SeattleMike's cargo project

[SeattleMike]

I kept scratching my brain for a way to keep the sliding tray and still build out the cargo area so I can use it for storage, camping gear, and still give my Lab a nice spot to travel. After reading over this site and others, I found inspiration in a number of places. First was CSL's 4Runner Kitchen, followed by Corey's Chuckbox on Expedition Portal (made by our own Titanpat57), and a few bits and pieces of my own.

You might consider this a mod thread, but it's going to be an incremental one. Titanpat57 and I have chatted a bit about modular construction but being on opposite ends of the country makes collaboration slow. Still, every journey begins with a first step and mine was building a wood mock-up of the steel frame I am going to have made.

In order to allow free travel of the sliding tray, I had to create risers using steel 1/2" tube and all-thread. The mounting points for the stock tie-down loops will anchor it, figuring that if they are good enough to use as tie downs, they are good enough to hold the frame in place.

That's it for now. I have to have custom spacers made (I'm thinking a steel rod with threaded ends) and the frame fabricated. I'm going to use steel to prevent any floor flex when the box is built out. Once that's done, I'll trim out some plywood templates to fit the contours of the plastic and put Titanpat on retainer (j/k).

I'll add more to this thread as I get further along.

 

[TOYSTRY]

Image Links don't work

 

[SeattleMike]

Image Links don't work

Fixed.

For some reason this site doesn't like my comcast account :moon:

 

[philsey]

only 2 of the 5 images work for me.

cool build btw, interested to watch it develop. very clever.

 

[TOYSTRY]

Looks good so far....

 

[SeattleMike]

I only see two images, not five. I'll look at it again in IE.

Here is the basic idea. The gray boxes are drawers or slots, with each large section being a module so that they can be removed individually instead of one heavy piece. It's rough... very rough.

 

[KevinG]

Nice work!!!! Lookin forward to the progress

 

[westwind77]

Great idea for the Hi-Lift placement!!! How does it 'ride' there, any rattles or is it pretty tight? What did you use to pull it tight around the 'baby clips' on the rear seats? It looks like it just clears the sides, right?

Thanks!

 

[SeattleMike]

Great idea for the Hi-Lift placement!!! How does it 'ride' there, any rattles or is it pretty tight? What did you use to pull it tight around the 'baby clips' on the rear seats? It looks like it just clears the sides, right?

Thanks!

The base wedges in between the front of the wheel and the back of the seat as you see it now, secured with 75lb zipties. It was PITA using those little ones, so I got some 125lb 18" zipties and I'll redo it this weekend. Those baby seat latches are supposed to secure a child in a booster seat in an accident, I figured they could hold the weight of the hilift. I was worried about the marks the base would leave on the wheel well cover and then I realized that I would never see it with the seats up anyway. It keeps it from rattling and the pressure on it is really minor.

 

[Titanpat57]

Sorry bro...been so damn busy as work...can't even breath, but I didn't forget ya'.

Good news is students start back the 24th, and my secretary comes back who's been out since the second week of December...been a real *****.

We'll get the Sketch Up done and go from there...thanks for being patient



Edit:....slipped a Hi-jack in there ya' sneaky bugger....lol

 

[SeattleMike]

No worries Pat, winter has kicked both our butts.

 

[azn-sensation]

Given your inspiration, Im sure this is going to turn out bad @ss!

 

[Casper421]

Given your inspiration, Im sure this is going to turn out bad @ss!

X2 :iagree: Looks like your off to a good start! Cant wait to see the final product! :bluejump:

 

[SeattleMike]

Given your inspiration, Im sure this is going to turn out bad @ss!

I hope so. I've been thinking it out for a few weeks but the new puppy and the weather has distracted me. Since the 5th is wider than the 3rd that CSL used, our dog will have a tad more wiggle room in his "spot" plus one of those trays underneath will house his sliding ramp so I won't have to lift him up there for the next few months as he grows.

I was also thinking about sliding some stacked MaxTrax under that side, and one or two of the water cans from Expedition One.

 

[BFLAN]

Great idea!

Subscribed, can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[SeattleMike]

Dropped the mock-up off at a local shop, TORFAB, to be remade in steel and to have the bolts/spacers fabbed, too. Hopefully, it'll be done in a week and I can move on to phase two.

 

[sandcrawler]

cool build, Mike. wondering if you're thinking to upgrade your rear coils (or front too). whenever i've had mine loaded up i've been flummoxed by how much a$$-sag goes on back there.

looking forward to the seeing your progress.

 

[SeattleMike]

Who rendered this? It looks like the drawers/slots aren't aligned/sized consistently =P.

Do you ever sleep in the back during camping trips? I sometimes go car camping along the Oregon Coast where we pull down the 2nd row seats and sleep in the back. I was thinking about a storage system like you're doing, but haven't thought of a slick way to create a level surface for sleeping without making the storage system modular/easily removable.

It was my first attempt at Sketchup. You are looking at 35 minutes worth of effort

We used the back, with the seats laid flat, once on the 4th of July and it was cramped for the two of us. We're just tall enough to not be able to stretch out. The plan was always for a RTT anyway so no loss.

cool build, Mike. wondering if you're thinking to upgrade your rear coils (or front too). whenever i've had mine loaded up i've been flummoxed by how much a$$-sag goes on back there.

looking forward to the seeing your progress.

Until I get it fully loaded and weighed out, I'm going to hold off on a suspension change. I am leaning towards the 2.5" kit from OW, but I'll feel better when I have a fully loaded weight to use for calculation. 300 Lbs may not be enough

 

[SeattleMike]

Update

I got the steel prototype back from the fabricators today. It's rough and unpainted, but it provides an excellent platform to tweak the design and perfect the attachment points.

From this:

To this:

I pulled the stash box out to get a better idea of what I was attaching it to and how stable it would be:

This is a close-up of the foot just inside the tailgate on the driver's side:

It sits up off the tray by almost half an inch:

One more wide shot:

And here is what is under that secret stash box:

The black pieces to the left and right have long bolts sticking out of them in that last pic. That is where the tie downs bolt into the "floor" behind the seats but obviously there isn't much of a floor so much as a raised attachment point. Those pieces are not designed to take much weight; I can wiggle them with two fingers. I am pondering just removing that hidden compartment piece altogether and adding some legs to attach where the black pieces bolt into the actual floor. Once the floor is in, no one will see that area anyway and it will be inaccessible so the utility of the stash box is lost.

 

[trentfysty]

Mike, looking really nice. With the storage you are adding giving up the stash box is not going to be a big loss. Are you going to fab the storage compartments out of wood? What do you expect the final weight to be? Also, since you mentioned a rooftop tent, what type are you thinking of?