Brunnie's Build - Tonka

[Brunnie]

WHEW!!!!! Finished!!
I took these pictures before I painted the edges flat black, but now the cabinet is finished.



I had to add a 1/2inch spacer under the cabinet, front and rear, to raise it a bit so the lower drawer would open. Also, because my cargo lid isn't perfectly flat, I had to shim the front left and right rear corners by 1/8in.

Would I do it again? YES!! but I would use different material and build it a bit differently. It isn't Goose Gear perfect, but it doesn't cost as much as Goose Gear either.

 

[Brunnie]

ANOTHER PROJECT!!!!

Took out the rear seats and am building a platform for when we take road trips.



The fridge will sit on the right side, kitchen/pantry cabinet on the left. There will be a trap door where I can get to the storage area under that area. There will also be a couple of liftouts to get to the new storage under the new platform.

 

[scoyoc]

Rad! Can’t wait to see the final product!

 

[Xterrorista]

Rad! Can’t wait to see the final product!

Yeah, me too.. I love my action packer totes but have been debating a fridge/sleeping system in the back for a bit now.

 

[Brunnie]

Well after much "imagineering" and thinking and cojitating I got this almost to where I want them.

The frame is made with 1/8x1 angle aluminum along with some 1/8x1 1/2 and some 1/8 x2 bar stock. It is 52 inches wide, and 30 1/4 inches deep, inside to inside.

It is attached to the seat mounts on the floor for front support, and to the ends of the racks for rear support. I plan to put some 1/8in plywood in the openings to keep things from sliding forward into the front storage area, as well as make some side panels so things wont shift out the sides.


The bar stock was used to provide a lip for the hatches to rest on. Next was make a cardboard template to figure out what I wanted.


I decided on a large hatch over the jack area and a smaller one behind the driver's seat.

 

[Brunnie]

Duct tape makes wonderful hinges when used with cardboard. Here you see the large hatch and small hatch open. I decided that they need to be hinged on the back so they would stand up straighter when open.




Access under the front piece will be via the ends which are open. Chairs and table will go there.
Now that the template has been made and modified, it was time to cut the plywood. I used 1/2in. sanded one side plywood.



Tomorrow is mount hatch hinges, drill hatch finger holes, add a front stop piece (maybe 5-6 inches tall to keep things from sliding off) and then paint (for now) and bolt it in place.

 

[Brunnie]

One "loss" for this whole project was the under deck storage in the back. Well, I was able to gain that back by a small hatch that is behind the kitchen cabinet.




The back deck is made of 3/4in pine project board with 1/2in cleats screwed on-top of that and a couple of cleats underneath spanning from one side to the other for strength. I found that the floor had to be this tall so that the fridge slide could be moved as far right as possible and still clear the rear hatch body curve. Same on the left side for the cabinet. I used the trac rails to bolt the platform down.

 

[Brunnie]

At one point in time I worked for a company that makes the LED signs you see over the highways and I picked up some education from the metal guys:
Vise grips make great temporary clamps when holding the metal pieces in place for riveting.
"C" clamps tend to get in the way when drilling a hole.
For the 3/16ths rivet, use a #11 drill bit.
A rivet gun makes things easy.

General knowledge:
Cardboard, pencil, sharpie and a sharp utility knife, plus duct tape, make for easy revisions as you change plans and ideas form.
Finding a large piece of cardboard is rather difficult until you buy a 52in roll around base cabinet. I still have a nice sized piece left for the next project.
You'll lose your pencil and tape measure several times while working on this.
You'll lose your drill too..... and hacksaw.... and ... and ... and ...
Use the same tape measure when transferring a measurement from one thing to another. (One of my tapes is off by a bit.)

 

[Xterrorista]

Duct tape makes wonderful hinges

What tape, I don't see any tape?

Lookin' good~

 

[Brunnie]

I cut part of the rubber mat that I had on the old deck hatch cover for the fridge to sit on.

 

[Brunnie]

OK... DONE!!! (until I think of something else)

Cabinet and Fridge and a place for the stove.

Fridge on slider

The other end of the cabinet and fridge, where the second battery is mounted.

 

[Brunnie]

Here are the two hatches.

This side is for..... yeah, not sure what all goes here yet, but......



Tool/compressor, jack access, and whatever else (fluids?) side:


The front part (in front of the hatches) is for chairs, table, hiking poles, etc.

 

[Brunnie]

Finally, to the right of the fridge I built a shelf that can hold "stuff" that is needed often. I.E. stove connection, water jug, and some other semi-essential things.

From the back of the fridge:


A better view with the fridge pulled all the way out:

 

[Brunnie]

Lots of finishing touchup things to do, like finish painting, sanding the raw wood edges and paint... etc. but for the most part ready for a shakedown trip.

 

[PhullD]

I have those exact beaded seat covers. I had the black ones when in Utah, but put those in another vehicle cause the tanish ones look a lot better with the leather.

 

[Brunnie]

Yeah, I'm not to thrilled with these as the fish lines are starting to break. I need to find a better brand.

 

[Brunnie]

Hindsight observations:
Instead of the rear wooden platform I should have used unistrut as the initial cross pieces over the storage area, then a piece of 1/2 inch plywood, if needed, for the base. The unistrut would have made it greatly easier to bolt to our existing tracks, but also to bolt the fridge slide, battery tray, and cabinet to. It would have also made access to the storage area terrifically easier. (Maybe that is a project/revision for another time.)

Ear protection is a must when working with air tools. You never know when that noisy air compressor is going to kick in, or how loud a die grinder is going to be when cutting something.

If you are using a pencil..... have 4 spares. Guaranteed you will lose one or two, or break the point at just the wrong time.
Measure 2, 3, 4, 5, times.... then cut it a bit long anyway and trim for final fit.

Make sure you have plenty of propane. In the course of a couple of weeks I went through two 40 lb tanks while heating the garage and working on this. And you will run out of propane at just the "wrong" time.... like when the propane shops are closed.

 

[PhullD]

Yeah, I'm not to thrilled with these as the fish lines are starting to break. I need to find a better brand.

Mine have all held up fine, I think it depends how you tie them in, if it overhangs off your seat people tend to break them.

 

[TheCrabby1]

Yeah, I'm not to thrilled with these as the fish lines are starting to break. I need to find a better brand.

So what exactly do the FISH line's do or where are they ? Sunlight does break down fluorocarbon fishing line over time. I'll be offshore/inshore fishing in the key's with my Dad in the last week of April and I'm sure he's got some heavy strength line that I could grab a few yard's and send you .

 

[Brunnie]

So what exactly do the FISH line's do or where are they ? Sunlight does break down fluorocarbon fishing line over time. I'll be offshore/inshore fishing in the key's with my Dad in the last week of April and I'm sure he's got some heavy strength line that I could grab a few yard's and send you .

The "fish line" is heavy filament used to weave the beads together. I believe that just the normal getting in and out of the seat causes the edges of the beads to wear against the line and fray it to a breaking point.

 

[scoyoc]

That is super rad! Good job!

Did you anchor your aluminum frame in the back seat area to the floor, or is it floating?

 

[Brunnie]

That is super rad! Good job!

Did you anchor your aluminum frame in the back seat area to the floor, or is it floating?

The front is anchored with bolts to the seat latch mounts. By doing that it greatly simplified how long each leg needed to be and how to make a pad for the leg to sit on so the leg wouldn't harm the carpet. It also gave a bit more room in the front storage area as now the legs weren't in the way.

Anchoring also made the whole thing more rigid and sturdy.

 

[Brunnie]

Well, I thought of something else. The cargo area behind the seats isn't well lit, even with an LED converted dome light.SO.... I bought this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DTOAVYY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and used a piece of 1/16 x 1.5 inch x 19in. bar aluminum and made this:


4 rows of 24 LEDs wired to the dome lamp. Current draw for this is 1.35 amps, way less that the stock bulb. When turned on it looks like this:



The mounting point is next to the button that hold the ceiling in place, and screwed into the metal roof bracing.

PS.... this is v1.0 Version 1.1 will probably run the wires above the ceiling and maybe a piece of clear plastic ontop of the lights to make them look a bit more like a fixture. We shall see.

 

[Brunnie]

WELL!!!!!!! ARB awning is no more. I saw a 23Zero Peregrine 180R and how easy it was to setup and take down so I bought one. (link) Spirit of 1876 in Castle Rock, CO had one in stock, and did the install. Using the mounts for the DepHep rack simplified things for them, although they needed longer bolts.

Next was a quick mod to hold our propane tank in the rack. A U bolt with a backing plate under the mesh deck floor did the trick.

(Pics to come )

 

[ffxcores]

WELL!!!!!!! ARB awning is no more. I saw a 23Zero Peregrine 180R and how easy it was to setup and take down so I bought one. (link) Spirit of 1876 in Castle Rock, CO had one in stock, and did the install. Using the mounts for the DepHep rack simplified things for them, although they needed longer bolts.

Next was a quick mod to hold our propane tank in the rack. A U bolt with a backing plate under the mesh deck floor did the trick.

(Pics to come )

If I ever get a new one, it'll be that one. A buddy just got the 270 - pretty awesome but I open the back hatch and leave it open a lot so it wouldn't work well for me.

 

[Brunnie]

I really like how Home Depot and Lowes carry Xterra things. For the back cargo shelf that I built I headed to Home Depot and bought some Xterra specific floor covering, it may work for other vehicles too but this piece was specific to my Xterra.
Carpeting