rear mount cargo box advice?

[kelpie]

Aluminess just completed an installation for me at their Santee shop: rear bumper/swing-out spare/swing-out lockable box. The engineering is superb and well executed. I haven't duty-tested it yet, but that's coming.

[Sloya]

I have a 2016 144 4x4 Sportsmobile with Aluminess rear bumper and boxes. I totally agree with the previous and have personally met with Fitz, our Sprinters are similar. You mention needing to remove clutter from the inside to the outside. Aluminess is a very good product for this task and is the reason I went with Aluminess. The one change I did was having a custom 36" box instead of the spare tire carrier. This larger box allows for me to store my camping chairs, tables and mat. The deluxe box carries my jumpers, shore power, BBQ and LED lighting along with miscellaneous items. We spend lots of time in the deserts of Baja, Arizona and Nevada on rough roads, they are rugged but like mentioned the hinges are not water tight. One side has stiffened up but nothing a little lubricant couldn't fix. I would suggest using a water proof grease like for boat trailers.

My system has been on the Sprinter since new and now has 60K miles trouble free except for the lubricant. I was attending the Tahoe shoe in March and Aluminess was present at the show. They noticed I had the earlier version of hardware and brought over a set of new bullet hardware to install. How good is that...!

The only comments I would add is this; I recently spoke with Aluminess about adding a bike carrier which the offer. The replacement frame for the bike rack will not fit with my 36" box, it only goes to 35". Because of the demand they have stopped custom products and did not see this changing in the foreseeable future. They will be staying with their mainline products. I asked about mounting my bike racks directly to the box and suggested reinforcing the corner seems for stress. This is my next move. I started with two 2.0 gallon diesel Rotax fuel cans mounted inside the frame of the swing out chassis and have since upgraded to 3.5 gallon with a perfect fit. I use this for extended offroad travel especially in Baja.

[Sloya]

The photo with the yellow can is Fitz Sportsmobile.

[posplayr]

Nice fit on the fuel cans. I did not expect them to be behind the boxes.

[Sloya]

Yes they fit right between the frame and secured with keyed alike roto pax locking mounts. Very secure, just have not been able to find them in yellow for diesel. They tuck away nicely.!

[Steve_382]

Depending on what you want to haul, here is another option. We actually haul 2 road bikes in here with the front wheels removes and the fork mounted on bike tights. Plenty of room for the wheels, helmets, and other stuff inside. Not cheap, but we have used it for 10 years. It slides out about 30" so you can still open the rear doors.

https://letsgoaero.com/gearspace-car...ier-dark-gray/