I wanted a way to solve two issues I have with camping out of the back of the ride.
One: If you fold the 2nd row seats all the way up you loose a lot of room. I'm not a tall guy and even I find it a little short to lay down without feeling a bit cramped.
Two: Using the "floor" as your sleeping area forces you to give up much of the storage space and gear management becomes tedious.
Yes, there are incredibly elegant and effective commercial drawer systems. If I was a full-time camper/overlander this would be a worthy addition, despite the high-cost. Sadly, I'm a regular Joe and get out when I can which is not nearly enough. When I'm not out, I need my ride to function in other capacities. There are also some great home-brew designs using lumber or other materials. I built one of these type for an old 4Runner back in the day and it functioned well, but was heavy and and cumbersome to get in and out of the vehicle. With these things in mind I went for the most streamlined, ease of use, quick deplyoment design I could think of.
Storage came down to a couple of used ROAM 95L cases, which I picked up fairly cheap on Craigslist. The key is the height matches that of the folded down 2nd row seats.
Two of these fit perfectly between the wheel wells (left to right) and the seats/tailgate (front to back).
The comfy part came from some 4" foam padding. Sure you can go buy a big piece, but in the spirit of keeping it cheap I used three scraps glued together. The wife is busy sewing sheet into a giant pillow case to slip over it and it's done. As long as you only pull one box out at a time, it's easy to get what you need and slide it back in with the mattress in place. Granted this isn't the most mind-blowing thing anyone has done, but I thought I'd share. If for no other reason that to be on the lookout for boxes this size. They really are the perfect fit.
One: If you fold the 2nd row seats all the way up you loose a lot of room. I'm not a tall guy and even I find it a little short to lay down without feeling a bit cramped.
Two: Using the "floor" as your sleeping area forces you to give up much of the storage space and gear management becomes tedious.
Yes, there are incredibly elegant and effective commercial drawer systems. If I was a full-time camper/overlander this would be a worthy addition, despite the high-cost. Sadly, I'm a regular Joe and get out when I can which is not nearly enough. When I'm not out, I need my ride to function in other capacities. There are also some great home-brew designs using lumber or other materials. I built one of these type for an old 4Runner back in the day and it functioned well, but was heavy and and cumbersome to get in and out of the vehicle. With these things in mind I went for the most streamlined, ease of use, quick deplyoment design I could think of.
Storage came down to a couple of used ROAM 95L cases, which I picked up fairly cheap on Craigslist. The key is the height matches that of the folded down 2nd row seats.
Two of these fit perfectly between the wheel wells (left to right) and the seats/tailgate (front to back).
The comfy part came from some 4" foam padding. Sure you can go buy a big piece, but in the spirit of keeping it cheap I used three scraps glued together. The wife is busy sewing sheet into a giant pillow case to slip over it and it's done. As long as you only pull one box out at a time, it's easy to get what you need and slide it back in with the mattress in place. Granted this isn't the most mind-blowing thing anyone has done, but I thought I'd share. If for no other reason that to be on the lookout for boxes this size. They really are the perfect fit.
