Packing System Build
Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 11:33 am
I've got a drawer system and a fridge slide in the boot. When I first started on the overlanding type thing, a very large number of trips I did solo and that worked perfectly. However, since Liana, the LF, accompanies me these days. And since wimmin like packing everything including the kitchen sink on trips, space has been getting more of a problem.
The draw system I have has a "built in" fridge slide. The top shelf on the right hand side can slide in and out. I always found this a little impractical though. Although I'm tall, even I'd battle to rummage around inside the fridge if I used that. So I put on an Alucab tilt fridge slide. It means I can get to my beer easily.
Sure - there is enough space for the two of us, but what has been sort of annoying me recently is that using the fridge is sometimes a pita when I'm packed. If there is stuff on top of the fridge, I need to unpack it. And then if I slide the fridge out, it is always a mission getting it back in as stuff falls down behind the back of the fridge when I pull it out. This means that despite the tilt slide, I cannot get to my beer easily.
A couple of months ago, I welded together a frame for a packing thingy that fits over the fridge and thus solves the problem. I never got around to finishing it, as this was when I broke my foot and tore ligaments - I was welding, my one leg went dead and my "dead" foot caught on the door step when I walked in. Stupid, but these things happen.
Last weekend I finished the frame, gave it a dash of Hammerite and got it mounted and started cutting the shutter ply for the sides. On Wednesday, I finished cutting the shutter ply. Although I'd normally carpet these things, I don't have enough time to finish it properly at the moment. So I just gave the shutter ply a spray of matt black.
Apart from providing unmolested access to the fridge when we are completely packed, it has also provided me with a nice spot to mount my DC-DC and my MPPT charger. The DC-DC charger is new - I think I have eventually seen the light... The MPPT I always had stashed in a drawer and would just haul it out as needed...
I've got to finish wiring up the electrics, after which I can put my aux battery in again and finish it up for now. Well, until I pull it all apart again to carpet the panels...
I know Manny is going to make disparaging remarks about the welding as he has already done on FB. But it is actually properly (if a little scruffily) welded and it will do the trick.
The draw system I have has a "built in" fridge slide. The top shelf on the right hand side can slide in and out. I always found this a little impractical though. Although I'm tall, even I'd battle to rummage around inside the fridge if I used that. So I put on an Alucab tilt fridge slide. It means I can get to my beer easily.
Sure - there is enough space for the two of us, but what has been sort of annoying me recently is that using the fridge is sometimes a pita when I'm packed. If there is stuff on top of the fridge, I need to unpack it. And then if I slide the fridge out, it is always a mission getting it back in as stuff falls down behind the back of the fridge when I pull it out. This means that despite the tilt slide, I cannot get to my beer easily.
A couple of months ago, I welded together a frame for a packing thingy that fits over the fridge and thus solves the problem. I never got around to finishing it, as this was when I broke my foot and tore ligaments - I was welding, my one leg went dead and my "dead" foot caught on the door step when I walked in. Stupid, but these things happen.
Last weekend I finished the frame, gave it a dash of Hammerite and got it mounted and started cutting the shutter ply for the sides. On Wednesday, I finished cutting the shutter ply. Although I'd normally carpet these things, I don't have enough time to finish it properly at the moment. So I just gave the shutter ply a spray of matt black.
Apart from providing unmolested access to the fridge when we are completely packed, it has also provided me with a nice spot to mount my DC-DC and my MPPT charger. The DC-DC charger is new - I think I have eventually seen the light... The MPPT I always had stashed in a drawer and would just haul it out as needed...
I've got to finish wiring up the electrics, after which I can put my aux battery in again and finish it up for now. Well, until I pull it all apart again to carpet the panels...
I know Manny is going to make disparaging remarks about the welding as he has already done on FB. But it is actually properly (if a little scruffily) welded and it will do the trick.
