One of the distinct, and in my opinion cool, things about Dante is that he’s a high top. At first I wasn’t sure if I’d dig a high top but after owning one I’d never go back. One bonus with owning a high top is that there’s not popping the top which really isn’t that big a deal because popping the top doesn’t actually take much to do. A drawback with owning one is wind resistance. Instead of driving your regular loaf of bread down the road you’re driving a king size loaf of bread. I’ve gotten chucked around pretty bad in wind storms to the point where I’ve had to call it a day and find a place to park for the night.

The way it worked with my bus is that there were two boards that slid out fitting snugly against the permanently fixed board in the back. That made the upper bunk for someone else to sleep in. Seeing as I travel mainly on my own I had no need for an upper bunk so I decided to put that extra space to work for me in the form of extra storage. My folks are pretty handy with a hammer and a drill so they decided to pitch in a help out. Actually, they did most of the work.

We cut up one of the boards in order to raise the platform up higher over the driver/passenger seats. Without raising it they storage space would have been resting on my head. Then we built a cupboard that would just slide into place. The final result was two very deep storage areas that I use for (left) clothes and (right) a pantry.

For the back I wanted to create an area to store larger items that I didn’t need to take out at every stop. My backpack, outdoor shade structure, air matress, etc. I just wanted a big door and an area to shove things. This is what we came up with.

These additions have been great for long term travel and have allowed me to carry a few extra things without having anything on the floor or rolling around loose in the bus. Actually one of my rules for traveling in the bus is that everything has to be stowed. With Dantes current rebuilt underway these cupboards will be going through some changes. One issue I had is that the cabinets up front are really deep so you end up with things getting stuck behind everything else. To get around this I’ve decided to install a system similiar to a kitchen drawer where the contents will roll out on a shelf giving me full access to everything. As for the back cabinet I found that the hinge we used limited just how far the door would open. On a few occasions I did some damage to the door while shoving things in that didn’t quite fit. The future modification will remove that hinge that limits how far the door open and I’ll go with something  like a simple door hinge with a hook in the ceiling to keep it open.

The beauty of the vehicles is that you can modify them to your hearts content, unlike new campers where everything has a place and if you move one thing you’ll break another.