Finished up camp/kitchen slider system
I had a bit of a unique challenge to set up my slider system in the back... I have installed an aftermarket 3rd row seat, (Little Passenger... faces backwards and has done a great job of holding the kids) and I thought that I would just unbolt it when I need the space for camping and then bolt it back in but that turns out to be a big pain in the ass so I wanted to see if I could build a slider/camp system around the seat, leaving it in place for when I need to use it to carry multiple folks around (it really comes in handy when you have little kids and they fit back there very nicely.... for now. But the requirements for the system were 1)very cheap since after the kids get a bit older they won't really fit in these seats to well so I will probably pull them out and rebuild something 2)sturdy for pretty decent off roading, 3) functional for what I need 4) light enough and easy enough to just take it out so I can use the third row seat when I want to.
I just kinda half ass started grabbing scraps of MDF that I had laying around 3/4inch for the base and 1/2 for everything else, used a bunch of different size mis-matching screws, just what ever was in the junk box, found a 500lb locking slider on eBay for 32 dollars. Overall cost was really very cheap... (well except for the new National Luna fridgehttp://im.toyota-4runner.org/images/smilies/biggrin1.gif)
The base rests on top of the bottom of the seat and the front has two legs for support and I used turnbuckles to tighten it down and the back of the platform has tie down loops with a strap that is tightened down to hold it in place. It's rock solid and doesn't bounce around at all. The drawer slides out and holds all my camp kitchen supplies, on top of the drawer is the camp stove that also has some wooden sliders from Rockler that allow me to slide the stove out just a little (1 for room to hook up the propane bottle on the left and 2 to get the stove out a bit from right up next to the bumper.) I also found a collapsable plastic container that perfectly fits the top and holds all my dry goods food and the bottom of the container even has a reflective triangle if you get into trouble and just enough room behind it for the propane bottles. I saved just enough room for the National Luna dual fridge/freezer w/ a platform that locks the fridge down and ran a full time power plug back from my new dual battery set up.
So far it has worked out great, no movement at all plus I have some room in the front under the platform for all of my off road recovery/straps and other camping gear, will probably make some kind of drawer or cover for that area too.
Just a few pictures here but all of the other pictures on Flicker here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/58236519@N00/
Bumpers from Shrockworks are in the mail.....Giddy up!