Truck Camper Kitchen Drawer updates

 

Before I begin.  My weight backslid a couple pounds.    Currently at 223.5 after seeing a low of 221.1 lbs.   Sigh... will need to get busy to reach my goal of <220 before June 10th, which will end my 1 year weight loss mania that began at 291.6 lbs.    Heck <221.6 will be cool too.   70lbs lost.     Lately, I've just been eating too much of my sourdough bread,  unsalted roasted peanuts, and getting food or a beer when out biking for more than a couple hours.   

No regrets, I needed to have some fun before the final push.      The last 10lbs I want to lose should come off once Summer warms up and I can start doing week long bike touring trips.    Lower 210's and staying under 220lbs over the Winter is my long term goal from here on out.  

Anyhoo, the truck camper's kitchen drawer bag project is done!   

First a couple photos of what the drawer looked like before I made the bags.     It was semi-organized dumpster diving AND I didn't have room for the 3qt instant pot in the drawer that you see in the After photos.   So this project fixed a bunch of problems.     And I designed the bags so I don't have to fully remove them if I'm just stopping somewhere to make a quick lunch.    Some bags use mesh fabric for air drying.   The hooks I added to the bumper swing arms work great for hanging the bags when I'm doing some proper cooking at the tailgate.

 I'll make a youtube video next time I'm out camping.     I will say, I'm a big fan of adding aluminum structure to sewn bags.    Lightweight and functional.    If I build my own van, I think i'll do cabinets that way.   3/4" thick wood is way too heavy and wastes space

 

 

After bags and rack hooks

 

  

Weight and Truck Camper Drawer progress

Weight loss continues!    Hoping to see <220 before June 11th (when I started dieting at 291.6lbs).   Still even if I say I'm only 6'1 now, i'm only overweight with a BMI of 29.2 (>29.9 is obese).   To be fair, I still feel like I've got a belly, but it's weird fitting into 36" waist jeans.    At my heaviest, I was wearing 44's

Honestly, I wasn't expecting such a low weigh-in today (was 222.9 yesterday), but I think because I took it a little easy the last couple of days, my body let go of the water it retains when I'm training harder.  AND, I've been eating sourdough bread.   Yay!    

Enough of the weight loss crud!    Lets talk truck stuff.   

This week, I rotated my truck tires (including the 5th wheel spare).    Because I added a cast iron rear diff cover, I can jack up the rear axle via the rear diff and drop the rear axle down onto jack stands easily.    Then, I jack up via the frame behind each front tire separately as I move tires around.    I have a nice wide driveway, a cordless heavy duty 1/2" Dewalt impact wrench gun, and a good floorjack.    I bet it takes me half the time to rotate tires myself versus driving to the tire shop and sitting in the waiting room, and I know the tires were rotated correctly.    The nice thing with my Ford Ranger, after you drive a couple miles the computer automatically updates the tire locations so when I'm on the tire pressure screen, the tire pressures are accurate, no need to update the truck's computer manually.    For weight reasons, I run my rear tires at 39-40psi, and the fronts at 35-36psi, so I use the onboard air compressor on the truck to fix that after rotating too.   Something the shops won't do.

 

I also changed the oil, but I didn't bother changing the oil filter for the first time.    I'm changing the oil every 5,000 miles (earlier than needed) and I'm using Mobil 1 oil filters rated for 20,000 miles.   On the Ranger, you have to remove the driver side tire and remove some of the wheel well flap to get to the sideways mounted oil filter.     When you remove the filter, it always leaks some oil.  There's even a drip tray for that, but I can't use it properly anymore after adding a skid plate to protect my transmission transfer case.   That skid plate also has some wing extensions so the crackheads can't steal my catalytic convertor with a sawzall.   So because I can't use the drip tray,  I have to use paper towels to catch the drips, and it's even more of a PITA.    I figure if the filter is good for 20,000 miles, I can safely leave it on for 2-3 oil changes (up to 15,000 miles).  

In the truck bed camper area, I also upgraded some usb charging outlets to new ones that include usb c .   Usb C charges faster than the old USA A outlets, and the usb C plugs go in either way.   These still have a USB A slot for my older gadgets.    https://a.co/d/00buJZGS     Easy change out.

 

First two bags for my kitchen drawer are complete.   See left image below.   I already had a bag for my induction burner, but as you can see the drawer will look way cleaner with everything in bags

Inside the bags I'm using 1/16" thick aluminum angle or flat bar that I rivet together to make framing as needed.   I use an angle grinder to round off any sharp edges.     The aluminum provides structure to the bags and it lets me re-add the plastic dividers.    I think for subsequent bags I'm going to switch to 1/20" thick aluminum to save weight, 1/16" is overkill.   I did buy a metal cutting blade to cut the aluminum and it works great.    Leaves a clean edge that requires almost no sanding/filing. https://a.co/d/0hsRd9Fy

First bag is what I'll call my Eat bag.   Likely to get the most use.    It holds everything I need to reheat or eat my food, but not stuff I need for proper meal prepping/cooking.     

 

In theory, I could have made my Eat bag into two separate bags, but I'm planning ahead for when I'm hanging bags on the rear bumper swing arm.    Attaching the lower bag holding the plates, bowls, cups means it'll take up less room horizontally when I hang stuff on the rear bump arms.   Should have photos of that by next Sunday.   I'm hoping I can hang my eat, cooking, and spices bags side by side on the tire arm.

Inside my Eat bag, I did re-use the pvc railings and post sleeves to help keep the cutlery organized and separated.  Lots of riveting to the aluminum framing I adding to the inside of the bag.  I'm probably going to add some of the smaller pvc railing pieces in the lower tray of the upper bag too.   For longer knives and scissors and stuff.     For the upper row, I back-cut them at a 60 degree angle, so I'm not storing forks, spoons knives straight up and down.   I didn't want them blocked by the top of the bag

the plate, bowl, cup/mug lower bag is open at the top when hanging open, but it inverts and threatens to dump everything out when I fold up the bag to put it away in the drawer.   So I added extra straps to keep stuff from spilling out, but I'm not 100% sure they're needed, I can cut them off in the future if I end up not needing them.    I also sewed the black mesh front panel on so I can put them in wet after washing.   I figure they can air dry in the bag.  I may also add a couple half inch grommets in the bottom to let excess water drain.   In retrospect I should have probably made then entire lower part of the bag out of mesh,  maybe I'll do that in the future.      

Next is the bag for my backpacking stove stuff.   I bring it as a backup stove in case my electrical system dies.

 

This bag is 15 inches wide, 10 inches high and only about 5 inches deep/thick.    It was a game of tetris to make it all fit, but I saved a lot of truck camper drawer space with this bag by vertically storing stuff.   in the drawer it was way more spread out.   Probably a subconscious thing because of the fuel 

 

 

 

Truck Camper kitchen drawer redesign

 

I still love the kitchen pullout, but it's a bit messy and wastes a lot of storage space the way I've been using it.    And I find myself having to lift stuff out of the way to get to things when I bring extra food storage containers for takeout leftovers on multi-week road trips.

I'm going to make some rectangular bags like the green one on the right to store stuff more compactly and improve organization in the drawer

• A bag for my white gas backpacking stove stuff, including fuel bottles, matches and windscreens
• A bag for stuff I use to eat.   Plates, bowls, cutlery, and utensils for digging food out of fridge containers
• A bag for cooking/meal prepping.   Cooking utensils and my favorite fry pan
• Spice rack, salt and sugar bag?
• An open top, tote bag for misc pots I don't use often to store them more compactly.
• maybe another tote style bag for air tight food storage/take out containers 

 

I'm not going to add zippers to the bags, I'm going to use coroplast signboard to reinforce the bags so they stay in box shape.  I'll have to sew an inner bag liner to cover the coroplast.   I like signboard because its cheap, light, easy to cut, and flexes a little.   I want the bags sturdy but lightweight, but also have some box-like rigidity, so they keep their shape when pulled out of the Drawer.    Wood boxes would be too heavy, and 3/4" thick wood wastes a lot of space.   

Speaking of wood boxes though, I plan on these bags being a weird mix of my sewing, riveting and woodworking skills.   For the cutlery/utensil bag,   I'm going to reuse some of the hollow patio railing spindles and post sleeve cutoffs in the bags.  I'm going to rivet them in place through the inner bag lining to a thin aluminum strip behind the inner bag fabric.       Unlike the drawer now, there will be an upper and lower row, so i'll have to figure out a clean way to block the bottom of the upper row of hollow rail spindles so the forks and spoons don't fall through.    

The other part of the plan is to hang the bags from the rear bumper swing arms (going to add hooks to the arms), so I'm going to make one large side of the boxes square shape easy to drop down after opening a twist lock toggle holding the side panel in place (like an old school lunch box lid).   

 

The side panel that drops down will also have a mesh sleeve to hold bigger stuff in place when the bag is closed up.   Like plates, bowls, pots or pans.   That mesh sleeve will be upside down when the bag is closed, so when the side panel drops the stuff doesn't drop to the ground.

I might even redo the padded bag I made for the induction plate.   it's just a tad too big, but that will come last.  For now, I just have to push down on it a little to shut the drawer.

The goal is I want to easily pull a bag out of the kitchen drawer slideout, hang it on a bumper swing arm, untoggle the strap holding the side panel in place and drop the panel exposing everything.   Just like a metal lunchbox I used as a kid.    Stuff in the fabric box has to be easy to see, remove, and put back into the bag without everything spilling out all over the place. 

Maybe I'll make some youtube vids as I work on it.   If done correctly, I may have enough room in the drawer to store my half-size 3quart instant pot or blender in the drawer too. 

Right now, there's just a lot of empty space in the pullout drawer most of the time.  Pull out bags will use the space better because it will let me vertically stack shorter stuff better, AND it will keep things better organized.   The trick is making it easy to use the bags or I'll just go back to the open mess approach.  

 

First weight below 220... kind of

UPDATE: [Sunday 26apr2026,  weekly weigh-in of 222.6 lbs / ~ 101kg]

And on a happy note.   I lost some weight over the last week while camping.     I weighed 227.4 lbs/103kg when I left, but I'd been feeling kind of backed up last week.   I think I'd been eating too much high fiber sourdough bread.

So let me preface that my <220lb/100kg weigh-in does NOT technically count.    I weighed myself post-shower after a sauna session after driving home.   The Sauna was great for loosening up after driving 4 hours, but I didn't stop once to pee during the drive home, so I was dehydrated.   I didn't drink much after my morning bike ride, and I didn't guzzle water while driving because I didn't want to get stuck in Hartford rush hour traffic if I had to stop once an hour for pee breaks.    I got through Hartford around Thursday 3p.m.  Only had about a 2mile stretch where people were driving fast bicycle speed (like 20mph).  Not complaining,  traffic was steadily moving; it wasn't stop and go.

Anyhoo.   Drumroll please!    Booyah!   219.8lbs.   Sorry, it's been a dream when I started at 291.6lbs last June to see a weight below 220. 

This morning pre-breakfast, wearing 0.8lbs of clothing.

 

After breakfast was 222.   So I'm getting SUPER close to getting under 220.   Yay!    Ideally, I'd love to be lower 210's so I have a buffer from 220.   I want 220 to be my new max weight.    Fingers crossed, keeping the weight off will be so much easier now that I figured out high fiber, healthy, filling food I like.

 

I think the key to dropping 5+lbs this past week, was that I didn't bring any sourdough bread with me.   I ate my current favorite bean patty recipes (pre made at home).   

https://dishingouthealth.com/chipotle-black-bean-burgers/#wprm-recipe-container-9978 

and this new Indian bean patty recipe I found.   

https://ministryofcurry.com/black-bean-burgers/ 

I'd eat the above in a large, low-carb whole wheat wrap with lettuce, onions, peppers and some sauce (see below)

I worried a little about running out of the patties above, so I bought a frozen bag of bean and cheese burritos from Walmart (210 calories each, I'd eat two at a time).   I'd get them again.  Ate 6 out of the 8 before getting home. 

I also brought a gallon size ziploc bag of broccoli,   and a separate 1 gallon (~4liters) bag of lettuce.   I just stuff a few paper towels in the bag to absorb moisture and change the towels every couple days.    

I had diced bell peppers and red onions and 2 small bottles of siracha spicy mayo and southwest chipotle sauce  

I kept all the burrito making stuff in a plastic shopping bag, so it was easy to pull it out from the Dometic cooler fridge to make a wrap for lunch or dinner.   I usually alternated between Mexican and Indian.

For dessert i had the options of dates, dark chocolate covered almonds, apples, or home made baked beans, https://hunneyd.blogspot.com/2025/11/deconstructed-instant-pot-baked-beans.html 

 For snacking, roasted unsalted peanuts,  wasabi almonds, or the aforementioned dates/ choc covered almonds.

For breakfast I started with protein smoothies with almond/soy milk, but figured out how to use my tiny 1.5 liter hawkins induction ready pressure cooker on my induction cooktop to cook 1/3 cup of steel cut oats for breakfast.    

You have to be careful the pot doesn't start spewing foam after the pot starts venting.   I found medium heat until it vented once, remove the pot from the burner for minute to calm down, then add back to the burner on low for 5 minutes, and then let it naturally cool another 5-10 minutes (it's cold outside when camping).    Too fiddly/complicated?  idk

I'd then add

• 1 scoop Orgain chocolate fudge protein powder (plant based)
• 1 scoop PB Fit peanut powder
• 1 spoon/tablespoon of ground flax seed
• 1 spoon natural peanut butter
• at least 1/2 cup of soy milk

Not vegan, but I like the shelf life of soy/almond milk.    Soy is thicker  and if water consumption is a worry it uses far less than almond/dairy milk during the milk making conversion process.

I did use an insulated Yeti bowl for the first time while eating and during cold mornings 40-50F/5-10C   it kept the oatmeal nice and warm while I ate.    In a normal bowl, it will somehow get grossly too cold to eat by the time it cools enough to start eating it.  It's like you get a 30 second window to wolf down the whole bowl.   With the yeti bowl, you'll have to blow on each spoonful the first minute or two, but then you can just start slurping the oatmeal down and it stays warm until you finish in my experience.

Yeti bowls are overpriced, but I would recommend a double-walled, insulated stainless steel bowl for camping.   I got the big 2quart/liter size one and it's big enough to use as a small dish sink, so the hot soapy water stays hot as you clean up.   Win win. 

 

 

2026 April OhioPyle and Promised Land PA State Parks

Monday I drove from Hampstead Md to Ohiopyle PA.   Ohiopyle is in spitting distance of the famous Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright house.    Jacqui and I saw it way back in 2003 during our weird honeymoon.   "Who goes to Pittsburgh for a honeymoon?"    Jacqui was still working on her PhD and we didn't have time to go do the warm Caribbean thing.   Jacqui got to visit the Andy Warhol museum and I got to try a Primanti's sandwich for the first time.    We even stayed at the Seven Hills Resort for a few days, which is also super close to Ohiopyle.   Mid October, it was nearly empty.  Anyway, enough reminiscing.

 This blog is more about biking.   So going back to Hampstead, here are some photos from a local 8 mile loop I rode Saturday and Sunday from Mark and Teresa's place.     Lots of super pricey horse farms.  Mark said a lot of the land nearby goes from 150k per acre.    Still beautiful, rolling hill country, but pricey, Woof.

 

 

I would've taken more photos Sunday, but the fields I biked passed  the day before had just been plowed.   Oh well.   Out of practice at thinking about taking pretty shots  Hopefully did a better job biking on the GAP (Great Allegheny Passage) bike trail.   It's on my list of future bike tours.    I biked from Kentuck campground to Confluence and then doubled back, with some side trips, I bike 25 miles Tuesday.   Beautiful weather,   70F, 21C 

 

 

From Kentuck campground to the GAP trail there's this short 0.3 mile hike.   Super steep, so you have to walk your bike down and push it up.    Totally doable though.   It's not rocky

 

 

Weather was crappy Wednesday.   Cold (below 50F/10C) and Rainy all day.     I was originally planning on just driving 3 hours to Poe Paddy State Park in Central PA, but their forecast had rain Thursday too, so I pushed on to Promised Land State Park near Greentown PA.    A 5 hour drive.   No biking Wednesday.    I got there 3:45p.m. before the park office closed at 4p.m.       Sadly, the Ranger put me right next to another couple, the electric RV sites are open year round.   Probably a 100 sites, and only like 10 were used.  I felt bad for intruding on the other campers, but it was too late to fix.    

Pennsylvania State Parks have a few weird rules.   No alcohol and quiet hours are 9p.m. to 8a.m.    I think it's because the sites are so close to each other.    Have to keep the peace.    On the other hand, the Ranger ladies in the office at both Ohio Pyle and Promised Land said you can usually get a site during the week during the Summer.    Not like NY where everything gets booked months ahead of time.   With the PA campgrounds you can pre-book via Reserve America, but you should still swing by the office because they'll printout a sheet, and there's a strip of paper showing your checkout day, you attach it to the site post of your campsite so when the Rangers go around, they can keep on eye on people trying to overstay.

I guess I recommend PA state parks if you just want a base camp, but you'll be off hiking, biking, or whatever during the day.   If you mostly are going to sit at camp to enjoy being in the woods, I can't recommend Ohiopyle or Promised Land unless you're super social. 

Anyhoo, the PA Promised Land park is huge and seems to completely surround the lake.  I did a 16.5 mile ride completely on the park roads (except a short half mile on the state road 390 that goes North/South through the park)  You can rent cabins and cottages there too.

 It was a nice Spring Day.    Sunny, probably about 50F/10C, but it felt like someone left the fridge door open when I was near the lake.   The water was definitely cold, and sucked the heat out of the air.