T@B 320 Storage Box Modification

grassgd

In the processing of finishing my installation of a storage box on my T@B.   This turned out to be a lot of work but I think it was worth it.  I looked at a lot of installations but never saw one that I like, so I came up with the idea to store my portable solar panel behind the storage box in two rails bolted to the back of the box and split the original T@B plastic box in half and install on each side to house the battery and propane tank.  Spare tire mounts on the jack but not shown in the attached picture.

DougH

That's brilliant.

ChanW

Good styling!

jgram2

That is impressive, and no, no one has done it before-or at least shared on the forum if they did. Cool.

Sharon_is_SAM

@grassgd, did you also fabricate the box?  What is the round, black thing on top?

rcuomo

Sharon- looks like it may be the latch/handle for the top. Nice job of fabrication. 

Sharon_is_SAM

Handle must have a finger hole.to pop it out.

TabberJohn

Very impressive. I'm hoping you plan to serve ice cream cones from that freezer. 

Bayliss

Interesting and unique, @grassgd.  Do you have any photos of what it looks like on the inside that you can share?

grassgd

Sharon_is_SAM said:

@grassgd, did you also fabricate the box?  What is the round, black thing on top?

I bought the box on Amazon.  The thing on top is the handle for locking and opening the top doors.

grassgd

Bayliss said:

Interesting and unique, @grassgd.  Do you have any photos of what it looks like on the inside that you can share?

It is just an open box inside, 36" wide x 18" and 24" tall.  Manufacturer is "Buyers Products".  I'll post a picture tomorrow when I can take it.

NomadPilgrim

Very cool! I am trying to figure out how to make my stock box "taller" but this is great.

Dalehelman

Nice!

grassgd

Bayliss said:

Interesting and unique, @grassgd.  Do you have any photos of what it looks like on the inside that you can share?

Sorry for taking so long.  Here are a couple shots of the top and inside of the box.  Also added a sewer storage pvc pipe shown in the third picture.

Sharon_is_SAM

That really provides you with a lot of storage.  Just watch your tongue weight.  You probably already thought of this, but, I hope you store your panel facing the TaB.  Lots of things to get thrown up from the road.

ScottG

Nice design and craftsmanship, @grassgd!

It looks to me like your sewer hose access is on the side opposite your drains. I'm curious if there was a particular reason for that.

grassgd

ScottG said:

Nice design and craftsmanship, @grassgd!

It looks to me like your sewer hose access is on the side opposite your drains. I'm curious if there was a particular reason for that.

The access is from the side with the drains - the drains are just not quite in the picture.  To remove the sewer pipe, you pull the pin shown in the picture and pull the hose out under the back edge of the silver plastic tub.  I used a 5' piece of PVC sewer pipe so it will hold longer hoses if I get one - right now I'm still using the original short one that came with the trailer.  The PVC sewer pipe has an upset on the one end for connecting to another section of pipe and the sewer pipe connector just fits in the upset end with a little filing of the tabs.

grassgd

Sharon_is_SAM said:

That really provides you with a lot of storage.  Just watch your tongue weight.  You probably already thought of this, but, I hope you store your panel facing the TaB.  Lots of things to get thrown up from the road.

I checked the tongue weight with empty tanks and the without the solar panel and it was 249# with the storage box loaded as shown in the picture. 

I  made a padded thick cover for the solar panel and I can store it either way.  If I store it with the panel facing the tow vehicle,  the only part of the solar panel that is not completed protected by the aluminum box is the very top that is about 3 inches higher than the top of the aluminum box.  The rest of the panel is completely protected by the back side of the aluminum box.

Abeona1

Brilliant!

Denny16

Do you have an Amazon link for this unique box?
cheers

VictoriaP

Denny16 said:

Do you have an Amazon link for this unique box?
cheers

From the info they included above (seller and dimensions), looks like it’s this one:

https://smile.amazon.com/Buyers-Products-1705420-Aluminum-18X24X36/dp/B01ASXUDLO/

Denny16

Thanks, that costs as much as the new NuCamp TaB box.  I was looking for a less expensive solution.  So going with the new TaB box.
cheers

grassgd

Denny16 said:

Thanks, that costs as much as the new NuCamp TaB box.  I was looking for a less expensive solution.  So going with the new TaB box.
cheers

https://smile.amazon.com/Buyers-Products-1705420-Aluminum-18X24X36/dp/B01ASXUDLO/ is the correct link to the box I bought, but when I bought it, it only cost $314 with free shipping.  Mine had a small dent on one edge of one of the doors.  I suspect that was the basis for the low price although the add did not state it was damaged.  You could use any cheaper box as long as the dimensions are not bigger (especially the width).  With the 36" width and the original plastic box cut in half, it just clears the handles on the body of the trailer to open the plastic half top doors.

gspdx

Wow - I would love to do something like this with the 400 BDL box.  Maybe get a rectangular diamond plate box - or have someone make one - and do something similar.

Cool idea.

grassgd

gspdx said:

Wow - I would love to do something like this with the 400 BDL box.  Maybe get a rectangular diamond plate box - or have someone make one - and do something similar.

Cool idea.

All the custom made boxes I looked into were very expensive.  I especially wanted a smooth aluminum box and would not have paid $600+ for this one.  I guess I was lucky to find this one at the price I paid.

It was quite a bit of work to figure out how to mount the box using a single aluminum I-beam I had on hand. 

I cut like this:

Then cut to slid over the trailer frame as shown in these pics:

Note above the two pieces of unistrut used in front of aluminum I-beam to support the front of the battery and propane frames and the very front of the plastic tub where it joins to the new aluminum box.

Above you can see an aluminum late used to join the two I-beam sections together and the cut out required to slide each I-beam section over the trailer frame.  I used only the original holes in the trailer frame in mounting the box in my modification.

I had to be very careful splitting the original TaB plastic box/original angle iron frame since there was no room for error; one mistake on the plastic tub and things would have gone south. I did some minor additional bracing on the original angle frame since it was allowing enough movement mine developed some cracks in the base flat iron and the plastic tub had a few cracks at the bottom attachment points.  Basically I added a extra brace on the vertical angle iron members.  I repaired the plastic tub cracks using a soldering iron and carefully melting the crack closed which worked good (repaired crack cracks can be seen in second picture above.

Propane tank retaining ring is the original with modifications to re position it on the base and I inserted a piece of plastic cutting board as the base for the tank.  I removed the original powder coating from the frame which already had severe disbondment and was rusting in many places.  Where powder coating was good, it was very difficult to remove.  Appears they do not do a good job of prep before powder coating.

It took a bit of figuring to recreated a hinge point for each half door on the original tub where the top was cut in half but it came out very good in my opinion - no  pics of this at the moment.

Hope the above provides some idea as to how I mounted the boxes.  You could use other materials and methods to mount, but I used materials I had on hand that I knew would be strong even if a bit of overkill using the large aluminum I-beam.  There was a lot of figuring and measuring to make sure everything fit up like I wanted it to (to look like a factory job).  

grassgd

One thing I forgot to mention is the only minor issue with the original tub cut in half is to change out the propane tank, I have to remove the half door to provide clearance.  But that's only two bolts.

grassgd

Here is a picture with solar panel stored behind the storage box with heavy cover.