2016 Georgetown GT3 Center Console Cabinet

This is our 3rd Class A motorhome and after a 10,000 mile journey across America and many other road trips around the Southeastern United States, I finally decided to custom build a cabinet with storage, cup holders that are easy to reach without taking my eyes off the road, AND a table that will hold lunch while under way.  Our Georgetown 30X3 is a perfect size for us, but the cup holders that sit down on the engine cover (doghouse) are way too low and won't hold Tervis Tumblers, Yeti's and many other larger drink containers, and there's absolutely zero storage between the seats that are handy for keeping the stuff you need while traveling down the road.  Here's what it looks like, stock from the factory.

I'm sure other owners of this model have had trouble squeezing around the round pedestal table that's mounted just behind the doghouse, to get into the driver and passenger seat, not to mention setting stuff there only to fall off when you hit the brakes.  It's even very hard to maneuver around that table to get to the upper storage cabinets above the windshield.  I saw a couple of photos that was posted on an RV Facebook Group that caught my eye awhile back that really made sense.  It was custom built and designed to fit over the doghouse that had drink holders, table space and a drawer for storage.  The best idea was to use hydraulic lift brackets so the table and cup holders would pivot up and back to a more convenient location for the driver and passenger to reach, and add quite a bit of storage space to boot.  Here's what I built and the materials I bought at Home Depot and Amazon to custom build the cabinet.

My first task was to find the hydraulic lift brackets.  I'd seen them used in lift top coffee tables in furniture stores, and I found exactly what I needed on Amazon.  Here's the link and a photo of what I ordered first:

Amazon Link:  Gas Hydraulic Folding Lift Brackets

These brackets were $22 with Prime shipping and were very well made.  I sketched up a 3D model to see how much room I would need to allow for these brackets to raise and lower the table top, then I designed the cabinet size to fit over the doghouse with the existing cup holder shroud removed.  To get the right dimensions and measurements and make sure the table top would be square and level with the floor, I leveled the motorhome with the leveling jacks, then positioned a 2' hand level above the doghouse and and took measurements down to the top of the doghouse.  I cut a cardboard pattern with the measurements and checked the fit of the contour for a perfect pattern for the sides.

From there I measured the width and length and it worked out so I could leave the round pedestal table in place if I wanted to use it too.  The back of the cabinet would rest on the floor trim where the doghouse sits.  Here's my 3D sketch:

With those basic measurements, I headed for Home Depot to find some project boards to work with.  Here's what I used:

Edge-Glued Pine Panel 24" x 48" x 3/4" for the top

Birch Plywood 24" x 48" x 1/2" for the front/back/sides and the drawer.

I've had a little experience with wood working over the years, but I decided to do a little research on YouTube for DIY cabinet making and ran across several videos on how to assemble cabinets and drawers with pocket screws.  Back to Home Depot to find a Pocket Hole Jig and here's what I bought:

Pocket Hole Jig Kit, complete with jig, drill bit, driver bit, screws and plugs.  This made it easy to drill and counter bore the holes at the correct angle and depth to fasten the plywood pieces together so the fasteners were on the inside where they wouldn't show.  This was a very easy tool to use, very accurate and assembly was quick.  I glued all edges before driving the pocket screws.  I DID have to buy more pocket screws as the kit only came with a small assortment of sizes.

After assembly of the cabinet and cutting the top to size, the biggest challenge was how to align and mount the hydraulic lift brackets.  With the cabinet sitting upside down on top of the table top, mounting was easier than I expected.  I used 3/8" hex head cap screws to attach the brackets making sure the screws didn't poke thru the outside of the cabinet.  With the brackets mounted, the table top attached, the main part of the cabinet was assembled.

The drawer was built the same way, with pocket screws and I mounted the drawer with

12" Side Mount Drawer Slides

I had to install 2" wide pieces of 1/2" birch plywood inside to mount the slides to and that allowed room between the drawer slides and the lift brackets.  It worked out well with the deep compartment I created in the front of the cabinet for storage.  Here's a photo of the assembled cabinet with the top removed to see the detail:

I stained the cabinet with oil based stain and applied 3 coats of urethane clear coat to finish it.  As soon as the finish was dry, I installed magnetic catches in each corner to keep the top secure, then installed it in place.  Here's a few photos.

 

I'll follow up later when I install the cabinet onto the doghouse and provide a video of how it works.

Now on to other improvements as we see the need.

Happy Camping and Travel Safe,

Brent & Debbie Headberg

Knot At Sea

RV Battery Monitoring Made Easy

Do you know the status of your RV batteries?  Do you know how much amperage your RV is using at any given time?  Do you know how much charging amperage is going into your batteries?  Here's an easy install to monitor everything you need to know about your batteries without having to route wiring up into your RV and then finding a convenient place to cut a hole in your cabinets to mount a remote display.  And the best part is this device connects to your smart phone where it's handy.   

The Smart Battery Shunt by Victron Energy

The SmartShunt is an all in one battery monitor, only without a display. Your phone acts as the display. The SmartShunt connects via Bluetooth to the VictronConnect App on your phone (or tablet) and you can conveniently read out all monitored battery parameters, like state of charge, time to go, historical information and much more.

The SmartShunt is a good alternative for a BMV battery monitor, especially for systems where battery monitoring is needed but less wiring and clutter is wanted.

The SmartShunt is equipped with Bluetooth, a VE.Direct port and a connection that can be used for: monitoring a second battery, midpoint monitoring or a temperature sensor.  Here's the wiring diagram for installation:

I installed my Smart Shunt on the cover plate of the battery control box that's mounted right next to the 2 12v batteries.  You will need an additional short black battery cable to connect one side of the shunt to the battery bank.  Took about 15 minutes.

Here's a look at the iPhone App:

This is a photo of the inside of my battery compartment showing how I mounted the Smart Battery Shunt.

This is a great tool to use for monitoring your coach's 12v systems.  You can turn things on/off one at a time to see how much current each circuit draws.  It's very useful for those who do a lot of boondocking to monitor the battery state of charge and battery time remaining.  Here's the link on Amazon where you can purchase it and a video explaining it in detail.

Amazon Link:  Victron Smart Battery Shunt 

YouTube Video:  Monitor Batteries via Bluetooth

Technology Review

Netgear Nighthawk M1 WiFi HotSpot Review

A Little History First

After spending 2 weeks onboard Knot At Sea with my new Nighthawk WiFi HotSpot connected to my iPad, I am very pleased with the performance of this little piece of technology.  Back when we first started RV'ing, it was always a struggle to get a reliable internet connection with enough speed and consistency to do anything online.  Trying to connect to and stay connected with a cell phone to a WiFi system that the RV campgrounds provide just wasn't usable.  I bought a WiFi Repeater/Booster kit, thinking that would provide more throughput, but the real bottleneck was always the campground WiFi being bogged down by all the other campers logged in and sharing the bandwidth.  Forget about streaming a movie or looking up something on YouTube...there just wasn't enough speed for anything useful.  

Latest & Greatest Gadgets

There has been a lot of new technology and improvements in the past several years, especially in cellular data products.  While I was researching what new products might be available to boost the WiFi signal from a campground provided connection, there are quite a few full-time RV'ers out there that recommended a stand-alone WiFi HotSpot with a cellular data plan that would provide a stable high speed internet connection capable of real office/work performance.  The reviews I read and watched on YouTube pointed me to the Netgear Nighthawk M1 portable WiFi HotSpot.  There are other hotspots that provide the same performance, but I liked the idea of the Netgear Nighthawk being portable with a rechargeable battery that you can carry with you where every you go.  Some other hotspots have to be powered by a 110v power supply.

During my 2 weeks onboard and running the Nighthawk continuously, not once did I loose a connection or have to reboot it, there was just a continuous high speed internet connection for my iPad and our 2 cell phones connected to the Nighthawk.  I really gave it a workout with my iPad, working back and forth with digital signature files and documents we were sharing with an associate on a business transaction.  The Nighthawk didn't skip a beat.

Then one evening, as I was trying to find something worthwhile watching on our limited Antenna TV stations, I remembered the Fire TV Stick that was plugged into the back of our TV. 

I had never been curious about these little sticks until now, and after setting it up and exploring what all these little devices have to offer, I WAS IMPRESSED.  This is where my new Netgear Nighthawk M1 really shined.  There's just about every channel you can imagine on the Fire TV Stick, including my favorites like, Netflix, YouTube, The Weather Channel, HBO and many other movie channels, including all the local networks to choose from.  

Summary

At the end of the day, these 2 gadgets made our life in an RV feel more home-like.  After all, in today's world, no matter where you are, you need reliable access to the internet, whether you're doing your banking online, sending your friends and family photos, emails and text messages, or looking for something to improve the RV on Amazon, watching reviews of the latest RV accessories, and even writing this blog.  Our RV is now equipped with a high speed private WiFi hotspot that keeps us connected to the digital world.  I've been doing speed comparisons using http://speedof.me and the throughput is variable at different times of the day, but the performance when streaming on the Fire TV Stick, which requires a high quality data stream, has been outstanding.  One thing to mention here is that I have only been using the Nighthawk hotspot in and around an urban city location where cell coverage is maxed out.  I am anxious to see what kind of performance I get when we are away from the big city data stream.  

If you have any questions about this post, please put them in a comment to this blog post below.

Happy HotSpot Camping, see you on down the road somewhere.

Brent & Debbie Headberg

2016 Forest River Georgetown GT3 30x3

Knot At Sea

Amazon Links to the gear mentioned above:

• Netgear Nighthawk M1
• 
  
• Fire TV Stick 4K

Spring 2021 - Enjoying our Georgetown GT3 Motorhome

 In preparation for our Summer trip to the Carolina Mountains, we are spending a couple of weeks in our new to us Georgetown GT3 Motorhome near where we live, organizing our camping gear and making our storage areas convenient and easy to find.  There were quite a few accessories we had to have to make life in an RV more comfortable, here’s the list so far:

• Windshield Sun Reflector
• Hanging Closet Organizer
• Netgear Nighthawk M1 WiFi Hotspot
• Canopy Rope Light & Clips
• Collapsible Outdoor Trash Container
• Canopy Party Lights
• Battery Monitor
• Wolfwise Alum Telescoping Ladder
• X-Haines RV Water Pressure Regulator

And the list goes on.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July everyone !  

Our day was filled with family, friends, food,fireworks and FUN!  Mikayla  made a fresh key lime pie to take. We arrived at Denny & Barbs house around 12:30.  They graciously hosted a feast with BBQ ribs hot dogs,burgers and all the fixins! We ate till we could no more.

After the feast the guys got comfy on the sofa and took a snooze while Mikayla, Barbara, and Debbie played a game of Scrabble.  Barb won and Mikayla came in second with Debbie tailing the end .  Chewy had fun playing with Gridly and Zoe.  We said our goodbyes to Denny & Barb then met up with  Dale & Pam for a bite and a beer at Hans & Frans.  We stopped by their beautiful home  decorated with some of  Dales amazing photography then all of us headed downtown Greenville for the fireworks!  Amazing show! Chewbaca came with us and we held him up like a kid so he could see the fireworks.  It was amazing how he watched the whole show, so curious about all those beautiful colors and booms in the sky, and not once did he flinch or bark.  After the fireworks we strolled down along the riverside of Greenville and walked on the foot bridge that's cantilevered over the waterfalls.  Such a beautiful place.  It was late and it was a long drive back to camp.  We were all really exhausted and so delirious that we got silly and laughed till our faces hurt!  I guess you had to be there to appreciate it!

It was a full fun day and tomorrow we were getting up early to head to next stop in VA.