January 23, 2022 – Preparing to going back home can take time. Our return aboard Falkor, after the forced stop, is approaching, but it will take a few more weeks. In fact, we wanted to take advantage of the situation to try to make some internal improvements, which we had been thinking about for some time. If last year we dedicated ourselves above all to the technical part, thanks to our collaborations with Teleco and Airxcel, now it is the turn of the furnishings.
In this case also, we have chosen to rely on undisputed professionals: Gulliver’s friends. Their job is usually to create custom monocoque vehicles and vans from scratch, but in our case, they have taken on the challenge of improving the onboard comfort of the Hymer Exsis SG we live on.
The list of interventions is long. Some are of ordinary maintenance, such as the replacement of the pistons of the drop-down bed, others are of enrichment of the equipment and still others of true revolution. Let’s try to summarize them, hoping that all our ideas prove to be feasible when the facts are tested.
Let’s change the table
Let’s try to tell you what we have in mind starting from the living area. Here we want to completely redo the table, which today needs an additional piece to be extended to be kept in the wardrobe. The idea is that instead of having a removable extension that allows us to increase the surface, we need a solution without having to add pieces or move the original portion of the table. We then want to create on the table some cup holders-bottle holders.
In this area we would also like to have a complete set of electrical outlets available: 220-volt connected to the inverter, 12-volt cigarette lighter type, traditional USB 2.1 amps and – if possible – USB-C with voltage raised to 19-volt for direct charging of laptops.Under the benches, to increase their usability, we will have removable drawers made, to avoid lifting the cushions every time you access them. Finally, the idea is to redo the cushions to make them more ergonomic, shaping the base better to increase support for the thigh. After all, this is our office!
Revolution in the kitchen
More “invasive” works, on the other hand, concern the kitchen area. Here we have asked for two important interventions. The first one is to completely redo the worktop, eliminating the steel module that integrates three burners and sink. Here we will mount a two-burner hob with piezoelectric ignition and crystal base, while the sink – completely separate – will be obtained directly from the creation of an acrylic stone top. The depth of the kitchen module should increase by about eight centimeters giving us a larger work surface.
In the upper part, above our airplane-style drawers, we would like to obtain two pieces of furniture that rise up to the ceiling, closed by a shutter, to make better use of the available space. The two cabinets will be one above the kitchen module and one on the opposite cabinet, and they will be enriched – as they come close to the bed – by USB sockets, reading lights and newspaper pockets.
More comfort in bed
In the “bedroom” we will cut the bottom part of the mattress on the sides (where it is wider than at the shoulders level) to make it more regular in shape and make the sleeping bags fit better. We will also try to mount a “froli” type network to improve the already good comfort during sleep.
Here the operation is complicated by the fact that the bed surface is divided into three parts, of which the central one is equipped with a door: when the bed is closed, a compartment is formed which during the day is useful for storing objects, but this makes it more difficult to correctly position the modules of the “froli” system.
In the bathroom it’s time for fiberglass
Going to the opposite side of Falkor you get to the bathroom. Here the complicated operation is to replace the thermoformed shower tray with a more robust fiberglass base. On this occasion we will repaint the swivel washbasin, now yellowed by time, and we will look for a practical solution for the shower, repositioning the shower head in a more convenient place and adopting a better management system of the curtain, perhaps with magnets or automatic buttons.
Finally, the technical equipment will be enriched with a mobile gas tank, which will take the place of one of the 10 kg cylinders, and a system that will allow us to better understand how on-board energy is managed, with a shunt and an information-rich display.
Completed these two “jobs”, we will be ready to go home!
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