Cargo Bed - Toolbox or Not ??

 So in preparation for our first outing with the Lance we have been running through our checklists and made a couple of discoveries. 

1. We can't decide whether to use the bed in the front bedroom or the bed in the garage. Both of them are queen beds. For the first run we will try the garage bed.

2. The final decision will be if we want to move the queen mattress on top of the sofa, and use the bed box as storage. Or do we want to leave the mattress in the bed box and remove the pins so we can lower the bed to the bottom. Neither of us wants to even contemplate trying to use the ladder to get in/out of the bed in the middle of the night !

3. We need to get a couple of jackstands for the ramp in order to make it into a deck. Buying and installing the cable set doesn't seem to be the answer as there is nothing stopping the ramp/deck from bouncing when standing or walking on it without something underneath to support it ... especially for this 250 pound body ! LOL !

4. Do we remove the second sofa and move the swivel chairs around so there is one on each side of the large table ? It seems to be the most logical thing since it will just be us two ... and even if we have guests we have a couple of the Costco folding chairs with side tables that can be used. 

5. We fired up the generator this weekend. Didn't really like the exhaust fumes hovering around the trailer at all. Looked up the Camco Gen-Turi exhaust system that extends the exhaust pipe up to the top of the trailer. It was on sale at Camping World with 34% off the original price. Bought it, read the instructions and configured the pipe fittings. Tested the fit and installed the hooks to keep it slightly lifted and close to the trailer. It's supposed to sit for 24 hours before actually setting up all three pipe pieces. Will do the final test this week.

6. Need to crawl under the trailer and get the DOT numbers off the tires so I can check the mfg dates. So far, on the front side, I can only see 'DOT AQHH....' the last four digits indicating month/year of manufacture are missing. I assume the full DOT number is on the backside of the tires.

7. The cargo bed on the truck is 96" (8 ft) long. I have a bed extender installed on it ... (LOL as if you need to extend and 8 ft bed another 2 ft). I tend to always travel with more tools than I need because ... well ... you never know what you will need to fix something on the road. I have two fairly large tool bags and will bring a couple of my Ryobi 18V tools (drill, vacuum, light), batteries and charger. Technically, there is very little storage in the trailers except the plastic bins we purchased. So I think I need to get one of those crossover/crossbed toolboxes for the truck. Starting price for a full size box is around $360 +tax at Lowes and Home Depot. Tractor supply has one at $279. I am struggling with the prices and think I might have to go with a used on from Marketplace or Craigslist. I am also pretty particular about getting one that opens from the sides (single or gull wing doors are fine) because it would make it somewhat unnecessary to climb into the truck each time I needed to unlock/open/close/lock the toolbox. A side opening toolbox would allow me to open the box, jump on a short stepladder and take out or replace whatever I needed from outside the cargo bed. 

8. The Pioneer stereo installed in the Lance wasn't reassembled very nicely. The bezel is missing and there are some wood chips missing around the opening. Fortunately, when we were checking out car stereos at the local audio store, the tech had a box full of new but unused bezels that were leftover from various installs so he gifted us one. I'll post another pic once I have filled in the chips and installed the bezel.