Storage Frame

I've been wondering for a long time how I can easily store my many boxes (camping, surfing, biking etc) inside the van in such a manner as keeps them all tidy, organised and, importantly, secure when travelling. This Cabinet is my current idea for this, but it is still a ways off being ready to build.


So this weekend I had a bit of a brainwave about a little construction I can build to go in the back of the van. I'm building a frame of simple pine planks. The idea of the frame is that it will sit in the back of the van, simply lying on the floor and will be pulled into the wall of the van by bungees attached to the front and rear load lashing points. The frame will be split into sections so that I can simply drop my boxes into a section and they should be fairly tight and secure. The planks are deep enough that the boxes will sit snug and not rattle around.


I sat down with a tape measure, pen and paper, and measured up the back of the van and the boxes I want to secure and made a rough design. I then went to B&Q and picked up 2 x 2.4m planks of pine, deciding on the planed ones just to minimize the chance of splinters.


I then marked up and sawed them to length, taking into consideration that two of the frames would have to go up against the wheel arch and thus would be shorter. I ended up with this:



This is just it cut to size and laid out in the back garden. It's not been fixed yet.



I moved it into the van and put it into the places it will be used, and then put a set of typical boxes into the back of the van and arranged the framework around them. The bits of wood are still just placed into possible final locations. Nothing is permanent yet.

From the side door:


And from the back:


The next step, tomorrow hopefully, is to mark up the wood precisely and then use some wood glue and screws to fix the 'legs' to the main backbone of the frame. Once complete, it will be held in place by a bungee attaching to the rear load lashing point, going all the way around the main frame and attaching to the other point just beind the drivers seat. I'll probably cut a small grove the middle of the corners of the frame to help keep the bungee cord in place.

Single boxes can probably just drop straight in and be secure. But I have designed it such that the middle section exposes the middle load lashing point so that I can run bungees over the top of the boxes if I want to. This should allow more than one box to be stacked on top of each other.

Finally, with boxes organised so that they have enough stuff in them that you can shut the lids, these make makeshift seats as well!

I'll post again when I actually screw and glue the frame together - being Mr. Impractical it's very likely I'll cock it up!!!