[bitingmidge]

I've been thinking about it for quite some time - removing the back seat to make room for a second spare, a bit of fuel (yep! ) and a few other doodads, but there just isn't a cargo barrier to be had for less than the price of a full set of tyres really.

Anyway here it is, made from bits of the old chook run, with $32.00 worth of plastic capping from Clark Rubber.

The white bit is plastic sheet to stop chafe on the gerries when they are loaded. I've made a floor insert to cover all the brackets and things, more on that later - it's not carpeted yet cause Bunnings closed today.

1) with seats out, there seems to be an awful lot of spare real estate in there:



2) Seat mounts looked like the logical place to begin, but of course the studs weren't particularly easy to measure, I ended up building a template from plywood then poking it round till it seemed to work.


3) My son in law kindly took my bits of ply and a few scratchings on an old message pad, and turned it into steel. When he arrived with it yesterday, he came with a bootload of files, hammers, grinders and a welder, but just to disappoint us both, the rotten thing just slipped into place like a bought one!

We couldn't work it out at first, but figured that because I'm right handed and he's left handed, my measurement errors were probably cancelled out by his fabrication ones.



4) Finally with a bit of plastic edging and some paint on it overnight, it's all ready to have the second spare bolted to it, and to do a heap more work I reckon.

We kept it at seat height deliberately, as we don't load higher than that under any circumstance, and we tie the lot down under a cargo net custom built for the job.

Notice how Mr Suzuki has left a nice little square edged recess in the floor to make it easy to do a floor insert over all those nasty exposed bolts.



I'll post a few more pics in a day or two, once the things all loaded and ready for business.

Cheers,

P

[atari4x4]

nice work, i need to do something like this in the back of my vitara. thanks for the ideas.

[zukigeorge]

Great job - gives me ideas.

[bitingmidge]

Here's a pic with the floor insert in place. (and the gerries stored in their place)



Cheers,

P

[ODA1]

cant see pic!

[bitingmidge]

Better now?

I direct linked it from another forum - obviously didn't like that, although I could see it.

Cheers,

P

[GV_Sword]

Simply brilliant design and a great job. Thanks very much for sharing.

[bitingmidge]

Tanks Sword,

We're still on the road with it and have found a bonus in it all as well. If you look at the pics you'll see a white plastic chafe strip to brace the jerry cans. This creates a slot which is perfect for holding the laptop, maps and books!

Very handy indeed. Have only needed 40 litres spare fuel thus far, might need 60 if we decide to come back via the Strezleki Track though.

Cheers,

P