theboondork's RV blog

My magic carpet ride to boondocking Nirvana

9/12/2021

Don't click the pics, it will show too many of my mistakes.

Turning the bronco into a boondocking beast is slowly taking shape.

I got a lot done today on my "turn the back seat area of my truck into storage space" project. The weather wasn't as hot as it's been lately, which put me in a mood to get more things accomplished than when it's 90° outside.

And the most important thing that I needed to get done was to buy a sheet of plywood from Home Depot and have them cut it up into pieces the sizes that I needed. Normally I would cut up the plywood myself, but with the bronco on the back of the truck, there's no place to put a sheet of plywood, and a sheet of plywood won't fit in the bronco, so I had to have it cut up before I can take it home.

Unlucky me, it just so happens that the saw that Home Depot uses to cut up sheets of plywood was broken, so I had to put the plywood back and go to Lowe's where they had a working saw. And they were nice enough to make four cuts in the plywood that gave me the sizes I needed and didn't even charge me for making the four cuts.... Thank you, Lowe's

So after mounting some shelf brackets on the back wall of the truck cab and doing some gluing and screwing to the plywood, I've got the backseat storage area shaping up with just some minor things to finish up on.

If I could just summon up a little bit more ambition, I would paint the whole shebang light gray, so it matched the truck's interior, but so far, I haven't felt the slightest twinge of concern over how it looks.

Theboondork

My shelves are largely finished, there's only detail work to do now.

With the back-seat gone bye-bye, I have more floor space for storage than I had before

And on top of that, and equal in size, is a nice flat space for storage tubs full of things I can't live without..... That some people refer to as junk. And on top of that a two foot wide, 4 foot long shelf for lightweight things like a folding chair, and a tripod or two.

9 Comments

Judith

9/13/2021 08:36:38 pm

Now THERE is some storage space. Good for Lowe's!!

Tom

9/13/2021 09:52:41 pm

I think after spending time poking around in the bronco looking for storage space, that if used properly the backseat of the truck has probably quadrupled the storage space available in the bronco.

Tom

OFM

9/13/2021 08:39:56 pm

Information you did not ask for coming your way. What you did for the top shelf was good in general. When in a moving vehicle with the jostling that will happen, my choice would be to add a strut at each of the 1/3 points of the top shelf forward edge down to the bottom shelf to minimize vibratory flexing of the mounting brackets of the top shelf. My thought is that two simple 1x2 struts would do the trick just fine to unitize the structure.

9/13/2021 08:48:53 pm

Another suggestion is a few small eye bolts near the edges of the plywood to allow strapping down stuff to keep it in place when stopping and bouncing. Otherwise it could slide forward and bonk your noggin,

9/13/2021 10:07:08 pm

The struts are a good idea Barney, I'm going to look into that.

Bungee cords are one of the things I had in mind when I mentioned I've still got a few details to take care of. I wanted to get some storage boxes first so I could see what I was dealing with that needed to be tied down. The stuff on the floor, and on the first shelf, can't go anywhere other than hitting the back of the seat. But whatever is on the top shelf, which should be lightweight things, I still don't want them hitting me in the back of the head when I stop quickly.

No need to apologize for good advice.

Tom

Linda

9/14/2021 02:38:38 pm

When I sold my van I was surprised at how many bungee cords I retrieved from it. Those are one of the handiest tools I ever found.

9/14/2021 03:44:19 pm

Funny you should mention that. I just ordered some bungee cord fixens from Amazon to tie down my storage boxes in the back seat area of the truck. I need them to be a specific length so I prefer to make them myself.

Tom

9/15/2021 02:16:10 pm

That's one of the things I liked about having Sportsmobile do my conversion. Once I was ready to move in they installed tie down hardware and made bungee cords to fit precisely where I needed them at no extra charge. Of course, they already charged me an arm and a leg but, since I have no building skills, it was worth it to me.

9/15/2021 05:08:33 pm

Sportmobile did a good job. My memory is they were one of the first to offer a professionally done camper van conversion. And yes they did cost an arm and a leg.

Tom

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My magic carpet ride to boondocking Nirvana

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