Camping Gear

durt d1ver wrote:

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Essentially, keep the box to the left, and the front folds town to a table. The table we install on the door panel also folds down, and they meet and lock together. With everything folded up, you have the area to the right of the box to keep readily needed recovery gear, etc.

I've been kicking around ideas for doing something similar since last summer, but haven't made it quite as far down the path as you (or Ed) have.

Given the cost of the HDPE though, I've been looking at one of these tables from :
Vector Offroad as an alternative option. They seem to be focused toward the Jeep crowd, but I'm confident one could be pretty easily adapted for a Disco.

Honestly, if you know someone with a break, fabricating a lightweight sheet metal or (better yet) aluminium table should be extremely easy...I would think that you'd just need to introduce some bends/ribs into the design and then roll the edges to give it some rigidity. Add a piano hinge and something to hold it up and you'd be good to go.

see that is way too much $$.. i alreayd have a cloumbia overland ss gate panel. i could easily just buy another one of them and use a piano hinge or some other hinge.

this is what i have now. i could jsut buy another. and it's only $100.

Will the door panel be stiff enough to be used as a table?

this is what i was thinking. Red could be a magnet or just a support bracket to help stiffen the steel plate. the plate wouldnt come all the way to the top of the current panel because it would take up too much space when folded down. still leave access to the door handle from the inside when it's closed. the blue would be hinges.

Hilltoppersx wrote:

see that is way too much $$.. i alreayd have a cloumbia overland ss gate panel. i could easily just buy another one of them and use a piano hinge or some other hinge.

this is what i have now. i could jsut buy another. and it's only $100...

I tend to agree that the Vector is too much $$$...hence my suggestion of finding someone with a break and having one made. Another gate panel isn't going to make a very good table unless you do something to increase the rigidity. Unless it's pretty heavy gauge steel what you've proposed above with the single horizontal magnet/support is going to flex a lot when you put something like a stove on it.

IMO, you'll need a sub frame and at the point where you have to start either having ridges pressed into it, or adding a sub-frame you'd probably find that the cost of just using a 2nd panel isn't going to be easily justifiable.

You can buy 36"x 48" 1/8" 3003 aluminum sheet for under $100 shipped from onlinemetals. That would be enough to make 2 tables. That's with making a smaller table, like ed showed instead of one the size of the whole panel, that would make it possible to put a bend on the front end if needed. I would also consider riveting on a piece of angle or t aluminum to use as a lip across the front, instead of bending it. If thats still too flexible after using a piano hinge on the one end, Stan has a set of dimple dies.

i asked jackie for the cot mattress pad and the 0 degree sleeping bag for my cot for Christmas. still need to get the tent situation figured out. as of now my tent works great is just a PITA to setup. 5 different poles 3 different sizes. i really like the coleman instant tents but am worried they will leak. i wish they made a rain fly to cover them then it would be a no brainer.