Roadtrip 2016: Using innerlight or mobile phone for reading?

Reading on the road, preserving batterylife..

Innerlight is lit. Raining a bit, why not read a little?

There are not a strong light from the inner light, but enough for reading.

Perhaps a bit low on light using inner light from the Toyota Starlet. I have changed it to a led to preserve battery life. Consumes about 1 watt nowl.

Sony M4 and using its torch.

Roadtrip 2014: Big boats (Ferry) (Grönviksbadet)

Having found a nice place for the night I just relax and enjoy looking at the big boats in between working on the computer and listening to a good podcast. I love this simplicity. Feel so free! My mind can think when I´m alone. The weather were perfekt, the temperature perfect. One of the best scenery I´ve had in the car for the night. That says a lot.

Doing some notes about the day. This is a non glossy computer screen, the non glossy are useless in the car, atleast when the sun is shining. Becoms like a mirror, this doesn´t.

As you can see I found a free parking place with a great view.

As I sit here at Grönviksbadet and enjoy being close to the nature, ships are going by. I can compare the advertsing on them. Who do you think has the best look?

Since I like word I think I liked the German vessel the best.

German words: Mein Shiff 2 herzlichkeit Inspiration Lebenslust Genuss Meeresrauschen Sonnenstrahle Glücksgefühl

In Englai: My Shiff 2 heartiness inspiration lust for life pleasure ound of the sea sunbeam happiness

A german ship goes by.

Mein Schiff 2 = DAS NUMBER AUF THEM BOAT. ACHTUNG, ganz klar muss ich sagen.

Then a little later we have Silja Line with a bluish sky with clouds or something, and some ping-wins? Okey? Vale?

I´m using my 70-300 Tamron lens, it takes better pictures than the original lens.

One more, here with the car in foreground. :-)

And the vehicle that makes the road-trip possible. The Toyota Starlet of course. I´m very pleased with it. Just works. Simple, nothing fancy but itakes me from A to B without hazel.

And the we have a more whitish Viking Cinderella.

.

Well, what do ya think. Which one do you like the best?

While you think about that I´ll go to sleep..

More later..

Roadtrip 2014: Ängsö morning, installing solar power and relaxing

Still in Ängsö: Early morning and time for breakfast. Using favorite müsli in a cup, and then pouring water on it. Sounds pretty bad to use water instead of milk or processed sour milk but.., nah, it´s ok, I´m used to it. Along that goes some pretty fresh fruit like peach.

Breakfast-time! Dry food, a peach and water works when you don't have a fridge with you

Well. I do have a icebox with me, but don't use it for anything other than bed support you can see in the picture. You also see the depth of the mattress from Ikea. Time to connect the extra battery to the main power, (generator and solar power). I didn't have time to do it earlier (before heading out). I have some common tools with me. There is always more time when you´re out on the road somehow.

I´ve made this chipboard for the solar power, I have showed it to you earlier., That is.I have used on other road-trips.  Solar controller (and some switches I rarely use).

Solar Power i now connected, and charging. Yey! :) The led for the sun is shining! About 13.65 volt on the extra leisure battery. Normally about 12,7 volt when not charging it.

There were bugs flying all over the place.. I´m not so found of them.. (to put it nicely). They are brakes (broms in Swedish), probably not called brakes in your country, perhaps more like gadfly or horsefly in you language.. :) However, they were not attacking me! Very strange, there were like piece between us, they were just checking me out. Their stomach seemed full somehow. I was really glad for that!

Okey, so to recap, it is early morning, the sun is low,  and I've put the car in the shade of a tree (and a toilet house). Then using pretty long cables to put the solar panel in the sun. Works great to have a portable adjustable solar-panel. Totally recommend it.

Next I sat down in the car for a couple of hours writing on the computer while listening to some great podcast on the carstereo (earlier downloaded from the Internet, mp3 style). Free power from the sun. I really enjoy it! Quiet solitude. This is what I love. Relaxing and contemplating. After a while people started showing up to look at the caste nearby, and they probably thought I was a strange fellow.. with a bed in the car :-) (not normal for people moldered in a box)

First night in the Starlet! (Björnön)

After installing the bed I decided to go try it out. I decided to go the island Björnön, that place is usually very nice. I now the area and so on. That island is very close to my home (about 12 km), and there are a bridge so you can drive over to it.

I think it is the third time I sleep in this parkinglot. However the first one with the Toyota Starlet car. I was exited to try it out! Will the bed be ok? Is there something I need to improve and so on..

Of course there was a car in the middle of the night that found it fun to skid around in the parkinglot, waking everybody. Small stones were flying, but it did not hit the car (I think). Thankfully. You wake up by hearing some engine sound, tires turning and stones flying. Always the same story.. When you are newly awake you don't get what is happening the first seconds. Well after a while I could go back to sleep again.

I have put an bungee cord in the top of the boot cover and then put a bluish fleece blanket. I kept the hat-rack and slept under it. You can see the cushion (pillow?) and the mattress.

A view of the driver-side of the car. As you can see a black fleece blanket has been hanged.

These were my neighbors for the night. A family with some small kids. An old Mercedes bus towing a turquoise car. I cant even se what kind of car it is? What is it for? Knowbody knows.. Was this a family with to much stuff? :)

Here you get a view of the parking lot. Behind the trees is the sea Mälaren.

Inside the vehicle. Me lying. The curtain solution works great!

Black fleece blanket as side curtain

The car is pretty stealth. Of course you suspect that somebody is inside the car but, if you don't look you will not notice anything special.

Early morning, rise and shine. I slept ok even though the car skidding in the night. But it takes a couple of nights before you sleep really well. The body needs to get used to the "new" environment and so on. It really takes some time for the mind to relax and be comfortable.

Well everything went smooth, I think this solution will work very well on my roadtrip! Next I will install an extra battery. More on that later!

Preparing the Toyota Starlet for sleeping in it

How am I gonna sleep in the Toyota Starlet you may ask?

Let me tell you. The approach to the "new" car was a bit different than the Kia. On the Kia Pride I could push the front seats forwards (max) and recline the backseat to make it "almost" flat towards the backseat. That solution was not possible with the Toyota Starlet. Yes! Of course I tried it, don't make me out to be a fool. ;)
So... on the Toyota I decided to remove the front passenger seat. (Yes, I might have showed this before, but it was a long time ago, and you probably have forgotten it haven't ya?)
I also removed the sitting seat ( in the back so that the backseat could be folded almost flat to the boot floor.) Are you getting anything of what I´m trying to explain here? I guess not, ...
..anyywaaaaay...
Ok, so when the seat was out, I had to find something to support a bigger board (that I took from an working office desk, which I earlier scrapt). So.. I found a cooling box and a plastic box that fitted not perfectly, but "ok" according to my "standard".. I will explain more in the pictures that follows.

Here you see that the passenger chair has been removed. Here are the board (wood) put on top the cooling box and another plastic box. Not totally flat but "ok". LEAVE the fashionistas opinions outside the car.. :)

To smoothen things out I put a sleeping underlay on top of the whole thing. The pieces that is missing from the underlay I blame on Rasmus, a dog (poodle)  that I had before. On top of this goes the mattress.

So here the foam mattress is put into the car. It is an Ikea Moshult mattress that is suppose to be "firm". And yes. it it pretty firm. The size is 80x200 cm. That turned out to be a perfect size. You can also see a sleeping bag, and a warm fleece piece to the left.

Okey, so here the bed is ready to sleep in. As you can see the bed is not totally flat. It's a little like sleeping on a small hill with some slope. I figured that more blood in the head (because of the slope) would only make me smarter.. (win-win?) When sleeping the feet are closest to the dashboard. A good bed I must say. I will use it on the 2014 roadtrip. Coming up! The only problem that I have found is that the gear-stick is under the bed, so you have to drive the car lifting somewhat the bed up, when changing gears that is. No big problem I would say.. What else? On this picture I have also fitted the new curtain holders to the handles in the roof. Works super I must say! Also Ikea stuff.

This solution I am very happy with!. Since I used parts that I already had, the only thing costing was the mattress and some sheet and cushion. About 5-600 Swedish crones or 70-80 dollar (yes everything i more expensive here in Sweden than in the states, more taxes and so on.) I think it will work nicely on the holiday roadtrip. More info about that coming up soon.

Til next time, bye!

Installing power cables into the Toyota Starlet

A couple of days ago I installed some power cables in the Toyota. Preparing for the coming Roadtrip 2014. I need this electic cables so that I can charge an extra batteri. Just like I did in my previous car. You can read about it here.

Route of the cables connecting to the 12 volt battery. The red cable goes to plus, and black to minus. (of course, to basic for you). The Fuse should be as close to the battery as possible.

Here you can see where the cables enters the engine wall.

And Volla! Here they are! Ready to be connected to the leisure battery. Coming soon. More about that later.

How to set up Car curtains (AGAIN), final solution

So finally I think I have found a solution. YES!

Here are lots of pictures of my latest tryouts. I think this pictures only are of interest if you want ideas for car curtains. I have tried lots of solution and I think this is the final solution. The final solution is up to you to diagnose :)

Final solution: Ikea Kvartal curtain holder using Ikea Krokig holding the fleece curtain. Attaching on the "overside" of the curtain holder gives no gap.  The Kvartal is 140 cm long and therefore covers the side windows. The curtain will be black. I have already bought some radical black stealth fleece fabric.

Bungeecord in front window. Easy to detach.

Trying out bungeecords, and where to attach them.

Using the grip handles was not optimal.

Does it look funny? Look again.. :)

Hmm. to bungeecord in one?

Dont know what this picture is telling.. but never mind..

Can you see in? No. Stealth?? Nahhh. =)

Sidewindow in a Toyota Starlet. I bit to much gap in the top.

The right one I borrowed from my job. But came up with anoter solution in the end. Se final solution.

The curtains will be black on the roadtrip.

Yellow greenish is what is the fashion right now in Paris . #followingtrends

More places to put bungees?

Gapmania..

On the right path? Yes I think so!

This was bough on Ikea. Kvartal curtain holder. Now for car use.

Trying out, holding the curtain holder in place.

This is how I will attach the curtain holder in the car. Using grabhandles and some nylon wire.

Had to drill some bigger holes to get the "holders" in place.

Lookie lookie..

Testing and haning a big cloth in the rear using bungeecord.

Looks like I like to climb mountains or something.. Rope master.

Softish windsurfingstyle? Front window solution. Attacing bungeecord to the sun shades and then be happy with that!

Could this work.. naahhh. Yeah!!

Using every fabric I could fine.. Testing testing.

Over and out. So long for now.