test

[WrenchMonkey]

Something a little different than the norm. Not much, just a little.

My old setup sucked. I had the spare tire right behind the front seats, and all my tools and parts in boxes behind it. But since everything was trapped under my surco rack, I couldn't get into anything without pulling everything out on the trail, then carefully repacking it all.

So I decided to rearrange. A little sketching in WindowsPaint (yes, I know it's like PhotoShop for retards) and I came up with this:

The cabinet is about 12"Dx18H"x45"W. It's mostly 1/2" plywood. I used 1/8x1" angle and 1/4x1-1/2" flatstock to fab simple brackets to mount the whole thing to the old seatback mounts.

I cannibalized the top of my Craftsman chest, removed the lid, and mounted the box behind the driver's seat:

All four drawers open fully, without having to slide the seat forward:

I rescued a parts bin from the dumpster at work, and built a larger drawer to carry it.

I didn't get a pic, but I used extra-long slides to let the drawer pull ~6" beyond the cabinet. There's a 4" deep in the top of the craftsman chest, and having the drawer pull out that far lets me still get to that space, behind and below it.

 

[WrenchMonkey]

On the passenger side, I had a 12x17x18 space to work with.

To use as much of the space as possible, and still allow easy access, I accepted that I'd have to slide the seat forward to get into it

That 12" depth was enough to put 7" shelf in the back, and 5" shelves on the door.

This gives me room for:
- (4) one-gallon jugs in the back.
- A spare unibearing, axle stub, duct tape and papertowels on the shelf
- Bottle jack, quart of brake fluid, pint of steering fluid, ketchup bottle, yield and antisieze on the door.
- An assortment of small, boxed parts on the door shelf.

 

[WrenchMonkey]

Originally, I planned for the whole thing to swing up on the seat bolts. There's lots of space underneath it, and I wanted to stash my axleshafts in there to keep the weight low. But the cabinet ended up way to heavy to want to lift it.

Fortunately, there was still plenty of space in the back for my 35" spare and a 9x9x30" crate (another dumpster salvage ) The box is plenty big enough for both D30 axleshafts with bearings, a driveshaft, a 2" 2x8, and a bigass prybar.

I still need to mount my surco rack to the top of it all, but since I only use it to carry my summer doors, it's not a priority right now.

All in all, I'm really happy with it. It puts anything I want to carry at my fingertips, and it's really rattle-free, which is something I worried about.

In fact, my only problem has been the temptation to overload it. It holds so much, so neatly, that I filled it with nearly every part and tool I own. The extra 200# (!!!) has the ass of the jeep saggin.

But that's a problem/project for another thread...

Robert

 

[RTicUL8]

Tread pattern is wrong on your winders painting.

.

 

[scottmcneal]

Thats one hell of a test you did sir.....LOL

 

[WrenchMonkey]

Tread pattern is wrong on your winders painting.

.

Now THAT's observant!

I've only had the KM2 spare about six weeks, the first drafts are (much!) older than that...

Nice catch... though I'm not sure whether to be impressed, worried, or sympathetic...

Robert

 

[GrimmJeeper]

looking good, ive been looking to do something like this for a long time, but my shock hoop takes up too much space back there now :doh:

 

[WrenchMonkey]

Thanks.

I don't remember what your hoop looks like (though I'm sure I've seen it around here somewhere) but I bet there's room. It's only 12" deep, starting from the front edge of the back seat bottom.

We're babbling about it in mod tech, if you'd like to join us...

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=977669



Robert