My D3 Rear Cargo Area Storage Solution

[Oztourer]

Over the next few instalments, I thought I would share with you my solution to the age old question of how best to utilise the cargo area of a D3 when going bush.

Part 1
After several months of false starts, a blown motor, procrastination and a sprint at the end due to the need to have it finished in time for our Vic High Country trip next week, I've finally finished my version of a rear storage system for my D3.

I did a fair bit of research on these, reading many great blogs on this site and others as well as looking at what was available in the market place. The decision to go commercial or DIY came down to cost. Upwards of $2500 for a plywood drawer set was way out of the equation for me so that was the first decision made. Next came material. A couple of my non Disco owning mates had made their units out of ply and I figured I could blow the dust off my trusty Triton work bench (showing my age?) and do the same, but ply is heavy so I thought I'd kill several birds with one stone by buying a MIG welder (something I've always wanted to own) and make it out of square steel tube. I also managed to pick up a second hand ORS fridge slide to fit my Bushman fridge so all was good!

It took a fair bit of trial and error with the design and layout (including hacking off the front corners at the top to allow the tail gate to close) as I had several requirements to meet. The first was obviously the size of the rear cargo space, then the size of my fridge and slide. Access to the spare wheel winch nut through the split fold 3rd row seats was also required (I am using a socket on a 1/4" extension thanks to ideas from others on this forum). The final requirement I had was to allow for two levels to house the storage boxes I had selected from Bunnings. They are Award Multistack boxes which come in 60L, 26L and 9L sizes. The great thing about these boxes is that they have a hinged lid, are parallel sided and are designed to stack. The space I had available allowed me to use a combination of 60L and 26L boxes, giving me a total of 164L of boxed storage. For the obvious practical reasons, I wanted to be able to take the bottom layer of boxes out without disturbing the top layer, so I needed to be able to support both layers independently.

With all this in place and with trusty hack saw, angle grinder and shiny new MIG welder ready to go, I set off on a somewhat challenging, very rewarding and relatively cheap adventure. I'm very happy with the finished product and will be interested to see how well it serves me and the family during our week in the Alps.

All up I used about 23 liner meters of 19mm square tube steel plus about another 2-3m wasted because of the old saying, measure once cut twice?? (maybe its the other way round)

I was going to tie the whole unit down to the existing floor anchor points with cables and turnbuckles but this all got a bit hard so I'm trying a set of 4 ratchet straps that I had lying around.

Materials:
5 x 6m lengths of 19mm x 1.6mm square steel tubing. Shire Steel Supplies - $15 per 6m length
1 x ORS Fridge Slide (second hand) - Ebay $200
2 x 800mm Kingslide Drawer Runners. Bunnings - $55 each
1 x Grunt 182kg Galvanised D Ring Anchor Points - 4 Pack. Bunnings - $11.40
2 x Grunt 25mm x 1m Pull Tie Down Strap - 2 Pack to tie down fridge. Bunnings - $5.40 each
1 x Award 60L Multistack Storage Crate. Bunnings - $47.00
4 x Award 26L Multistack Storage Crate. Bunnings - $31.00 each
1 x Whites Wires 180 x 120cm x 75 x 50 x 4mm Mesh Panel. Bunnings - $39.90
1 x Project Panel 897 x 600 x 12mm BC Plywood. Bunnings - $19
1 x White Knight 300g Rust Guard Undercoat Spray. Bunnings - $17.90
2 x White Knight 310g Rust Guard Satin Black Spray. Bunnings $16.90 each
6 x M6x50 High Tensile Bolts and Nuts for non as 4034 bolt on barrier. Bunnings - approx $12
4 x 1/4" x 1.25" Bolts, Nylock Nuts and washers for anchor points (existing)
8 x 5/16" x 1" Bolts and Nylock Nuts for drawer runnsers (existing)
4 x 2m 340kg rated ratchet straps (existing).

Tools:
1 x Boss MIG Welder. Gasweld - $450
1 x D size Argon/CO2 mix gas bottle. Gasweld - $150
1 x Mig Wire .9:m x 0.9kg. Gasweld - $10.00
1 x Weld Corp Welding Helmet. Bunnings - $80 (on sale)
1 x Safety Zone Lined Welding Gloves. Bunnings - $10.45
Various 100mm cutting and grinding disks
Drill, tape measure, files, hammer, centre punch, screw driver, socket set, spanners, clamps, saw horses, bevel gauge, square, workbench and vice, time, time and more time, understanding wife.

Materials, storage boxes and fridge slide came in at around $700 and a further $700 (give or take) to buy the MIG welder and associated accessories means I'm well ahead which I'm well chuffed about.

Following are some photos of the build. Part 2 will be more photos as there seems to be a limit of 5 that can be uploaded into any given post.
(EDIT: If someone can tell me why the photos are so small I'll fix them up!!)


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Welding Finished

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Ready For Painting

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Mounting Rings Attached

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Upper Barrier Attached (AS4034 Non compilant I'm sure)

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800mm Kingslide Drawer Runners Installed

[Oztourer]

Part 2
(EDIT: As per my first post, if someone can tell me why the photos are so small I'll fix them up!!)

[
IMG_0525.jpg
Frame Strapped in with Ratchet Straps and Fridge Slide Attached

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Fridge Installed

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Plywood Drawer and Lower Storage Boxes In Place
RHS Space for Table and Solar Panels

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Upper Storage Boxes Going In

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Final Product

Shelf above can be used for low profile item storage such as chairs, roll mats, sleeping bags, clothing bags etc.

[Disco-tastic]

Thanks OT!

That looks great as a removable drawer system, and much easier to install/remove than a ply system.

Any idea what it weighs? I plan to sort out storage in mine at some stage...

Cheers

Dan

[Oztourer]

Thanks OT!

That looks great as a removable drawer system, and much easier to install/remove than a ply system.

Any idea what it weighs? I plan to sort out storage in mine at some stage...

Cheers

Dan

Removable was another requirement I forgot to mention. Without the drawer slide I would say less than 10kg. The slide itself probably weighs as much. If I unscrew the slide and take it out separately, I can easily take the frame out on my own. The only issue I appear to have now is finding somewhere to store it when not in use!!

[Colin Pedersen]

What a great fit out...I'd been toying with the build your own ply setup and there's even a plan on the interweb I've seen....but this is far superior...and I even own a MIG welder!!

You may be considering patenting this but any chance of getting the outside dimensions of the cage? noting you had to modify the front to get the door closed? internally I'd modify to suit the fringe setup I have.

col.

[Oztourer]

What a great fit out...I'd been toying with the build your own ply setup and there's even a plan on the interweb I've seen....but this is far superior...and I even own a MIG welder!!

You may be considering patenting this but any chance of getting the outside dimensions of the cage? noting you had to modify the front to get the door closed? internally I'd modify to suit the fringe setup I have.

col.

No problem Col.
I was always planning on posting a sketch with dimensions once I got a bit of time. Watch this space!!

[Meken]

Removable was another requirement I forgot to mention. Without the drawer slide I would say less than 10kg. The slide itself probably weighs as much. If I unscrew the slide and take it out separately, I can easily take the frame out on my own. The only issue I appear to have now is finding somewhere to store it when not in use!!

You've got a disco - that's where you can store it