). 

Here you can see the newly built beach, well actually there already was a beach here, but they have expanded it! Making it bigger. This is the main bathing site of the island Björnön early morning.

Okay, next on the trip was the town Karlskoga. More on that later (perhaps).

More cardboard curtain and strong magnets

On my holiday earlier this year I remembering sitting i my car in a town called Lysekil (Here in Sweden). I was having a hard time to find a nice spot for the night. So I went to the harbor and people (mostly trucks) were steering my down (while I was sitting in my car) (that just got me really irritated). They probably were wondering if I was a burglary or some homeless soul , drug-addict or whatever, just waiting for the dark to make my move. The problem was that it was very easy to look inside the car, and I felt like I had no privacy. Often outspoken kids were wondering if "is he sleeping in that car, mom?")
-Yes, he must be homeless

(Here in Sweden, if you are "homeless" you probably an drug-addict, or have menthal issues or something. And the mainstream view is that if you are a drug-addict, for example heroin you are also an criminal (the drugs cost a lot of money, and they do just about anything to get high)

However, I AM NOT AN DRUG ADDICT!... and I have a job and an apartment! Hey.. I am one of the good guys.. (at least I think that, hahah). Hey.. A am pretty normal..

(I felt this all the time during the vacation). Later that night I found a nice sleeping place by the sea (bathing place). There were a few other (big) RV:s there and a Renault Trafic from France (for example).. much better.. I slept nice and got a nice bath the day after before moving on..
However, I felt like I needed to do some adjustment..

Soo I am out to the garage again.. Here am doing a test for the front window. Using a cardboard. I first made a template out of newspaper. Se earlier post.

So this is how it looks. Stealth? Ehh.. No probably not.

Another view. I would have preferred black cardboard, but I cant find any cardboard of that color, and I don't want to paint it myself. So this will do!

Inside of the car, ohh very sexy!

I also tried a holding technique for the side-window. Taping washers to the window.. This washer have to be of some Ferro material (this washers is steel)

.. And then cardboard and a strong magnet holding it in place. It worked quite well!

Here another picture of the interior. I bought some fleece to have as a curtain, but would rather have Thermoreflekt (I think).

Those strong magnet is really strong. You have to be careful of your fingers. Here I have put two pieces in a little plastic bag and some paper around them. Works like a charm!

I also tried to winding down the window with the washers in place. It also worked! Yeay.

Ok, all for now, bye!

Make a bed in a Toyota Starlet?

What is the most easy way to make a bed in a Toyota Starlet EP91 (my "new" car)?

This is my testing..

Pretty flat, but with some bumps..

The box is to low.. 26cm in height (I think).

Trying some other box, a fridge container for example

Looking for the perfect box size: Max length: 60 cm, around 50 is best.
Height: 36-37 cm
Width: max 40 cm
I think Hammarplast Smartstore Robust 45 liters could be a good size (59 x 39 x 33 cm).

For me to remember...

width of box: ~35 cm

Max lenght: ~59-60cm

The wood-board can be moved around.

Here the wood is on top of the plastic boxes.

Me trying the "bedframe"

Me again, ..

I plan on using this for heat transfer to a isolated box containing PET bottles with water. Heat storage

Picture of bootarea and rib

Bed-size, the cardboard is about 62 cm wide. Total Length is about 190 cm. So I will try to find a suitable mattress, about 80 cm wide and about 190-200 cm in length.