A question about storage under the rear sofa - MY SOLUTION!

Seaduster

Ramrod... did the wire shelf just magically fit?  ☺ (probably too much to hope for) or did it need to be cut to fit?  

Ramrod

I measured the space. Started with an 18 inch deep wire shelf. The guys at Lowes cut it for me. You cut out the curved lip. I installed it with wood screws and bracket. I sanded cut wires and applied small plastic caps.

Photomom

Ah, it was that lip that messed me up!

marknjudy

Ramrod, did you do this as one continuous shelf across both the passenger and driver space? Or did you do two separate shelves. What is/are the overall length(s)?

Ramrod

Two separate shelves. I will measure for you.

marknjudy

Thank you, sir! I'd like to do this but the trailer is not close to any Lowes or Home Depots.

Ramrod

33 1/2 inches by 16 inches.

Ramrod

https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Linen-Shelf-White-FG3N3500WHT/dp/B01G3TB4VK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1479175836&sr=8-5&keywords=16+inch+wire+shelves

marknjudy

Perfect! Thank you!

Seaduster

Ramrod, where did you find the plastic caps?  Also, is the lip too tall if the rack was installed with the lip up near the back side?  I found a 16" wide rack.

Ramrod

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/trd-9009?seid=srese1&cm_mmc=pla-google-_-shopping-_-srese1-_-trans-dapt-performance-products&gclid=CjwKEAiAgavBBRCA7ZbggrLSkUcSJACWDexATSvkxLSerm70oTLbKH6wRdkQh1pHkp7I8AEqJunmbBoC52_w_wcB

Ramrod

I "borrowed" the plastic caps from from my pegboard hooks. You can find them online.

marknjudy

Photomom's solution is awesome! I wish I were as skilled at woodworking (and had the tools to do it) to do this as well.

jkjenn

As a follow-up, I was able to store a suitcase, inside of a giant ziplock in the rear, bottom on the passenger side. I am just tall enough to reach it. I put my business attire and out of season clothes in the suitcase. On the driver side, I put some infrequently used items in another huge Ziplock bag. I kept clothes in back cupboards and some below the rear passenger seat along with some other things. I think I would be close to set if I moved the freshwater tank and was able to reclaim that bottom cupboard for food storage.

I have already parted with some things that I brought this year, like my campstove/grill combo. I just don't cook outside and if I really want to I can pick up a disposable one or go to a park with a charcoal grill. Truthfully, other than that, there isn't a lot to pair down. I have to get a better camp chair solution. The Zero gravity chair is very comfortable, but too much hassle to pull out from under everything in the back of my TV. Maybe if I laid it on the floor of my T@b while driving, I would use it, but truthfully, I am not one to really sit around the campsite, I am out until after sunset, generally, than right to bed.  

marknjudy

Just did this today. One small note: on my T@B the space on the driver side did not have the additional 2x4s along either side. I had to add those. Other than that, it's a great and easy mod with the biggest difficulty being the odd angle you have to donthis leaning over the seat back. 

SteveW

I had to remove a lot of woodwork to recover a dropped pocket knife (doh!) that slipped down the heating vent behind the shelf.  Took the time and inspiration to cut the rear shelf into thirds as per Photomom's excellent post, add a nice rear camera power feed and also blatantly copy her 'drying rack' concept for stopping things falling down too low. A small modification I made was to use epoxy glued in rare earth magnets to hold the racks onto the 90 degree brackets. 

I wanted to use that rear drivers side cubby for 'emergency' supplies - Toolkit, cables, mountain house foods and some water (Blue can) - I hate trying to lean all the way down / over the rear seat and have never been impressed with the rear seat attachments or the way the hinge was screwed down ....... So took care of all of that during the project week.

Removing the rear seat is the only way to go if you want to work in this area and since I had it out and was looking and thinking this is what I came up with - Sliding the sofa back forwards after lifting the usual seat cushions. Best bit is being able to kneel on the 'rear sofa' to work in either area now.


Replaced the 4 screws holding the hinges down with 2 x 1/4" x 2" zinc high strength bolts just for color matching - had to slightly enlarge the metal holes to fit the 1/4" bolts. Selected front most hole for maximum strength when leaning back and third hole to allow the bolt to drop in easily. 



They are held in place with ratcheting jig handles and a washer - Mini versions of the Lagun table ones.



I am lucky to be within walking distance of the best woodworking shop in Georgia - Highland Woodworking so got four of these http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/ratchetlever14-20insert.aspx after a lunchtime burger.

When I had the hinges totally removed from both shelf and supports I added the fabric side of some industrial strength velcro to protect the side walls of AbT@b as I slide the rear sofa back forwards.




All in all I am pretty pleased with this modification - and for under $25 we can both now access that previously unusable but valuable storage area.  Just in case of fluid leak all supplies and toolbag are in waterproof bags BTW. 

Ratkity

Excellent!!!

LauraRey

SteveW said:

Removing the rear seat is the only way to go if you want to work in this area

Agreed.  I took out the back when installing these:

dmerzbac

LauraRey, This has probably been asked already, but what size shelves did you use for driver's and passenger's sides. Assuming you just used 'L' bracket to attach. Any modification needed to the shelves?

LauraRey

dmerzbac said:

LauraRey, This has probably been asked already, but what size shelves did you use for driver's and passenger's sides. Assuming you just used 'L' bracket to attach. Any modification needed to the shelves?

I stole this idea from @Ramrod  who posted here: http://tab-rv.vanillaforums.com/discussion/3027/a-question-about-storage-under-the-rear-sofa-my-solution/p1    

I did have to modify the shelves.  They are Rubbermaid shelves from Home Depot.  I believe they were either 16 or 18 inches deep and 4 feet long.  Obviously, I cut the length to size.  I wanted them to sit down inside the opening so the couch wouldn't lie on them when folded down.  I also trimmed off the hanging edge of the shelf.   The back is attached with "P" style cable guides which allow me to raise and lower the shelf.  They act like a hinge.  The shelve are resting on small pieces of wood installed on either side.  You can see the clips a bit more in this photo.

I cut the shelves using a metal blade on a jigsaw.

dmerzbac

Thank you, LauraRey!

ericnliz

LauraRey, Nice job. Great idea with the cable guides by the way.

hymie

What a great mod! Thanks to @Photomom , @Ramrod , @SteveW and @LauraRey for sharing their work on this mod.

My take is very similar except that I chose to use the wire shelf itself as the hinge. I drilled a hole in the out wall side of each compartment (at the back).



I then cut a slot on either side of the center divider to correspond with the holes drilled in the outside wall sides.



I left one piece of the wire shelf long at either end to use as a pivot / hinge. 1x2 supports were added on either side of the passenger side compartment . A single 1x2 was added along the 'front' wall of the driver compartment.



And finis! Both sections stay open when hinged up or can be removed easily.



Cheers- James

dmerzbac

@hymie I really like this solution for using the shelf as the hinge. I consider this when I do this mod.

hymie

Thanks @dmerzbac I am a huge fan of keep it simple... and a bit cheap...

BTW I cut the slots by first drilling a hole. Used a fine handsaw to cut what I could and a sharp chisel to finish- worked out pretty good.


Shelves used were 12" and 16" Rubbermaid brand. The "L" or lip portion is very small (`1/2"-3/4") compared to other brands.

Photomom

I like that idea very much. If I ever redo mine I'll use that approach. 

texasaubiefan

Last mod I'm making this year.  Gonna do tomorrow. Thanks for the tips.  

BrianZ

Awesome mod, @hymie!  I really like how you found a way to use the wire shelf as its own hinge, making it simple & removable.  The best ideas are often the simplest with a clever design idea like yours.  I couldn't understand why anyone would want to close off the bottom of this storage area by not using a hinge.
We use that bottom passenger side area for water hoses & electric cables, and have wanted to store rolled up bed topper back there but didn't want it on top of other possibly wet or dirty stuff.  So, this could be a game changer for us.

It's been a while, so is it still working ok?  Any changes?  Only potential improvements I could think of might be attaching a string between the back of the seat & lift edge of wire shelf to pull it up, and maybe some kind of plastic or nylon bushings in the holes for the wire hinges to prevent tearing up the wood.  Maybe not an issue though.
Thanks for sharing.

hymie

@BrianZ We are happy with this mod as it is. Not sure that I would change anything but there is always room for someone clever to improve things. This is one of the many things that I love about the tab - it is a study in continuous improvement. The factory makes a great basic trailer and then the customer base cranks it up to "11". I suspect that some of us have as much fun modifying our trailers as we do camping.😁

Cheers!

James

BrianZ

Many thanks to @Photomom for bringing this idea to light & to @Hymie for his tips & creative solution, which I have borrowed & applied to our own T@B.  We look forward to being able to roll up our bed topper & store it across the wire shelves.  In the mean time, here's what I learned ..

For reference, here are the same "ClosetMaid" shelves from Home Depot...



I found that using a board to clamp the shelf to a sturdy bench or table, plus a new blade in the old hacksaw, it was fairly easy to get them cut.  A metal file helps take off any sharp edges.


Here's the 16" one on passenger side.  Note it comes pretty close to the seatback, which needs to be tilted forward for clearance.  Despite the gap next to the back hinge edge, it cannot be easily mounted any farther to the rear due to clearance needed for the drill to make the hinge holes.  I tried removing the screws holding the board near that edge, but it's solidly glued inside a dado joint to the face of the rear shelf storage, so not possible to close the gap, but it's only about an inch.


On the driver side, the shelf would not fit inside the front to back space available between boards & still have enough clearance for the drill, plus being able to lean the shelf back while in the open position.  As a result, I had to attach my supporting board to the forward side of the box using two boards on either side of the Alde's mixing valve.  The other problem was that by doing so, the many smaller wires would sit on top of the wood..


While I could have resolved this by cutting slots for the wires where marked, instead, I just trimmed off about 1/4" from the top edge of the board using my reciprocating cutting tool.  I temporarily detached the mixing valve bracket from the wood, so as not to subject it to unnecessary vibrations.


I added a couple of new [optional] features to my rendition of this project.  I found I had some of these plastic bushings on hand (designed for electrical junction boxes, but I've had them for so long I forget where I got them) which were a great fit around the hinge wire and also fit nice & snug inside a 5/16" hole in the wood.  (Note: otherwise, a 1/4" hole is probably a better fit)
Also shown are two clips I made from scraps of sturdy aluminum sheet metal, shown farther below.


Hinge installed with plastic bushing let's it rotate smoothly in the wood, without wear on the wood.


Bushings also fit fine in the open slot.  As Hymie explained, slot was drilled first, but then I also drilled from above at the end of the slot, cut sides with a small fine tooth hand saw, then chiseled remaining wood.  Worked great, Hymie!


Here are clips I installed on the center frame to keep the shelves from inadvertently slipping out.  They can be rotated sideways for clearance, if needed to allow shelves to be removed.  They do not interfere with how the seatback lays down, as the strap mounting on the seatback lays between them.