Hi All,
Thanks for the encouraging comments.
The fridge slide and drawer was designed by myself after months of thinking about the problem and a bit of modeling. As you would all know the spare wheel position in the Jeep creates a real problem. I wanted to keep the original cover and lift the fridge slide and drawer up out of the way.
I managed to do this by placing the pivot point in front of the factory spare wheel cover.
The fridge slide is about 100mm longer than the 50lt Waceo and this allows the fridge to be slid foward after the rear seats are hinged foward. Moving the fridge foward allows it to stay on the slide as the slide is raised. The fridge is still retained by straps front and rear.
The fridge slide is placed as low as possible to the floor so that the fridge does not touch the roof lining as it is raised. It only just misses the roof with maybe 10mm to spare after it is slid fully foward.
I have a drawing of the actual fridge slide but can't find much else at the moment on the computer. What I can do is take it out and photograph it so you can see how it all goes together. The folding frame has no drawing as I built it as I went. Cutting and welding until I got it to fit. The position of the gas struts was much the same with mulitiple hole positions tried untill I got it to just sit above the raised spare wheel cover.
The drawer is removable so that I can take it out when not travelling as it takes up too much room. The size of the drawer could be a little higher but we carry a couple of folding chairs on top so that set the height of the drawer. It carries a compressor and some tools.
To build it you will need a Mig Welder, pop riveting tool that can handle 5mm steel rivets (I used an air powered riveting tool), a work bench, bench drill, battery drill, angle grinder, a full length of 35 x 19 x 1.6 RHS box section, (not a common size) other assorted steel offcuts, two gas struts, four HD slides and a sheet metal shop to fold stuff up.
The material and sheet metal shop costs were probably in the region of $650-700. If you wish to build one yourself I will measure it up and do a drawing.
It will take you a number of days to make as a number of trial fittings may still be required.
The hidden mounting points took me two full weekends to get right as I started from scratch. You wouldn't think so to look at them.
Some changes may be needed to suit another type of fridge.
There are additional notes with each photo in the album.
Jasman,
I do have drawing for the main parts of the battery box if you are interested. Some of the smaller mounting brackets were simply fabricated as I went along so there are no drawings for these.
There are separate boxes for each battery which are then placed side by side to form a double box that hangs down from the floor. This arrangement gives additional support as there is now a web in the middle.
Each box has a separate cover so that each battery can be accessed from below using a trolley jack. You need a trolley jack as each battery weights 17kg and you can't lift 17kg when lying under the car and fit the cover at the same time. The boxes are lined with insertion rubber to protect the batteries and are a firm fit to prevent movement.
Once again you will need a a Mig welder etc to build this battery box. It bolted to the floor under the spare wheel. The front bolts attach where a large box section under the spare is spot welded to the floor. I have used this as a front mounting point as it has a double panel and a vertical face of the box section wall next to it to give it strength. It is also plated on the inside where required.
The rear of the box is supported via straps that attach to the near vertical sides of the spare wheel well and 3mm plates inserted into the pressings of the floor of the wheel well.
I used 8mm button headed cap screws to bolt it to the car so that they did not damage the spare tyre. The battery box has mounting nuts welded to it so that a spanner is not required to hold any nuts as you bolt it up from the inside the car.
I cannot say how strong it is but it has not given any trouble for 20k to date.
Hope this reply wasn't to long.
Cheers,
Peter
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