My dual batt/water/drawer setup

**beanie_205** · 13th March 2010, 10:12 PM

Work in progress, a setup for mounting my dual battery and water tanks and some storage drawers for the d2.

I started with the basic layout of what I wanted, and made up a base out of ply. I used pine cut in lengths glued and bolted to act as the anchor for the water and battery, as well as anchor for the whole shebang. Then I drilled up the lids of the tanks (cheapies from Ray's outdoors) and have attached breather tubes and internal hose for the water system(the 2 tanks will feed to a 3 way connection and then pump, the 3rd connection is for filling).

Next step was to make the frame for the drawers, i used pine again and threaded rods for strength as well as helping me get it all square. The blocks at the base will hold the slides which'll hold the drawers- tomorrow's job, then it's a few coats of marine varnish to waterproof it all. Will post up progress soon...

**Hendrik** · 14th March 2010, 01:36 AM

Looking good so far, watching with interest. Will be doing a similar thing in the very near future.

**p38arover** · 14th March 2010, 07:28 AM

Excellent.

More pics and words and we can turn this into an item for Projects and Tutorials.

It's always useful to see how others approach the task of equipping their vehicles. We can get ideas for our own installs.

**beanie_205** · 23rd March 2010, 08:23 PM

Ok so I've made a bit of progress, got the drawers built and worked out how to bolt the rear of the setup in. I used 45kg rated slides, I figured with the shortish draw they'd be strong enough. The mounting brackets in the photos are just steel corner supports from Bunnings, I removed the two original rear tie down points which was an easy job. They were secured by M8 bolts, but were only screwed in and tightened (pretty stiff, needed the breaker bar) so i replaced them with a M8 x 35 and used a locknut on the other (under car) side. One thing about that- I used about 5 washers between the bracket itself and the floor of the car, otherwise with that recess where the original tie down fits, tightening the M8 up would have dragged the bracket down and forwards. And lastly, the front tie downs will be used with tension thingy's- photos not great but you get the idea... so I'm getting there! (carpenters feel free to laugh at my overkill with the number of screws used

)

**beanie_205** · 23rd March 2010, 08:46 PM

a few more pics...

Well I'm trying- computer struggling a bit!

**that_kid** · 25th March 2010, 06:01 PM

excellent work! u just answered the "how am i going to secure them?" question i have been been pondering. Will def be keepin an eye on your progress as i am going to be doing a draw setup in the next few weeks

**knp** · 29th March 2010, 02:23 PM

That is excellent work!

FWIW the carpet is spongy so when you tighten the bolts down through the floor you'll squash everything down and it'll all start to go out of square/shape/twist.
Making a spacer same thickness as carpet to go underneath the bracket should fix this.

Cheers
Peter

**rusty05** · 30th March 2010, 09:58 AM

I used those inbuilt mounts for a storage/cover over my LPG tank.

I found the carpet to be sponger also, but used some 20x40 along the bottom with the ply, so when it tighten up against the carpet it pulled tight evenly.

I also used other self tapping metal screws to go thru the carpet into the metal floor.

**beanie_205** · 11th April 2010, 08:53 PM

So these pics show the completed draws and the basic layout again, the third pic shows the tensioner which is used to tie down the setup at the front using the original tie downs.

**beanie_205** · 11th April 2010, 09:04 PM

In these pics you see the pump, electrical wiring and tap on the front of the setup. The wiring is pretty straightforward, you can see the negative and positive wires coming through a hole into the bling junction boxes (just found them at jaycar- didn't need to be goldplated!) and from there the earth wires runs straight to the appliances, while the positive wires run to the fusebox and then to the appliance (Ie pump, 12v socket and pump switch, I ran an extra set of wires to run to a voltmeter somewhere up front of the setup). The above shot is to show how it all fits into the space between the outside panel and the drawer. Very easy to access as well, as i just need to slide the draw out to change fuses, run new wires etc.

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