Hi guys,

Love my 3rd gen, but looking for more storage ideas. I have slept in my car many times, I do not want to build a shelf in the back as this will make it impossible to sleep in it. I am thinking about building shelving on top of the wheel wells possibly, anyone done something like that?

Here's mine. Slept in here with my wife and dog for 5 weeks, and had plenty of room. Tons of storage too. Been using it for close to 3 years now, and love it. You'll be hard pressed to find a better full length platform that comfortably sleeps someone up to 6'. I have an extension I can use to slips in the square to make it longer if needed.

I have a full size memory foam mattress setup that I cut to allow for wheel wells. I have a 1 inch thick closed cell foam pad (used for climbing/bouldering) that is wrapped in canvas that rests on top to keep my dogs and day to day life from wrecking the bed. I built a shelf that sits in the grooves where the pull out trunk cover sits ( both big square mounts behind seat and groove near rear hatch). It allows me to pack climbing gear on shelf, camping gear under it. When we sleep the climbing gear moves to floors of front seat, coolers action packers with camping gear etc on driver and passenger seat. Myself and a heeler mix sleep on bed. Aussie Shepard sleeps on the shelf. D rings bolted into the roof of the vehicle over the shelf allows me to store jacket, beanie, headlamp, and miscellaneous items you want. In the morning I can sit up kick the aussie off the shelf onto the bed with me and other mongrel, then pull down from the net my ultralight stove, tea pot, skillet and make coffee and breakfast by reaching the cooler and other gear now in the front seats...

I've even on long trips downloaded movies onto my tablet and using the folding case on the tablet suspended it from the net set up and watched movies while falling asleep.

I do need to keep my rear seats operational as well

Hey bud here's mine. Pretty sure most everyone's seen it, but since I am FOREVER DONE WITH FACEBOOK (that horrid, horrid company), I'm back to posting here, however infrequently


YOUTUBE LINK TO MY BUILD:
YouTube

This is what I have been using for about a year. Did not want to go the full storage/sleeping platform route so this has worked great.



Picked this up from a local guy I was grabbing a set of rims off of. Pretty simple design but works great for me and my needs. I have all my recovery gear, tools, extra fluids and still have a bit of extra room.

Here's one of my first setups with the rear seats still in place.

I have a low profile storage box with platform extension in the front held on with 2 small door hinges. Has a fold down table and no drawers.

I also have side boxes which I made before the big platform box.




MOLLE panels (or my homemade ghetto version) are great space savers too!

What did you use for your MOLLE panels?

Am I missing why a Thule/Yakima box on the roof rails isn't a really solid, bolt on, 10 minute, sub $500 option?

Doesn't look good on Instagram

Thule/Yakima/similar boxes have a reputation of cracking and disintegrating if the vehicle is driven substantial miles on dirt roads. Vibration and flex is not their strong point, so the story goes.
A roof rack + hard storage boxes (Pelican, etc) is an option, but not a sub-$500 option.