So we decided to just go ahead and forget our two burner propane stovetop for the moment. It’s been a hassle and-a-half trying to find the right propane fittings for it so that we could connect it to the propane tank and actually use the stove. Plus, we’ve got the issue of the propane tank itself.
We really shouldn’t be driving around with an open, but not totally empty, tank in the bus- that’s really not safe and is getting into legal no-no territory. We don’t have the option, currently, of mounting a tank under the bus like most RVs have and we can’t mount it to the rear bumper (that’s super illegal).
The stovetop, Wedgewood Two-Burner Drop-in Cooktop, looked super nice and I’m sure that it would work great if we could ever find the right fitting. We originally decided to go with propane because we were planning on doing more boondocking or free-camping but we’ve realized that’s not exactly feasible for our current situation. Mike has to be in town for his job Tuesdays and Thursdays and needs to be available the rest of the work week for meetings with his professors, other members of the faculty, and his students. There is nowhere to free-camp here in the middle of town and we can’t exactly set up shop in a Walmart parking lot 5 days a week and then take off for 2 days. We worked it out and that would actually end up costing us time and money that we don’t have right now. So we are primarily stationary at a campground (still cheaper than paying rent) so getting electricity is not the problem we were anticipating during the main part of our skoolie build. Plus, we’ve realized that we can’t boondock for any substantial length of time until we get water tanks and we really can’t afford that right now.
An electric cook top would be just fine. We found a nice one for $30, the Faberware Solid Double Burner. I pulled the stove out, and covered the hole in the counter top with a very nice piece of polished porcelain tile which is thick and strong enough to support the weight of the cook top and 2 pots/pans.
Love it! We made picadillo (one of my favorite dishes) the first night and it is so nice to have all of the cooking options that a working stove gives us. We really should have done this sooner.
We are keeping the stove and will eventually get the propane set up but for now, it’s on the back burner (haaaa, get it?).
