If you are like my family there never seems to be enough space for equipment and gear when preparing for a camping trip. For years we have used a small enclosed cargo trailer to haul our gear instead of cramming it into the main vehicle. We have pulled that little trailer all over the eastern United States. We always tent camped with it. We actually have a very large dome tent that sleeps 8+ people. We also took a large screen room. Taking the extra large tents wasn’t a big deal since we just loaded up the trailer. It worked well to give a secure place to put things instead of loading your gear back in the car or truck each time you wanted to leave. Then as the trailer progressed I started to use Milwaukee Packout to organize gear in the trailer. I found that a Coleman Dual Fuel stove will fit nearly perfect in a rolling packout with room to spare for cast iron skillets and other accessories. Add some padding to a middle sized box and it is a perfect fit for two Coleman gas laterns. The parts organizer work well for tableware and other spare parts.

Then I learned what overlanding is, I remember seeing the awesome setups that many have for their “kitchens” I’ve always loved to cook while at camp and this seemed like an ideal fit.

As I started to investigate some of these kitchen builds, I found the cost to be extremely high for what they are. I did learn early that I wanted a fridge. And to put the fridge in the Jeep really requires a slider in order to access it. So for my first prototype was using some PVC project panels from Lowes. I thought PVC would be good since it is basically weather proof. I used some aluminum channel to attached them and to make the PVC more rigid. I’m also a fan of Milwaukee PackOut system. So I used one of the plates and attached it to the PVC panel as well. I thought this would be good as I could change my storage as my needs changed. This worked very well for over a year. The larges issue was that items would fall into the fridge area and prevent the fridge from being able to slid back in. So while this worked well, I knew I could do much better.

So now my son as since moved out and gotten married. So I really didn’t need a 4th seat. So after looking at some of the other manufactures, I decided to delete the 60% of the rear seats. While building a platform for the removed seat, my wife has a great idea to in make the platform on a hinge so that loading or retrieving gear is much more accessible. This turned out to be a terrific idea.

So after many sheets of the PVC and pieces of aluminum, it didn’t turn out too bad. The PVC surprisingly easy to work with. I used a track saw for most of the cutting. I used stainless screws to assemble everything. The draw slides are some from Lowes. I do need to figure out some latches for the drawers. And I got it done in time for the maiden voyage on Memorial Day weekend.