DIY Storage/Luggage Compartment under the bus??

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by Rawlings

I don't have a lot of experience but I'm handy and my father has over 25 years experience in construction residential and commercial and he has experience welding so I think we might be fine I just want to have information on techniques and to weld or just bolt..I'm guessing welding and bolting would be the safest as it would have double the safety in case one fails the other helps even if it's overkill.

'secure' isn't overkill

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

you would have to modify the height of those racks - I doubt there will be close to 4' of clearance under your bus - if you don't weld yourself or have any experience with fabrication, or have the tools to do the job, you will need to hire someone that has skills with both welding and fabricating specialty objects

They are only 3.5' tall ,but can be cut shorter. If you have to hire a welder I would go ahead and just buy some angle iron and make it from scratch to measurements that work on your bus. They are 4' wide, which might need modifying also. Build what you need for the same price or less.

[AaronTSchultz]

I used super struts that I riveted to the edge of the skirt and reinforced with a vertical super strut from the center beams under the bus. This gives me some pass through storage although it only has a few inches of pass through because of the Beams. We decided we did not want to drop the clearance any further as we liked the height of the bus.

For the areas where we could not do pass through because of the air cleaner and compressor tank and fuel tank we just did bay storage. I bolted vertical super struts to the beams and then horizontally to rivet to the skirt edge. They are very strong. I will also be using the metal ceiling panels between the super struts and wood floor of the storage area in order to protect the wood from the elements.

I will try to upload pictures.

My question is has anybody had luck fabricating or finding 16 or 18" high doors? RV doors are crazy expensive new, so I was thinking of using the skirt metal to fabricate a door, but the metal seems like it will be too thin to get a great waterproof seal.

Any thoughts would help. We are trying to get our batteries/doors in by august 2nd tiny home festival which is the first time we are going to show the bus.

A few pics on instagram @Serendipitous_Bus

[sojourner]

I'm building my understorage from scratch. Just scroll through my build add I come and go on that part of the conversation.

[Danjo]

I got these. I haven’t installed yet.

[PatrickBaptist]

I parted out 2 RVs and one of them was a 93 Pace Arrow, it had large bays and doors along the bottom, I kept the doors off it and I just have to fab up the framework and build my boxes. On the outside I'll have some nice access doors.

[GaryTheRock]

I recently discovered wheels to use in the larger Superstruts. They can hold a whole bunch of weight! I was considering using the Superstrut and wheels so I can build slide out trays for batteries.
I hadn't given enough thought to using the Superstruts for a frame, which sounds promising. I was thinking of either standard boxes, a problem of cost and size, or building my own boxes since I have a 36" box and pan brake as well as welding equipment.
Still mulling the whole thing over.

[Mat_te_chu]

I bought a basic used black metal queen size bed frame for 10 bucks, and I'm essentially just going to be bolting the bed frame to the bottoms of the bus frame, which gives a bit more than a foot of height, and a lot of depth and width.

[Danjo]

Buyers Products under body tool boxes

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Mat_te_chu

I bought a basic used black metal queen size bed frame for 10 bucks, and I'm essentially just going to be bolting the bed frame to the bottoms of the bus frame, which gives a bit more than a foot of height, and a lot of depth and width.

I'm trying to visualize this. You mean you're going to bolt it to the bottom flanges on your chassis rails?