I’ve had this sink / stove combo sitting in the garage mocking me for nearly three years. It was removed from an RV outdoor kitchen set and given to me. The owner apparently wanted to watch a big screen TV on the side of his 5th wheel rather than cook and wash dishes. We already had the BBQ. Therefore, I needed to build the kitchen cabinet around the appliances and it needed to slide out, and it needed to fit under the tent rails.
I drew up some ideas. The final product came out a little bit different. Namely, the kitchen in my head had the BBQ sitting too close to the side of the tent. Not wanting to burn the whole place down, I flipped the kitchen around. It will also be positioned so that you face the stove from the outside of the trailer as opposed to the inside which makes sense. The tailgate won’t be in the way. I brainstormed all sorts of ways to make this kit slide in and out of the trailer without costing a lot of money or taking up a lot of space. I decided to go with heavy duty ball bearing sliding rails that I purchased from Orr & Orr . They slide like butter, have a 500 lb. weight capacity and lock in position, both extended and retracted. I shopped around the web a ton and in the end I believe these are a good deal and are well made. I based the width of the cabinet on the need to fit a large ice chest beside it. The left rail is bolted directly to the side of the trailer tub. I bolted a 2×4 to the floor pan in the center of the trailer and fastened the right rail to that.
The rails are full extension and 60″ in length. That means the entire 60″ of cabinet will ride inside the trailer while traveling and sit outside the trailer while camping. This was a perfect fit directly behind the water tank. Mounting the rails is pretty self explanatory but they don’t come with hardware. Using 1/2 plywood, I started the construction by cutting out the holes for the cabinet doors and drawer and fastening the cabinet walls to the sliders.
The finish will be a little rough using plywood but I decided I was not going to do any fancy joinery and I wasn’t shy about screw heads showing. I would attempt to make it durable and look relatively good. Function over form. The rest of the cabinet was simply a matter of cutting pieces to fit. Floor, walls, top. The floor in the forward part of the cabinet is flush with the bottom of the walls. The rear half of the floor is recessed about 2″ to accommodate an extendable leg and paper towel holder mounted to the underside. The sliders are rated for the weight of the kitchen and then some, but 5 feet of plywood and stove and BBQ and pots and pans and utensils and plates and cups and food and 5 lbs of coffee and and and…..just hanging there, I decided to mount a leg to help support it all. It’s a cheapo extension table leg that I bought on Amazon. It tucks up nicely and adjusts.
This pic shows the rear of the kitchen and the support leg. The stove / sink is bolted down but the BBQ sits freely so it can be moved over to gain counter space. I think I will just bungee it in place while travelling. The sink faucet, while adjustable, will not fit under the tent when sliding out so it will just need to be screwed back on to use it. 
Due to the tight tolerances between the cabinet and trailer wall, I had to make the doors flush with the side of the cabinet. Knobs wouldn’t fit either and I was going to just cut finger holes in the doors. Then I remembered I had the collapsible drawer handles from my grandfather’s childhood chest of drawers. It belonged to my father too but by the time I moved out of the house with it, it was barely standing. I took it apart for the wood and saved the drawer pulls. Voila!
The drawer was constructed entirely of scrap wood I had laying around. It slides in and out easily enough. I figured if I built it on drawer slides it would be wanting to slide out on it’s own all the time. Friction holds it in place because it rests on the floor of the cabinet. I installed a drain for the sink with a screw cap accessible from the underside. I will drain the sink into a bucket. What I then do with the contents of the bucket will be based on local environmental laws.
In my next entry, I will show the progress I’ve made on wiring and plumbing. The trailer is close to completion and I can’t wait to go camping.
I’ve never had a tent with hardwired lights before! Grizz and Lynx, my shop kitties are impressed for sure.
1946 American Bantam Trailer Build 