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I was looking for a method of creating an overhead storage rack for the rear cargo area. Partly to store items and partly as a first step in a fridge cage. The other requirement for this rack is to hold my Travel Buddy 12V oven.
I tossed lots of ideas around then happened upon a steel panel in the dumpster out the back of work. It is 20mm square tubing with square mesh welded to it.
Firstly I measured the area that I wanted to use and worked out that if the panel was 1300 x 600 it would fit nicely between the side windows and the cargo barrier at the front and just clear the door at the rear. So I made it that size. Silly me. It wouldn't fit through the door opening. I dropped the cargo barrier and put it in through the rear doors and slid it backwards. it fit, but mounting it would be murder.
As luck would have it, it had a second tube welded in about 300mm from one end, I docked it back to there and it was a much better fit.
I spaced the rack up from the fridge to get an idea of how much room I had for the oven, then proceeded to measure and fabricate mounting brackets.
Some 40mm x 3mm bar was cut, bent, twisted, welded and brackets were done. The right hand rear bracket had to be re-drilled a little lower to raise the shelf as it was sitting about 15mm too low.
Spacers were removed and the clearance over the fridge was good.
The oven was placed in position and shuffled around until I was happy with the clearance above. I did not want my roof lining to catch fire. We removed the rubber feet from the bottom of the oven and inserted M6 rivnuts. A few strips of aluminium, some M6x20 bolts and washers, and it is going nowhere. One trick I read on Failbook was to paint the back of the oven matt black to minimize cross reflection into my rearview mirror from oncoming cars. Works a treat.
I am very happy with the result. One thing I did not realize until my mate pointed it out, that the right hand seatbelt mounting bolt hole that I was using was 15mm lower that the left one, accounting for the discrepancy I fixed before!
Now I just need to fab the vertical divider
Thanks for reading.
Chris
I tossed lots of ideas around then happened upon a steel panel in the dumpster out the back of work. It is 20mm square tubing with square mesh welded to it.
Firstly I measured the area that I wanted to use and worked out that if the panel was 1300 x 600 it would fit nicely between the side windows and the cargo barrier at the front and just clear the door at the rear. So I made it that size. Silly me. It wouldn't fit through the door opening. I dropped the cargo barrier and put it in through the rear doors and slid it backwards. it fit, but mounting it would be murder.
As luck would have it, it had a second tube welded in about 300mm from one end, I docked it back to there and it was a much better fit.
I spaced the rack up from the fridge to get an idea of how much room I had for the oven, then proceeded to measure and fabricate mounting brackets.
Some 40mm x 3mm bar was cut, bent, twisted, welded and brackets were done. The right hand rear bracket had to be re-drilled a little lower to raise the shelf as it was sitting about 15mm too low.
Spacers were removed and the clearance over the fridge was good.
The oven was placed in position and shuffled around until I was happy with the clearance above. I did not want my roof lining to catch fire. We removed the rubber feet from the bottom of the oven and inserted M6 rivnuts. A few strips of aluminium, some M6x20 bolts and washers, and it is going nowhere. One trick I read on Failbook was to paint the back of the oven matt black to minimize cross reflection into my rearview mirror from oncoming cars. Works a treat.
I am very happy with the result. One thing I did not realize until my mate pointed it out, that the right hand seatbelt mounting bolt hole that I was using was 15mm lower that the left one, accounting for the discrepancy I fixed before!
Now I just need to fab the vertical divider
Thanks for reading.
Chris
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