Quote:
Originally Posted by 86Scotty
Can anyone remember who had a slide out platform on the back of their van? I might have to do this. Integrated skid plate, shower platform and firewood rack. Someone posted some pics a few years ago.
TIA
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by boywonder
|
Very very cool!!! Man, Ramsey made cool stuff.
Another take on using that space:
I ***really*** like the idea of utilizing the area underneath the van where the "dirty spare tire" would have resided (that doesn't get used anymore once you install some sort of rear tire carrier)....
....and having some sort of multi-purpose "dirty storage" tray/bin/rack that either slid in/out, or up/down into that space, from either behind or directly below....perhaps it could be integrated into the bumper design, perhaps its just something built on its own.
But man!
What a cool place it would be to store something like a "portable fire bowl" (and that fire bowl filled up with logs of course, when you're on the way to the campsite....and then that same fire bowl totally filthy with remnants of ashes/cooking drippings on the way back.)
Maybe the drop-down tray could actually do *double duty* as both a fire bowl (when needed) and also be a storage bin when you wanted otherwise. If it looked like this firebowl I just found online, but that somehow winched up (or simply hooked in place beneath the van), it would be pretty rad.
Great spot for leveling blocks and the like too. Out of sight. Usually those are pretty yucky after a camp session too.
So this idea could just be labeled/viewed as "multi-purpose dirty storage" rack/bin. It could be either a completely sealed-up tray/box or simply a rugged framed bin with heavy-gauge mesh closures.
Personally, I'd rather utilize that liberated under-van space in that fashion, than have the often-installed "smugglers compartment storage box" installed that's only accessible from inside the rear of the van, through the trap-door in the floor....because
IMHO, there's certain messy camp/van-related things that *at no point* have any right to be inside the van, or even set foot through the door....
Haha:
I'm kinda thinking that those perpetually-filthy items/gear are somewhat akin to the always-dusty/dirty-and-burdock-ridden (but super happy) "farm dogs" that my grandmother used to have on her rural property......those dogs were absolutely *never* (seriously!) allowed inside the house, hahah.....they slept in the barn, chased woodchucks with my uncle during hunting season, ate out of a tin can behind the farmhouse, roamed free....in complete fairness and honesty, they looked like they didn't even WANT to come inside the house.
So I'm picturing the cozy-but-always-only-outdoors under-the-rear-of-the-van storage nook/rack for the big dirty "farm dogs" of camping gear, lol. You know, the gear that's just like the farm dogs. Fun but always-irreconcilably-dirty stuff. You want 'em along on every trip with you....you just don't ever want them inside the van with you.
(btw....I aspire to be a bit more like those farm dogs myself, lol....(RIP, Chip and Sandy*!
)
*disclaimer: these photos are not either Chip or Sandy. I don't know if any photos of those rad farm buddies exist anywhere. But they looked quite a bit like these happy/filthy guys.