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Thread: 3rd Gen Cargo Shelf

  1. #21
    That sheet metal is pretty thin to weld to. If you do weld, plug weld to a thicker piece so you are less likely to blow through the thin body.
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  2. #22
    There will be no welding to the body. Yes the sheet metal is thin and set back from the plastic to accommodate the plastic fasteners. My load will be strictly vertical so I will use a stud then mount an arm to that stud in double shear. The shelf will then mount to the arm.

    In messing around I found the plastic will also support some of the vertical load of the studs.

  3. #23
    The sheetmetal under there will support a vertical load fine. I've been planning to mount some logistical track in that location to give me more tie down locations and the sheetmetal is only supportive enough for a lateral load for the first 12" or so behind the factory cargo shade bracket. Much beyond that and the voids where the storage pocket is located result in the sheetmetal being unsupported. I may still throw some track in there but ultimately I think I have decided that some track mounted to the floor (with an additional steel strengthening plate underneath) and more on top of the wheel wells will provide the most secure locations for tie down points.

  4. #24
    So I got some time to pull panels. As I mentioned above I’m not a panel guy so I if I saw something that was going to work I was going to go for it in hopes to not go full agro and end up pulling them out for good. I had some good pictures from Sean and Ken but for the most part knew there was some flat sheet metal back there and all I needed was a little spot.

    Rewind a bit to the shelf itself. It’s narrower than the cargo area, between the plastic just below window height, so I needed something to take up that space. At small ice chest height there were about three fingers worth of space, 1.5 fingers on each side. This photo shows the 3 finger space and a bulging cargo area, more on that later.



    On the subject of the small ice chest, I also own a bigger one. I also sometimes need to carry a larger folding table which is 6+” tall. Folded it takes up the floor space between the wheel wells and almost from the seats to the hatch. As such I was beginning to realize the shelf would need to be built for a certain gear load out and to stick to that or it would need to be adjustable. Since the load is forever changing I figured I needed some adjustability. Cool.

    So now along with adjustable I had to figure out how to take up that three finger space (I know it’s all dudes here but let’s keep it clean). I contemplated just taking the easy way out and mounting legs on to the top of the wheel wells but that’s a lot of valuable space (I can fit all of our sleeping bags and at least one of the kids duffels on the WW’s). Plus those WW’s are anything but flat and symmetrical.


    Then I thought about something that would mount to the side of the WW. The legs would have to be thin because the gear and boxes use all that space. Having a thin arm would also introduce side to side slop with no room for triangulation and with nothing to tie into it would be floppy.

    Sooo, I got out the masking tape, pencil and a level. I drew lines on the plastic to find a spot I could drill into and hit some metal, noting I haven’t pulled any panels yet. With some holes in sheet metal I could fasten a long bolt to the sides, poke them through the plastic then work off of them. Once I got a lowest possible line, maintaining space for legs and adjustment I pulled the panels away just a bit to see what it looked like behind there. After peeking on both sides a few times I drilled holes through the plastic and pushed enough to mark the metal. Next was pulling the plastic, such a PITA, to see what I hit.

  5. #25
    There was no damage and I was impressed with my eye ball engineering. When I saw I didn’t hit a drain line for the sunroof or a wire harness I increased the size to 5/16” in the metal and plastic. This was all on my day off and I thought I’d have about 30 minutes to work on this since the family was home so I didn’t plan too far. Being Veteran’s Day my local ACE was closed but I tend to keep an entire assortment of nuts, bolts, washers, etc. I grabbed 4 long bolts, some Nylock nuts, small and large fender washers and attached the bolts through the sheet metal and then through the plastic, fit like a glove.



    The camera angle or lens makes the front one look cockeyed. The two bolts on each side were level with a tool and the line. What really throws things off is the slope of the window sill and the inward taper of the walls in the cargo area.


    Next was mounting some legs and then the shelf to the legs. I used some C-channel metal for the legs for several reasons. For one I had 1.5 fingers to take up on each side and the width of the channel was perfect. Second with two holes in the channel, in the parallel sides, the leg would slide on and not bend (it would stay perpendicular to the bolt). Third the channel would hide the nuts that hold this all together. When I figure out the other heights for the adjustable part I’ll weld the nuts in to the inside of the channel and it will all be hidden.


    Now the angle and lens wants to make this one look crooked. Anyways, here is the channel just hanging for the picture. They will be shorter but I’m not sure yet by how much. When mounted they are 180* from this position and the legs are held in with more nuts. The nut is hidden from view from the hatch and with the shelf pushing/pulling on the legs the nuts hold them in place without pushing against the plastic or having to build stand offs. The long bolts hold the vertical load very well. The shelf doesn’t seem to place any side load on anything but fully loaded and bombing offroad it could, through when fully loaded and bombing there is hardly room in the 4Runner for a fart so I don’t think I’ll have a problem. If I do I’ll just start farting.



    Fast forward through lunch, a bunch of measuring and drilling holes, picking out hardware and you get this.


    Here the rack is at its lowest position and it is super solid. It’s never going to have a bunch of weight on it and it’s kind of hard to get in there to put weight on it but it doesn’t budge. Here you can see how the legs work and that they stand up. The plan is to put more holes in them for an upper setting. I’m thinking I’m going to keep it at one more setting or build another set of legs for when I use the larger ice chest and larger table as they go under the rack. Once that height is determined I’ll chop them and maybe weld the top, maybe with a threaded hole. That way I could put an eye bolt in it for a tie down or a mount for my snow shovel or fire extinguisher.

  6. #26
    One of my original criteria was being able to still use the sunshade. I don’t have anything special in the cargo area but sometime I do and I’d like to keep it hidden from not only the sun but prying eyes. Sometimes it’s a small bag but it might be something as large as a rifle case, either way I don’t want to risk a break in. In the lowest position the shade can go over or under the shelf which is perfect.
    Ugh, I have to cut down those tall legs.





    There is still more to do on this project. I’m thinking about putting little tie downs along the sides similar to my roof rack. It will act as tie downs but also keep smaller items from sliding around. On trips I use extra large wheel bags for bike wheels to store things in. They are light and not going to hurt anyone in a crash. They along with soft luggage will go on the shelf. They could be tied down but it’s not the plan. My LED’s are still in the mail so when those arrive I need to find a place to put those. In the meantime I’ll need to see if I want to build a work surface into the bottom of the shelf.

    I’m pretty happy with the surface of the shelf as larger things than the holes will be on it. I suppose if I needed it covered I could make some wood or plastic covers. As it sits now it will hold my front bike wheel fine after my daily commute. With a solid surface the wheel would slide off.

    Another item is mounts for arms that will extend forward toward the rear seats for a cargo fence type thing. The shelf is positioned in such a way I can touch the floor with the hatch closed and rear window open. This is nice because I use this space and the back window to load. The front of the cargo area behind the seats is where chairs, etc go and the shelf ends before that section so it’s still able to be loaded. Now most of the gear doesn’t have to be removed just to get the chairs which are nice for lunch stops. With a full load there is the possibility to have stuff fall forward. It’s usually the small things as the large cycling bags are usually filled with pillows and a blanket or jackets. It’s too large, light and soft to squeeze over the seat and into the cargo area but since I’m doing this I might fab up an option.

    I liked Rainglers product for the 4th gens that puts a mounting spot on top of the C pillar. I ordered some footman loops from Amazon but it’s been nearly a month and I’m still waiting. Since I had the panels off I decided to do something now.

    Raingler

    The 3rd gens look different up there and I wasn’t sure there was enough room for a 1.5” footman anyway. Screwing in sheet metal screws that close to the drain hose was something I wanted to avoid as well. I did know I wanted the mounting point as high as possible. The lower you go the more the strap pulls on the plastic even with a side load. Here is what I have on the top of my pillar. It’s an access hole for the drain hose from my sunroof.


    I had wanted to do this for a while and a few months ago bought some 1” webbing key chains from Home Depot for $1. They are a couple inches long and have a carbineer on one end. For $2 I couldn’t go wrong. Rainglers kit is $18 before shipping. I have webbing but really didn’t want to have to bust out the sewing machine.

    I removed the little door which has razor sharp edges. After cleaning up the blood from three of my fingers I found the best location to mount the strap was on the door itself. I used a small screw with Loctite and washers for a sturdy anchor.


    I’m probably just going to thread some shock cord through the binders and down to some removable pieces on the front of the shelf or even the headrest posts. The headrests and roof hold a lot of my gear back but I need just a little more. Maybe one day I’ll pull out the sewing machine and make a custom webbing net but I don’t care much for that look, especially for holding back pillows and jackets.

    Here is some reflective paracord through the mounts just to show where they are and how much stick out. I’ve removed the binders and the loops are hardly noticeable.


    Last pics with it staged.



  7. #27
    Looks great!
    2005 Lexus LX470 - Stock for now...

    1998 Toyota 4Runner SR5 V6 4x4 + a bunch of goodies. Lifted, Locked, Illuminated and Armored. Winner,"Best Offroad Truck" - 2010 Pismo Jamboree. It's been upside down and still drives me to work.

  8. #28
    I really think that looks amazing!

    That's a great approach to support and it is still removeable too if you need it to be. I haven't had any time hardly to even think about my shelf but you are motivating me to get outside and work it all out! I have a lot of work still to fit everything up.
    98 3rz 4x4 5spd- Monstalined, 99 Talls, 4.30 E-locker, Extra Lights
    In Progress:
    Tundra/Rear Disc Brakes w/parking brake
    Roof Rack/Rear Ladder
    Sliders
    1st Gen Rollbar Shelf

  9. #29
    As with most of my projects I was left with extra parts at the end. This is what was left over from this part of the project.



    You can see where over time it's broken free from the brown plastic. About a week after buying the 4Runner I took a Dremel to the cargo pocket and cut out the ridges for extra room. I would stick 30 minute flares and other long items through the holes just to use up all the available space. After breaking things some more I tossed that M'fer and am going commando now. And it feels great.

    I knew there was a lot of space in there but now it's cavernous. I pulled down a couple of my heavy duty nylon tool bags and stuffed them with what I had in the pocket and still have twice the room I had before. Of course I can leave no cranny unfilled so I plan to take some of the items I keep in the red duffle bag and put them in the pocket now. I wanted to build a side box years ago to increase the storage space in that pocket but this and shelf are way better improvements.

  10. #30
    I was going to ask if the truck sounded any louder without the insert there, but if you've got the cubby stuffed with stuff, probably not. When I drove around without the driver's side panel in place I was amazed how much louder the truck was inside. Of course, that side has the cabin vent.

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