XJ Cargo area storage

[Steve F]

With a trip to Cape York in Septemeber I decided redo the storage in the XJ. The main reason was I wanted a cargo barrier as my 2 year old daughter will be coming along and secondly just to tidy things up.

First I mounted up a cargo barrier I had from a Magna wagon, it was given to me years ago and I'd been meaning to fit it for ages as its a good fit. At the same time I made a 15mm thick ply floor as the base for the rear draws and for the fridge slide to attach to. This will get bolted down when I'm done.



Next I made some sides, supports for the top and cut the top section. Again all 15mm, it's external hardwood ply with a BB finish (Ply is rated A best to D worst quality wise, BB means both sides of the ply are a B finish), very strong and nice and smooth.



I decided to go with one deep draw, two draws is nice bt they wont be that deep and that would also mean more weight, cost and less useable space. The draw itself will have slots for dividers in it that will be removable and repositionable for the best packing of whatever I take.

I also had the passenger side upright moved away from the wheel arch a little so that area was a bit bigger and can be used, it's a bit small otherwise and not very practical. The top will have a removable lid for access to it.



Tools, oil, recovery gear will fit in here with the little extra space I left.



Due to the slope of the rear seat there is an odd angle at the back of the draw, rather than just loose that space I will extend the draw base to the cargo barrier and mount the compressor and first aid kit back there, they will slide out when the draw is pulled out but will be outside the rear of the draw if that makes sense. I'll also run power back there for the compressor and possible an invertor if needed.

With the base off the compressor it just fits in the angled section behind the draw.



Since the draw has to be raised up a little to clear the rear plastic surround around the hatch striker I'm going to use the space to slide in a thin table top, this will pull out and mount on top of the draw when it is out to make a table, I'll embed some rare earth magnets in it and the top of the draw sides so when it sits on the draw it wont slip off. I'll also use them to attach it to the floor for travelling.

Anyway, hope that all makes sense. More pics when I have the draw sorted.

Cheers
Steve

[Antiferret]

hi mate.

did you think about raising the height of the top level to the window to give yourself a larger surface area? yes you would have to make a deeper drawer but at least the top would about match the height of the fridge. you could then put a vertical extentionto stop what goes on top from sliding onto your fridge..

i know, its easier for me to suggest things when i am not paying for the plywood!

[Steve F]

I thought about it but it was too high. This height was a good trade off between draw size and still having a reasonable height above the shelf for day to day use. I'm going to put in a hanging net above the fridge to store things like jackets and pillows etc, all the light bulky stuff so that space wont go to waste. Anything on the shelf will be strapped down so I dont think rubbing up against the fridge will be a problem. The seup I used to have was with the fridge on a false floor and stuff jamming against was never an issue.

Cheers
Steve

[Big Dave]

Want to watch this, will be making some myself soon.

[junglejuice]

There are lots of different ways to go about this as everybody has different needs and different ideas, I built mine all out of steel with sheet metal drawers and dual fridges, like yours I found that the space in the triangle left by the slope of the cargo barrier I was able to squeeze a 120AH AGM battery in there behind the 35lt Waeco.
For mine I made it all modular built onto a steel base so I can add whatever module I like for any particular purpose, I found that it handled Cape York very well, but that suits our needs.
Are you going to trim the ply with anything? I used felt that I bought from Clark Rubber as I found it would wrap around edges really well and used aerosol contact adhesive which also worked well, marine carpet is too stiff for this purpose.

Keep up the good work....

[Steve F]

Yep, it'll all be carpeted when I'm done. I want it to look finished I did like the idea of two draws side by side but the fridge would be too high fo the rest of the family to reach into, so I needed to drop it down to floor level.

Cheers
Steve

[Steve F]

Glued, screwed and clamp the top to the sides this evening. You'd think this stuff would be easy but making sure it is all square and the opening at the back is the same size at the front is all important so the draw will fit nicely and slide properly Tomorrow or the weekend I'll make the draw.

Cheers
Steve