Wanted to add this storage and my nephew came through for me with this great aluminum box made out of 14 gauge. Now working on attaching this to coach. I will be attaching it to the angle behind the door and making a strap to go over the frame and attach to the aluminum box. Was surprised on the weight when finished, but will make a great storage box for all our flexible lines to dump with and fittings. Easy access with the box being on the same side as the wet bay. Had plenty of room with the original muffler removed!
Will post photos as I finish up! Box is 28 inches long, 14 1/4 wide and 19 tall.
Looks good.
What was there before. Or did they have an access door for the muffler ?
Access door to see the muffler. Our coach is 40 foot, so have a door like this on both sides. One allows access to start batteries and the other really did nothing, but could not use it for the big muffler in there! Solved that issue!
Plan on doing the similar thing..... only I'm going to use Coosa board. Which is used in boat building, very light, super strong and water tight too.
Guessing it's Coosa board. Just sayin ☝️
I thought about building one and may someday when I need the storage space. Right now I use it
for getting into that area. Nice job and please send pictures of how you install it.
Copied from a welding site
Quote
However, before you bolt these parts together, it pays to review a lesson from your high school chemistry class. Try to recall the electromagnetic field (EMF) chart, which showed the electrochemical potential of each of the metallic elements. When you put two dissimilar metals in electrical contact in the presence of a conductor such as salt water, a voltage is produced and the metal that is higher in the EMF chart is preferentially corroded. This is called galvanic corrosion. When you join aluminum and steel together, the aluminum will be preferentially corroded. Surprising, isn't it, since we think of aluminum as being more corrosion-resistant than steel? In fact, aluminum is more resistant to general corrosion than steel. What I am describing here is a preferential corrosion that occurs locally at an aluminum/steel joint.
So how do you avoid galvanic corrosion? You electrically insulate the aluminum from the steel. The best way to do this is to use bolts and nuts to make the joint. Use an isolating coating or paint on the aluminum and the steel to isolate them electrically. However, all of your effort will go for nothing if you just bolt the joint together. You must isolate the bolt and nut from the aluminum and steel. You do this by putting a nonconducting plastic washer between the bolt head and one side of the joint and another nonconducting washer between the nut and the other side of the joint. If the pieces being bolted are thick enough, you should also buy a nonconducting sleeve to fit on the shaft of the bolt to keep it from making contact with the steel or aluminum.
Da.. Scott, that about beats all, guess I will use Goose board.
On ours, the isolator and a few solenoids are located on the frame inside that door. Sure is nice to have that acsess in case they ever need replaced.
I made a box for that opening 10 yrs ago and posted it then. We kept a bbq on the top shelf and multiple things below. Was a great help for storage.
Johnh
Pretty special nephew there Joe, only time I see my nephews is when they show up to borrow something that I then have to go to their place to ever get it back. I have the room behind that door for a box and I hope to do something because I have all the other bins full. Good Job.
X2
I was thinking the exact same thing.
I was taught by my Dad. If I borrow something, bring it back promptly and cleaner and better than when I got it. If I break it, buy them a new one.
Never had any problem borrowing something--again-- from someone. Unspoken rules here!!
Have refused to lend to someone (again) that didn't reciprocate my actions. And I told them why I wouldn't ever lend anything to them again. Lost a couple of people that I had thought were friends but turned out they were just using me as a free rental shop.
I was taught the same so the odd time I need to borrow I don't have a problem.
I made one that was from wire trays I got at a bakery. We store all the sewage items there. Pretty sure I posted pictures of the installation.
If I build one I want to make it so it would be easy to remove and as I have removed the muffler
I would make it twice as wide.
Well finished up the install today and am happy with the results! This box can be removed with little to no problems!
Nice job Joe! I'd put some drain holes in the bottom if it was me. That's why I went with the wire racks. Never any water trapped on the bottom.
Joe that is excellent job looks great! I think if you're going to use it for sewage hoses and things like that some drainage holes in the bottom is a good idea. I want to make one myself and I'll do mine probably out of fiberglass. The comments about the dissimilar metals are spot on. I had a 40 ft sailboat that sunk due to something similar. Classic washers would work just fine. There's also something called tuffgel that works really good too. How would use it on the boat when I would use a stainless steel screw into an aluminum mast or something like that.
Lynn; the way I mounted this box will make it easy to remove as well. Should not take more than 5 minutes! Hope you and Marilyn are doing well!
The holes will be coming in the next few days! Thanks for bringing that up!
Dub; I would think twice about using anything that is that light, since it is right behind the back wheels and low enough that you don't want to run over anything. I have even thought long and hard on how sturdy this box is for fear of significant damage from the road. However, with 14 gauge aluminum, this box is really sturdy and was difficult to put in place due to it's weight.
The size I have is 14 inches wide, 19 inches high and 28 inches deep. If I did it over again, the box would be 14 and 3/4 inches wide. With the length, it sits just under the frame and I have not attached it with anything to that frame. I built a hanger to facilitate the stability of the box. Hope this helps those who are contemplating this setup! I also had to raise the coach to it's highest setting and still had a small issue with laying box on it's side to get under fiberglass and metal. Had to move to just behind the mud flap for any room what so ever. Use of blocks would work best!
I'm considering adding a mini split in that area but would need to do the muffler mod first. Do you happen to know the amount of space available in that area? The depth (28 inches) seems pretty good, but the width is the main concern. Looking at 35"x14"x27".
There was a guy that did it in his foretravel, name was Gerry Caywood. (He is a member of the forum)Couldn't find it on YouTube any longer. Think it was on a earlier model than yours(98 u270)? The post is still up in the FB group but the video link doesn't work.
With the width being larger, you will run into issues with attaching. I believe you do have 27 inches if you are talking about width. You could go deeper than 28 inches, but not much more as you will be against the tranny! I would estimate 6 inches to be safe. I made mine the size of the opening and it works the best. If you go longer, than I would build a strap that would go on bottom and sides of box and both ends loop over the frame that holds the engine, etc. You have room to do that since there is nothing on that back side of the frame, or at least on my coach! I would suggest frame work to hold the mini that it could slide in and out of. You would need to work out of a pit for that though. Hope this helps!
That does help. The 27" is the height, so that would be my next worry as you can't put these horizontally. The other option is trying to figure out if it would fit somewhere between the front wheels.
Zach; you would have to install that underneath of the rig to set up properly. The total height of the door itself is 19 inches. You would differently need to build a frame to hold the mini!
You could remove the house batteries and install it there. Some have purchased lithium's and installed them inside the coach itself. Just a thought!
IF I really wanted to fabricate something, I'd remove the propane tank and get rid of the house batteries (which i don't really use because I'm running 24v lithium in the bay)and move the AH to one side or the other. Moving it toward the drivers side would certainly make it easier to work on. That would be a "fun" spring project for sure.