Building a rear cargo storage area for an L series

[El_Freddo]

G'day all,

Just wanted to document what I did for my cargo storage area with my camp set up. It's still not complete so this isn't a start to finish post.

It started with receiving an Engel for our wedding present from a group of good mates. After the Robe/Wyperfeld trip last October I knew I needed to make something that was much more organised and structured. Bascially I needed a system rather than a bunch of random stuff tied in as best as it could be.

This is what I started with - one side of an old rotisserie (broken) for a torana, I've already pilfered some steel from it. I also had an old table frame and some other small random bits of scrap steel:



I have been drawing up some designs but the way I was imagining it and the way it was drawing with things to scale were two different things. So with a basic design in mind I made it up as I went. This took me twice as long for two reasons - one I had to decide what was going to work best and I had to cut the steel off the frame it used to be then cut it to size before it could be welded in.

At the end of day one of the build I had this:



With the engel and second battery:



I'll get some images of it before I unpack later today - I've been a bit lazy!

Cheers

Bennie

[thunder039]

looking good. plan on making draws?

[purp]

looking good. plan on making draws?

Further to what Thunder said, is the fridge on rollers to slide out? I've used a couple of other peoples and that is an incredibly useful feature (although those runners are not that cheap).

Looks good. I've got a cargo barrier, we always just packed camping gear in until it reached the roof...

[El_Freddo]

looking good. plan on making draws?

We'll see how it goes. I still want to use the floor space in the boot, draws won't allow this so we'll see what happens.

Further to what Thunder said, is the fridge on rollers to slide out? I've used a couple of other peoples and that is an incredibly useful feature (although those runners are not that cheap).

Not yet. I'm thinking of raising it to make use of the space below and have the fridge on a set of rollers/slide - there are some good units on fleabay that'll do the job but once again, I've just got to find some time to muck around with it before making a purchase.

Looks good. I've got a cargo barrier, we always just packed camping gear in until it reached the roof...

Thanks mate. A cargo barrier has been on my want list for sometime and I'm now kicking myself that I missed out on a fleabay one that was in tullamarine - at a great price too but it would have stretched me financially too far. Still on the hunt though.

Before unpacking I've taken a few photos to help show how it works - still a work in progress as I've said, and while it looks like a mess there is a system at play here. I know where everything is and the best bit is that it all goes back in the same spot - something that didn't always happen on the previous trip.

Here's behind the rear seats:



^ second battery - I think it's officially dead, it was a second hand battery from the beginning that my brother didn't want. I need a cover for it and the battery box I got doesn't fit - the base is great but the lid is what did me in. I didn't check it before buying it. The electronics board needs a going over and a better location. It worked well for the trip though.



^ Tools etc are located on the left. There are some spare parts in here too. I've got a front and rear drive shaft behind the LH wheel too. This area too needs a tidy up and some better organisation. For this trip it worked ok though.

While this looks like a complete mess... well it is, but I know where everything is. Under the fridge in the floor there's a pot load of gas canisters for the portable stove, a 5 litre bottle of water. The milk create you can see is our kitchen utensils and eating stuff, behind that is a second one with the cable for the winch. Beside that and the Engel are the two stoves we took with us. Beside the first milk create is our double thermos for instant cups of tea.



One unplanned thing that turned out well is that our table fits perfectly on the top of the frame - so no need for a cover on there.

So far I'm very happy with it. My thoughts are that it can only get better with some careful thought about what we want out of it.

I should also talk about how it's held in. With the front you can see a chain that comes up from behind the seats and is attached to a turn buckle. The chain is welded to a plate that's bolted to the floor using the seat mount bolts. This is the last part that's done up.
At the rear there's two bolts, one on each side that uses a nut that's in the rear chassis rail. I've made a captive nut for each side. The fridge will be held in with turn buckles as well - eventually.

Still stoked - everything is securely stored with minimal effort and nothing moves

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

The latest edition:



Manually switched and also switched with the rear door. This means it's powered by the primary battery but I'm not fussed as it's only some LEDs and they shouldn't drain the battery too much if at all!

I've also added some walls to the frame and got some buckets for the gear we carry. The new stove slides into it's mount up the top - this design reduces the need for frame work that will use more space. It's hard to see though in this image, I'll get some pics later as well as the walls etc and how neat my tool/spare parts section is these days

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

And here's the last bit of the new mods that I wanted to share.

The tool section, much neater and easier to "navigate" than the previous trip:



The second battery - a new Delco unit that goes very well so far - 85 amp hours, it didn't get below 12.4 volts for the whole trip



I still need to get a battery box sorted, I'm not happy with using the cargo tie long term and I want to tidy up the wiring - I love tidy wiring unless I can't avoid it...

Here's the two areas with both the rear seats folded down:



I'm pretty happy with the way it's all coming along. It's still got a bit to go but it's certainly headed in the right direction!

The next thing to look into will most likely be the slide for the fridge, this will allow me to fully utilise the area above the fridge. We'll see how that goes later...

If there's any questions or further photos that any member want to see please drop a line as I want to start removing the gear so I'm not carrying it everywhere!

Cheers

Bennie

[Dann]

hahaha looking good bennie, loving the volt meter just wedged in there my mates got a black widow set up.. very useful and handy

[El_Freddo]

hahaha looking good bennie, loving the volt meter just wedged in there my mates got a black widow set up.. very useful and handy

I thought someone might notice this. My bet would have been Steptoe though!

Yeah I shoved that in so that I could easily monitor the battery's charge - I could reference it in my rear view mirror while on the go too I plan to have some sort of system so I can reference it from the rear while camping and up front while I'm driving.

It's in the pipeline.

Cheers

Bennie