Ok, here it is. Bear in mind this is not yet a finished product, I'm still constructing it.
So, the spiel. Elevator pitch if you will
I wanted to design a system that would maximise the available space in the car, and give me flexibility. I set aside my main requirements for the build, as follows:
1. Permanent storage for my mechanical tools/fluids/rags/fan belts/rad hoses etc, that wouldn't interrupt my access to the space in the car (at the time, everything I had for the car was stacked in a cardboard box which I had to keep shuffling around if I wanted to put something in the back)
2. A flat floor, long enough for me (6ft 1/2") to sleep on comfortably, for camping trips, to negate the need for tents or trailers.
3. Maximum storage, lockable and out of sight, for my work equipment - some form of drawer/s for easy access to things that may be packed a long way in (LWB Sierra, so fair bit of length to reach from the tailgate)
4. Drawer/s dimensions suitable for the type of equipment I'm carrying, and strong enough, even when extended, to support the weight, without being too heavy in itself.
5. Be suitable for primarily transporting my gear, and secondly for camping ie. food and gear in drawer, then bed on top. Independent of each other.
So with that said and done, the next thing was to work out how I was to make that all come together. Hint: many hours of thinking
I decided to go with a single drawer, because the losses that come from having drawer wall, sliders/bearings, and divider, and more sliders/bearings and the other drawer wall, in between the two drawers, are too big to offset any gains that come from having two drawers. So keep that in mind.
So the design was to be a single drawer in the centre of the car, the absolute maximum width possible between wheelarches, and as high as possible to fit my gear in. Also, I had to be careful not to make the floor too high as not to make sleeping and otherwise accessing the area on the top of the floor too difficult. The storage for the tools/car stuff was to go in the pockets between drawer+frame and the side walls of the car. One side I have two fuel fillers, so that would be used for smaller and more malleable objects, while the other side was to be for large items, like toolboxes, oil bottles etc. The front half of the floor would be double thickness, and that board would fold over completely 180° to form a sort of headboard, which lines up with the position of the seats in their folded forward position. The back half of the floor would be liftable for access to the drawer below, in the event that the drawer can't be fully opened for whatever reason (for example, the tailgate table is up and in use). I just tried to think of everything.
Anyway, you get the idea. Enough talk, more pics
Here's a photoshop mockup I did to give me an idea of what it would look like:
So, moving on, here's where it's at, as of today:
View from the back:
Roughly what the drawer will look like when closed:
View from inside with drawer shut (bear in mind that the drawer has no floor or sides... What you're seeing is the cladding on the surrounding frame):
Glorious space! Storage storage storage!
Here's how I mounted it to the car. These tabs are angle iron, size dependent on where they were, and are welded to the frame, with bolts welded onto them as studs. This way I only need to put nylocks on from the bottom to secure the frame. There are four of these - two picked up the old seatbelt holes, and the two at the front I had to drill new holes. But my floor is full of holes anyway, so I'm not uber concerned at this point.
Here's that foldover headboard I was rambling about. Not mounted, but here's roughly what it'll look like when in the unfolded position:
It just touches the seats when they're fully folded forward and when closed the seats only just touch the box/frame/false floor when pushed all the way back. The driver's seat is one click forward from max from memory because it sits more reclined than the passenger for whatever reason.
When it's extended and I'm laying on it (6ft 1/2") here's where my feet come to:
So plenty of room.
Anyway, that's about all there is at the present, but I hope it's of some benefit to you, and indeed to anyone else looking to pursue a false floor/storage system.
All I can say is really heavily plan out what you want, exactly what you need it to achieve, and find the best possible way to make it do that. Measure 500 times cut once
And, seeing as I've written it all out, lemme just copy and paste this into my build thread real quick
http://www.auszookers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=54494In all seriousness though, I hope it helps!
