Modifications to Peregrination

[SteveSgt]

I'm creating this thread to share my own modifications to my 2023 Escape 21C, christened "Peregrination". Several others who have done significant changes and upgrades to their towable-abode have created similar threads.

So here is mine.


As of this launch of the thread, I haven't done much of what I hope to do, so I'll be coming back to add more as the projects are completed, hopefully for years to come.

[SteveSgt]

I've been used to having a two-stage filter at my kitchen sink at home to clean up our city water. I already have a fine silt and rust filter, inline in the hose, that I use on city water or when I fill my fresh tank. So when I found a tiny ceremic/charcoal filter that could provide the additional stage it seemed perfect for an RV kitchen.



I've found that the most difficult step of most mods is finding the right parts. I wasn't inclined to cut the Pex and crimp-in a tee, so I researched for weeks to find a tee that would screw-in between the sink hose and the Pex fitting. I never found that, but I did find one that would screw-in between the Pex and the outside shower valve.

I installed a filtered-water faucet by drilling a 1/2" hole into the formica countertop, installed and hooked-up the filter under the sink using 1/4" tubing, installed my tee, and now we have clean-tasting water from the fresh tank or the city water hose. (This one short paragraph makes it sound quicker and easier than it was.)



Oh… And while I was doing plumbing I also stuck an accumulator on the output of the electric water pump, which smoothes out the water pressure and reduces chatter.

[SteveSgt]

We weren't going to be using the wardrobe cabinet to hang our parka jackets nor our Sunday best formalwear. So we converted it to a pantry with drawers.

I read-up on how several others here on the forum accomplished this. Many, like me, who weren't master woodworkers installed one of the Elfa Drawer units from The Container Store. We ordered the largest frame we were certain would fit. When we got it, we realized that mounting the frame to the bottom of the cabinet would waste almost five inches of vertical space.

So like some others, I built some pedestals to raise the frame up to the cabinet door level. My design is an I-beam built with two sections of 1x2 pine, and one section of 1x3 pine. They are glued and screwed together, with metal threaded inserts to mount the shelves (A CAD drawing is available on request.)

I also cut cabinet-hight sections of 1x2 to bolt the side of the drawer frame to. With all of the mounting of the frame done with 10x24 machine screws, removing and re-installing the frame is a breeze. We stained the wood with a maple color that was way darker than the trailer's wood (oops!).

Here's a close-up of the rear pedestal.


Here's the cabinet with the pedestals installed.


Here's the frame installed.


And here it is with drawers (oops, missing one) installed.

[h2owmn]

Nice! My "elevators" are two 1x3, zip tied together and then zip tied to the frame at the bottom. Mine fits pretty tightly into the closet (17A) and there are pool noodles cut and put around the four vertical frame members to keep it from wobbling around. My jackets go in the top basket which is zip tied so it won't slide....I removed the hanger bar. I use two straps with clips on the end to secure the bottom basket, and the two long ones vertically to secure to the top and bottom frame rails. This keeps the drawers from sliding into the door and opening it while traveling.

That space underneath is nice if you ever want to hide your jewels.

[SteveSgt]

Originally Posted by h2owmn

My "elevators" are two 1x3, zip tied together and then zip tied to the frame at the bottom. Mine fits pretty tightly into the closet (17A) and there are pool noodles cut and put around the four vertical frame members to keep it from wobbling around.

Your mounting design would have been easier than what I did, to be sure. On the other hand, your frame fits almost perfectly in your closet. The next one wider than the model we used wouldn't quite fit through the cabinet door, so the narrow unit left us some extra room to the side.

Originally Posted by h2owmn

I removed the hanger bar.

Because our drawer frame wasn't the full width of the closet, we figured we could still hang one or two things to the left of the frame.

We're still thinking about how to use the space above the drawers, in front of the bar. Behind the bar may wind up as the place for some electronics that do not need to be easily accessed.

[Bea]

Very nice mods! Looking forward to your future Peregrination entries. Specifically interested on how you like the filtered water faucet. We tried this carbon water filter once https://www.amazon.com/RVGUARD-Inlin...66&sr=8-6&th=1 but these green filters require a lot of city pressure to work so we went back to the regular blue filters.

[h2owmn]

You're right, my frame is a tight fit. I had to assemble it inside the closet and it was an interesting job, but I did it. It's my favorite mod of all I've done. Also, it was all done at the campground in Lynden, with trips back and forth to the nearest home depot. Thank goodness they would cut the wood for me. I bought the Elfa 4 months prior to picking up the trailer, based on the measurements and fingers crossed.

[SteveSgt]

Originally Posted by Bea

Specifically interested on how you like the filtered water faucet.

Using the electric pump and the fresh tank, it's great. We detect no plastic taste compared to the 2.5 gallon jugs of bottled water. It's much more convenient than something like a Britta pitcher.

The flow rate was a bit slow the one time we tried it on city water. But it was tolerable as long as we didn't need a half gallon to cook beans or pasta.

I think if the city water pressure is too low, we'll just fill our fresh tank and use it that way.

[SteveSgt]

We found that the standard light fixtures in 21C didn't throw much light into the overhead cabinets. In some of those cabinets, we wanted a better view of what was in there. So I installed some LED strip lights inside the cabinets, activated by a magnetic switch whenever they're opened.

The light strips I used require 12 volts, and have an adhesive back. The short 37 inch portion of the strip I used in each cabinet draws about 0.5A.

The switches I used are no longer available, but you can find some similar units on Amazon. They turn the light off when the magnet portion is near the switch portion.

From inside the cabinet you can see the light strip along the wood framing above the door, the magnetic switch on the cabinet frame, and the magnet on the cabinet door.


When the door is open and the light is on (and the cabinet is in that very rare state of empty), it kinda gives the impression that the cabinet is of infinite depth.