About: My name is Travis and I like to build cool stuff and learn about interesting things.

I’ve been camping my entire life, mostly with my family in our RV. Now that’s fun and a great way to travel but about two years ago I really began camping with my friends. You know, straight up camping in a tent outside with a campfire. “Real” camping as some people like to call it. I freaking fell in love with car camping! Setting up the tent, sleeping on the floor, not showering, it’s awesome! For real, tent camping just has an element that RVing can’t capture. Now don’t get me wrong, an RV is great for longer road trips but I love a good ol’ fashioned tent when I can.

With my new love for camping I needed a vehicle that could accommodate me on my trips. So I traded in my hot rod Dodge Challenger for a Jeep Patriot. It’s not quite as fast but it’s just as cool and it looks good dirty. I’ve always loved building things so my mind quickly began thinking of ways to equip the Jeep better for camping. After a lot of thought I decided on a few elements that I had to have when car camping:

I needed a kitchen that was easy to access. I hated digging through all my equipment to get the stove and the serving utensils and everything needed just to make some pasta. Everything had to be organized and easy to access. Storage for food had to be right next to the kitchen so I could stand in the back and have everything I needed. I didn’t want to bring the huge plastic camping bucket that everybody has. Instead, I needed something more organized that was easier to access.It all had to be quickly removable. Sometimes you don’t get a campsite with a convenient parking spot. For those occasions I wanted to be able to move my equipment to the campsite. There had to be little to no setup or breakdown time. I wanted it always available whenever I needed it.

After drawing up a few different plans I settled on a design and got to work. This is what the finished product consists of:

A fridge (really just an iceless cooler plugged into a cigarette lighter)

Two drawers for storage

A sink with running water (really just a salad bowl and water jugs)

Counter space

Storage for my stove

Storage for a pot and pan

I can take everything out in less than a minute and have my trunk completely cleared. It’s all super secure and doesn’t shift around while driving. I’ve even done a bit of off-roading and had no problems. It doesn’t even rattle or squeak which I’m amazed by. I’ve taken it on a few trips already and it works great!

I just bought the two drawers and fridge but I built the entire unit on the right side. So I’ll be showing you how to build that. I probably should’ve been documenting with photos as I went along but it’s a pretty simple build so I’ll walk you through it. I had never really built any drawers or cabinets before this and I had no problems so you can do it too.

Let’s go!

If you like this and want to learn more or see what other things I'm up to check out my website at travderose.com

Check out my video of this thing: https://youtu.be/9oFvA1uYLXc