Hidden storage space

[Beach]

While working on the water system(05 Hawk), and needing pump access, I remove three screws that were in the floor of the forward most driver side cabinet thinking it would lift up and allow access to the pump, wrong. But when I lifted it I found that it was a modular box that formed the cabinet space. Well I could see under and back behind this "box" and there is lots of space behind it, so it had to go. I think the water might go there if I had one. Kudos to FWC for quality construction, had to break apart the box in place and remove it piece by piece, tough job. I now have about 3 times the amount of space as before. Used cable ties to restrain the plumbing and wiring and will build a small wall to prevent things for sliding down where the plumbing is routed. Sorry, no pics.

 

[KILR0Y]

On the shell models, that's the hidden stash location for border crossings.

The pump on newer models is easily located behind a door now. Are you saying you have a water pump, but no water tank? You've confused me, which is not hard to do...

Kilroy

 

[takesiteasy]

I'm guessing he means the water heater would go there, if he had one.

 

[Beach]

I have a pump and water tank. What I meant to say was that this area I exposed might be where the water heater would be if I had one. I'd hate to have border patrol get started on tearing into my rig. I remember some of those guys tearing up our van and wanting to cut open a surfboard or two coming back from Baja back in the day.

 

[KILR0Y]

Got it!

Yes, I had Canadian customs officials at the Hope crossing empty all of my SCUBA tanks (to look inside) when I drove down from Alaska the last time. I tried telling them that an empty pressurized SCUBA tank is very bad juju... they just wouldn't listen and acted like they were helping society, even though they didn't find anything. Don't they have x-ray machines or something? That debacle cost me almost $200 getting my tanks re-inspected.

I'm glad you could make use of that space. For me, I prefer to keep my wife happy with clean and conditioned hair on our outings. She does like that hot water - and you know what they say: "happy wife..."

Kilroy

 

[camelracer]

I have a Granby with a water heater and discovered that there was a decent space between the cabinet face and the heater. I cut a hole in the cabinet and built a door to allow access to the space. Enough room for a frying pan and my paper plates, bowls and cups.

 

[craig333]

Wow, guess I need to remove a cover and take a look.

 

[pvstoy]

[SIZE=medium]For a friend that bought a Kestrel I looked at the pull out draws. I took them apart and made them longer. Plenty of room behind them.[/SIZE]

 

[bike4mee]

Thanks for drawer idea. Has anyone put access hatches in the side of their truck to access the large space above wheel wells. Its hard to get to from the little hatches interior

would a marine boat hatch cover work?

 

[ntsqd]

Not the cheap option, but I've been looking cutting down a utility bed or building a flatbed with upper and lower side boxes just to reclaim that space. Problem that I see with the access doors is that the outside of the bed sides aren't flat.

 

[ckent323]

I am also looking into ways to better utilize the space between my caper and the pickup truck bed in my 1993 Dodge W250. I want to relocate the stuff that could be stored in the area between the bed and the camper and that sits on the camper floor and has to be removed every time we stop and set up.

I searched the web and found that Royal truck bodies used to make an after market sculpted bed with access hatches. It looks nice. They made them for Ford and GM pickups until around 2004 or so (not exactly sure when production ceased). They were not made for Dodge (darn it).

So if you have a Ford or GM that can accept a late 1990's to early 2000's bed you might look for a used Royal Truck Bodies Sport bed (also referred to as sculptured beds). They no longer make them but I have seen used beds for sale from time to time. I have read that they have a bad reputation on the East Coast due to rusting issues. I further read that the root cause of the problem was that a vendor Royal used for the priming and paint did not do a good job or used the wrong primer resulting in the problems.

Here is a link to an old catalog:
http://www.internetwebmaster.com/wwwroyal/cat_sculpt.html


Another possibility is the Stahl Grand Challenger Utility body. It is contoured rather than rectangular. Here is a link: http://www.stahl.cc/grandchall/

I am looking into three options:
1) Find a body shop to customize my bed to be equivalent to the Sport Bed
2) Get a Stahl Grand Challenger type bed (not sure yet if I can get one for my old Dodge)
3) Going to a Ute or equivalent flatbed and adding storage boxes.

My challenge will be to maintain (or even reduce) the current pickup bed floor to top of cab distance as our 2009 Keystone already sits high with a large gap between the truck cab roof and the camper cab over bed floor.

Price will likely dictate the final choice.

Regards,
Craig

 

[ntsqd]

One of the key features of any flatbed that I might build will be that it has fender wells and that it's bed surface is no higher than the OE bed floor. That is not the case with any commercially built flatbed that I've seen, they all lack the fender wells in favor of an elevated but totally flat surface.

The issue that most utility beds have is that the sides are too tall and force a spacer under the camper. I have seen low sided utility beds, but they aren't common and I sure haven't found any used. I'm currently investigating cutting down the sides of a utility bed.